By John Quinn
Review: 'Boy Gets Girl'
Psychological thriller 'gets' the audience at JET
It's one of the great clichŽs of American film: Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl in a third act happy ending. But what happens when Girl says "no" and really means it? What happens when Boy won't move on?
One scenario is "Boy Gets Girl," now in performance by the Jewish Ensemble Theatre Company. An innocent blind date spirals into nightmare for magazine writer Theresa Bedell when "we've nothing in common" isn't the right answer for Tony, who insists on being the man in her life. "When Harry Met Sally" it's not.
Rebecca Gilman's script is a winner. The characters are sharp and believable, the plot a suspense-filled trail that disturbs while it entertains. Director Evelyn Orbach has assembled just the right cast to drive the story from casual flirtation to outrageous crime.
Barbara Coven's Theresa is an Everywoman increasingly panicked by the escalation of unwanted attention. Even those of us Y-chromosome types can identify and sympathize. It's less easy to deal with Richard Marlatt's Tony, who seems at first to be the nice shy guy we all know we are. But as Mr. Marlatt allows Tony's surface to flake away faster than wall paint on a poor primer coat, the flawed character underneath is frightening. It's a credit to both playwright and actor that Tony's creepy personality hovers even when he is physically absent from the stage for extended periods.
Blessings, then on the talents of Robert Grossman, who brings a masterfully studied performance to the comic relief in this play, the aging pornographer and all-around reprobate, Les Kennkat. Go with him beyond the comedy as the play explores the contrast between society's "acceptable" and "unacceptable" objectifications of women.
Do we hear preaching? Yes, a little, but not so much that it interferes with the story. The playwright is dealing with a subject not widely understood, so it's important to flesh out the stalking victim's responses and options. Consider it part of the back-story to the plot, education through entertainment. One never knows when the shock of recognition might save a real victim.
On a parallel note, YOU might be shocked to know how really helpless the authorities can be in these cases. There are no easy answers, no pat conclusions.
When things go wrong in the technical end of theater, we notice. When things go right, sometimes we're left with only a vague feeling of "rightness." With that in mind we offer a tip of the topper to costumer Mary Copenhagen, who took advantage of the intimate space of the Aaron DeRoy Theatre to offer a rich layering of color and texture. Her somber palette of browns and grays are a perfect complement to the grim theme.
"Boy Gets Girl" Staged Wednesday through Sunday by the Jewish Ensemble Theatre Company at the Aaron DeRoy Theatre, 6600 West Maple Rd., West Bloomfield, through March 21. Tickets: $22 – $32. 248-788-2900. http://www.jettheatre.org.
The Bottom Line: An engrossing and disturbing portrait of relationship gone terribly wrong, "Boy Gets Girl" hits you where you live.
Review: 'The Exonerated'
A cry for justice at the Fisher
A 19-year-old is convicted of murder by the testimony of a fingerprint "authority" whose expertise consists of a six-month correspondence course. A "flower child" and her husband are convicted of gunning down two lawmen when the real killer accepts a plea bargain. A man is sent to Death Row for sexual assault because the accuser apparently thinks all black men look alike.
We might achieve some emotional distance if we could treat these cases as fiction, but they're not; the acclaimed off-Broadway hit, "The Exonerated," tells the stories of six real people condemned to death who were subsequently found innocent.
It's ironic that the play should open in Detroit just after a senseless murder snuffed out the lives of two Detroit police officers, raising calls for capital punishment in Michigan. But it is not necessary to take sides on that issue to appreciate "The Exonerated:" The play isn't so much about Death Row as it is about inequities in the legal system. If you're rich enough to hire a Dream Team defense, you have a shot at justice in the courts; but too often a court-appointed Public Defender doesn't have the resources to go mano-a-mano with prosecutor and police. Or as Delbert Tibbs, the aforementioned victim of mistaken identity notes, "You get what you pay for."
The play is performed as "reader's theater." The cast sits at music stands lined up on a stark, black stage. The text consists of interview transcripts and writings, court records and trial transcripts. It's more personal than most theater we've come to expect, because there's no playwright guiding the characters, only an editor helping them tell their own story. It is raw, evocative and compelling theater.
The production has attracted the support of notable actors, many of whom rotate through the ensemble. Opening the Fisher stand are Mia Farrow as Sunny Jacobs and Robert Carradine as Kerry Max Cook. It is worth the price of admission to listen to how this cast can use the power and beauty of the spoken word, boosted by lovingly acquired dialects and subtle inflection, to bring the characters alive. It is disappointing, then, that one actor delivers mush-mouthed speeches in which maybe one word in four can be understood. It may funny on "King of the Hill," but not here.
"Catharsis: An Aristotelian term for the purgative or purifying effect that victimage in tragedy has upon an audience." Aristotle should've been here. In the silence of the theater, one hears the gasp, the sigh, the understanding laugh of audience members here and there, and realizes how much we care. This is as close to catharsis as one is likely to get in the American theater. It's telling to note that we're told what new evidence freed some, but not all, of our prisoners, and are sorry for the omissions.
"The Exonerated" Presented Tuesday through Sunday at the Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, through March 14. Tickets: $30 – $50. 313-872-1000. http://www.nederlanderdetroit.com.
The Bottom Line: As an emotional experience and a call for reform, "The Exonerated" is a unique theatrical event.
