Review: 'The House of Blue Leaves'
Hilberry opens season with farcical look at celebrity worship
If those with talent write their own tickets to success, and those with no talent go nowhere, what happens to a simple man with so-so talent who harbors serious dreams – and a pushy mistress beside him?
That's somewhat the overall theme of the Hilberry Theatre's opening production of the 2003-04 season, "The House of Blue Leaves." But trust me: There's so much going on in this quirky – okay, let me be honest about it: strange – little production that much of it won't register until you've gone home and have time to absorb it all!
Both a comedy and a drama – although it's actually a farce in disguise – the John Guare script is a welcome and exciting change from the Hilberry's usually safe and classic repertoire; it portends an interesting season to come.
What's more, "The House of Blue Leaves" is one of those rare shows in which it is obvious right from the start that everyone involved in the production – from the director to the designers to the very talented actors – is having the time of their lives!
Artie Shaughnessy is a zoo-keeper by profession, but a not-so-good song writer by avocation. He dreams of becoming a famous composer of movie tunes, and at the urgings – and with the saved-up cash – of his girlfriend Bunny, he decides to move to Hollywood to pursue his new career.
There's just one problem: Artie is married to Bananas. Not the fruit, but a woman who has suffered a mental breakdown. So Artie – again, with the eager support of his two-month girlfriend – decides to place Bananas in an institution where the trees are filled with bluebirds that look like leaves blowing in the breeze.
Pope Paul VI is in town to address the United Nations – the play is set in 1965 during the pope's visit to New York – and Bunny wants to get the pope's blessing on both their relationship and Artie's music. So she makes arrangements for them to get a prime spot to watch the pope as he makes his way through the streets of the Big Apple.
Because this IS a farce, complications arise: Artie's son Billy wants to blow up the pope at a mass at Yankee Stadium, three nuns get trapped on the roof of Artie's apartment building, a former starlet who is totally deaf without her hearing aids arrives at the apartment with stunning news, and plans are abruptly changed.
And be forewarned: Don't sneak out early to beat the rush to the doorÉthe ending will knock your socks off!
Director James Thomas has taken all of the symbolism built into Guare's script and given it life. His fast-paced and imaginative staging perfectly emphasizes that not only is Artie a zookeeper at work, but in his home life, as well.
That tone is also reinforced by Stephen D. Landon's set that beautifully creates the illusion of a home that looks more like a colorful prison ward for the insane than a nurturing residence of a family.
Fine performances are given by Mike Anthony (Artie), recent Wilde Award winner Christi Marsico (Bunny), Amanda Rae Jones (Bananas) and Nikki Ferry (Corinna).
But there's something about nuns that seems to bring out the best in actresses: Jennifer Tuttle (another recent Wilde Award winner), Carly Germany and Jennifer McConnell are all a hoot as the beer-swigging sisters from Riverside!
The flaws found in this production are relatively few and don't hinder the overall enjoyment of the theater experience: The New York accents are occasionally inconsistent or disappear entirely for brief moments; a few of the comments addressed directly to the audience probably shouldn't be; and Artie and Bunny look way too young to have an adult son who is AWOL from the service, but what the heckÉthis IS a farce, after all!
The House of Blue Leaves Performed in repertory Wednesday through Saturday at the Hilberry Theatre, 4743 Cass Ave., Detroit, through Dec. 6. Tickets: $12 – $20. 313-577-2972. http://www.theatre.wayne.edu/t"hilberry.html
The Bottom Line: A fine season opener with a twist ending that leaves audiences gasping! (Contains violence and strong language; might not be suitable for young audiences.)
Review: 'The Diviners'
Faith and real life don't always mix well
"Thinkin' and preachin' don't mix very well!"
That's only one of many profound – and beautifully delivered – lines found in "The Diviners," the opening production of The Theatre Company's season on the Outer Drive Campus of the University of Detroit Mercy.
What's most impressive about this production is neither the fact that it was written in 1980 by Hanover College student Jim Leonard, Jr. nor that it won first place in the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; rather, it's a testament to Arthur Beer's highly regarded directorial skills that such an engaging production has been staged with The Theatre Company's usual mix of seasoned stage veterans and up-and-coming students from UDM's professional theater program.
And with only a few nits to pick here and there – and an audience that seemed much-in-awe following last Saturday night's performance – The Theatre Company is apparently off to a rousing start to its 2003-04 season!
C.C. Showers is a 30-year-old former preacher from Kentucky who has wandered into the rural farming town of Zion, Indiana looking for work. The country is in the midst of The Great Depression, and he'll do any job he can find – but preach.
Preachin' is what some of the more zealous townsfolk are looking for, however, and a few see his arrival as a sign from God; they'll do whatever it takes to get the handsome man of the cloth back into the pulpit – which doesn't exist, by the way, since the town's only church burnt to the ground a few years back and was never rebuilt.
C.C. – with few skills to offer – finds a job at the local garage run by Ferris Layman. Layman's son, C.C. discovers, suffers from acute fear of water as a result of nearly drowning at the age of three; he's now 17 and hasn't bathed in more than a decade. Yet the learning disabled young man has rather unique abilities that make him a local legend: He can predict rain – especially big storms – and he can "water-witch" – that is, "divine" where underground pools of water exist.
So C.C. takes the young man under his wing and eventually earns his trust. But what should be a cause for celebration quickly becomes just the opposite: The preacher's point – the opening quote to this review – vividly and tragically becomes reality.
Director Beer has staged his entire production – and the entire town – on a single inventive set designed by Melinda Pacha. Locations – and moods – are changed via perceptive lighting by Mark Choinski.
Standout performances are given by longtime professional actors R. Stanley Skrok (Ferris Layman), Richard Win (Basil Bennett), Eric Maher (C.C. Showers) and Mary F. Bremer (Goldie Short).
Equally fine is theater student Patrick O'Connor Cronin who plays Buddy. His performance is consistently believable from start to finish. His only flaw – and it's one shared by several actors at different times throughout the show – is diction: Some of the words get lost as the words spew out faster and faster.
Susan Berch also turns in an impressive performance as Buddy's loving, younger sister Jennie Mae.
And those other "nit-picks" I mentioned earlier? A few are script-related (the storyline about the wages of sin doesn't always seem like it's a part of the same play) while the others are technical problems that were more than likely caused by actors not being on the right mark at the right time.
But those Southern accents never waiver, and the excellent underwater scene provides the most powerfully riveting moment of the show.
The Diviners Presented Thursday through Sunday by The Theatre Company, a mix of professional and student actors, at McAuley Auditorium on the Outer Drive Campus of University Detroit Mercy through Oct. 19. Tickets: $12. 313-993-6461. http://theatre.udmercy.edu.
The Bottom Line: A "divine" and satisfying evening of live theater!
