A Review of Death of a Salesman

by Gerry Roe
 
Coralville - On entering the little theatre in the Children’s Museum for Dreamwell’s production of Death of a Salesman we see a room apparently set up for a rehearsal. A table and some chairs, curtains represent doors, and that’s about it. But then the players arrive, heralded by the melancholy sounds of a solo flute, to bring the play to life, to transcend the limited physical aspects of their space, to remind us or to introduce us to the greatness of what we are about to see.

Arthur Miller’s 1949 script was awarded the Pulitzer prize and a Tony for best play of 1949. The production directed by Elia Kazan, with Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock, and an iconic two-story set by Jo Mielziner, firmly established Miller and the play as significant developments in American theatre. The role of Willy Loman has been inhabited by Dustin Hoffman, Brian Dennehy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and hundreds of other actors in countless professional, academic, and amateur productions.

A Review of The Matchmaker

by Gerry Roe 

Photo by Lily Allen-Duenas

Amana - It’s quite possible that some audience members will approach The Matchmaker as a sort of Hello, Dolly without songs. Delightful as the musical can be, I suspect the audiences will find the play stands on its own two feet and is, in fact, a richer experience. The story is much the same: Dolly Gallagher Levi has been engaged to find a second wife for the widowed Horace Vandergelder. In The Merchant of Yonkers, an earlier version of the play, Vandergelder, not Dolly, was the principal character. The plot of The Matchmaker is not well served by a summary. After a series of complications and “adventures,” Dolly accomplishes her task but the second Mrs. Vandergelder is not the beautiful young widow Vandergelder planned to make his wife.

A Review of Billy Bishop Goes to War

by Gerry Roe

Amana - At the talk-back after the first performance of this production, one of the first questions from the audience asked if Billy Bishop was a real person. As the actor responded (and as I knew from a little preparatory reading), Billy Bishop was indeed a real person, a Canadian pilot who flew fighter planes in World War I and again in World War II. Bishop lived from 1894 to 1956 and was Canada’s leading flying ace.

Billy Bishop survives in a play by John Gray in collaboration with Eric Peterson who provided music as accompaniment and as songs. I have to admit I didn’t expect this. I had anticipated Billy singing songs of the period such as It’s a Long Way to Tipperary and, perhaps, the Canadian national anthem (years before the current anthem, O Canada). Instead, there was musical support brilliantly provided by Andrew Crowe, accompanist and narrator. Crowe’s musical talents are impressive, not only on the piano but on the harmonica and violin. He also supports Vaughan Irving (Billy Bishop) in some of the songs. Irving and Crowe bring Billy Bishop vividly to life on the tiny stage of Old Creamery Theatre’s Studio Theatre.

Formidable Cast of The Women of Lockerbie Gives Sensitive Portrayal of Grief and Remembrance

by Gerry Roe

Iowa City - To begin their season of plays by women, Dreamwell Theatre has chosen The Women of Lockerbie, by Deborah Brevoort, based on the bombing of PanAm Flight 103 in which 270 people died—including all the passengers (most of them Americans), the crew, and 11 people on the ground. Brevoort has written that she set out to write the play, set on the seventh anniversary of the disaster, in the form of Greek tragedy. Dreamwell’s production captures the spirit of Greek tragedy in an extremely moving and cathartic evening of theatre.

Director Rachael Lindhart was drawn to this play not only because it was written by a woman playwright but because she welcomed the challenge and the rewards inherent in the structure and characterizations of the play. She has assembled a formidable cast to bring this play to the stage. Seven years after losing a son in the crash, Madeline Livingston, a New Jersey housewife played with dignity and with passion by Theresa Meeks-Mosley, has come to Lockerbie to search for some remnant of her son. She is accompanied by her husband, Bill (Rip Russell), who has struggled for seven years with Madeline’s obsessive grief, making his own grief inaccessible. The two actors work well together, presenting a convincing picture of a devoted couple torn apart by their separate reactions to incomprehensible loss. Russell gives us a memorably dynamic portrait of frustration and fear that loss of his son will be compounded by the collapse of his marriage.

A feature of Greek tragedy is a chorus reflecting on the protagonists’ actions and reactions. Paula Grady as Olive Allison admirably serves as the leader of the chorus of women as they try to assist Madeline and Bill even as they recall their own direct experience of the shattered airplane and a sky full of falling bodies and body parts. Other chorus members, Mary Jane Myers as Woman 1 and Tracy Schoenle as Woman 2, make strong contributions with their recollections and representations of the Lockerbie women. The women have set a goal of returning to family members the clothes or other personal items belonging to the victims retrieved from the hills after the crash. They are frustrated in this attempt by George Jones (Stephen Ivester), the American in charge of such items, who believes that policy disallows their wishes. He is determined to destroy the hundreds of garments and relics collected in the aftermath of the crash. Together with Hattie (Jen Brown), his office cleaning woman, he shares a comic scene that breaks, momentarily, the tension of the script at the same time as it reveals something of the nature of each character. Ivester and Brown play off each other with gusto and conviction. Their comic interlude provides a welcome relief for the audience even as it captures the essential conflicts between strict adherence to policy and generosity of spirit.

Rachael Lindhart’s sensitive direction of her talented cast has been aided by Movement Director Christina Patramanis and Dialect Coach Brett Myers. Together with the actors, they have prepared an evening of theatre to linger in the mind of anyone who sees it—and I urge you to make this play a part of your theatrical memory.

The Women of Lockerbie runs for three more performances: Sep 15, 21, and 22, 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Iowa City. Tickets are $13 ($10 students/seniors). Reservations can be made at www.dreamwell.com/ or by calling 319-423-9820.

Noises Off Delivers Non-Stop Comedic Action

By Gerry Roe; photos by Jackie Jensen.

Bryant Duffy as Frederick/Phillip

Coralville - From its beginning in 1982, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off has been a favorite among regional and community theatres, and with good reason. It is among the best farces of modern times, and certainly one of the best dealing with a theatrical company. Frayn’s play gives us a company assembled to perform a British sex comedy called Nothing On and follows the company from an exhausting dress rehearsal to a matinee one month into the tour to the final performance another month later. Although we see the performances at various stages, we see only the first act. However, we see it from multiple points of view: we are in the audience’s conventional seats in the front of the house at the outset; the second act takes us backstage where we can watch the interactions of the company as they make their various entrances and exits; the third act brings us back to the front of the house for the conventional view of the stage.

A digression: in general the British do better sex comedies than we Americans. Think of Dirk Bogarde’s Doctor in the House and the series that followed it, or the Carry On… movies, the farces of Ray Cooney, or the Monty Python sketches. I think it is their ability to be naughty without being vulgar that makes them special.

Director Wallace Chappell has assembled a talented troupe of local actors to bring to life the on- and off-stage characters who struggle with a production of Nothing On. Wisely setting the “tour” in our own Cultural Corridor, Chappell has made it possible for us to accept the varying degrees of success with British accents without affecting our senses or sensibilities. Robyn Calhoun plays the leading role of Dotty/Mrs. Clackett with believable confusion during the late-night dress rehearsal and frustration in the final performance. Act II gives us more of Dotty’s search for affection as well as revealing her financial interest in the production. On-stage or off, her comic instincts are well employed. Her director, played by Eddie Skaggs, enlists our sympathy in Act One for putting up with the staggering misadventures of his actors. Subsequent acts show him as less put-upon than manipulating; E. Skaggs does it all with conviction.

Kaitlyn Skaggs plays the short-sighted ingénue, Brooke/Vicki, with aplomb. Her self-centered qualities are made clear without ever becoming irritating; there is something about her innocent indifference that keeps her an appealing character. Shannon Bonney as Belinda/Flavia does good work in both her on- and off-stage characters, from the affluent housewife to the rather maternal care for her fellow actors when offstage.

Matt Falduto (l) as Garry/Roger and Robyn Calhoun as Dotty/Mrs. Clackett

Matt Falduto’s work as the inarticulate but hardly silent Garry and as Roger, intent on a passionate interlude with Vicki, is exemplary for its vocal variations and its skillful physical comedy. His exertions are enough to make the audience breathless. Bryant Duffy as Frederick is an earnest but clueless actor attempting to find his motivation and rendered helpless in the presence of even perceived violence. When Frederick assumes the role of the hapless Phillip, Duffy keeps Frederick very much in mind and on view, a sterling example of the merger of actor and character. Kevin Burford is thoroughly enjoyable as the old actor, Selsdon, who has lost much of his hearing but nothing of his dedication to two things: the stage and the bottle.

The two “off-stage” actors, Brett Borden as Tim, the company and stage manager, and Ramya Hipp's assistant stage manager, Poppy, are equally convincing in their roles. Tim is called upon to fix any mechanical problems on stage and to serve as understudy for Selsdon and, apparently, any other male character. Borden does excellent work as the general factotum, requisite but unrewarded. Poppy’s concentration in following the book, calling cues, and even becoming an emergency off-stage voice for a missing actor, and the complications of her personal life, are all reflected appropriately in her delivery of comparatively fewer lines than others on stage.

Shannon Bonney as Belinda/Flavia; 
Kaitlyn Skaggs as Brooke/Vicki

City Circle Acting Company is to be commended for its presentation of Noises Off. The production crew responsible for the design of the rotating set, the lighting, sound, costumes, and makeup all make a strong contribution to the success of the production. Chappell and his actors keep the comedy moving from beginning to end. Acts I and III are funny and satisfying; Act II is a three-ring circus. You may not always know exactly where to look but wherever you look you will find action integral to the drama at hand. And you may even spot a plate of sardines.

Noises Off runs through Sep 16 at the CCPA, with shows at 2 p.m. on Sundays and 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $22-27 ($17 students/seniors).

ITAC's The Drawer Boy Balances Humor & Depth

Robert Gardner (left) and Steve Shaffer;
Photo by Meg Merckens

 

by Gerry Roe
Amana—The Drawer Boy tells the story of a young actor who inserts himself into the lives of two bachelor farmers. Miles, the actor, is part of a 1972 Toronto group with the goal of creating plays about rural life. In order to gather material, the actors are sent into the country to learn about Ontario farm life and to bring their stories back to the group. The result was The Farm Show, which was first presented to the farm families with whom the actors lived for a time and from whom the stories were collected. Later The Farm Show spread across Canada including performances in urban centers such as Ottawa, Stratford, and Manitoba.

In Healey’s 1999 play, Miles (Alex Shockley) arrives at the small farm run by Morgan (Robert Gardner) and Angus (Steve Shaffer), lifelong friends and veterans of World War II. Miles asks to live on the farm for a while in order to research farming and farm life. In exchange, he will help out with chores. With some reluctance, Morgan agrees and sets about “teaching” Miles, assigning him useless tasks and providing gross misinformation about the farming business. City boy Miles is naïve enough to take his jobs seriously and the exchanges between Morgan and Miles provide much of the humor in the first act. Assigned to spend time with the cows, Miles thinks he can interpret their mooing and finds in it evidence of their incipient terror of insufficient milk production leading to their demise and conversion to beef. Morgan could be seen as cruel for taking advantage of the naïve Miles but Gardner's subtlety lets us in on the fact that he is merely playing practical jokes on him.

Angus, the drawer boy whose talent for drawing could have allowed him a university education and a career in architecture if he hadn’t gone to war and lost his memory through a head injury, now relies on Morgan as his only link to his own past. Morgan keeps that past alive by telling Angus the story of two friends from childhood (a drawer boy and a farmer boy) who played together, grew up, joined the army, and met two girls “one tall, the other taller,” and who planned to build two houses "connected but separate” for them and the girls.

Enough about the plot. Go see this play and the plot will emerge sufficiently. The real reason to see the play is the characters and the performances. In addition to the humor, there is great depth in the characters and in the actors’ performances. Robert Gardner as Morgan is masterful in his portrayal, showing us his burden of caring for his friend, as well as his private burden of keeping Angus functioning in spite of the memory loss and the pain of his terrible headaches. Steve Shaffer’s Angus is utterly convincing as he shuffles along in his confused state, pathetic at times, amusing at times, and never setting a foot wrong. These are bravura performances, deeply moving in their shared existence, and inspiring in their portrayal of friendship’s demands and rewards. Alex Shockley’s Miles is amusing in his apparent haplessness but thoroughly convincing in his ability to discern the flaw in Morgan’s story.

Thomas Johnson’s set design is attractive and efficient, evoking the bachelors’ farm kitchen and a bit of the outdoors beyond. Johnson’s direction seems low-keyed but it is extremely effective. In a pre-show message to the audience, Johnson said directing was easy because all he had to do was let these talented actors go. Anyone who has ever directed a show can see beneath his comment and recognize the work involved in giving actors their freedom and helping them select the various routes to their successful performances.

The Drawer Boy runs through September 16, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. Tickets can be reserved by calling the ITAC box office at 319-622-3222 or via email: itac@southslope.net. Tickets are $22.50 for adults and $10 for students, with group rates available as well.

A Second Helping Is a Vocal Extravaganza With a Lot of Heart

by Gerry Roe

Photo by Patrick Gouran 
Deborah Kennedy (l) as Karin
Nikki Savitt as Mavis 

Amana—The Old Creamery Theatre’s production of A Second Helping: The Church Basement Ladies Sequel is set in a small town in rural Minnesota, somewhere north (my guess) of the dangers of “The Cities,” the preferred term for the metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The basement ladies of the subtitle are staunch Lutheran church women—the kind of women who make the coffee, serve the food and keep the basement kitchen functioning.

The ladies are sharply characterized—individuals whose commitment to service is unquestioned and, perhaps, unquestioning, even as they live in changing times (the 1960s into the 1970s). As another Minnesotan informed the nation, “the times they are a-changin’” as we gain insight into the lives of each of the ladies and their pastor. The script propels changes in their lives, their faith, and their growth through humor (mostly) and song. At one moment, the ladies cling to the belief that dancing is un-Lutheran, and the next moment the ladies burst into song and dance. The seeming inconsistency between belief and action is not as jarring as it appears; think of the song and dance numbers as demonstrating the freedom of thought rather than the constraints of belief.

Individually, the ladies have their personal trials; collectively, they are a formidable unit. Mavis Gilmerson, played with enormous enthusiasm by Nikki Savitt, appears to be surrounded by tragedies visited on her family and friends but she soldiers on, buoyed by faith and humor. Ms. Savitt finds countless ways to demonstrate her exuberance and endurance regardless of external events, including her comic but revelatory preparations for midwifery.

Deborah Kennedy’s Karin Engleson, the youngest of the church basement ladies, has a sense of fashion and decorum but she will be the bridge between the conservatism of the 1950s and the changing times of the 1960s and 1970s. Although she gets her wish that her daughter will return from “the Cities” to take up her life in the rural community, she also suffers the greatest loss and manages to rise above it. Her singing is a great asset to the church ladies’ vocal excursions and is both beautiful and haunting in her reprise of “Cardamom, Cinnamon, Ginger and Cloves.”

Amy Marie Stewart plays Karin’s daughter, Beverly, with excellent physical and vocal control. Her bio, listing achievements in both opera and dance, is indicative of her preparation and training, but her acting is on equal footing, showing a nice sense of comic timing and a depth of understanding.

The doyenne of the church basement ladies, Vivian Snustad, is played with acerbic wit and powerful conviction by Kay Francis. In addition to showing how even the hidebound Vivian can change, Ms. Francis reveals a singing voice of real power, great range, and true beauty (even as she displays comedic vocalizations). Kay Francis sings!

Sean McCall, the lone male among the ladies, never fails to deliver the goods as a musical comedy veteran. His Pastor both accepts and dodges the eager ministrations of the church basement ladies with finely-tuned physical and verbal skill. His patient study of guitar chords in a solo scene morphs effortlessly into a spot-on Elvis impersonation.

I grew up Lutheran—small town Lutheran at that—and these characters ring true to my experience, allowing for the fact that one of the prerogatives of comedy is exaggeration. The church basement ladies I knew were not quite so insular or intolerant, but this production of A Second Helping should appeal to anyone—regardless of urban or rural background or religious orientation—who enjoys watching skilled comic acting and musicianship. The ubiquitous cups of coffee seem safe enough, but you might want to avoid the hot dish.

A Second Helping runs through Sep 2 on Old Creamery's Mainstage. Showtimes are 3 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays and 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are $27 ($17.50 for students, with $12 student rush tickets available 30 min prior to each performance).

Shirley Valentine Has Wit, Wisdom, and Great Comic Timing

By Gerry Roe; photo by Shelley Klimes

Amana - Liverpool is a long way from the Greek Islands, but the return distance can seem even farther.

In Willy Russell’s play, Shirley Valentine, the current production at the Old Creamery Theatre’s Studio Stage, longtime Creamery favorite, Marquetta Senters plays the title role—in fact, the only role—unless we count her kitchen wall with which she converses or a rock she comes to favor. Shirley Valentine, now Shirley Bradshaw, is a middle-aged Liverpool housewife who is offered a two-week (or a fortnight’s in the language of the play) vacation on the Greek Islands. She has some hesitation about accepting this gift from her friend Jane. She relates to her kitchen wall a telling scene with her grown daughter and a chance encounter with a former schoolmate providing some of the impetus for her to take advantage of the chance to be Shirley Valentine again, leaving behind her mundane married life for the travel she longed for as a girl. She knows, too, that her husband will not approve and will do all he can to talk her out of her adventure. So she decides not to tell him but to leave him a note on the day of her departure.

That’s the first act: two scenes in which she makes up her mind. The second act gives us Shirley Valentine on holiday in Greece, where she fulfills a lifelong dream of sitting at a table by the sea and having a glass of wine made in the country in which she drinks it, and where she recovers her sense of herself and experiences a fleeting romance. That’s the story, and it may not sound like much but that doesn’t take into account the wit and wisdom of Russell’s play, his grasp of revelatory detail, or the extraordinary character of Shirley Valentine. Nor does it take into account the power of Ms. Senters to inhabit a character, bringing out the various facets of her character with impeccable comic timing, dauntless courage, powerful intelligence, and her superb ability to plumb the emotional depths of a woman’s sometimes painful progress toward greater self-knowledge and full acceptance of life—with a capital L.

I freely admit that I have a particular bias in favor of any production in which Marquetta Senters appears. If some of you have read other blog reviews I have written, you can guess that I would attend a reading of a telephone book if I knew the reader would be Ms. Senters. Creamery audiences know her skill as a clown. Her mobile face and body can render an audience helpless with laughter. Great clowns very often have a depth of feeling as well: think of the sad face of Emmett Kelly or on the distaff side the great Nancy Walker or Martha Raye. They had the ability, as does Marquetta, to get us laughing with the first part of a sentence and crying by the end. Like them, Marquetta does it with such seeming ease that it becomes something miraculous to be enjoyed and treasured.

Ms. Senters is aided in her portrayal of Shirley Valentine by the evocative settings designed by Tom Milligan and by the intelligent and sensitive direction of Rachael Lindhart. It is a production you shouldn’t miss. I urge you to order tickets promptly: the opening matinee was very nearly a sell-out and the audience proved to be exceptionally responsive and rightly so.

Shirley Valentine runs through July 22 on Old Creamery's Studio Stage, Thursdays and Sundays at 3:00, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30. Tickets are $27 ($17.50 for students; student rush tickets are also available no earlier than 30 minutes prior to each performance, for $12 with ID).

This show is recommended for mature audiences.

Fantastic Ensemble Delivers an Action-Packed Busybody

by Gerry Roe, photos by Shelley Klimes








Old Creamery—The Old Creamery Theatre’s production of Busybody by Jack Popplewell opened Thursday afternoon to an audience that was very appreciative, as it should have been. This 1960's comedy offers two terrific lead roles and six supporting roles well-served by the company. The play gives each actor something important; as the plot unfolds, almost every character becomes a suspect in the case of a murder committed just before the curtain opens.

The play begins with the titular busybody, the office cleaning lady Lily Piper, having just discovered a body in one of the offices: a body with a dagger protruding from its back. Nearly unhinged with terror, she dashes onstage to call the police. Mrs. Piper, the Creamery’s redoubtable Marquetta Senters, is further taken aback to discover that the body has somehow followed her and is now draped over the arm of a chair in the executive office. Bodies with daggers in their back can’t go roaming around the building, can they? ...but here it is, sending Mrs. Piper into another bout of near hysteria.

When the police—Detective Goddard (Robert Kemp in his Old Creamery debut) and Detective Superintendent Baxter (Tom Milligan, another Creamery favorite), who has been summoned from his sick bed where he is nursing a terrible head cold—arrive, they find no body, no dagger, and only a confused Mrs. Piper. Baxter, a bundle of sneezes and nose-blowings, is recognized immediately by Mrs. Piper as Harry Baxter, who lived on her street when they were children. Baxter is less than pleased to be reminded of their former ties but Mrs. Piper is fully capable of recalling them and even takes him off for putting on airs now that he has risen so high in his career.

From there on, the plot thickens and you really need to see how it develops in the hands of this company. This wild whodunit spirals through the rest of the action with zestful speed, allowing opportunities for each of the actors to shine. Richard Marshall, the presumed victim of murder, well played by Jeff Haffner, strides into the action very much alive and barking orders. His wife, Claire, who appeared less than shattered by his supposed death, is well played with a rather frosty control by Jackie McCall. His secretary, thought by the others to have been secretly in love with her boss, is played with deft sincerity by Kay Francis. Amber Snyder’s junior member of the staff makes a wonderful entrance, telling us all we need to know of her character even before she speaks. Robert Westerby, the office accountant, is played with straightforward charm by Eddie Skaggs.

Though it turns out that Haffner’s character, the less than well-liked head of the company, is very much alive, another corpse turns up in another part of the city. Certain clues tie the body to the mystery, and eventually the murderer is revealed. The mystery is resolved, quite satisfactorily, but the real joy of the production is not so much in the plot but in the characters. Though all are praiseworthy, the relationship between Milligan’s detective superintendent and Senters' busybody Mrs. Piper is a special treat. Each of them is in top form and they play off each other beautifully. Ms. Senters as the busybody is a whirlwind of activity, interjecting her imposing self into the investigation, fighting off adversaries seen and unseen without for a moment slackening her pace and her incredible comic timing. I wish the playwright could have seen her at work, but you can see it and I urge you to do so.

Busybody runs through July 1 with shows at 3 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Tickets are $25.50 ($16 for students).

Mrs. Mannerly Showcases Actors' Remarkable Comic Timing

by Gerry Roe

ITAC— Mrs. Mannerly, a comedy by Jeffrey Hatcher, is drawn from his experiences as a nine-year-old boy (soon to be ten, he points out) in an etiquette class conducted by a proper lady known as Mrs. Mannerly. The play is autobiographical to a point, but obviously embellished by the adult Jeffrey looking back on those years and sometimes narrating them. If you remember the 60’s, you will remember a turbulent time marked by the Cold War, the Vietnam war, student protests, the emergence of hippies and flower power, and audacious assassinations... but Jeffrey was only nine, and his world is much more restricted.

He is not without ambition, however. He knows that no student of Mrs. Mannerly’s course has ever achieved a perfect score on her final examination, conducted at a luncheon of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Determined to be the best at something (and he knows it won’t be Little League Baseball), he plans to become the best-mannered kid in Steubenville, Ohio, by shattering the record and earning all 100 points on the examination.

Meg Merckens plays the exquisitely mannered Mrs. Mannerly with a diction matching her ramrod-straight posture. She is indeed an intimidating figure, especially to a group of young children, none of whom possess Jeffrey’s obsession with success. Sean Christopher Lewis plays the young Jeffrey, the adult Jeffrey, all of young Jeffrey’s classmates (including two young girls), and a young woman who had been Mrs. Mannerly’s student some years earlier. Merckens and Lewis are well matched; each of them has remarkable comic timing and the ability to portray a character with admirable command of posture, movement, gesture, and tone of voice. They are a treat to listen to and to watch.

Thomas P. Johnson’s direction is both fluid and dynamic. In addition, he has designed a well-balanced evocative set and the images appearing on triple screens above the set contribute handsomely to the scene, the dialogue, and the script.

Oh, yes, the script. There is amusing dialogue, a touch of unresolved mystery, and interesting characters. There is even, in the script, a verbalized distinction between “fake” and “phony.” Therein lies the rub. In my opinion the script is phony. Inconsistencies are glossed over and the play doesn’t really support the actors as they deserve. Nevertheless, because of the acting and directing, this is an effort well worth seeing. Take along your funny bone, and perhaps you could check your thinking cap at the door.

Mrs. Mannerly runs through June 10, 7:30 Fridays and Saturdays, 1:30 Saturdays and Sundays at Iowa Theatre Artists Company in Amana. Tickets are $22.50 ($20 matinee/$10 for students), and are available by calling 319.622.3222 or emailing itac@southslope.net.

The Gin Game Gracefully Tackles Large Truths on an Intimate Scale

By Gerry Roe; photo by Shelley Klimes

Old Creamery - The Studio Stage presents D. L. Coburn’s 1977 Pulitzer-Prize-winning The Gin Game in an intimate production most suitable to the apparent scale of the play. Two lonely people, residents of a retirement home, come together to play gin rummy. Gradually, painfully, reveal their stories to each other. Ultimately, the play tackles big issues, caught in microcosm in the characters of Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, relatively new residents of the home, who face a future there of isolation and dwindling possibilities.

Weller, played by Tom Milligan, convinces Fonsia, played by Kay Francis, to join him in a game of gin rummy. Fonsia at first declines, claiming ignorance of the game, but relents upon learning that the game is a version of rummy, with which she is familiar. Playing cards had been considered sinful by her father, an Old Methodist, who strongly disapproved of card-playing. Yet somewhere along the way, Fonsia has apparently broken with some of the old restrictions and somewhat reluctantly joins Weller in the game.

Weller considers himself an expert in the game and is surprised when Fonsia wins repeatedly. With each loss, Weller reveals his frustration and short temper. And so it goes throughout the two acts of the play. Watching two people play cards doesn’t seem like the stuff of high drama and yet Milligan and Francis, with help from the playwright, make it so. With great skill the two actors draw us in. With each hand of the game the drama intensifies. With each development the playwright makes it clear that the play is not just about a card game but about the game of life.

In the intimacy of the Studio Stage, the actors’ skills are challenged; nothing can be false. The game must be played truly, and Milligan and Francis are more than up to the challenge. Go to see this play, not just for the story, but for the beauty of the performances. With great subtlety, the two actors make every action and reaction credible and moving. Each of them reaches far beyond the trivialities of a game of cards to reveal the lives of two lonely people and they do it with style and grace.

The play is very ably directed by Deborah Kennedy on a telling and evocative set designed by Tom Milligan. This is a play that should be seen to appreciate the large truths exhibited in a setting devoid of spectacle. Pure theatre, well evoked by the playwright and beautifully illustrated by two fine performances.

The Gin Game runs through April 29, 3:00 Sundays and Thursdays and 7:30 Fridays and Saturdays on the Old Creamery Studio Stage. Tickets are $27 for adults and $17.50 for students. Check the website for more information or to purchase tickets.

Clever Plot and a Wild Ensemble Make House of Wonders a Joy

By Gerald Roe
Photo by Paul Van Dorpe

ICCT - Kate Aspengren’s comedy opens with perhaps the most telling illustration of writer’s block ever staged. In silence, yet. I won’t describe it; it has to be seen. And so does the play at ICCT.

Holly, the writer, is played by Jen Brown with a sure sense of the frustrations and exhilarations that accompany the gradations of the writer’s plight, moving between the misery of her lack of productivity and the hopeful grasp at yet another failed inspiration. Holly is the successful author of a series of books about a peripatetic nurse who finds adventure in a series of career moves and exotic locations. Now she is faced with producing a book about her aunt, Myrta Jane Wonders, for a publisher’s series of books about our foremothers.

Holly and her friends Rachel and Chris (Roxy Running and John Bednarik) make a half-serious attempt to contact Myrta Jane with the help of a Ouija board in order to learn more about Myrta Jane’s life as a prosperous businesswoman in Alaska half a century ago. Holly and Rachel, a caterer of organic foods, employ the Ouija board while the wisecrackinig Chris, a reporter in pursuit of sensational stories and photographs, agrees to record their progress with the board.

To Holly’s surprise, their efforts to contact Myrta Jane seem to produce results. In a surprising entrance, Myrta Jane (deftly played by Kathy Maxey) appears in Holly’s kitchen. With the assistance of several other characters, Myrta Jane’s story begins to take shape, though her life in Alaska doesn’t exactly jibe with the sketchy accounts Holly has gleaned from her family. Myrta Jane’s real history is gradually revealed in her own words and in the recollections of her Alaskan colleagues, Eugene (Chuck Dufano), Cree (Kaitlyn McCoy), Garthlene (Jill Van Dorpe), and Juneau Jim (Rip Russell). Each of these character has a story to tell as the true account of Myrta Jane’s Alaskan adventure becomes clear. All of these characters are rounded out well by the actors, each of them making strong contributions to the plot and the humor of the play. Surprisingly, the visitors from the past are visible to Holly and her friends—not only visible but palpable in a wildly comic scene with Cree and Chris.

Holly recognizes the fact that her aunt’s Alaskan adventure will not fit neatly into the proposed series about illustrious foremothers and again experiences writer’s block. This time, however, she can put something down on paper,although Rachel confirms her opinion that what she has written is as dead as Myrta Jane. Nevertheless, a book is finished, thanks to the intervention of the Alaskans, and Holly’s publisher (voiced by Mary Ellen Chudacek) is enthusiastic about the book’s suitability for publication.

Aspengren’s characteristically clever plot and witty dialogue, assisted by the actors and Richard Tiegs’s direction, make for a very enjoyable evening in the theatre. See it if you can. House of Wonders runs through April 1st, 7:30pm Fridays and Saturdays, 2:00pm Sundays.

Excellent production lifts Wooden Snowflakes

by Gerry Roe

Amana - Aside from church pageants, most plays about Christmas seem intended for children or television. The Old Creamery’s Studio Stage has found a play that definitely appeals to grown-ups and has given it a fine intimate production starring two Old Creamery favorites, Tom Milligan and Deborah Kennedy. In addition, these two actors are responsible for costume design and props (Kennedy) and scene design and overall direction (Milligan). So it is clear these two have invested their ample talents in this production. And all they have done has been done well—very well, indeed.

The play takes place in rural Kentucky on Christmas Eve. Two people meeting by chance on Christmas Eve—well, you can predict much of what will happen. But there must be complication—and complication there is in abundance. Milligan’s character, Simon Peter Witacker is a kind, good man, a Santa Claus both literally and figuratively to his community, but lonely, having never known love. He is a woodcarver and the set shows evidence of his artisanship including carved wooden snowflakes and other ornaments. He meets Kennedy’s character, whom we know only as Eve, when her car skids on the icy road and nearly strikes him before colliding with a tree. Of course he comes to her aid, bringing her into his cozy house and offering comfort and warmth. She is eager to get her car towed and repaired so she can be on the road to Cincinnati, she says, to meet with physicians and clinical personnel about pharmaceuticals. Turns out she, too, is lonely! After each of them declares or admits to loneliness, the happy ending seems inevitable to us—but not to them.

This description is reasonably accurate but it leaves out the most important element of this production. These two actors bring a truth to their playing that makes the play seem fresh and alive. They work so well together that we are carried along to their coming together and the little miracle that seals their fate. Milligan and Kennedy are a delight to watch and listen to. Milligan’s light Kentucky accent seems just right and the duo has impeccable timing. In short, the play is adequate; the production superior. With this studio production, The Old Creamery Theatre passes along a Christmas greeting. I can only wish them a happy new year.

The Studio Stage production continues through December 18. Thursday through Saturday performances are at 7:30, Sunday matinees begin at 3:00. For more information go here.

Only One More Performance of Powerful Triangle

by Gerry Roe

Iowa City - The story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factor Fire on March 25, 1911, is legendary. At the time, it was one of New York City’s greatest disasters, with 146 (some sources say 147) people dead, some by smoke inhalation, some by fire, and many who chose to leap to their death from the top three floors of the building. Most of those who died in the fire were recent immigrants, predominantly Jewish and Irish women, many in their twenties, some as young as 14.

How do you stage a disaster like this on a small stage with limited resources? You get Janet Schlapkohl to write it, that’s how, and Jason Grubbe to direct it. With a small cast, key characters doubling in contrasting roles, and an exceptional commitment to telling a story, the play makes us think as well as feel.

Heidi Biebler plays Essie Schilman, a recent immigrant from Germany and a Triangle factory girl as well as Irene Clemmens, a Vassar student who is not, we eventually learn, a typical Vassar girl from a wealthy family. Claire Wool doubles as a Russian immigrant labor organizer and Alva Schneider, a Vassar student organizer. Ali Heath doubles as a Russian immigrant factory girl and a Vassar student. Clarissa Jolly more than doubles as a NLPCP organizer, Methodist Episcopal Church member, and a Vassar College employee. Megan Reif and Katherine Smith double as Italian immigrant factory girls Josephine and Francesca and as Vassar girls. Ryann Sirois doubles as factory girl Esther, a German immigrant, and as a Vassar girl. Rounding out the cast are Alex Grubbe as a shop foreman, Kalvin Goodlaxson as a Policeman, Spencer Rideout as Luigi, brother of Josephine and Francesca, and Evie Stanske as a street vendor.

Sound confusing? Well, it isn’t because the writing and direction, not to mention the acting, keep it all straight for us. The characterizations are extremely well drawn and executed. Safe in the audience, we all knew what was happening and whom we were watching. We see the gradual awakening to exploitation and the inchoate union movement. We even see striking workers, gulled by promises the employers had no intention of fulfilling.

The real tragedy of the play is that the fire need not have claimed all these lives. Exit doors were locked, some doors opened inward so the crush of desperate workers prevented anyone from escaping, the fire escape could not bear the weight of multiple bodies, pulling away from the building and sending the workers precipitately to their death.

This is a grim topic for a play but the magic of theatre prevents us from leaving the performance defeated and depressed. I don’t want to reveal the wonderful ending of the play, our last glimpse of the six factory girls we have come to know, but I will tell you it is powerfully effective and will stay with you.

The play will be presented again tonight (Saturday) at 7:00 p.m. by Combined Efforts Theatre. See it if you can; it is a remarkable accomplishment.

Directions: Take Highway 1 in Southwest Iowa City toward Kalona. Turn left(South) on Maier Avenue (gravel). It takes an S curve and winds past a subdivision(on the left). The first intersection is Osage. Turn right(West). It will be on the right, the only property on the road.

Dreamwell does the Bard proud

by Gerry Roe

The Prologue to Henry V makes it very clear that we audience members are expected to do our part in bringing the play to life. Acknowledging the impossibility of putting before us either the glory or the horrors of war, the prologue charges the audience with the responsibility to imagine this “little o,” theatre, as “the vastly fields of France.” Dreamwell’s Chorus consists of not just one actor but all the actors sharing in the delivery as if to say that we must imagine all the various locations—from the court to the camp, from the boudoir to the field of Agincourt—and all the people inhabiting them. The director, Angie Toomsen, uses all the actors and all the space in an inspired opening foretelling by word and deed the fresh and fluid action of the play we are about to see. In short, Dreamwell’s leap into Shakespeare does the Bard proud from the very beginning.

Most of the actors do at least double duty, which is hardly unusual in a play with so many characters; occasionally, however, in spite of the actors’ best efforts, I found it momentarily distracting to see Scott Strode’s King of France morph into Erpingham or Brian Tanner’s Bardolph resurrected as Orleans. But these two men are actors I know and admire, so the fault lies not with them but with me that I had to take a moment to adjust to their new characterizations.

Perhaps the most basic task of an actor is to know what he is saying. This is no simple thing as Henry V is filled with poetry, rich in imagery, and chock full of archaic words and usages; furthermore, some of the dialogue is in another language altogether. One of the greatest successes of this production is that the meaning of almost every line in English or in French is made clear to us. Not only do the actors seem to know what they are saying, they know why they are saying it. For this the director and the entire cast deserve our gratitude and our praise.

Impressive as each actor is, I can’t resist saying something about a few individuals. Mark McCusker’s Pistol brings wonderful energy to his role and consistently moves the play forward with each entrance. Jen Gerbyshak and Ottavia DeLuca are delightful in their French dialogues and in the courtship scene with
Henry, projecting their close relationship and their enjoyment of Henry’s discomfiture. Dennis Lambing as the Duke of Exeter makes clear his avuncular concern for Henry’s welfare. Rip Russell’s Fluellen has great comic timing and energy, but I confess to missing Fluellen’s Welsh accent and his leek (a green onion just doesn’t have the same impact).

K. Michael Moore’s Henry is wonderfully complex, a man concerned with acting responsibly (“May I with right and conscience make this claim?”) but capable, too, of snap decisions regarding human life which, to our modern sensibilities, seen cruel and arbitrary. Moore brings Henry’s seemingly contradictory attitudes clearly before us, letting us see the difficulties he faces as a monarch and as a man. Shy in his courtship, he is amazingly bold and effective in rousing his soldiers to action as evidenced in the two great motivational speeches: “Once more into the breach...” and “God for England, Harry and St. George.” A bravura performance.

Get thee to Dreamwell’s production of Henry V. It is an intelligent and effective production, a bold, successful step for the theatre of exploration.

Photo Credits: Lizzie White

Lughnasa travelling to Amana

by Gerry Roe

Amana - Ushers Ferry Theatre Company is taking their most recent production, Brian Freel's Dancing at Lughnasa, on the road to Amana. Lughnasa is show with an impressive history. The New York production received the 1992 Tony Award for Best Play. A movie starring Meryl Streep and Michael Gambon was released in 1998. The play continues to be very popular with regional and community theatres, with good reason: a compelling story with eight very good roles, well filled by The Ushers Ferry Theatre Company actors when they performed it in Cedar Rapids.

Each actor is to be commended for giving a rounded performance of considerable depth. The sisters are played by Ann Cejka, Paula Grady, Donna Heyvaert, Kaitlyn Davids and Kristen Stewart (who very ably directed the piece). Father Jack is played by Keith Kenel, Mike Wilhelm plays Gerry Evans, and Brian Tanner is Michael Evans, both the narrator and a seven-year old boy in the action of the play. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I know and have worked with Paula Grady and Brian Tanner and I was delighted with their performances.)

Michael tells a story from his childhood in the 1930’s when he lived with his unmarried mother and her four sisters near a small village in Donegal. The sisters live very frugally, scraping together whatever they can to send to their brother Jack, a priest in a leper colony in Uganda. One of the few indications of the modern world is the sisters’ battery-operated radio, unreliable as it is. Change is imminent; Jack returns physically ill and frail, Michael’s Welsh father makes a brief unsatisfactory appearance, and the sisters face the loss of their livelihood and the break-up of the family unit.

The Festival of Lughnasa is central to the play. Lugh, the pagan god of the harvest, is celebrated with revelry, bonfires, drink, and dancing. The contrast of the old pagan customs with the repressive nature of the church is most fully realized in Father Jack who has, as they say, “gone native,” adopting African tribal ritual and ceremony and leaving his traditional faith behind.

Although the play raises deep questions and introduces difficult social issues, it is first and foremost a good story. We come to care very much about the characters in the play and to share in their pleasures as well as their problems. When the sisters break spontaneously into dance, we have to admire their sense of family as well as their courage in the face of whatever may come. There is a time to celebrate the moment and they have the good sense to do so and the generosity to share the moment with us. The Ushers Ferry Theatre Company’s production of Dancing at Lughnasa will be presented March 25, 26, 27 at Iowa Theatre Artists Company in Amana. Contact ITAC for more information at CALL: 319-622-3222 or email: itac@southslope.net.

Blithe Spirit? Super, naturally...

by Gerry Roe

Old Creamery - The Old Creamery Theatre’s production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit opened with a Thursday matinee and settled in for a good run through November 14. The timing of the production couldn’t be better; in late October we begin to think of ghosts and things that go bump in the night. Tom Milligan not only directed the well-paced production but designed an attractive, cozy living room in which the action of the play Coward called an “improbable farce” could unfold. It’s just the sort of room in which the improbable becomes possible.

Sean McCall plays Charles Condimine, a successful author living in Kent with his
second wife, Ruth (Deborah Kennedy). Their household includes an unseen cook and a new unskilled maid, Edith (Carrie Novell). To gather background material for his next book, Charles arranges for a séance to be conducted by a neighbor, the eccentric Madame Arcati (Marquetta Senters), a professional medium. Charles has invited the local physician, Mr. Bradman (David Tull) and his wife (Kristy Hartsgrove) to make up the foursome stipulated by Madame Arcati. The unintended result of the séance is the sudden appearance of the ghost of Elvira (Jackie McCall), Charles’s first wife, visible—and audible-only to Charles. Then, as they say, complications ensue.

Most of the actors are very familiar to Old Creamery audiences. One of the particular joys for me is watching familiar actors apply their skills to developing different characters. For example, Sean McCall and Deborah Kennedy must find the means to convince us that they are a devoted couple, then allow us to see the weak spots in their characters as Charles and Ruth begin to see each other in a new light. Can Charles adapt to a more demanding, domineering Ruth? Can she trust Charles? As they grow less content with each other their physical and vocal manners alter accordingly. Similarly, Charles and Elvira move beyond the strangeness of their spectral reunion through a weird sort of second honeymoon in their delight in each other’s company, to their ultimate dissatisfaction with each other. Sean and Jackie McCall more than meet the challenges of letting us in on their emotions.

The Bradmans could be just stock characters required by the story line but David Tull and Kristy Hartsgrove dig into these characters and individualize them. There is a lovely little bit with a glass of brandy in the second act that tells us perhaps all we need to know about the doctor and his wife and their relationship.

The role of Edith is deceptively difficult but Carrie Novell is surely on the right track. As she continues in this oddly paced role, she will undoubtedly capture the rhythm that will make her character even more convincing.

What can I say about Marquetta Senters as Madame Arcati? Senters brings to the role great exuberance and invention combined with the extraordinary mobility of her features and her masterful comic timing. She is a joy to watch. I hope I can be forgiven for mentioning her commanding performance in another play. On the previous Sunday I saw her play Martha in Who’s Afraid of Viriginia Woolf, a bravura performance of an enormously difficult role and I am grateful for having seen it.

An unhallowed afterthought: It might be interesting to speculate on how this play might have been developed by another writer. Imagine how a playwright with a bent more psychological than comic might treat this story of a man who rids himself of the ghosts of his marriages with no apparent regret and now feels “free…and enjoying it immensely.”

For a play written nearly 70 years ago, the script has aged very well. This production will age well, too. See it if you can.


Gerry Roe is an actor and director, having been seen onstage at Riverside Theatre, the Iowa City Community Theatre, the University Theatre, and Dreamwell Theatre. He is a lifetime member of the Iowa City Community Theatre.

Blackbird soars

by Gerry Roe

Dreamwell - There’s something about a messy room that affects our expectations. I still think Mike Nichols was wrong to place George and Martha in a messy, cluttered house in the film version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? because George and Martha don’t "mess around"; they go straight for the jugular. The messy staff break room we see in Dreamwell Theatre’s current production of David Harrower’s Blackbird seems more in tune with the play we are about to see. The people we are about to meet, Una and Ray, have to do a good deal of thrashing about before they can know how best to attack or even parry.

Ray and Una haven’t seen each other for 15 years, not since their relationship put Ray in prison for statutory rape. Fifteen years ago, Ray was 40. Una was 12. After his release from prison, Ray began a new life with a new name in a new town. To say that he is surprised to see Una is, of course, an understatement. She explains how she found him — his photo in a trade magazine gave her his employer’s name and location. The next hour and fifteen minutes or so (the play unfolds in real time) we are led on a tour through the aftermath of their illicit affair.

That’s all I’m going to say about the situation, except to give you a heads up: if you think you can see where this play is headed, you’re probably wrong. Harrower’s script is full of hairpin curves, speed traps, sharp peaks and unanticipated valleys. Under the very capable guidance of director Angie Toomsen, the actors negotiate this dangerous route with great skill and to great effect. The direction is deft and unobtrusive, but solidly supports the actors.

And such actors! Rip Russell plays Ray and I’m so glad. Rip has the skill, the timing, the craft, and the experience to make this character work. Beyond an impressive resume, Rip has the insight and generosity of spirit to show us a real man — never a caricature. Erin Mills, as Una, takes on the unenviable task of partnering with one of Iowa City’s most experienced and talented actors. Fortunately, she has found the resources to do the job and to make it look effortless. Erin turns in a complex performance alternating great strength with heartbreaking vulnerability.

Dreamwell Theatre continues its Taboo Bijou season with great success. See Blackbird if you can!

Gerry Roe is an actor and director, having been seen onstage at Riverside Theatre, the Iowa City Community Theatre, the University Theatre, and Dreamwell Theatre. He is a lifetime member of the Iowa City Community Theatre.