Since its inception in 2002, FUSION
Theatre Company's professional artists have had as
their primary mission presenting New Mexico audiences
the finest works in fresh new stagings. Here's a quick
sampling of our visitor reactions.....
"As always with FUSION
productions, expect to be dazzled
by some of the most polished theater in town." -Weekly Alibi
"Be very proud. This was
far better than the original
production I saw in New York." -Audience Member
"...an evening of powerful
drama and surprising staging,
a first-rate production...." -Crosswinds Weekly
"Classic American entertainment
at a beautiful theatre." -TVI Times
"It's almost a shame we
live in New Jersey, because
now we really want to see the rest of your season...." -Audience Member
"...without a doubt, this
play is theatre at it's finest..." -KJOY-AM at Buried Child
by Sam Shepard
Director: Laurie
Thomas ------------------------------ Elyot: Michael Finnegan Amanda: Jacqueline Reid Victor: David Lang Sibyl: Anna Felix Louise, Spa Attendant: Adelina
Joy Prochnow Spa Attendant: Ellen Herschel
Reviews
"A staging of Noël Coward's classic Private
Lives at the Cell Theatre spies on the volatile
reunion of a divorced couple, Amanda (Jacqueline Reid)
and Elyot (Michael Finnegan). This obscenely rich
pair meet up again several years after their breakup
under the worst possible circumstances: They're honeymooning
in the same ritzy French hotel with their new spouses.
Awkward! The coincidence immediately sparks a brand
new affair, but the couple is soon harshly reminded
of why they got divorced in the first place.
Coward's ever-popular
play is one of those chatty, vaguely old-fashioned
numbers fueled almost entirely by the witty repartee
of the two leads. I didn't really warm up to it until
the end of the first act, but the noxious chemical
bond between Amanda and Elyot becomes stronger—and
more destructive—as the action proceeds, and
director Laurie Thomas has imposed an appealing sense
of contemporary aesthetics on a play originally set
in the '20s."--
WEEKLY ALIBI review,
Steven Robert Allen
"The FUSION Theatre
Company begins its fifth season with an enjoyable
production of Noël Coward’s Private
Lives at The Cell. Premiered in 1930, the
drama focuses on the indolent British upper class
that was already becoming a myth. The play is sophisticated
drawing room comedy of (bad) manners among the rich
and idle. Like the brandy that is consumed by the
characters, Private Lives has aged
well.
The plot is both intricate
and improbable. Amanda and Elyot, who shared a rocky
marriage and amiable divorce, are both honeymooning
with new spouses on the French Riviera. Their rooms
are next to each other, and their terraces connect.
Elyot’s new, younger wife Sibyl pesters him
for information about his first wife while Amanda’s
second partner is curious about her time with Elyot.
When Elyot and Amanda
see each other again, the old attraction reemerges,
and they impulsively run off to Paris- leaving their
mates behind. Try as they might, however, the couple
is unable to avoid the bickering that leads to arguments,
vicious name-calling, and even physical battles. Amanda
and Elyot demonstrate the love/hate dichotomy at the
center of Coward’s comedies. The abandoned spouses
show up and demand a civilized resolution.
Director Laurie Thomas
has coached her cast in machine-gun delivery of Coward’s
witty exchanges--all in posh British accents. She
has also opened the play up in unexpected ways. Instead
of an unbecoming brawl, the fight between Amanda and
Elyot that ends act two becomes a stylized Apache
dance choreographed by Desiree Lang to a Madonna song.
The cast is appealing. David Lang plays the priggish
Victor with bluster and a strong sense of righteous
indignation. Lang’s impromptu tap dance is unexpected
fun. Anna Felix demonstrates a welcome flair for comedy
as Sibyl, the young newlywed in love with being in
love. I warmed to Michael Finnegan’s Elyot.
His volatile temper simmers, and he wears his flippancy
as a badge of intelligence. When Amanda accuses him
of speaking nonsense, he replies, “So does everyone
else in the long run. Let's be superficial and pity
the poor philosophers. Let's blow trumpets and squeakers
and enjoy the party as much as we can.” Finnegan,
accompanying himself on guitar, also provides a spirited
mini-recital as he serenades Amanda. Finally, Jacqueline
Reid is fine as Amanda. Through broad gestures and
expressions she flits among moods and attitudes. She
is the intellectual and verbal match for Elyot, and
refreshingly modern. Private Lives provides more humor
than a season of sitcoms." --ALBUQUERQUE
JOURNAL review, Barry
Gaines
Director: John Hardman Dick: Aaron Worley Jessica: Rachel Tatum ------------------------------
Relax by Aaron Jewell
Director: Brent Stevens Man: Michael Finnegan Woman: Alli Bivins ------------------------------
Surreal Estate by
Lori Romero
Director: Jacqueline
Reid Mr. Black: John Hardman Mr. Smith: David Lang Ms. Pearl: Cyndy Noll ------------------------------
The Near Life Wax and Smudge
of
True Clown Love by John Catron
Director: Jen Grigg Ash: Ed Chavez Agua: Kate Costello
Reviews
"The
FUSION Theatre Company presents The Seven:
Games People Play, ten-minute plays selected
from over 70 submissions nationwide—an intriguing
theatrical smorgasbord. The one-acts are connected
by theme and linked by Brent Stevens’ clever
sound design. Some plays are better described as sketches.
In Jenice Gharib’s
The Dressing Room we witness the
rapid-fire exchange between a long-suffering Jewish
mother (Kathy Millé Wimmer) and her thirty-something
unmarried daughter (Kristin de la O). The character
types are familiar, but Gharib has a good ear for
guilt-laden dialogue (“It’s not a mother
place to like or not like.”).
Under Lou Clark’s
direction, the actors look and sound right. Also familiar
from The Maltese Falcon are the hard-boiled
private eye (Aaron Worley) and his double-crossing
moll (Rachel Tatum) in Film Noir
by Brooklyn’s Adam Szymkowicz. Costumed by Kate
Kennedy in cinematic black and white, the actors have
fun with the Dashiell Hammett-esque dialogue and situations.
John Hardman ably directs.
Relax
is by Aaron Jewell from Seattle. An actor (Michael
Finnegan) and actress (Alli Bivins) rehearse a love
scene in her apartment. In their underwear. The scene
considers the intersection of role-playing in theater
and in life...
A stranger scene is
Californian Erin Phillips’s The Tea
Party, directed by Shelley Epstein. In this
surrealistic drama, a woman (Jen Grigg) and a man
(Michael Finnegan) converse at a table set with a
child’s plastic tea service. Their costumes
are bizarre: his a tuxedo jacket, tuxedo t-shirt,
tie, and shorts; hers mismatched floral print blouse
and skirt plus straw derby. The dialogue has a hallucinatory
weirdness, the verbal equivalent of a Salvador Dali
painting.
Surreal Estate
by Santa Fe’s Lori Romero is less surreal. House
rental agents (John Hardman and Cyndy Noll) manipulate
a client (David Lang). Director Jacqueline Reid works
to make the material funny: Hardman plays the agent-from-hell
with exaggerated expressions, and Lang is reduced
to blubbering; the two join in a slow-motion ballet
at play’s end.
For and Against
by Mark Witteveen is ambitious in its character development.
Hotel workers Alice (Leslie Joy Coleman) and Becky
(Shelley Epstein) tease young Theresa (Lauren Myers)
about writing to Darryl (Justin Lenderking). Darryl
was a dishwasher but is now a soldier in Iraq. The
horrors of war are juxtaposed with the silliness of
the older ladies’ arguments for and against
this romance. Under Robb Sisneros’s direction
Myers gives Theresa complexity, and we want to know
more about her.
The last piece is the
best. The Near Life Wax and Smudge of True
Clown Love by John Catron from Minneapolis
features the return of local favorites Ed Chavez and
Kate Costello as clowns—a tramp and a female
Pierrot. Directed by Jen Grigg, they tell stories,
relate dreams, and court each other in a piece that
combines imagination, charm, and wit.
This annual competition
is a welcome opportunity to see the latest work of
emerging playwrights." --ALBUQUERQUE
JOURNAL review, Barry
Gaines
Director: Fred Franklin ------------------------------ Catherine Holly: Jacqueline Reid Violet Venable: Laurie Thomas Dr. Cukrovicz: Ross Kelly Mrs. Holly: Kathy Millé-Wimmer George Holly: Michael Finnegan Miss Foxhill: Angela Littleton Sister Felicity: Kristin de la
O
Reviews
"Suddenly
Last Summer was a transitional work in Tennessee
Williams’s career. Produced off-Broadway in
1958, the play came after a series of highly successful
plays built around strong plot, introducing a more
expressionistic, more poetic series of plays that
pleased fewer audiences. The FUSION Theatre Company
continues its Tennessee Williams presentations with
Suddenly Last Summer directed by
Fred Franklin.
This one-act safari
into Southern Gothic certainly has a story, a menacingly
macabre tale narrated by a mentally-scarred witness/participant.
The year is 1936; the setting is the mansion and jungle-like
garden of aging aristocrat Violet Venable. Venerable
Violet’s son Sebastian died the previously summer
while vacationing in Spain with his cousin Catharine
Holly. Violet is determined to confront Catharine
and refute the disturbing story of Sebastian’s
summer exploits and violent death. Indeed, Violet
is prepared to bribe Doctor Cukrovicz to perform the
new and radical brain surgery—lobotomy—to
stop Catharine from sullying the son’s name.
Under the urging of the Doctor, both women present
emotionally sensational monologues. Every summer for
twenty-five years, Violet accompanied her son on his
summer travels, arranging for him to meet the young,
handsome, cultured men he desired and helping him
write his annual poem—prodding and (unwittingly)
pimping. Last summer she had a minor stroke, and Sebastian
traveled with Catharine instead—to his death.
Williams’s personal demons—the domineering
mother, the homosexual desire and guilt, his sister’s
terrible lobotomy—are present in full force.
So is poetic symbolism, from the name of Sebastian—the
patron saint of homosexuals—to the controlling
metaphor: the vivid description of God’s presence
found in newborn sea turtles crawling toward the safety
of the water while ravenous seabirds attack and devour
their flesh.
Richard K. Hogle’s
set design is excellent: a painted backdrop of rich
green vegetation that blends with palms, ferns, and
Spanish moss on stage. Director Franklin’s cast
is strong, but I have reservations about his choices.
The characters are portrayed in different acting styles.
Veteran Laurie Thomas employs one approach, playing
Violet to the hilt (and beyond). Thomas is at her
best suggesting her character’s revived coquetry
in the presence of the handsome Doctor (Ross Kelly),
but such subtlety is absent from much of her performance.
Williams includes Catharine’s mother and brother
in the play, describing the mother as “a fatuous
Southern Lady” and the son as having “the
best ‘looks’ of the family, tall and elegant
of figure.” Kathy Millé-Wimmer and Michael
Finnegan instead present them as two Dickensian grotesques,
caricatures not characters. Finnegan plays the elegant
brother with a toothpick in his mouth, speaking in
a high, unnatural voice, and grabbing his crotch.
Thankfully, Jacqueline
Reid uses a more natural acting style. Her Catharine
as a real, albeit tormented, person with a wide range
of qualities. Reid’s honest acting saves the
show and conveys its impact. .ALBUQUERQUE
JOURNAL review, Barry Gaines
Director: Jen Grigg D.H. Lawrence: Gregory Chase Frieda Lawrence: Lisa Fenstermacher Visitor: Angela Littleton
------------------------------
Mister Paradise
Director: Robb Sisneros The Girl: Jen Grigg Mr. Paradise: Peter Zapp
------------------------------
The Fat Man's Wife
Director: Cecil O’Neal Joe Cartwright: Jim Hatch Dennis Merriwether: Evan Lubeck Vera Cartwright: Jacqueline Reid
Interview
"As
a Virginian, Fred Franklin admits he once felt somewhat
possessive when it came to the works of playwright
Tennessee Williams, a fellow Southerner. "I thought
the South owned him," Franklin says, his rich,
Southern accent oozing over the line during a phone
interview. 'The first time I watched one of his plays
up north - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
in New York in 1974 - I thought there would not be
much response from the audience. And when there was
a response, I thought what a fool I had been. Williams
could take eccentric Southern characters and make
them universal, make them so that everybody could
understand them.'
Franklin, 65, calls
Fredericksburg, Va., home, but he's in Albuquerque
to direct Williams' Suddenly Last Summer,
the first play in the FUSION Theater Company's Tennessee
Williams Festival at the Cell Theater.
The one-act play is
about Catherine, a young woman who sees her cousin,
Sebastian, die on a trip abroad, and about Sebastian's
mother, who is eager to conceal the circumstances
surrounding her son's death - even it it means subjecting
Catherine to a lobotomy. 'I've really come to love
the play,' Franklin says. 'The language is so acute.
There's violence, but - as in the Greek plays - all
the violence if off stage. It's told by someone who
saw it.'
Williams, a Mississippi
native, wrote celebrated full-length plays such as
The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar
Named Desire and The Night of the
Iguana, but Franklin said the playwright
had the genius to distill the wonders of his longer
works into the shorter plays such as Suddenly
Last Summer.
Women and elements of
the Williams' own life often turn up in his plays.
It's not difficult, for example, to see Williams'
own domineering mother in Suddenly Last Summer
and also his beloved sister, who was subjected to
a lobotomy in real life.
'You only write your life,' Franklin says. 'I don't
think you can know beyond that. But because Williams
is such a poet, he can transform his life into something
that speaks to a broader audience.'
He says Williams' Southern
women are quite capable of getting a rise out audiences
- even Yankee audiences. 'Those women are strong,
and I think we like those kinds of women,' he says.
'They certainly called attention to themselves. They
were interesting - even if they were kind of annoying.'"
.ALBUQUERQUE TRIBUNE, Ollie Reed
Jr.
Director: Laurie
Thomas ------------------------------ Anna Christie: Anna Felix Chris Christopherson: Gary Houston Mat Burke: Justin Lenderking Marthy Owen : Kristin de la O Larry: Michael Finnegan Johnny-the-Priest: Bill Torres Postman: Gernot Bankel Longshorman: E. J. Gallas
Young Woman at Bar: Ellen Herschel Girl at Bar: Emma Stevens
Reviews
Barry Gaines, Albuquerque
Journal:
"FUSION Theatre Company's production of Anna
Christie at the Cell Theatre holds some pleasant
surprises for theatergoers. Anna Christie
(1921) is early Eugene O'Neill, his second full-length
play and his second Pulitzer Prize winner. It presents
a straightforward narrative that is downright optimistic-at
least for O'Neill. And it is a pioneering document
in the feminist struggle against the sexual double
standard....[plot summary omitted]
Chicagoan Gary Houston plays [father] Chris [Christopherson]
with engaging precision. His thick Swedish accent
always sounds right, and he conveys his character's
ambivalence and guilt. Justin Lenderking gives his
strongest performance to date as Mat. His lilting
Irish brogue contrasts nicely with the other accents,
and he communicates his character's impetuous energy
(and temper) from his first entrance. The play, however,
belongs to Anna-Anna Felix as Anna Christie. Felix
has played strong supporting roles at the Cell, but
here she carries the play. In keeping with Director
Laurie Thomas's emphasis on immigration and assimilation,
Felix's character speaks in American idiom, with only
hints of an accent. Felix communicates Anna's hardness
and vulnerability while controlling the play's emotional
levels. Anna's radiance is ever present, and we welcome
her deliverance.
The FUSION Company has captured the power of this
American classic."
Steven Robert Allen,
Weekly Alibi:
"According to the program notes, Eugene O'Neill
didn't much care for his play Anna Christie,
despite the fact that he won the Pulitzer Prize for
it in 1922. He pushed the script through several arduous
revisions, but even when it was finally done O'Neill
told people the story was “too easy,”
a charge that could hardly be made for his other major
plays.
In this case, though,
he had a small point. Anna Christie
is certainly tidy, maybe even too tidy, like a TV
drama that rushes to wrap up in time for the 10 o'clock
news. This play doesn't fuel itself on O'Neill's infamously
tragic view of human existence. Instead, this time
out, the old sourpuss leaves us with a surprisingly
cheerful ending. Of course, a little optimism can
be nice at times, and it makes this play a lot more
accessible than some of O'Neill's darker pieces...[plot
summary omitted]
Director Laurie Thomas
and her crew have created a weirdly anachronistic
setting for this story. The characters dress in early
19th century [sic] garb, yet a trio of flat-screen
televisions hangs over the stage, flashing footage
of the sky and the New York City waterfront. Likewise,
contemporary Celtic-inspired music serves as a soundtrack....
Still, the production comes together well, largely
on the strength of the volatile chemistry created
between Houston, Felix and Lenderking. ...Houston
is excellent as the concerned but delusional father.
Felix does the hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold routine
exceptionally well. And Lenderking is bombastic and
funny as the crazy, Irish seaman. Some excellent secondary
performers also sharpen the production, most notably
Kristin de la O, who takes a brief but absorbing turn
in the first act as Chris' drunken, empathetic girlfriend.
It's the trio of main
characters that really makes this play shine, though.
As the friction between them swells, you can't help
but become absorbed in their simple, fascinating predicament.
Yes, the finale is a
bit pat, but O'Neill was still probably being too
hard on himself. There's nothing wrong with a happy
ending and a shot of redemption, especially when they
come to characters who, despite their many flaws,
are so engaging and likable."
Aurelio Sanchez,
Albuquerque Journal:
Anna Christie Tells
a Universal Story of Family
"The 1930 movie
adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie
was most well known because it was the first film
in which 'Greta speaks.'
The iconic silent film
star Greta Garbo made her talkie film debut in Anna
Christie.
But in his play, the Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning
American playwright Eugene O'Neill speaks to so much
more. It's a tale of love and forgiveness. It speaks
of the immigrant experience in America. It discusses
family relationships and the strength of the individual.
'O'Neill is a complex
writer,' director Laurie Thomas said. '(Anna
Christie) is often characterized as being
melodramatic, but I think it's very true to people's
experience. It's very universal.'
She added, 'It's also
a great holiday play because it delves into what family
means, into the dynamic between a father and daughter,
how families are torn apart by outside forces and
how they come together because of necessity in the
face of hardships and challenges.'
The play looks at the
relationship between the old sailor, Chris Christopherson,
and the daughter, Anna, whom he abandoned 20 years
earlier. Into their complicated relationship comes
a young sailor, Mat Burke, who falls in love with
Anna as she struggles with whether to unveil her troubled
past. Central to the drama is Anna's quest for acceptance
within a man's world, a quest O'Neill handles with
humor and truth, Thomas said.
The FUSION production,
Thomas said, also focuses on the immigrant experience
in America, which she said fuels our most noble actions
and hopes, but at the same time threatens the stability
of family, and the strength of the individual.
'Every immigrant has
of course come to this country in hopes of finding
financial stability, but they come up against some
very harsh economic realities,' she said.
'The play deals with the tug and pull between allegiance
to home and culture, but the need to assimilate for
success in this country.'
O'Neill also explores
themes of old versus new and the Industrial Revolution
versus nature in the relationship between Christopherson,
who has sailed mostly on a barge, and Burke, a young
sailor shoveling coal in a steamship.
'I definitely think
all of these ideas in the play go over very well with
modern audiences,' Thomas said.
The cast features Anna
Felix in the title role with Chicago actor Gary Houston
portraying Christopherson. The rest of the cast includes
Justin Lenderking as Burke, Kristin de la O as Marthy
Owen, Michael Finnegan as Larry and Bill Torres as
'Johnny the Priest.'"
Director: Laurie
Thomas ------------------------------ Beth Youngquist: Jacqueline
Reid Brad Youngquist: William
R. Stafford Cathy Calhoun: Julia Thudium David Calhoun: Michael Finnegan
Reviews
Albuquerque Journal review,
Barry Gaines:
"In Orange Flower Water, playwright Craig Wright examines
the impact of adultery on two families in small-town Minnesota. His 90-minute
play is receiving its Southwest premiere at the Cell where the FUSION Theatre
Company production is a taut story of love and betrayal, coupling and uncoupling,
and the price of 'happiness.'
The lives of Cathy and David Calhoun
revolve around their three children. A son plays
soccer with one of
the two sons of Beth and Brad Youngquist. The families
are friends, more or less. Yet for three years David
and Beth have carried on a furtive flirtation that
has grown in intensity until it is consummated—amidst
declarations, recriminations, aspirations, and guilt—at
a no-tell motel. Both feel they have 'married the wrong
person' and can find happiness together. But at what
cost? Beth’s boorish husband is a self-proclaimed
'prick' ('It’s who I am.'), and when she tells
him she is leaving, he has an obscenity-fueled meltdown.
Cathy takes the news of her husband’s departure
differently, demanding a final sexual encounter with
David. 'Orange Flower Water' is a series of blackout
scenes. All four actors remain on stage throughout
the play. Richard Hogle’s set design features
a double bed—rich in russet and gold coverlet—center
stage, and the actors who are not in each scene move
straight-back chairs around the stage to watch. The
bed is like a boxing ring with participants and observers
shifting.
Laurie Thomas sensitively directs
the play. Thomas and her actors inoffensively stage
the penetrating
sexual scene, and the confrontational dialogue is strong,
anguished, and authentic. The four actors are convincing
in their roles. Julia Thudium can be very funny on
stage, but she portrays discarded wife Cathy with empathy
and abandon. FUSION newcomer William R. Stafford plays
Brad with explosive anger while managing to expose
a more human side that lifts his character beyond cliché.
FUSION regulars Jacqueline Reid and Michael Finnegan
are Beth and David. I find little chemistry between
the two, but individually they are strong. Finnegan
continues to stretch his acting skills, here confidently
playing a likeable jerk capable of hurting and healing.
Reid makes Beth the play’s most interesting character,
finding fascinating nuances in the sad character. While
its hopeful conclusion seems abrupt and unexpected, Orange
Flower Water is incisive, and thought provoking."
Weekly Alibi review,
Steven Robert Allen:
"On the surface, the premise of Craig Wright's Orange Flower Water sure
sounds like a big fat bore, doesn't it? Two couples live in a tiny, suburban-esque
town in Minnesota. Inevitably, two of them begin an affair, and all four begin
taking long turns at the pity machine, wallowing in either guilt or victimization,
depending on their mood from moment to moment.
Yeah, I know. You've
seen this kind of thing before—probably 800
times since last Thursday. People cheat. Marriages
can be unhappy. It sucks. What do
you want me to do about it?
Wright worked as a writer
for HBO's acclaimed show “Six
Feet Under,” a
program I've never seen. I do know, however, that the show has been praised
to the skies by people who know about such things.
The new FUSION Theatre
Company production of Orange Flower Water,
currently running over at the Cell Theatre (700 First
Street NW), got off to a bit
of a slow start the night I saw it. Thankfully, Wright soon proved he knows
how
to
craft some zippedy-quick dialog. The plot might seem clichéd; it certainly
doesn't feel weighty. But none of that matters. Helmed by director Laurie
Thomas, the FUSION crew have exploited Wright's inspired chatter to the fullest.
Once
this baby gets cooking, it's a genuinely funny, if only occasionally moving
show. Although it covers familiar ground, Wright's barbs and banter are often
extremely
original, and, for the most part, this cast handles the stellar material
with finesse.
Jacqueline Reid plays
Beth, one of the cheaters, a Catholic woman who's
plagued with guilt for betraying a husband she never
loved. Reid
is fantastic (she
always is) in the most emotionally intricate role in the play. Julie Thudium
as Cathy
also delivers a very solid performance as the female cheatee.
I wish there
had been more of William R. Stafford on stage. His character, Brad, a belligerent
misogynist and self-described “prick,” gets all the
best lines, and Stafford delivers them with a wicked zing, so much so that
if I ever meet him in person, I'm going to assume he's a jerk until he
supplies me with concrete evidence to the contrary.
Michael Finnegan seemed
just adequate, but he probably had the toughest
role. David, who's embroiled in the affair with Beth, isn't a particularly
likable
character, but he isn't entertainingly offensive like Brad either. He's
just a wormy, self-indulgent loser. For that reason, probably, I wasn't
riveted
by his time on stage.
The set for this production
is as obvious as it is appropriate: A large bed is
positioned in the
middle of the theater. The four characters are
present
at all
times—watching, worrying, seething. All interactions occur either
around the bed or on the bed, providing a perfect battleground for the
interpersonal
carnage that's unleashed on the audience.
There you have it. Orange
Flower Water might revolve around the most clichéd
of suburban dramas, but these four talented actors, with substantial
assistance from Wright's razor-sharp script, make sure you feel many
things over the course
of 90 minutes, boredom not being one of them."
click photo to view
photo montage by Susan McLendon, original music by Playroom 24.5MB QuickTime
movie
click photo to
view photo montage by Richard Hogle, original music
by Playroom 7.5MB QuickTime
movie
Mad
Hattr
by Laurie Thomas
presented May 10-27, 2007
Director: Jacqueline
Reid ------------------------------ Charles Lutwidge Dodgson:
Justin Lenderking Alice
Pleasance Liddell:
Ellen Herschel Mrs.
Lorina
Liddell:
Beth
Bailey Dean
Henry
George
Liddell:
David
Lang Archdeacon
Charles
Dodgson:
John
Wylie Canon
Edward
Pusey:
John
Hardman Canon
Arthur
Stanley:
Aaron
Worley Miss
Lucille
Dodgson:
Kathy
Millé Wimmer Miss
Ethel
Dodgson:
Shelley
Epstein Dame
Ellen
Terry:
Angela
Littleton Miss
Isa
Bowman:
Rachel
Tatum
Reviews
"The
Cell was filled for the opening night of Mad
Hattr, Laurie Thomas' dramatic treatment
of Oxford mathematics lecturer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
who (by playing with the Latin forms of his first
and middle names) became Lewis Carroll, author of "Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland."
Thomas is a founding
member of FUSION Theatre Company as is Jacqueline
Reid, who directs the large and largely familiar
cast in this world premiere.
The play's central figure's
fascination and friendships with young girls is well
documented, and his nude and semi-nude photographs
of these children have earned him classification
as a pedophile, albeit, perhaps, a celibate one.
Thomas, however, apparently
influenced by British playwright [sic] Karoline Leach's
revisionist biography of Carroll, presents him lusting
for Alice's mother, [Lorina] Liddell, more strongly
than for his prepubescent muse. Leach's argument
has not convinced most scholars, but Thomas has written
a play, not a biography. And a lively and inventive
play it is.
The script is learned
(quoting Shakespeare as well as Carroll) but humorous
and thought provoking. Like the first Alice book,
the play is dreamlike, a phantasmagoric series of
scenes, songs, and dances accompanied by original
music written by Playroom, quartet of percussion,
tuba and cello.
The audience is seated
behind low barriers ringing the acting space. Richard
K. Hogle's stage design looks like a large courtroom,
and, again like "Alice's Adventures," the
play includes a courtroom scene. Hogle's lighting
design features strings of small colored lights festooned
across the theater's ceiling. Pink papier-maché flamingos
await a game of hedgehog croquet.
The cast includes FUSION
regulars: Kathy [Millé] Wimmer and Shelley
Epstein play Carroll's aunts, providing instrumental
and vocal accompaniment from the sides of the stage.
Aaron Worley, David Lang and John Hardman portray
Oxford faculty, while Angela Littleton and Rachel
Tatum give spirited performances as stage actresses.
John Wiley is austere
as Carroll's archdeacon father. Justin Lenderking
presents Dodgson/Carroll as a rather passive, confused
figure who is more often reacting than acting. Talented
eighth-grader Ellen Herschel is a very grown-up Alice
Liddell, pursuing the admirer who would immortalize
her.
It is newcomer Beth Bailey
as Lorina Liddell who makes the strongest impression.
Tall, slim, with golden hair atop her head and face
framed by two wispy tendrils, draped in a long red
gown by costume designer Cassidy Zachary, Lewis Carroll
wasn't the only one who couldn't take his eyes off
of her. Her acting is natural and understated, a
calm center in the whirling world of fantasy, enhanced
by the graphical programming tool Isadora Mark Cleveland
operates to display photographs and visual effects
on overhead screens.
Mad Hattr provides
an answer to Carroll's (and Alice's) question, 'Who
in the world am I?'"-- ALBUQUERQUE
JOURNAL review, Barry
Gaines
"Laurie Thomas' Mad
Hattr is a jabberwocked reenactment of
the biography of Charles Dodgson, the English mathematician,
photographer and writer who, under the name Lewis
Carroll, authored what are quite possibly the most
beloved works of children's literature ever composed
in the English language. For decades, numerous
societies and journals have analyzed the impact
of this mysterious man, but despite recent scholarship
based on new discoveries about his life, Dodgson
remains a big question mark, a riddle just as mind-twisting
as his books and poems.
Thomas' play---the world premiere of which runs one more week at The Cell Theatre---
attempts to explore these mysteries. In many regards, it succeeds. Before you
even get to your seat, you know you've entered a magical place. The entrance
to the fabulous set designed by Richard Hogle is framed with narrow bands of
light. The interior is likewise roofed with chords of illuminated color. Flickering
video screens mounted on each wall of the theater-in-the-round play as large
a role as any human character. Likewise, the elaborate costumes and props indicate
that much time and attention has gone into making every detail just right.
In this play, the historical characters in Dodgson's life behave much the way
the fantastical characters behave in Carroll's stories. Ellen Herschel is a
14-year-old from Albuquerque Academy who plays Alice Liddell, the real-life
inspiration for Carroll's famous heroine. She's perfect in the part. Herschel
has the wide-eyed, otherworldly demeanor of the Alice we all recall from John
Tenniel's original illustrations. Justin Lenderking's portrayal of Dodgson
is earnest and strange, but it fits into the twisted comedic mood of the production.
Other performances are also strong, especially Beth Bailey as Alice's mom,
Lorina, and David Lang as Alice's sexually confused father, Henry. Aaron Worley
also does a funny absurdist turn as Arthur Stanley, Henry's friend.
One of the best aspects of the show is the ingenious manner in which it explores
Dodgson's love of photography. The four video screens flash images as Dodgson
photographs them, a clever illusion that adds to the psychedelic ambiance.
This trick also subtly examines some of the controversies in Dodgson's life
story, such as his nude photographs of children and his possible tendency toward
pedophilia.
The play is brillig and mimsy. In its best moments, it gyres and gimbles in
the wabe. Still, Lewis Carroll's genius was his knack for producing clear,
unmuddled nonsense. His stories and poems remain popular to this day because
they are as lucid and meticulous as they are zany.
Sadly, while the original music provided by the Playroom ensemble is excellent,
it's also too loud. In many cases, it muffles the dialog rather than providing
a fitting soundtrack to enhance it. I felt like I missed several quick exchanges
between characters, and this is a shame.
Another problem is that it's about as difficult to make sense of Dodgson's
life as it is to make sense of his stories. Unfortunately, near the end of
the play, Thomas seems to make the mistake of trying. For my tastes, the show
would have worked better if it had sustained the lunacy from start to finish.
Still, this is an enjoyable production, and an admirable and ambitious experiment.
Thomas' script and Jacqueline Reid's direction succeed in creating an irresistible
fairytale about a man who still looms large in our imaginations more than 100
years after his death." --WEEKLY ALIBI review,
Steven Robert Allen
How the Other Half Loves by
Alan Ayckbourn First Love by
Charles L. Mee A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur by
Tennessee Williams The Mandrake by
Niccolò Machiavelli, trans. by Wallace
Shawn
The Seven: New Works Festival [theme TBA in January]
2008/9
The Homecoming by Harold
Pinter Death of a Salesman by
Arthur Miller Parlour Song by
Jez Butterworth Sarah Ruhl's
Eurydice by
Sarah Ruhl
The Seven: New Works Festival "That One Thing"
2007/8
Doubt, a Parable by John
Patrick Shanley The Lieutenant of Inishmore by
Martin McDonagh Madagascar by
JT Rogers Boston Marriage by
David Mamet "Being David Mamet:" One-Acts by
David Mamet
The Seven: New Works Festival "Something Left Unsaid"
2006/7
Private Lives by Noël
Coward The Seven: New Works Festival "Games
People Play" Suddenly Last
Summer by
Tennessee Williams Tennessee Williams'
One-Acts
Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill Orange Flower Water by
Craig Wright Mad Hattr by
Laurie Thomas
The Seven: New Works Festival "No Regrets"
2005
A Lie of the Mind by Sam
Shepard Hedda Gabbler by Henryk
Ibsen The Unexpected Man by
Yasmina Reza The Long Christmas Ride Home by
Paula Vogel
2004
The Taming of the Shrew by
William Shakespeare Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by
Edward Albee The Glass Menagerie by
Tennessee Williams The Eight: Reindeer
Monologues by
Jeff Goode
2003
Bedbound by Enda Walsh Bye Bye Blackbird by Willard
Simms A Streetcar Named Desire by
Tennessee Williams The Art of Dining by
Tina Howe
2002
Closer by Patrick Marber Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by
Tennessee Williams You Can't Take It With You by
Hart and Kaufman Buried Child by
Sam Shepard
