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* ------------------------------ Ruth: Jacqueline Reid* Max:
John Wylie* Teddy:
Bruce
Holmes* Lenny:
Demet Vialpando^ Joey:
Nick Lopez Sam: Rick Wiles
* member Actors
Equity Association
^ Equity membership candidate
Reviews
"The FUSION Theatre
Company begins its seventh season at The Cell with
an intriguing production of Harold Pinter's modern
classic, The Homecoming, a challenging
and, at times, bewildering work. Although it was
written more than 40 years ago, it maintains the
power to trouble and to enlighten. Pinter was awarded
the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature for a corpus
of plays that changed the sound and look of modern
theater.
I find The Homecoming a comedy,
one of the darkest. The characters seem recognizable,
but they say and do strange and strangely compelling
things.
Set in North London, The Homecoming looks
at four members of an extended, dysfunctional family: paterfamilias Max,
his rather sweet brother Sam, and Max's sons Lenny,
an entrepreneurial pimp, and Joey, an aspiring
boxer who has taken too many punches to the head.
Since Max's wife Jessie died, the four men live
together and claw away at each other.
After six years in America, eldest
son Teddy brings his wife Ruth into this den
of propinquity. Teddy
has his Ph.D. and teaches philosophy; he prides
himself on his "intellectual equilibrium": "I'm
the one who can see." But his homecoming is
overshadowed by Ruth's arrival at the family home
and the impact she has on the men. She provides
the female mystique the family has been lacking.
That is all the plot I will reveal.
Laurie Thomas's direction also is interesting.
I like the photograph of the absent mother (cropped
so that she seems to recede from the frame) Thomas
adds to the set. Language is central to this play:
Watch the subtle ways that characters score points
off of each other. Thomas retains some unfamiliar
British terms while Americanizing others. The British
accents of her cast are uneven but not really important.
Pinter's pauses speak volumes, and Thomas often
has her characters remain still despite the chaos
around them. There are inconsistencies in the characters,
but Pinter requires a retreat from the rational.
I had trouble accepting John Wiley as 70-year-old
Max; his movements seemed studied. He did well,
however, with Max's violence.
In the smaller role of Sam, Rick Wiles is strong.
Demet Vialpando is a frightening Lenny, reptilian
in the intensity of his stare. Nick Lopez does
fine as the dim Joey, although he lacks an aura
of incipient violence. Bruce Holmes and Jacqueline
Reid play an enigmatic Teddy and Ruth. Holmes has
a strong voice and keeps his character's emotions
controlled when needed.
Reid projects sexuality and sanctuary as the play's
only female.
Succumb to the mystical and mythical
appeal of Pinter's masterpiece and see "family values" in
a new light." Barry Gaines, review, September
16, 2008, Albuquerque Journal
"Harold Pinter's Tony
Award-winning play The Homecoming is
like an episode of “Jerry Springer.” It
focuses on a family. A family with issues. A family
ready to come undone as a result of those issues.
A family that comes undone in the most unpredictable
way.
But unlike “Springer,” there's
very little yelling. In fact, Pinter is known
for conveying
drama with silence and subtlety, where a word can
hit as hard as a punch. Maybe harder.
FUSION Theatre Company chose the challenging and
rewarding piece to lead off its new season, which
opened on Sept. 11. Pinter's play ended its revival
run on Broadway in April, and FUSION did well to
gain the production rights to perform it here in
Albuquerque.
The backdrop for The Homecoming is
a large home in North London. Max (John Wylie)
is the head of a household of men, his wife having
passed away some years earlier. Living with the
elderly, retired butcher are his brother Sam (Rick
Wiles), a successful chauffeur, and his two sons:
Lenny (Demet Vialpando), the insomniac shadow dweller,
and Joey (Nick Lopez), the dim-witted wannabe boxer.
Into this testosterone-filled abode comes Max's
third son, Teddy (Bruce Holmes), an expatriate
professor of philosophy who now lives in America,
and his British wife of six years, Ruth (Jacqueline
Reid).
Teddy's visit is unexpected, but
not entirely unwelcome. Feelings of resent and
abandonment weigh
on Teddy's encounters with his brothers and father,
and Ruth's feminine wiles fill another void—exposing
a few troubled spots within the couple's marriage.
Their visit shakes the household's foundation and
steers the seemingly immobile family in a direction
that nearly kills the kindhearted Sam and leaves
the audience with only a faint idea of what's to
become of the characters.
Jerry Springer should really consider commissioning
Pinter to write a few story lines for his family-shattering
talk show.
What makes The Homecoming significant
as FUSION’s lead in for this season significant
is its ability to challenge not only the performers
but the audience. Pinter is a master of drama and
also bitingly witty. But if the actors don't understand
the humor and the audience isn't engaged in the
characters, the comedy is lost—it's that
subtle. FUSION's cast and crew get it, making this
production successful in dark humor.
Director Laurie Thomas filled
the bill with a worthy cast consisting of FUSION
regulars and a
few new faces. Overall, the performance level is
above par, with a few exceptions. Wylie's sense
of timing is well-used on the cantankerous Max,
though it’s hard to believe he’s as
old as his character’s supposed to be. Wiles
is splendid as Sam, bringing a spark of relative
purity to a chaotic household. FUSION newcomer
Vialpando immediately establishes himself as a
strong presence on stage, playing Lenny as if he
were the star of a British cult flick like Lock,
Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Lopez, also debuting
with FUSION, portrays Joey as a teddy bear with
a violent streak, at the end revealing his true
gullibility. It's clear Lopez has to fight to bring
Joey out of the dumb boxer stereotype, but overall
his performance works.
Holmes’ characterization of Teddy is easily the strongest of the production.
Holmes is grounded, calm and cool even as Teddy's world shakes around him—an
ease that helps Pinter's meticulously crafted words ring through. As Teddy's
wife, Reid is equally levelheaded. Reid's execution is flawless, but a fundamental
character choice keeps Ruth from fully earning a key moment at the end of The
Homecoming. While it's understandable that Reid keeps certain aspects of Ruth's
personality in check, that guardedness doesn’t allow hints to a major,
life-upheaving disturbance to emerge. The result is a jarring encounter with
Lenny that doesn't make much logical sense, leaving more than Pinter's intended
confusion lingering at the end of the play.
Pinter is known as much for the
silence within his plays as he is for his clever
dialogue. Thomas
takes advantage of many of these pauses in her
directorial choices, creating long breaks between
encounters to let tension build—both for
the characters and the audience. But in other moments,
the actors run over the lines. Whether by direction
or nerves, a few scenes are rushed and nuances
of Pinter's writing are lost. Ultimately, this
didn't hinder the overall production, but it could
have done better to highlight the literary beauty
of The Homecoming.
Ultimately, this is a terrific
first production for FUSION's new season. Pinter
plays are like
earworms, drilling themselves into your head to
be processed and reprocessed. Jerry Springer should
really consider commissioning Pinter to write a
few story lines for his family-shattering talk
show. As far reaching as Pinter's tales go, they
hit so much closer to home than anything imagined
by Springer's creative team." Amy Dalness,
review, Weekly Alibi
Director: Gil Lazier• ------------------------------ Joy: Jacqueline Reid* Dale: Ross Kelly* Ned: Bruce Holmes*
* member Actors
Equity Association
• member Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers
Reviews
"Next
month, English audiences will see the European
premiere of Parlour Song,
British playwright Jez Butterworth's darkly
comic lovers' triangle. The play opened last
year in New York City, and FUSION Theatre Company
is staging a second production at the Cell
Theatre.
More importantly, Parlour
Song is a tautly exciting and intelligent
study of desperate suburbanites. In a real
estate development of virtually identical
homes, Ned and Dale live next door to each
other and are "mates," friends.
They also have
marital mates - Dale's wife Lynn, whom we never
meet, and Ned's spouse Joy. After 11 years
of marriage, Ned is aware of Joy's disaffection
although he is unaware of its causes. Dale,
confident and secure, is Ned's opposite. Ned
turns to Dale for marital advice and tries
such things as sexual self-help tapes, Rogaine
for his baldness and an exercise regimen.
Meanwhile, a mantle
of menace hangs over the characters as Ned
is terrified by a recurring nightmare and upset
that his possessions are disappearing. Ned's
profession is symbolic - he is a demolition
expert, part of a team that destroys obsolete
shopping centers, buildings and towers to make
way for new construction. Such demolition is
done by implosion (collapsing inwardly) rather
than by explosion.
Ned's marriage
is also imploding. Wife Joy is as unhappy as
her husband, and she too turns to Dale, who
becomes her lover. I will not reveal any more
of the carefully considered plot, but it is
never dull.
Gil Lazier, newly
arrived in Albuquerque after a long and distinguished
career in academic and professional theater,
skillfully directs his first show with FUSION.
Richard K. Hogle's set design is simple but
effective - a paneled wall at the back of the
stage and a trapezoidal platform thrusting
away from that wall. Images are projected on
the wall, and furniture groupings glide on
and off stage as needed. Actors also use the
narrow space between the platform and the audience.
Three FUSION regulars
provide fine performances. Ross Kelly is an
ideal Dale, equally capable of comforting and
cuckolding his friend without apparent compunction.
Bruce Holmes, his head hairless and his belly
soft, is excellent as sensitive, yet painfully
clueless, Ned. The two men work well together,
subtly blending humor and pathos.
Playwright Butterworth
acknowledges the influence of the late Harold
Pinter. It strikes me that Jacqueline Reid's
performance as Joy builds on her portrayal
of Ruth in Pinter's The Homecoming earlier
this season. Here again she is the only woman,
compelling in her sexuality yet unable to plumb
her desires.
Butterworth uses
the lemon tree (sweet and sour as the song
says) to suggest Joy's paradox, and Reid revels
in Joy's sensual description of making lemonade. Parlour
Song exposes the angst and confusion
hidden by the façades of the tract houses
we construct.” Barry Gaines,
review, October 27, 2007 (on-line), Albuquerque
Journal:
Director: Laurie
Thomas ------------------------------ eurydice: Therese Olson^ orpheus: Demet Vialpando^ Father: Paul Blott* Nasty Interesting Man/Lord of the Underworld:
Ross Kelly* Little Stone: Kate Costello^ Big Stone: Zane Barker^ Loud Stone: David Lang^ Musician: Jared Herholtz^
* member Actors
Equity Association
^ Equity membership candidate
Reviews
"In Greek mythology, the story
of Eurydice is really not her story at all. It is
the story of Orpheus, her husband, whose powerful
love and even more powerful music moves the gods
to release Eurydice from death. Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice" retells
this myth from the perspective of its title character.
Though the worlds of the play remain dominated by
men, Eurydice asserts her intellect and affections
to
become an active participant in her own story.
The Southwest premiere
of "Eurydice" by
the FUSION Theatre Company is a sumptuous production.
Eurydice is in between girl and woman, daughter and
wife, aspiring protagonist with individual desires
and supporting player to her husband's artistic genius.
In the title role Therese Olson imparts Eurydice's
neither/both status with grace and vivacity. Her
performance of elation and grief, especially in the
play's final moments, pays tribute to the force of
Ruhl's modern myth.
Ross Kelly, in the roles of Nasty Interesting
Man and Lord of the Underworld, is both magnetic
and intimidating. Wearing an array of fantastical
costumes designed by Aura Sperling-Pierce, Kelly
brings to the production exuberant humor, if also
a palpable apprehension. Paul Blott plays Eurydice's
father, a character created by Ruhl. In a suit and
bowler hat, Blott communicates the comforts of normalcy
amid the disorientation of the underworld. Blott
and Demet Vialpando, who plays Orpheus, are at their
finest when they lose Eurydice a second time.
For over half of the play, which is
performed in one act without an intermission, a chorus
of stones referees the action. Director Laurie Thomas
gathers a complementary trio of performers: Kate
Costello (Little Stone), David Lang (Loud Stone),
and Zane Barker (Big Stone) give a well-coordinated
performance. By turns amusing, angry, aggrieved and
stoic, the chorus is emotionally as well as physically
synchronized.
The design team of Richard K. Hogle
(set and lighting design) and Mark Cleveland (multimedia
design) create a psychedelic experience of color
and music. The actors perform amid diaphanous curtains,
sliding sets and kaleidoscopic light. Here again
Thomas is to be commended for striking a successful
balance. The effect is, like Eurydice herself, one
of between ancient myth and modern reality."
Marissa Greenberg, ALBUQUERQUE
JOURNAL
"The myth of the tragic love of
the musician Orpheus, son of the god Apollo, and
the beautiful young Eurydice has been told for thousands
of years by— among others—Apollonius,Ovid
and Virgil. When Eurydice is bitten by a snake and
descends to Hades, Orpheus makes a long and painful
journey to bring her back. The ruler of Hades allows
Eurydice to follow Orpheus on condition that he not
look back. At the last moment, however, Orpheus lacks
faith that his lover is behind him and looks back.
She disappears forever back into the depths of Hades.
The FUSION Theater in Albuquerque is
retelling a significantly altered version of this
ancient myth in a performance that is a kind of staged
version of magical realism. Symbolism and reality,
myth and actuality, emotion and philosophy, music
and mime, prose and poetry combine in ways that are
unexpected and sometimes puzzling. The sound of water
dripping, sweet harmonies, low comedy and high drama
create a sometimesbewildering fresco of sounds and
scenes.
The play, by the young
writer Sarah Ruhl, who won a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant,
created somewhat of a sensation when it was premiered
at the Yale Repertory Theater in 2006 and later in
NewYork City. The FUSION performance, directed by
Laurie Thomas, suffers somewhat from lacking the
sophisticated staging of earlier performances, complete
with real water running over the stage, but it is
brought to life by the graceful interpretation of
Therese Olson in the title role as a beguiling combination
of innocence and seductiveness. Ruhl’s version
of the myth makes two major changes in the ancient
love story. First, she tells the tale from the point
of view of Eurydice, not Orpheus, giving it a bit
of a feminist cast. Second, she invents the character
of Eurydice’s father and creates a complex
emotional tension around him. In this version, Eurydice
is torn between passion for Orpheus and affectionate
dependence on her father, between wanting to stay
in Hades with her father and returning to Earth with
Orpheus.
The tension is foreshadowed
in the first moments of the play when Eurydice
is preparing
to marry Orpheus and says a wedding is when a woman
stops being her father’s child.Of course, in
this play, Eurydice never ceases to be her father’s
child. Despite the complexities of Ruhl’s magical
allusions and the sometimes-confusing images, the
play succeeds in showing that the ancient stories
of our civilization contain a richness that remains
relevant to the passions of our own day."
Following its highly successful short
play festival The Seven, FUSION Theatre
Company hit the road to participate in the Samuel French
Off Off Broadway Play Festival at the noted Playwrights
Horizons Theater located in the heart of Manhattan.
Amongst forty plays, selected by Samuel French out
of over seven hundred submissions, FUSION Theatre Company
presented Laying Off by James McLindon
(presented last month in The Seven)
and Jen Silverman’s The Education of
Macoloco (2008 winner of The Seven’s
Audience and Jury Prizes).
FUSION performances of both plays garnered
much positive feedback amongst audience and Samuel
French staff regarding both the quality of playwriting
and excellence of performance. We are very proud to
announce that The Education of Macoloco was
one of the six overall winners of the festival and
will be published in the 34th Samuel French Off Off
Broadway Collection. Ms. Silverman will also receive
a licensing contract with Samuel French for her play.
In the words of Leon Embry, President and CEO of Samuel
French, Inc., “her [Ms. Silverman’s] words
jump off the page…a remarkable writer.”
FUSION Theatre Company’s success
underscores our dedication to discovering talented
playwrights, nurturing their work, and presenting their
work to Albuquerque audiences within the professional
context of The Seven. We offer a unique
opportunity to playwrights as we present fully staged,
fully produced productions that go far beyond a “concert” reading
that is most often offered to writers. Playwrights
can see and hear their work play over several evenings
and gain an understanding of how a director and actors
interpret their work. Our visiting playwrights at last
June’s The Seven all commented
on the great value of this process to them as writers.
Theme selections for next year’s The
Seven will be announced on our website very
soon. Patrons can cast a vote for their favorite
overall theme that will inspire the playwrights of
2010
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
