ASF: "The Tempest"

"Be not afeard. The isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not." -- Caliban, Act III, Scene ii The Tempest.

Director Rick Dildine's interpretation of Shakespeare's late-career The Tempest is playing at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival for an all-too-short run. Editing the play to a compact 110-minute intermissionless production, setting it in the late 18th Century on Christopher and Justin Swader's grand hulk of a skeletal wrecked ship, and adding a folksy musical score to span the centuries and signal its relevance to modern audiences, it details a story of revenge and forgiveness, of love and family, of control and slavery, of music and of magic.

Much of the magic on-stage comes in the person of Greta Lambert in the principal role of Prospero: a sorcerer/magician seeking revenge on the perpetrators of her exile some twelve years ago, when she and her then infant daughter Miranda [Sigrid Wise] were ousted by her brother Antonio [Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper] from the Dukedom of Milan. With the assistance of Gonzalo [Greg Thornton], they escaped to a remote island, where her study of magic has given her power and authority over a savage Caliban [Chauncy Thomas] and an airy spirit Ariel [Thani Brant], both of whom want their freedom.

Ms. Lambert's ASF career spans the last 38 years, during which she has impressed and delighted audiences in portraying countless Shakespearean heroines, and a host of classical and contemporary protagonists, putting her indelible mark on each with skillfully measured physical and vocal exactness that embraces each character's humanity and affords audiences the ability to connect with them.

Here, she is a protective and compassionate mother, a determined taskmaster, a master of revenge and restraint, a skilled magician, and one who learns that love and forgiveness are the very things that can set one free.

When Prospero shipwrecks her antagonists by conjuring a storm at the start of the play, dispersing them in separate groups around the island, she gets her revenge in motion. But her purpose is more than that: she wants Miranda to meet and fall in love with Ferdinand [Billy Finn], the son of Alonzo [Michael A. Sheppard] the King of Naples, and to ultimately unite Naples with Milan. Mr. Finn and Ms. Wise are thoroughly credible in their depiction of "love at first sight". And Ariel is empowered to do her bidding to manipulate her plans and by the end, bring them all together to resolve the various conflicts.

As a counterpoint to Prospero, et al., Shakespeare introduces the King's jester Trinculo [Alex Brightwell] and drunken butler Stephano [Chris Mixon] -- the two of them are a rambunctious comical double-act --  whose meeting with Caliban show how both the aristocrats and the lower classes devise murder plots to have things for themselves. The King's brother Sebastian [Ben Cherry], along with Adrian [Danny Adams] and Francisco [Pete Winfrey] plot to overthrow him, and Caliban conscripts Trinculo and Stephano to overthrow Prospero.

It is a distinct pleasure to see and hear three of ASF's current and former actors reunite on the stage. While the assorted skills and craft of the entire acting company are on display throughout, and the musical elements are engaging and skillfully connected to Shakespeare's intentions, Ms. Lambert, Mr. Thornton, and Mr. Mixon give a master class in speaking Shakespeare's verse clearly and with character driven purpose.

Ms. Lambert is in charge from the first moment to the last, tracking Prospero's journey from revenge to forgiveness, and seeking her own freedom from revenge in promising to give up magic. As she breaks her magic staff and sets Ariel free, she begs the audience's indulgence/applause to set her free...and we comply with her request with a well-deserved ovation both for Prospero and for the ever gracious and resilient Greta Lambert.

Millbrook: "Mister Roberts"

Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan wrote their 1948 play Mister Roberts based on Heggen's 1946 semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, earning a Tony Award for Henry Fonda in the title role, which he then went on to play in the 1955 film.

Before the performance begins at The Millbrook Community Players' theatre, a patriotic slide-show picturing many of the cast and their family members who had served in the military, delivers an excellent simple tribute.

Set towards the end of World War II, it recounts the story of Lt. (JG) Roberts [Roger Humber] as he attempts to transfer from a cargo ship in the Pacific to a destroyer where he is eager to participate in the war's action. Thwarted by a mean-spirited Captain [Steve Phillips], consoled and advised by Doc [Tim Griggs], and bothered by a work-avoiding self-professed "ladies man" Ensign Pulver [Nate Greenawalt], the two acts follow the various escapades of these men and the ship's crew in trying to get the transfer for Mister Roberts, to achieve a balance from the tedium of their jobs, to show the assorted dreams of the men, and recognize that friendships and camaraderie depend on trust.

Directors John Collier and Rae Ann Collier have a mixed-bag of talents at their disposal. [Side Bar: It must be said that most of the cast play characters much younger than themselves, whether by design or by circumstance. That being said, and once the audience buys into it, we take it as a "given" in this production and then take it on its merits.] And, it's a pretty solid show. We take them at their word.

Mr. Phillips is a gruff Captain whose word is law, and who is more concerned with his own reputation in reaching his advancement, a symbol of which is a prized palm tree award that he keeps on display and under guard. -- Mr. Griggs is a compassionate and settled Doc who is bound both by military and medical tradition while supporting Mister Roberts at every turn of events. -- Mr. Greenawalt is a likable and comical foil to the others, who yearns for approval, and ultimately gets the courage to stand up for the men on-board.

Mr. Humber's depiction of Mister Roberts shows the frustrations of a man who wants to "do his bit" in battle, but who is relegated to a support vessel that never sees action. The confrontations between him and Mr. Phillips is the center of the play's themes, pitting two men with opposing views against one another, showing how authority can force submission by the Captain granting shore leave to the men only if Mister Roberts acquiesces to towing the line. Misunderstandings abound at Mister Roberts' change of behavior towards the men. Nicely done.

As the only female character, Lt. Ann Girard [Sam Crevensten] has been ogled by the men from afar -- she's the only woman they've seen in a long time, and they fantasize about her and the other nurses they've been spying on -- and when Pulver brings her aboard, she soon realizes what's been going on, and leaves.

When the crew overhear what changed Mister Roberts, they take it on themselves to rectify his condition. He gets the transfer, but dies in action, and the men grieve, and Pulver gets his nerve to stand up to the Captain.

WOBT: "Of Mice and Men"

 "The best laid plans of mice and men/often go awry" -- Robert Burns: To a Mouse

Every character in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is crippled in one way or another [whether physically, psychologically, or by circumstance], and each seeks a way out from a Depression Era California working ranch. -- Money is tight, emotions run high, and manual labor takes its toll; the only relief for the men seems to come from gambling, drinking, and whoring.

Friday night's sold-out audience at Prattville's Way Off Broadway Theatre were engaged in director Melissa Strickland's interpretation of Steinbeck's classic. -- Though the lengthy scene changes allowed audiences to disengage temporarily, and some rapid and soft-spoken informative dialogue was hard to hear, her acting company of nine men and one woman told a clear story and kept our interest.

From the outset, it is clear that something will definitely "go awry" as the two central characters meet by a riverbank to plan the next stage in achieving their version of the American Dream: to save enough money to buy a property where they can raise rabbits and "live off the fat of the land". -- George [Stefan McCain] warns Lennie [Josh Williams] that if anything goes wrong at their new job, they should meet back in this spot to avoid any repercussions. -- Lennie is a simple-minded giant who unintentionally has killed some small furry animals and was recently accused of molesting a woman, foreshadowing much of what is to come here. George has been Lennie's protective companion for many years, and is his guide. 

When they arrive at the ranch, they are met by an array of misfits and outsiders: Candy [Rodney Winter], an older man who is missing a hand and has an old dog in tow; Slim [Mike Blackburn], the most respected of the team; Carlson [Reid Brand], Whit [Kaden Blackburn], the Boss [Andrew Edwards] and his son Curley [Gage Parr] whose Napoleon complex makes him suspicious of anyone who so much as looks at his Wife [Stephanie Higley], and Crooks [Anfernee Ellis], an injured Negro who is kept separate from the others because of his race.

Tensions build as Curley instantly dislikes and later provokes Lennie; and his Wife's persistent and provocative intrusions into the men's lives bodes the tragedy to come. -- In a pivotal scene between Lennie and Crooks which develops into sensitive understandings between them, and is later interrupted by Candy and George, and then Curley's Wife, there follows a rather quick denouement.

While the cohort of men are away, Curley's Wife admits to Lennie that she doesn't like her husband and is leaving; but when she allows Lennie to stroke her soft hair and things get out of hand, his attempts to quiet her lead to her death, and Lennie says to himself "I done a bad thing" and runs to the riverbank to hide. 

Mr. Williams has sustained audience sympathy through his full commitment to the role, emerging as the signal talent on the WOBT stage. And, while we understand the difficult decision that Mr. McCain's George is compelled to take to save Lennie's dignity, the impact is enormous.

Cloverdale Playhouse: "A Doll's House, Part 2"

Award winning playwright Lucas Hnath's brisk, sophisticated, philosophical, and witty A Doll's House, Part 2 opened the Cloverdale Playhouse's 12th Season this Thursday in front of a first night's appreciative,  though small storm-related audience. 

If that title seems familiar, hold on: Hnath has imagined what might have happened some fifteen years after Nora Helmer infamously left her marriage and family in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House in 1859 Norway, slamming the door on her way out. -- In the opening moment of ...Part 2, there's a persistent knocking on that same door. -- Enter Nora.

During the next 90-minutes, we will find out her motives for leaving, what Nora [Sara Kay Worley] has accomplished in the intervening years, why she has returned, and what she wants and doesn't want from husband Torvald [Michael Buchanan], family nanny Anne Marie [Teri Sweeney], and now young adult daughter Emmy [Soukayna Sabro], all characters in Ibsen's drama. -- It isn't necessary for audiences to know Ibsen's play; Hnath seamlessly fills in all the necessary backstory in the exchanges of his dialogue, so there should be no confusion about what happened fifteen years ago, what has changed since then, and what remains intact.

J. Scott Grinstead's stark minimal drawing room surrounded by a stellar Nordic landscape is the setting for a sequence of mostly two-character scenes -- arguments, negotiations, and often playful philosophical exercises -- in which director Sam Wootten leads his gifted ensemble of four actors through the predictable and occasionally surprising events that may not resolve all the issues, but which challenge them and us to the task of listening attentively and connecting them to 21st-Century matters. It certainly helps that Hnath's often peppery dialogue is so refreshingly modern that it imbues his characters with ideas and sensibilities similar to our own.

Ibsen's Nora notoriously broke all the conventions of traditional marriage, risking social censure, poverty, and criminal offenses by leaving; Hnath's Nora has had time to come to grips with her choices and create a comfortable independent life for herself by writing popular feminist books, but is trapped by the social and moral restrictions that impact her still and are intolerable to her.  Having discovered that Torvald had never signed the divorce papers, she understands that not only is she legally dependent on him, but additionally she could lose everything she earned on her own, including her liberty, and bring ruin to herself and to her family if her situation remains as it is.

Yes, her liberty came at a cost, but it is something she won't give up without a fight. Facing recriminations from Torvald, Anne Marie, and Emmy, and being resolute in claiming her own well-being, there are few alternatives, none of which is satisfactory: return to the marriage, admit to and recant her previous actions, or engage in additional fraud and suffer the consequences.

Nora is so resolute at the beginning, even though she tries to avoid meeting anyone but Anne Marie who she has conscripted to help; but it's not so easy, as the nanny challenges Nora's designs. This is the start of many more debates on the value of traditional marriage, the plight of women in a patriarchal society, the responsibilities we have towards ourselves and one another, how we often misinterpret other people's behavior and choices, and the cost of the choices we make. Very modern, indeed.

Dressed in Katie Pearson's fine period costumes, the acting company take us on their individual journeys through their commitment to naturalistically depicting the play's conflicts while revelling in Hnath's  insightful comic wit.  -- Mr. Buchanan, a bundle of repressed anger and frustration, doesn't even recognize his wife at first, refuses to do what she asks, and later demands that "we should talk", reminding us that even in Ibsen's play they had never had a serious conversation. Ms. Sabro's Emmy is a puzzle, a modern young woman who nonetheless seems to want a traditional marriage for herself, and who challenges her mother to break the law again and finally be out of her life. Ms. Sweeney [a veteran actor turning in one of her most nuanced performances here] demonstrates how much one can see both sides of an issue while steadfastly defending her own moral principles.

But it is Ms. Worley who must carry the weight of the production. As we watch her credible and balanced attempts to get what she wants for herself and for all women, and with the several obstacles put in her way by the other characters' challenges that cause Nora to re-evaluate her initial purpose, we too are drafted into her world, recognize the validity of more than one side of an argument, and apply her dilemma to our own lives.

Theatre AUM: "The Revolutionists"

Paris-1793-The Reign of Terror [or is it today?]. Four women: a playwright, an assassin, a political activist, and a former Queen walk into a bar --- no, wait...not into a bar, but on-stage at Theatre AUM in a staged reading of prolific playwright Lauren Gunderson's provocative 2017 comedy The Revolutionists.

Prior to its penultimate reading on Saturday night, Dr. Michael Burger contextualized essential information about the French Revolution that served to focus the audience's attention on the subjects of Gunderson's play: aspects of the Revolution's slogan "liberte-egalite-fraternite", the often neglected role of women in the cause, and the symbolism of the French "tricolore" flag, all of which bridge the centuries and continue to resonate today.

Director Val Winkelman chose the format of a staged reading to bring our attention to the script's themes and how we might assess our involvement in our own legacy, the significance of women's voices, justice, the social and political impacts of art, and the power of words. Words matter here, and Gunderson's dialogue contains so many anachronistic words and references [the women frequently refer to themselves as "badass women", for example] that we are compelled to pay attention to 21st Century matters.

Three of the characters are actual historic figures who ended up as victims of the guillotine: playwright Olympe de Gouges [Tiara Staples], Charlotte Corday [Kanchan Deopa] who assassinated Jean Paul Marat, former Queen Marie Antoinette [Courtney Cox]; the fourth, Marianne Angelle [Moriah Henry] is a fictional Haitian activist. -- And Ms. Winkelman  has cast the roles with a keen sense of current sensitivities to diversity, equity, and inclusion; her actors represent a mix of cultures and ethnicities, and one blind actor reads from a Braille script.

Bringing these four women together is an inventive device that, no matter how improbable, gives voice to the subject matter intelligently and with a mix of humor. -- Olympe denies that she has writer's block, but seems incapable of getting her proposed play off the ground until she is goaded into writing radical pamphlets in support of Marianne's cause; Charlotte is so committed to sacrificing herself by killing Marat that nothing else seems to matter; and Marie wants desperately to be the protagonist of Olympe's play, partly to become a more sympathetic person than history has shown her.

On the plus side of this staged reading, we are treated to complex ideas and characters, and can delight in some cerebral philosophizing, especially how relevant the issues are today. -- Mike Winkelman's stunning projections are shown on a giant screen behind the actors, and Yahzane Palmer's subtle costumes replicate the "tricolore"; but, with hardly any physical movement [they're all seated until the last few moments of the play's two acts], audiences are denied the visual stimuli and physical energy, as well as much of the humor, contained in Gunderson's  characterizations. 

Will The Revolutionists eventually be given a fully staged production at Theatre AUM? Wait and see.

Wetumpka Depot: "Hollywood, Nebraska"

Hollywood, Nebraska by Kenneth Jones [Alabama Story, et al.] is a work-in-progress currently on stage at the Wetumpka Depot as part of a "Rolling World Premiere"; this is the latest revision of a script that has been in development at various locations, and produced in Tennessee and Iowa before coming here.

It recounts the story of two women who escaped their stultifying middle-American small town in quest of successful acting careers -- one in Los Angeles, and one in New York -- and who have now returned to their Nebraska roots where their values and life choices are challenged.

Jane [Elizabeth Bowles] comes back from New York out of concern for Alma [Angie Mitchell], her Mother who she suspects has dementia; Andrea [Leslie Blackwell] returns from New York to settle her family's estate after a parent's death. -- But neither of them is in the best emotional state, and when each forms an attachment with a local man, things get complicated.

Robert [Douglas Mitchell], a contractor and neighbor of Alma's does a lot of odd jobs and house repairs for her without charging a fee, causing Jane to suspect his motives and her Mother's preferential treatment of him, no matter how attracted to him she appears; and Andrea's more casual hook-up with Robert's buddy Lance [Jay Russell] seems destined for failure. Robert's teenaged daughter Katie [Drewe-Victoria Rowell] is a starry-eyed "actress" who asks both of the returnees for coaching, and we see how the women diverge in both acting techniques and in life.

Director Cushing Phillips has a talented six-member acting ensemble at his disposal, whose naturalistic performances and speech enhance the production most of the time. We engage with them as they navigate relationships and predictable circumstances, even as they succumb to making rash judgements they might later regret. -- But, a number of scenes have an indulgently slow pace that cry out for variety.  -- And, while the playwright seems to favor Jane's predicament, a more equal balance of attention to Andrea's plight could benefit both the plot and the performances.

There are some important themes in Hollywood, Nebraska that are addressed: dreams and aspirations, self-awareness, family secrets and skeletons, long-held rivalries, social equality for women, trust, and home town values all get their due. -- And though not everything has been resolved by the end, Mr. Jones's non-judgmental attitude about his characters, allows audiences to engage with them and draw their own conclusions.