Pulitzer Prize-winning script, excellent dramatic tension, fine performances, yadda yadda yadda ... What you need to know about this show is that, despite the fact that it's a drama, it's hilarious.
In less skilled hands, with less polished timing and delivery, the play could have been a lot of rambling monologues about riding horses. But Mikenzie Ames, Patti O'Hara and especially Nancy Suiter bring humor to almost every aspect of the play.
Just watching Suiter's maudlin sobbing was enough to make the audience hysterical, let alone when she tells naughty stories and uses racial slurs. I really think her repetitive monologues about riding could have been dull delivered by most actresses, but she makes even them entertaining.
O'Hara shows a nice range, portraying the consummate, patient caretaker -- even laughing off Suiter's accusations that she's been stealing from her, and excusing the old woman's myriad faults -- all through the first act, then suddenly turning to fury and outrage when her son comes back in her life.
It would be hard to keep up with these two, but Ames did a great job, telling her sex stories with relish and approaching the two other women with a sort of superior, righteous indignation that occasionally relaxes into warmth before she remembers why she can't stand them.
The Alley Repertory show closes this weekend at the Visual Arts Collective behind the Woman of Steel Gallery on Chinden. It starts at 8:00 Friday and Saturday (not at 7:00 as I mistakenly posted earlier in my roundup).
Showing posts with label Alley Repertory Theater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alley Repertory Theater. Show all posts
Friday, November 20, 2009
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Reckless
Christmas isn't the happiest time of year in Reckless, a dark comedy produced by Alley Repertory Theater at the Visual Arts Center (the last performance is tonight). Well, it is for Rachel, who can barely contain her excitement over her favorite holiday. Buffie Main plays Rachel with bubbly verve as a woman who, despite everything that happens to her over the course of the play, never becomes jaded about life. In the first scene, her face is alight with excitement; she positively glows with anticipation and holiday spirit. Rachel is completely unaware that her world is about to come crashing down around her because her husband Tom has taken out a contract on her life.
But Tom, played by Steve Martin, is fully aware that Christmas won't be happy this year, and he's already filled with regret. He no longer wants to go through with it, but he's powerless to call it off. And so, while Rachel eagerly goes about the last-minute tree decorating and babbles to him about Christmas memories, he sits glumly on the bed, absolutely dismal. At the last minute, he tells her what he's done and shoves her out of the house in slippers and a bathrobe to try to get her to safety.
Rachel meets Lloyd (Alex Robertson), a big-hearted man who works for a nonprofit with his girlfriend Pooty (Christen Atwood), a paraplegic who speaks to Lloyd using sign language. Lloyd and Pooty take Rachel in and allow her to stay in their home for a full year, until another Christmas tragedy strikes.
Robertson does an excellent job as Lloyd, reacting perfectly to Rachel's occasionally crazy behavior and changing abruptly from a warm, compassionate man in the first act to a man sunken into depression in the second act. Atwood plays her part with smiles and tenderness, but displays great passion when she explains to Rachel what it's like to live without a voice.
Katie Preston does a hilarious job playing six different psychiatrists, each with a wildly different personality. Kenna Marks plays a variety of parts -- notably a TV reporter and a woman who kills her husband and writes a book about it -- with great gusto. Rob Tromp is tremendously funny as the tacky host of a game show, "Your Mother or Your Wife," and his other roles. And Toni Dragotoiu and Andrea Haskett do a fine job rounding out the show in a number of characters, notably as Roy, the director of the nonprofit Lloyd and Pooty work at, and Trish, its business manager.
Larry Dennis did an excellent job directing the show, creating a delightful cast with well-developed characters and emotional moments, setting the perfect timing for laughs and keeping the show moving briskly along. If you get a chance tonight, go see it.
But Tom, played by Steve Martin, is fully aware that Christmas won't be happy this year, and he's already filled with regret. He no longer wants to go through with it, but he's powerless to call it off. And so, while Rachel eagerly goes about the last-minute tree decorating and babbles to him about Christmas memories, he sits glumly on the bed, absolutely dismal. At the last minute, he tells her what he's done and shoves her out of the house in slippers and a bathrobe to try to get her to safety.
Rachel meets Lloyd (Alex Robertson), a big-hearted man who works for a nonprofit with his girlfriend Pooty (Christen Atwood), a paraplegic who speaks to Lloyd using sign language. Lloyd and Pooty take Rachel in and allow her to stay in their home for a full year, until another Christmas tragedy strikes.
Robertson does an excellent job as Lloyd, reacting perfectly to Rachel's occasionally crazy behavior and changing abruptly from a warm, compassionate man in the first act to a man sunken into depression in the second act. Atwood plays her part with smiles and tenderness, but displays great passion when she explains to Rachel what it's like to live without a voice.
Katie Preston does a hilarious job playing six different psychiatrists, each with a wildly different personality. Kenna Marks plays a variety of parts -- notably a TV reporter and a woman who kills her husband and writes a book about it -- with great gusto. Rob Tromp is tremendously funny as the tacky host of a game show, "Your Mother or Your Wife," and his other roles. And Toni Dragotoiu and Andrea Haskett do a fine job rounding out the show in a number of characters, notably as Roy, the director of the nonprofit Lloyd and Pooty work at, and Trish, its business manager.
Larry Dennis did an excellent job directing the show, creating a delightful cast with well-developed characters and emotional moments, setting the perfect timing for laughs and keeping the show moving briskly along. If you get a chance tonight, go see it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)