The 39 Steps at Centerstage

Déjà vu by four

by Michael Dresdner

You might want to scroll down and read my most recent previous post; it’s a review of The 39 Steps which opened one week ago at Renton Civic. Last night the same play, but with a different cast, venue, production team, and director, opened at Centerstage, and while the words and “plot” were largely the same, the presentation was decidedly different.

You’ll notice I put “plot” in quotes. There is one – the plot of Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps – but it’s really quite irrelevant, especially in this version. The feeling you walk away with is that it’s merely a structural excuse for this excellent four person cast to stage something remarkably close to a series of Monty Python sketches. If you like that sort of thing, and fortunately, I do, you’ll be delighted with how very well they do it.

Robert Bergin, the only actor who inhabits just one character throughout, plays Richard Hannay, the protagonist, with an earnest combination of reserve and befuddlement reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart. He provides a small measure of sanity needed to anchor the madness around him. Mariana De Fazio plays the three very different women who guide Hannay’s convoluted journey with an understated support that subtly but substantially aids and abets the rest of this well-meshed ensemble.  

It’s just this well-constructed acting backdrop that enables the two clowns, Vince Brady and Erik Gratton, to soar. They play a whole host of different outrageous characters hell-bent on grabbing the laughs, and boy are they good at it. With quick costume changes, a host of different voices, and elaborately energetic physical comedy, they play a wide range of short, tall, gruff, absurd, giddy, and foolish men and women. There’s one hilarious scene, with Gratton playing a short women, on his knees and in drag, trying to sit on a bed, that alone is worth the price of admission.  

There’s no set to speak of, save for an elaborate train trestle made of ladders and boards that appears in one short scene. Instead, the four actors hustle a variety of set pieces – chairs, tables, couches, counters, doors and windows on wheels, etc. – not surreptitiously like dutiful stage hands, but quite overtly, and usually in character. “This mockery,” they seem to say, “is brought to you by us, the actors, moving set pieces, providing our own sound effects, and changing our clothes, heights, and characters, right before your eyes.”

Aiding both the actors and director Cynthia White is an army of back stage denizens providing costumes by Julia Evanovich, sound design by Ray Pritchard, lighting by Amy Silveria, set design by Jerry Clausen and Greg Heinzel, and props by Sheila Criscione, Mary Sawyer, and Laura Campbell. Together, they make a team that delivers a night of ribald fun.

All this should come as no surprise from the theatre that so adeptly brings English Pantomime to the Puget Sound each year. If there’s one thing Centerstage has a good grip upon, it’s the combination of nuance and lunacy that is British comedy.

The 39 Steps

September 28 through October 20, 2013

Centerstage

http://www.centerstagetheatre.com/

The 39 Steps

Two by four

by Michael Dresdner

Perhaps I should explain my sub-title, “Two by four.” Last night I went to see The 39 Steps, a raucous comedy at Renton Civic Theatre directed, oddly enough, by John Munn, the artistic director of the Lakewood Playhouse. It’s a play with just four outstanding actors playing a multitude of parts; hence the four. The two comes from the fact that in just one week, the same play, with a different director and cast, opens a few miles away at Centerstage, and if you keep posted, I’ll bring you that review next week.

While it may sound familiar, this is not the famous spy thriller of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. Although it borrows the plot line, these 39 steps climb a decidedly different staircase.

Think of the prop comedy of Jonathan Winters overlaid with the goofy physical mayhem and overt sexual innuendo of Benny Hill and you’ll be on the right track. Add to that all the sound skills of a whole team of Foley practitioners with the mime skills of fine physical actors and you’ll have some idea of the tenor of the play.

Bob DeDea plays Richard Hannay, the protagonist and only character who stays in the same role throughout. Deya Ozburn primarily plays the raven-haired German woman Annabella Schmidt, Scottish red-head Margaret, and English blond Pamela. Almost all of the other male and female characters, and there are dozens of them, are portrayed by two thoroughly adroit clowns, Bryan K. Bender and Eric Hartley. To put it succinctly, all four actors are nothing less than amazing.

They are supported with wonderful costumes by Rachel Wilkie, spot on lighting by Curt Hetherington, clever props by Jessica Anderson, and superb sound effects by Jay Biederman.

With no set to speak of, the actors use props, mime, movement, and both self -generated and off stage sound effects to create an airplane dogfight, a careening car replete with working doors and windows, a comically defective window shade, conveniently moving doors, floating hand held windows, a typically rocking train, and more. There’s even a harrowing chase scene on a railroad trestle bridge created on nothing but the stage apron.

The two clowns, Bender and Hartley, flip back and forth through a maze of characters in seconds, often with no more change than yanking off one hat and replacing it with another, altering their voices, accents, mannerisms, and even heights in the blink of an eye. In one scene they start as annoying traveling salesmen on a train, then quickly become a newsboy, a conductor, a brace of cops and more, cycling back and forth through all the characters repeatedly with astonishing rapidity.  

To some extent this is an insider’s play for Hitchcock fans. It’s laced with subtle references to his characters and movies, including Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo, and North by Northwest. Naturally, that includes appearances of the big man himself, both as his typical cameo in human form and another time as a tiny silhouette during a shadow puppet show reflected on a back-lit scrim.

With so much mania packed into act one it’s hard to sustain that level of frenetic activity, and the second act, possibly because we’ve been inundated since opening curtain, occasionally becomes a bit tedious, especially for those not well versed in Hitchcock trivia. Still, it is a riotous three-card Monte of a play, designed to showcase the considerable talents of its actors while incessantly tickling the funny bone of the audience.

The 39 Steps

Sept. 20 to Oct. 5, 2013

Renton Civic Theatre

http://rentoncivictheatre.org/

Arsenic and Old Lace at Lakewood Playhouse

I’m not Mortimer

by Michael Dresdner

Martha Brewster (Rebecca McCarthy) 

The first of several running gags in Arsenic and Old Lace, the opening salvo in Lakewood Playhouse’s celebrated 75^th season, is that the male lead, Mortimer, is a reluctant theatre critic who despises all the plays he sees. That’s the least of the unlikely scenarios we’re asked to accept as normal in this dark comedy that’s decidedly more farce than noir. Directed by Dale Westgaard, the black humor is played so broadly that it becomes almost a corporeal cartoon; a layer cake of absurdity made manifest.

At the heart of the play is a pair of achingly sweet but morally askew spinster sisters who care for lonely, single men with the offer of lodging. However, the room comes paired with a compassionately administered dose of poisoned elderberry wine, another running gag. Their nephew, the aforementioned Mortimer, discovers their peculiar take on charity, and their impressive body count, during one of his frequent visits inspired largely by his interest in their neighbor’s daughter, Elaine, who more than reciprocates his nascent ardor.

L to R: Abby (Diana George), Martha (Rebecca McCarthy). Seated: Mortimer (Jacob Tice) 

  

Also living in the house, and definitely adding to the lunacy, is their nephew Teddy, a bugle-blaring delusional convinced he is President Teddy Roosevelt. He unwittingly helps bury the many bodies while convinced he is digging the Panama Canal in the basement. All this occurs under the noses of the local police, several of whom visit frequently due to bugle noise complaints, and who, to a man, all adore the sweet sisters. One cop adds extra confusion by refusing to leave until Mortimer helps him flesh out the play script he’s writing on the side.

L to R: Mortimer (Jacob Tice), Jonathan (Chris Cantrell)

Things become much more complicated when yet another nephew, the long-absent and quintessentially evil Jonathan Brewster, shows up with both a dead body and a hapless criminal sidekick in tow. Jonathan, deservedly on the lam, has a much more serious-minded approach to his multiple murders. The sidekick is his plastic surgeon, ironically named Dr. Einstein, who surgically provides Jonathan with new faces as needed to evade capture. Hey, I said it was absurd!

Diana George and Rebecca Lea McCarthy play the Brewster spinsters, Abby and Martha respectively, with even more flightiness than charm. Two frequent house visitors are the “flaco y gordo” pair of police officers played by Kerry Bringman and Kenneth Loth, clearly meant to be evocative of Laurel and Hardy in both stature and nature. Ana Bury is the adorable Elaine Harper, one of the few totally sane characters on stage. Her love, and the play’s leading man, Mortimer Brewster, is nicely handled by Jacob Tice. Meanwhile, Jeffery Weaver cuts a wide and delightful path as the nutty Teddy “Roosevelt” Brewster.  

Chris Cantrell is both realistically threatening and convincingly evil as Jonathan Brewster, while Tony Onorati plays his German sidekick Dr. Einstein with overtones of Peter Lorre’s Ugarte from Casablanca, and with a decidedly unusual accent. Both Mark Peterson, as the play-writing cop, and Steve Tarry, as his somewhat jaded police lieutenant, bring excellent and realistic portrayals to the fray, along with some much-appreciated nuance. Michael Sandner, Patrick Gerrells, and Ernest Heller round out the other minor roles, along with Connor Tibke, who mutely portrays the two dead bodies we get to see.

Set designer Amanda Swenger outdid herself with a lavish and beautiful set portraying the Brewster living room, aided by set dresser Halley Phillips, propmaster Virginia Yanoff,  Kristen Zetterstrom’s lighting, and Lindsey Morck’s sound design. As she so consistently does, costumer Alex Lewington created both an accurate period setting and a stunning array of outfits, pin perfect from hats to shoes.  

Eventually, all the situations and people in this play get sorted out not so much by their actions, but by their natures. The lesson here is that good intentions equal good deeds, even when they’re not. If nothing else, it’s a very comforting way of wrapping up this convoluted cinnamon bun of a play.   

Arsenic and Old Lace

Sept. 13 to Oct. 13, 2013

Lakewood Playhouse

http://www.lakewoodplayhouse.org/

All photos by Kate Paterno-Lick

The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (Revised) at TLT

Barking Mad; or How Hamlet becomes a Great Dane

by Michael Dresdner

  * L to R: Luke Amundson, Coleman Hagerman, Blake York 

Again. She did it again.

Explanation?

Last year, after seeing her version of The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (Revised) at Tacoma Little Theatre, I wrote “With her unerring eye for humor and a truly amazing cast, director Suzy Willhoft has brought one of the stage’s funniest properties to a new and greater height of hilarity and lunacy.”

That show was so well-loved that everyone involved realized its two weekend run was not nearly enough, so they brought it back for an encore. If anything, it’s even better with a slightly modified cast that has all the chops and incredible chemistry to boot. This time it’s here for three weeks, which is better, but still not enough.

Luke Amundson and Coleman Hagerman have returned from last year with a new partner in theatre crime, the redoubtable Blake York, to take us through a rapid and hilarious tour of all of Shakespeare’s plays in an hour and a half. There are reams of costumes (Michele Graves) along with dolls, puppets and other props (Sarahann Rickner), but mostly there are three incredibly funny guys cross-dressing, baiting the audience, changing characters and voices repeatedly, and flinging exceedingly funny lines in every direction. It’s all in the name of turning Shakespeare from imposing intellectualism into harmless, engaging farce.

The opening night audience adored them, as did I, laughing and applauding from the opening salvo to the anything-but-bitter end. Nor were they spared; during the second act the three actors goad everyone into becoming part of the raucous insanity.  

Of course, this play demands much not only from the actors and director, but from the backup crew as well, so a tip of the hat must also go to stage managers Sarahann Rickner and Sophie Nevins and lighting’s Niclas R. Olson.

And the good news? This encore is still only $10, so there is absolutely no reason for any right minded person to miss it.

For a more in-depth take, feel free to read my review of last year’s version of this same show at http://michaeldresdner.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-complete-works-of-shakespeare.html  

It all still holds true for this wonderful production.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged (Revised)

Sept. 6 to 22, 2013

Tacoma Little Theatre

http://www.tacomalittletheatre.com/

* Photos by DK Photography