PressHerald/MaineSundayTelegram
May 9
Review: Cast ably scales Baroque 'Bach'
BY CHRISTOPHER HYDE
In Itamar Moses' intellectual comedy, "Bach at Leipzig," which opened Friday night at Portland Stage, the title character, although an off-stage presence throughout, never makes an appearance.
The word "intellectual," or visions of Baroque musicians in white wigs, should not deter anyone. The production is funny, witty and sometimes moving, with plenty of relevance to go around, as seven musicians (eight if you count Bach) audition for an important musical directorship of the Thomaskirche left vacant by the death of Johann Kunau in 1772.
The underhanded tricks, threats and stratagems employed by all drive the action, and give Moses the opportunity for wisecracks about everything from Lutheran predestination to codes in musical scores, which can mean almost anything at all, depending upon how they are interpreted. The playwright also has fun with the mechanics of his own craft, from Moliere to the absurdists.
As we learn more about the characters, we come to realize that it is the love of music -- and a possible opportunity to make a living at it -- that defines them all. My favorite scene involves Johann Friedrich Fasch, played by Tom Butler, explaining the art of the fugue in a letter to his wife from prison -- for a crime everyone on stage seems to have committed.
As he writes his clear and accurate description, the characters move silently around the stage, choreographed as the voices in a Bach fugue, a very nice piece of work from director Samuel Buggeln.
The cast is uniformly excellent, with what seem like stock characters rapidly taking on complex individuality. Daniel Noel, as the theater-loving George Friedrich Kaufmann, is a good example, wise at one instant and clueless the next.
The single set, by Wilson Chin, is spectacular, as are Kris Hall's glorious Baroque costumes, complete with swords. Even the penniless musician George Lenck, vivaciously portrayed by Colby Chambers, is dressed like royalty.
I also liked Ron Botting's Johann Christoph Graupner, who is made up and acts like a combination of Liszt and Paganini.
The intellectual play that characterizes most of the drama eventually becomes a play within a play and then descends into farcical sword fights, which seem a bit over the top until they are stilled by the voice of the organ, played by a newcomer.
In the end, of course, all of the contestants, including the godlike Telemann, who is only applying to force a raise at his own church, lose out to J.S. Bach, whose music rises triumphantly in the background. In the recapitulation everyone wins, transfigured by genius.
The play is long, about two and a half hours, including a 15-minute intermission, but holds the interest throughout. It received a standing ovation from a near-capacity audience.
Christopher Hyde's Classical Beat column appears in the Maine Sunday Telegram. He can be reached at: classbeat@netscape.net
April 11
Theater Review: Dreamworld adds to the
tales told the night before 'Mary's Wedding'
By APRIL BOYLE
PORTLAND — Anyone who has ever remembered a dream knows how surreal dreams can be. Time periods collide, and things that really happened become intertwined with things imagined and things that might have been.
Portland Stage re-creates this fantastic experience in a moving romantic drama, enacted from the meandering subconscious of Mary on the night before her wedding.
"Mary's Wedding," by Stephen Massicotte, is a love story revolving around the events of World War I.
Although the audience never actually sees Mary asleep, it is established from the opening of the play that what is portrayed is all a dream. And in dreamlike fashion, a story unfolds chronicling events from the day she met Charlie to the eve of her wedding.
The attraction is undeniable when Mary, an upper-crust Brit who recently relocated to the Canadian prairie, and Charlie, a working-class Canadian farm boy, meet by chance in an abandoned barn while escaping the torrential downpour of a thunder and lightning storm.
Charlie is afraid of the storm, and Mary calms him by helping him recite Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
After Charlie gives Mary a ride home on horseback, the two cannot stop thinking of each other. Their attraction soon turns to love, despite her mother's protests.
But when Charlie enlists in the army, Mary is left to experience the drama and horrors of his new life through letters he writes from the trenches of the war.
The play is set in Mary's bedroom, solidifying that it is a dream. There is a four-poster bed, wooded chest, bureau and rocking chair.
Limited props, such as a military coat and hat, help accent a change in location, but most is born out of the imagination, reminiscent of children playing. With no real horses, the actors cleverly "ride" astride the end of the bed, and pillows double as bags of grain and sand.
The set by Artistic Director Anita Stewart is both simple and remarkable. Initially the wings beyond the set are black voids, and the flowered wallpaper walls of the bedroom are solid.
But with each lift of the backdrop curtain, the wings are filled with different scenery and the walls become translucent, like windows into another time and place.
Scenes of the barn, prairie and war trenches are enhanced by stunning sound and light effects by David Remedios and Bryon Winn, including rain, thunder, lightning and mortar fire.
At the heart of the production are Annie Purcell (Mary) and Todd Lawson (Charlie). The two deliver marathon performances that require Purcell to remain on stage throughout the two-hour performance and Lawson to be on stage almost as long.
Purcell doubles as Charlie's sergeant, morphing between the two characters by shifting her stance, posture and the tone of her voice.
Being a dream, the timeline jumps around and blends together, folding time and space.
Lawson nicely portrays Charlie's idealism before the war and his war-torn realism while fighting, allowing the audience to understand the time period, even when it changes suddenly.
"Mary's Wedding" is a heartfelt drama that allows the audience to feel the joys, sorrows, excitement and fear that Mary and Charlie experienced.
Using the dream format, the play also subtly reminds the audience that there are an infinite number of possibilities for any situation. The outcome hinges on the choices we make.
April Boyle is a freelance writer from Casco. She can be contacted at:
aprilhboyle@yahoo.com
April 11
By Bob Keyes bkeyes@pressherald.com
Staff Writer
PORTLAND — "Mary's Wedding," the emotionally charged drama that opened over the weekend at Portland Stage Company, tells a heartbreaking story of love and loss on the Canadian prairie.
It's a two-actor play featuring Annie Purcell and Todd Lawson. Purcell plays Mary Chalmers, who is left behind in her quiet prairie town while her beau, Charlie Edwards, goes off to fight in the trenches of France during World War I.
Both actors have extensive New York credits on Broadway and elsewhere, and both find themselves in difficult, challenging roles in this play.
But much of the heavy lifting associated with "Mary's Wedding" falls on the shoulders of the Portland Stage design and technical teams. The narrative of the play is actually a dream, which occurs on the eve of Mary's wedding. In her dream, Mary recounts falling in love with Charlie and, with great remorse, sending him off to fight. His letters home recount the horrors of the front lines.
Director Daniel Burson makes his mainstage directorial debut with this play, and his task is bringing together the many elements of the story in a cohesive manner so the narrative makes sense to the audience.
The play is set in Mary's bedroom, but includes scenes from an old barn and the trenches of France. Sound and lights play significant roles in the storytelling, as does the audience's imagination.
Technicians on the play include set designer Anita Stewart, who is also the theater's artistic and executive director; costume designer Susan Thomas; lighting designer Bryon Winn; and sound designer David Remedios.
Shane Van Vliet is the stage manager.
The show runs about 90 minutes without an intermission.
Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:
bkeyes@pressherald.com
March 14
Confronting racism in the here and now
By Bob Keyes bkeyes@pressherald.com
Staff Writer
Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj does not expect you to leave the theater happy.
Not at all, given the nature of the show that's up for another week at Portland Stage Company. "Master Harold ... and the boys," written by playwright Athol Fugard, is a deeply troubling and challenging piece of theater about racism in South Africa.
Beautifully performed by a cast of three and directed by Maharaj, "Master Harold" treads water between hope and despair. As we sit and watch events unfold, we pull for resolution and happy endings.
But they don't happen.
Instead, we are left feeling that the conflict that divides the privileged young white man from the two black men in his family's employ will percolate for generations to come. And of course, we are right.
Apartheid, an institutionalized policy of segregation based on race, was the rule of law in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. This play, set in 1950, signaled a divisive way of life that would be the norm for a half century.
Maharaj, an Indo-Caribbean American whose parents were from India and Haiti, wants people to squirm as they confront racism and injustice, the central issues of "Master Harold."
"You would like to believe it's then and there. But we know it's here and now," said Maharaj, who lives in New York. "I am drawn to stories that remind us of history. Have we come as far as we thought, and how far do we have to go as citizens of the world?"
Still too far.
Maharaj is not so naive to think that a play might change all of that. But at the least, he hopes the theater piece that he has helped create will force people to ask difficult questions of themselves and their community.
He wants people to be uncomfortable as they watch Hally, the young white man, spit in the face of his family's hired hands, Sam and Willie, who are black. He wants people to feel angry and hurt.
There are laughs in this show, but it's not the kind of theater experience that will enable you to leave the theater feeling good about relations among men.
This is Maharaj's first time working in Portland. He and Portland Stage's artistic and executive director, Anita Stewart, met last year in New York. They share a mutual friend, who introduced them.
As they began talking over lunch, Steward decided almost on the spot that she needed to get him to come to Maine to work. She was impressed with his credentials: he's worked all over the country, in theaters large and small, has won all kinds of awards, and is considered to be among the top young theater professionals working in the country today.
But more important than his resume, Maharaj seemed sincere about wanting to make important and impactful work.
"What he was saying about what inspired him seemed to be so right. It's not about the money, it's about doing the right thing. It's about learning about different places in this country. He said, 'I am fascinated with New England and what life is like up there,' " Stewart said.
"We really hit it off. At that point, we knew we wanted to find a play that would make sense for him to do."
Maharaj suggested "Master Harold ... and the Boys."
He came to Portland in the summer to get a feel for the place. He didn't want to be surprised when he came to town to work, so he scheduled a personal trip to see Portland, to walk the streets and talk to people who live here. He wanted to see the theater, and get to know Stewart a bit better on her home turf.
During the summer visit, it was his turn to be impressed.
"I was just so pleased to find this place," he said. "There's a vision here, and I love that. There's a commitment here to do important work."
It was a minor coup to get him to Portland.
Later this fall, Maharaj is tentatively scheduled to direct a new show on Broadway that he wrote, "Little Rock." It's about the Little Rock 9, the African-American students who enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Their enrollment stirred a racial crisis.
Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus barred them from the school, forcing the intervention of the federal government. The event became one of the most important moments of the Civil Rights movement in this country.
For his research, Maharaj spent four years flying back and forth from New York to Little Rock to interview not only the black students who were at the center of the controversy, but also the white Klansmen who stood by their governor. He's knee-deep in work on "Little Rock 9," which will consume much of his time between now and the fall.
Stewart feels very lucky to have succeeded in recruiting him. "He's so inspiring, and he has a lot to say," she said.
The message of "Master Harold" seems to be resonating. Attendance has been pretty good for this show, particularly among young people. The student matinees are selling out.
"Teachers are bringing their students, which is great," said Stewart. "People seem to be responding to the whole message and asking, 'How do we work together, and what does the world look like that we want to live in?' "
Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:
bkeyes@pressherald.com
March 7
Review: 'Harold' depicts bygone era,
but its lessons still resonate
By STEVE FEENEY
PORTLAND – The Portland Stage Company's latest production deals with the serious subject of a type of racism that was a part of everyday life in South Africa in the era of apartheid.
THEATER REVIEW
"MASTER HAROLD AND THE BOYS"
WHERE: Portland Stage Company
WHEN: Reviewed Friday; play runs through March 21
TICKETS: $16-$36; 774-0465 or www.portlandstage.org
Athol Fugard's "Master Harold and the Boys" takes place in 1950 and hit home hard in 1982 when it had its world premiere in the United States. On some levels, it now could be thought of as a period piece, with apartheid gone and so many other advances toward racial equality having been made around the world.
But the play still resonates, not only for its glimpse at the way things were not so long ago but also for its message about how ingrained attitudes sometimes linger in a more or less dormant state until suddenly reawakened by events.
The three-character play takes place one rainy afternoon in a rather dingy teahouse (set designed by Adam Koch) owned by the parents of a 17-year-old white student who has come there to do some homework. Two older black men, longtime employees of the young man's parents, go about their duties there -- and have a little fun -- drawing the easily distracted student into their world.
Willie (Daryl C. Brown) dreams of winning a ballroom dancing contest and is taking kindly, if occasionally mocking, instructions from his co-worker Sam, played with great charisma by Charlie Hudson III.
The idea of good dancing as a metaphor for good human relations in general is woven into the discussions that emerge between the student, Hally, aka "Master Harold" (Michael Littig), and Sam, who has the deeper and more complex bond with the young man.
The early, happy scenes of the three interacting and joking around are quite crammed with dialogue, ranging through history, politics, religion, literature and some compelling personal memories of the three.
Some action-oriented theater-goers may think they've wandered into a bit of a talkfest at this point. But the talk is worth hearing, and the action comes on strong in this 90-minute play once the lad's weaknesses are forced into the open by thoughts of his drunken father's return.
As evidenced by Friday's opening performance, director Rajendra Ramoon Maharaj knows when, in his appropriately earnest production, to step on the dramatic accelerator and when to drive home the play's point that bitterness and scorn may yet prevail. He knows that the work's ultimate let's-keep-trying message presents not just a positive resolution to the show but a challenge to the audience as well.
This sobering, though cautiously uplifting, play provides a finely articulated alternative view to the one that too quickly seeks to declare long-standing problems finally solved.
Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.
Irma Vep - Fasten your seat belts
PORTLAND — Two weeks ago, Tom Ford and Steven Strafford had never met.
Now, they're about to become one.
The two actors star in the Portland Stage Company production of "The Mystery of Irma Vep," which opens this week. It's a two-actor madcap comedy, but requires a much larger effort.
Ford and Strafford are on stage for almost the entire show, each playing multiple characters of either sex and each enduring dozens of complete costume changes and many more partial changes. Some are so quick, the actors don't have the luxury of pausing between lines. The script and stage directions require them to continue acting and moving while changing.
"This is one of the hardest shows I have ever done," said Ford, who may consider wearing a pedometer on stage to measure his steps during the show. He imagines he will cover miles in the course of a single performance.
"It's epic," Stafford said. "It never stops. I was in 'Spamalot.' I thought there were a lot of costume changes in that show. But that one is nothing compared to this. It's an incredible acting ride."
For the show to soar, the two will have to develop a level of stage chemistry often attained only by actors who have worked together over extended periods.
But over the course of preparation during these last two weeks in an oversized rehearsal room full of props, costumes and an evolving stage set -- and with the help of director Christopher Grabowski, the backstage crew and a grueling schedule -- Ford and Strafford have begun to achieve their goal of working the show as one.
They are starting to see themselves as a single organism, instead of two actors working toward a common goal.
"For this to succeed, we have to trust that we are all in this together," said Strafford. "There is no one in this room not working hard."
AN INSTANT HIT IN 1984
"The Mystery of Irma Vep" has attained cult-level status in U.S. theater circles because of its quirkiness and depth. It is the product of playwright Charles Ludlam, who wrote the script as an acting vehicle for himself and his partner, Everett Quinton.
Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company opened "Irma Vep" in 1984 at One Sheridan Square in New York's Greenwich Village. It became an instant hit, and Ludlam's most popular play.
It has since become one of the most-produced plays in America, and is firmly entrenched as a piece of America's comedy legacy in a manner similar to the way "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" has become part of our cultural lexicon.
At Portland Stage, artistic director Anita Stewart slotted "Irma Vep" for winter because she believes audiences look for a reason to get out and laugh this time of year. Historically, a four-week run of a popular comedy in January and February has proven to be the best-attended show of the season at the theater, Stewart said.
"It's a good time to do something fun and light and take the audiences to someplace very different," she said.
"Irma Vep" is different, for sure.
It defies easy categorization, and ranges from high-brow to low-brow, from farcical to sophisticated. It is silly and serious, melodramatic and madcap all at once.
The pace of the play is frantic as well. The actors get no breaks and no chance to rest, even during intermission when their time will be consumed with redressing and preparing for the second act. Similarly, the play challenges the backstage crew, as well as the sound and light technicians working in the booth at the back of the theater.
In addition to developing a rapport between themselves, the actors will have to build relationships with their assistants backstage, who are charged with helping them in and out of costumes, often while on the move from one spot on the set to another.
The play is set in a Victorian manor house in England, and the core of the story revolves around the circumstances of Egyptologist Lord Hillcrest, played by Stafford. Irma Vep, Hillcrest's wife, has died, but her presence still inhabits the lonely manor.
Hillcrest returns home from a research trip with a new wife, Lady Enid, played by Ford. Lady Enid fails to connect with the charm of the manor, and instead is bothered by an eerie, forboding mood that invades the place. In her world, vampires, werewolves and mummies wait in the shadows.
ZANY AND SOPHISTICATED
The key to a successful interpretation of this script, says Grabowski, is for the actors to embrace the zaniness that Ludlam intended without sacrificing attention to the brilliance of his words. That's what makes this show so hard to do well, the director said.
It's a sophisticated script, and the jokes often have many layers. Ludlam laced his script with references to Shakespeare, Ibsen, James Joyce and an entire genre of horror films. There are even Biblical references in there.
Some people may get those references, others may not.
"It truly is one of the most profound plays in America," Grabowski said. "But it is not always done well or done right. Sometimes the darker and more serious aspects of the play are downplayed or left out altogether in favor of a heightened level of zaniness. So it's not just zany. It also has high aspirations, and we're interested in achieving both."
For Ford, "The Mystery of Irma Vep" represents a return to one of his favorite theaters. He has appeared on the Forest Avenue stage many times over the years, including in his watershed role in the one-actor show "I Am My Own Wife." He's also appeared in "Iron Kisses," "The Woman in Black" "Lend Me a Tenor" and "A Christmas Carol."
Grabowski is also a Portland Stage regular, having directed "Iphigenia and Other Daughters," "Manifest, Collected Stories" and, most recently, "Lobby Hero."
Strafford will be making his Portland Stage debut, and he's excited about the prospects. He's heard good things about Portland audiences, and is looking forward to intense interactions with the crowd.
"For me, the dream audience for this show is one that comes out ready to react," he said. "If they find a joke (to be) bad, I want to hear them groan. I want a vocal, on-board audience. I want people to show up and become a part of the show itself. Bring it on."
COSTUME CRAZINESS WILL ENSUE
Costume designer Loyce Arthur calls "The Mystery of Irma Vep" "interesting and intensely weird."
Arthur, who teaches at the University of Iowa, is back in Portland to design and help build dozens of costumes for use in the high-octane comedy, which opens this week.
The challenge is making costumes that are authenic to teh 19th century, and also utilitarian. The actors have to shed one set of garb and don another at a moment's notice, she said.That's not easy when one costume might be a bustle dress, which is inherently complicated to put on and take off.
"The guys have to go from a big dress to a shirt and pants in a matter of seconds. What they are going to do is wear the shirt and pants underneath. They will be wearing many layers. We have to design costumes that allow them to do their jobs without being restrictive, but still be authentic to the period."
"Irma Vep" is Arthur's second show at Portland Stage. Last season, she came to town to design and build costumes for "Peer Gynt."
– Bob Keyes
Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at: bkeyes@pressherald.com
Copyright 2010 by The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. All rights reserved.
'Christmas Carol' cast delivers dose of recession-proof cheer
STEVE FEENEY / THEATER REVIEWDecember 7, 2009
THEATER REVIEW
WHAT: "A Christmas Carol"
WHO: Portland Stage Company
WHERE: 25A Forest Ave., Portland
WHEN: Through Dec. 24; reviewed Saturday
FOR INFORMATION: call 774-0465 or go towww.portlandstage.org
It took more than a tax break or infusion of stimulus money to get businessman Ebenezer Scrooge out of his ill temper. He had to be scared silly and led by the hand to grasp the big picture and see the error of his ways.
Portland Stage Company's annual production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" gets that point across in entertaining fashion again this holiday season.
Director and set designer Anita Stewart may tweak the show ever so slightly from year to year to suit different cast members, but the story of sagacious ghosts and spirited families always remains at center stage.
It's a production that keeps things hopping with narrative lines tossed around by a large group of performers who come and go as the saga unfolds (or unfurls, if one thinks of the drapes, sheets and gowns employed to enrich the scenes of new developments on Scrooge's journey).
As witnessed in Saturday's matinee performance, it's the energy of the Christmas spirit, in the now familiar sense that Dickens helped to create with this story, that carries the show. Indeed, if one were to quibble, it would be that things tended to slow down during the quieter passages.
But such contrast, it can be argued, is dramatically necessary and certainly should not deter anyone from seeing this delightful show. Children, particularly, are well represented in the cast, and it was clear that kids in the audience loved seeing their talented cohorts enliven the celebratory scenes which were uniformly rich and uplifting in the best sense of the term.
John D. McNally takes the role of Scrooge this time around and, whether bellowing angrily at just about everyone in the early scenes or dancing with joy later on, he's great fun to see at his work.
Veteran Mark Honan again gives his Bob Cratchit a warmly comic persona that was a highlight of the performance. Trained in London, Honan must have encountered the ghost of Dickens himself at some point in his career to be so good at setting the tone for his character's milieu.
A newcomer to the main stage, Abbie Killeen, was also noteworthy in her roles as the ghosts. Her expressive postures added a strangely compelling element that was both mysterious and funny.
Dan Domingues and Sally Wood reprise their forthright roles as generous facilitators of Scrooge's eventual reaching out to his fellow man. Daniel Noel and Maureen Butler also play important roles.
Costumes by Susan Thomas, lighting by Bryon Winn and live, sometimes quite edgy, music by Hans Indigo Spencer add to what is another fine holiday production.
Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.
Copyright 2009 by The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. All rights reserved.
By BOB KEYES, Staff WriterJanuary 24, 2010
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'Gin Game' sweet and scary
THEATER REVIEW
"THE GIN GAME"
WHERE: Portland Stage Company, 25A Forest Ave., Portland
WHEN: Reviewed on Friday; play runs through Nov. 15
TICKETS: 774-0465,www.portlandstage.org
There are a few good, honest laughs in D.L. Coburn's "The Gin Game," the latest production from the Portland Stage Company. But, in Friday's opening performance, more than a few members of the audience were compelled to engage in what could only be described as nervous laughter.
That's not totally surprising. This 1977 play has more up its sleeve than simply depicting a couple of cranky old characters squabbling over a game of cards. In true tragicomic fashion, there's a hard edge beneath much of the humor that makes the characters despair of a comfortable denouement to their lives.
The play has resonance for just about anybody who has reached a vantage point that offers some perspective on life. At its most basic level, it's about what happens and where you go when independent living is no longer an option. In a broader sense, it's about what happens when it may be too late to make changes in the trajectory of an unsatisfying life.
In addition to all that, "The Gin Game" is simply a very nicely constructed piece of theater.
The play takes place on the covered back porch of a low-end nursing home. Though an attendant makes a couple of brief appearances, all the dialogue takes place between Mr. Weller Martin and Ms. Fonsia Dorsey, two elderly residents who meet and engage in a tentative friendship around a game of cards.
A shared dislike for where they are and, we learn as the play unfolds, how their lives have gone draws them into an uneasy alliance. But perhaps too much anger accompanies their deepest regrets for there ever to be a satisfactory resolution.
A brief waltz and some light acts of affection only confirm the stakes in their relationship.
Religion and free will are among the heavy topics that the author, a bit of a one-hit wonder, folded into this award-winning play. Issues specific to old age are also very much on the table.
Cristine McMurdo-Wallis, remembered for her role on the same stage as the iron-willed nun in the play "Doubt," finds the perfect, if appropriately uneasy, balance between Fonsia's soft and hard sides. Her character's talent for soft-selling a rigid pride and forceful competitiveness leads to an insight which comes just a little too late. McMurdo-Wallis makes us feel it all.
As Weller, J. Patrick McNamara makes a somewhat stylized delivery match up to a male personality deeply in the closet about his own limitations. Turning on a dime from lonely nice guy to table-pounding fanatic, his Weller is a very conflicted and sad fellow indeed.
Director Sally Wood deserves credit as does set and costume designer Anita Stewart for bringing the audience into the realm of those folks who, dispossessed by time, fate and their own weaknesses, force us, however reluctantly, to think about what's coming when we are dealt our last hand.
Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.
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'Gin Game' is a classic that never grows old
October 29, 2009
Courtesy of Portland Stage | Photo by Darren Setlow
IF YOU GO
"THE GIN GAME," directed by Sally Wood
WHERE: Portland Stage, 25A Forest Ave.
WHEN: Previews at 7:30 tonight; opens at 7:30 p.m. Friday and continues with regular performances at 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Through Nov. 15.
TICKETS: $13 to $36. 774-0465; www.portlandstage.org
CAST AND CREW: Stars Cristine McMurdo-Wallis and J. Patrick McNamara; Anita Stewart, set and costume design; Shannon Zura, lighting; Stephen Swift, sound; Shane Van Vliet, stage manager
RUN TIME: 1:45 with intermission
PORTLAND — "The Gin Game," a tragic comedy about aging and friendship, has been produced the world over and received not one, but two successful productions on Broadway.
Each year, when Portland Stage surveys ticket buyers about plays to include in future seasons, "The Gin Game" rates as an audience favorite.
Finally, audiences have their wishes granted.
Beginning Friday, Portland Stage opens a three-week run of its version of playwright D.L. Coburn's classic story. It's the first time Portland Stage has produced the play, which premiered in Los Angeles in 1976 and opened on Broadway a year later with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy in the lead roles.
This is a two-character play about the lonely side of aging, with moments of scathing humor. Weller and Fonsia are residents at a nursing home – strangers, really, until they meet at the card table. Weller has been a resident at the Bentley Retirement Home for some time, and Fonsia is a new resident.
She is distraught, and Weller befriends Fonsia with a game of gin. The friendly card games turn into psychological warfare as they break each other down and attempt to learn each other's secrets. The result is a card table thrown in anger.
It's set in modern times, and the action takes place over the course of a series of Sunday afternoons on the porch of the retirement home.
Sally Wood, a local actor and director, directs "The Gin Game" and brings an interesting perspective to her work. Wood is a new mom, and during the run-up to this show, she often walked with her baby on the grounds of a neighborhood retirement home.
She found herself looking in the windows and wondering about the lives of the people who live there.
"No one says, 'I can't wait to get older and move into a retirement home,"' muses Wood. "But, like Weller says in the play, he makes the point that if you live long enough, you're probably going to end up here."
This play stars Cristine McMurdo-Wallis as Fonsia and J. Patrick McNamara as Weller.
McMurdo-Wallis is a Portland Stage regular. "The Gin Game" will be her 10th show in the past six seasons at Portland Stage.
McNamara has extensive credits on the stage and screen. He's worked on stage in New York and Los Angeles, appeared in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "1941," among other movies, and on TV in "Dallas," "Knott's Landing" and "Hill Street Blues."
Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or at:
bkeyes@pressherald.com