Don’t be misled by the words ‘A One Man Show’. There are Solo
Performances and solo performances. “The Absolute Brightness Of Leonard Pelkey”
now in a stunning tour de force by James Lecesne at The Old Globe through Oct.
29th, is a one -man many-character piece.
Each one of the characters that stream through Lecesne talks
about, to and of Leonard Pelkey and not one is Leonard himself. And that’s the
beauty of playwright’s story. We meet and get to know the uniqueness of Leonard
by those that did know him.
The playwright/performer is most noted for his Academy Award
winning short film “Trevor” and his ‘Trevor Project’ that serves as a 24-hour
prevention hot line and crisis intervention center for the LGBT community. The
play based on his the novel of the same name was published in 2008 and was
adapted to a solo show in 2015.
“Brightness” is a very well oiled machine. This is not
Lecesne’s first time out of the box performance of his moving and bittersweet
homage to Leonard Pelkey.
“The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey” opened at the
Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles in 2016. It caught the eye of Globe’s artistic director
Barry Edelstein who thought it would be a good fit for the space in The Sheryl
and Harvey White Theatre. He was right.
 |
| James Lecesne as Detective Chuck DeSantis |
The story as told by middle-aged Homicide detective Chuck DeSantis
is as spellbinding and somewhat comical, in an off-centered way, as are the
characters that fill in the blanks helping to complete the picture of a 14 -year
old, missing teen.
DeSantis is from New Jersey in ‘some godforsaken precinct
down the Jersey shore’. He also quotes Shakespeare and that’s one of his
endearing qualities.
But today it’s not about him. It’s about case #3684599 a ten -year
old missing person report, “the case that got them on MapQuest.”
In everyone’s opinion, Leonard was ‘different’ and exceptional.
No it wasn’t just that he dressed flamboyantly or that he
wore eye makeup, or nail polish or that he was gay, or that he made a makeshift
pair tennis shoes bonding together the bottoms of several pairs of flip-flops
in Rainbow colors; it was the fact that he so was comfortable in his own skin,
something that confounded his acquaintances and small group of friends.
The fact that no one could convince him to tone it down for
the sake of his own safety loomed in everyone’s fear of Leonard’s well being.
He was being bullied and harassed in school. Ultimately, as
we learn at the outset, 14 -year old Leonard, then living with…a sort of
relative (he’s her brother’s ex-girlfriend’s son and the mother died) and her
daughter, was the victim of a hate crime and it was up to Detective DeSantis to
help solve the crime. After being reported missing, his body was found at the
bottom of the lake tied to an anchor.
With nothing more than a table and chair, small lamp and a
coffee cup the evidence is set out on the table—a sneaker, some rope, a money
clip, his schoolbag, composition book, glasses, and some incidentals (nail
polish and eye makeup) in a zip lock bag and a stack of files about the case
(Jo Winiarski), Lecesne makes his way through the unraveling of Leonard’s
death.
We follow the clues, witness the questioning of the suspect, and
attend the funeral, the trial and the surprise ending. Yes, there is one of
those as well.
With a turn, a change in his voice (and a very pronounced
Jersey accent) a subtle stoop in body language, an attitude, gender, a
pronounced strut and or a foreign accent he changes like a chameleon from one personality
to another with the strengths zeroing in on Ellen Hertle, Leonard’s almost aunt,
a hairdresser and her ‘sixteen going on 45’ year old daughter Phoebe, ‘a kid
but without innocence’.
The two provide the most poignant and heartbreaking clues as
to whom Leonard was and how he brushed up against them giving them, and for
that matter all that knew him ‘absolute brightness’.
If you did not come away from the play feeling the aura of
Leonard Pelkey then you missed the point.
“The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey” (directed by Tony
Speciale, lit by Matt Richards and with sound design by Christian Frederickson and
original music by Duncan Sheik and brilliantly performed by James Lecesne) can
be summed up by the his close friend and almost cousin Phoebe:
“Maybe without evil the just people of the world,
people who are going along, living their lives, minding their own business,
maybe they would never find the courage to come forward and do the right thing.
And the right thing to do today is to stand here before this court and say Leonard
Pelkey was a good person. He changed my life, he changed all our lives. He made
us believe in goodness again.”
Two Thumbs up on this short, 80 or so minutes, but profound
story.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Through Oct. 29th
Organization: The Old Globe Theatre
Phone: 619.234.5623
Production Type: Solo Performance
Where: 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92103
Ticket Prices: Start at $30.00
Web: theoldglobe.org
Venue: Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre
Photo: Matthew Murphy
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