NCR “Trying” A Hidden Gem.

The latest of the filmed for streaming play “Trying” by Joanna McClelland Glass, in this semi biographical turn, is a little gem in disguise. It stars James Sutorius as famed Attorney General and Chief Judge at Nuremberg, Francis Biddle and Emily Goss is Sarah Schorr, Joanna McClelland Glass’ alter ego. It’s no secret that Sutorius is one hell of an actor having won the San Diego Theatre Critics Award for his title role in NCR’S “The Father”, another sleeper.  He is wonderful as Judge Bigddle. (more on that later) “Trying” will be remembered as a history lesson for the times and beyond.   

When Sarah first met Judge Francis Biddle in 1967 she was in her early twenties and he was 81. He had pretty much ‘done it all.’ She was from the Canadian prairie, her native Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  His ancestry dated back to 1681, England and was “Main Line Philadelphia”, a Blueblood, if you will. Her father was a salesman, who lost everything when he was fired from his job and eventually drank himself to death. Her mother was illiterate.

He could trace his lineage, on his mother’s side, to influential aristocrat Thomas Randolph, a diplomatic agent reporting to Queen Elizabeth and a younger Thomas Randolph, successful writer of English and Latin.

           James Sutorius and Emily Goss (photo by Aaron Rumley)

As a matter of history, after graduation from Harvard, cum laude with both B.A. and L.L.B. Biddle worked as a private secretary to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He spent the next twenty years in trial work and during the great Depression he became ‘consumed’ with the plight of the Pennsylvania coal miners and became politically active in labor issues.

In 1934 President Roosevelt appointed him chairman of the TVA and in 1939 became judge on the United States Court of Appeals, then became United States Solicitor General. In 1941 he was Roosevelt’s Attorney General. After Roosevelt’s death, President Truman appointed him a judge at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.

Getting his memoirs, books and personal papers in order became a monumental task after his retirement as chairman of the Americans for Democratic Action and president of the American Civil Liberties Union. His things were in disarray. His office was a mess. His checkbook out of whack and his life was headed toward the ‘blinking EXIT signs’. Papers were stacked on opposite desks in his makeshift office (read barn) across the courtyard from his house and he had gone through enough ‘Gal Friday’s’ to intimidate another from applying for the job…Enter Sarah Schorr.

In Joanna McClelland Glass’ heartwarming play, “Trying”, about the final year in Judge Francis Biddle’s life is now in a solid production under the deft direction of artistic director David Ellenstein at North Coast Rep.  The word ‘trying’ takes on many meanings. It is a trying time for both the Judge and his novice secretary. 

Both ‘try’ to bridge the age gap and understand the other’s needs, although Biddle complains bitterly about not having enough time or energy to get involved in Sarah’s personal life. In fact, he becomes somewhat of a surrogate father by plays end and knows more about her than he lets on.   Biddle tries to hang on until the work is complete while Sarah tries not to let the crotchety and kvetchy judge dislodge her from her position.

As Biddle, the expressions of pain when his arthritis kicked in; the repetitive directions he had forgotten he gave to Sarah about not turning the floor heaters on; about the fiasco of his last secretary; about his impending death; about his insistence on using proper English; about his education, his love of poetry and about losing a son at the age of seven are real. All the little glimpses of a man who knew of his greatness and was ready to face his mortality are seen in another great turn for Sutorius, who might not be an octogenarian yet, but comes a close to the real thing, as I can attest. Repetitive, just ask my kids. 

As Sarah, Ms. Goss who received her B.A in Theater from the University of Southern California and M.A. in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, her talents shined through withflying colors. She is a perfect foil for the crusty, yet soft Biddle. She is feisty, understanding and goes nose to nose in great harmony with Biddle. Theirs is truly a friendship at plays end. 

Marty Burnett’s busy set, set the tone with all the little Knick knack’s and prop design by Phillip Korth, Elisa Benzoni costumes are period right. A huge hat’s off to Aaron Rumley (cinematographer/ Editor/ stage manager) for the near perfect theatrical experience through the media of streaming. 

“TRYING” will stream on Showtix4U.com on demand from MARCH 24 to April 18, 2021. Tickets are $35 - $54 and can be purchased at northcoastrep.org. 

For a history lesson in the making and an up to date look back at history repeating itself, this is a perfect choice for the times. 

Two Thumbs UP!

 

MOXIE’S “I AND YOU” PUSH ME PULL YOU DYNAMICS MAKES FOR EXCELLENT THEATRE!

It’s been some time now since teenagers lived in my house. I might be a little fuzzy on the dynamics between them even now.  So, when Anthony (Miles Henry) comes bursting into Caroline’s (Justine Sombilon) bedroom; backpack, waffle fries, Pop Tarts and a poster of Walt Whitman in hand, and quoting from his “Song of Myself”, the shackles on Caroline’s back stand at attention. Who? What? And Why? Is he there?

According to Anthony, he volunteered them be working on an English project together. (It’s due the next day). Problem is that she has not been in school for over six weeks because of a liver disease, (she’s waiting for a transplant donor) and furthermore she hates school, the disease that’s keeping her home, and equally, poetry. “My body hates me, my house hates me, and here you come with homework?

• 
• Justine Sombilon: 

She can think of a dozen ways to divert attention, start an argument or just plain ignore rather him than fall for his plan. She’s confrontational, combative and surly. He hovers over her in height: tall, handsome basketball player who is driven to do the right thing, like doing homework. He’s awkward around girls because ‘they get weird’ and she thinks boys ‘only pretend to be tough when they are scared’. After a day of dancing a slight war dance, he turns her on to his favorite poet Walt Whitman.

“I and You”, streaming now through March, 28th brings together two top notch actors very familiar with each other (they have been friends and/or co-acting together for about eleven years), and takes off like a lightning rod as the two spar over the meanings of life, death, poetry, Walt Whitman and the use of pronouns in Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”, where you will become very much WE.

Perfect timing in a world turned topsy-turvy by a year of separation and loneliness, lack of human contact and connection and teen angst, “I and You” brings out the wonder and discovery of experiences through art.  Under associate director Callie Prendiville’s deft direction both actors slowly switch from cautious sharing of music (she loves Elvis- Great Balls of Fire, he John Coltrane) to sharing Anthony’s waffle fries to well if you can believe it, a hug and cooperation on the project to the finished product. The 90 minute play has more to offer than meets the eye, but no spoilers here. 

Miles Henry and Justine Sombilon

Reiko Huffman designed the bedroom scenery, Carmen Amon designed costumes, Ashley Bietz designed lighting and Mason Pilevsky designed sound. It was filmed and edited by John Brooks. Photo: Moxie Theatre.

MOXIE Theatre www.moxietheatre.com
Electric Company Theatre www.electriccompanytheatre.org  
A virtual production of I And You by Lauren Gunderson
filmed on MOXIE Theatre’s stage and streamed digitally to audiences. 

March 4-28, 2021 Fri-Sat @7:30PM and Sun @2pm
With additional school day performances on Thursdays to be decided.

Tickets: $35- Buy One Give One (sponsor a student with your purchase) $25- Single Ticket. $15- Rush Tickets - 1 Hour Before Performance - Limited Availability. 

Perfect theatre piece for the now times. 

Miles Henry. 

I give it two thumbs up!

RICHARD BAIRD’S TOUR DE FORCE OF HOMER’S “AN ILIAD” A DANCE TO REMEMBER

To quote Bertrand Russell “War does not determine who is right- only who is left”.  

Imagine wandering around the world telling the same story, singing the same song for three thousand years? Now imagine how tiring it must be after pouring your heart out telling this story, this tale of woe, only to see history repeating itself as though no one is paying attention? Finally, imagine that story/song is Homer’s “The Iliad” and The Trojan Wars that go on and on between two great warriors-Achilles and Hector? Or closer to home, imagine it the Revolutionary War, The Civil War or WWI, WWII, Viet Nam, or Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan?

Richard Baird

Like the ongoing wars, this one person tour-de-force performance isn’t the first out of the chute, not this particular rendition, anyway. This adaptation by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare has been produced here three times. Yours truly has seen one other several years ago.  Peterson and O’Hare won the 2012 Obie and Lucille Lortel awards for this epic piece.  It is their adaptation as translated by Robert Fagles, of the ancient war of the Trojans told in a contemporary tongue and tone and performed by Baird the lone storyteller. 

A recent interview in the U.T. noted that director David Ellenstein had also seen the same production. It was about eight years ago that the idea of casting Richard Baird, actor extraordinaire, in the role of The Poet, wanderer, and every other character mentioned in Homer’s “The Iliad”.

It paid of in spades. 

Amanda Schaar with Richard Baird

Sometimes when the timing is just right, and all the stars are aligned, patience becomes a virtue. And so was the case with North Coast Artistic director David Ellenstein and Richard Baird in this beautifully and hauntingly choreographed dance between the Poet, his Muse (Amanda on cello playing original music for the piece) all the warriors; Hector, Priam, Achilles, the husbands, the gods, children of the warriors, wives and every other character. 

Baird enters a pretty bare theatre space (Marty Burnett, with props by Phillip Korth) fittingly, not far from the ocean. He takes off his hat, sets down his suitcase and begins his narrative. 

“What drove them to fight with such a fury?” the narrator asks as he begins the tale. “Oh ... the gods, of course .... Um ... pride, honor, jealousy ... Aphrodite ... some game or other, an apple, Helen being more beautiful than somebody — it doesn’t matter. The point is, Helen’s been stolen, and the Greeks have to get her back.” “

According to our narrator they had to fight…the gods, of course were angered. The leader, Agamemnon took the spoils of war-this gorgeous15-year-old Helen, Apollo’s daughter and the Greeks had to get her back. But getting her back wasn’t as easy as it looked and so battles rage and men die and leaders hold on to their pride their honor and war prevails. After all, one doesn’t quit in the middle.

The dance begins with a nod from the muses. For ninety minutes he tells us of how it was from a first handed look.  He has to because someone must bear witness, not to just to these wars but to all wars that carried men from all points of the world, Nebraska, South Dakota, twangy boys of Memphis, San Diego, Palo Alto; “nine years like a game of tug of war, fighting and nothing to show for it… they’ve forgotten why they’re fighting”. 

Richard Baird

With Baird’s inimitable acting prowess, we travel the highs and lows of war ravaged worlds. His is a delicate balance of rage, sorrow, disgust, passion, a sense of urgency, irony, questioning Homer’s world with the modern world of endless wars. The narrative seems to come easy even as he shouts out a few lines of Greek trying to remember when he first told the story and asking the muses to help him with his memory.  

If war is the major topic of the night, Baird, who at the center, makes a compelling case against it. By taking one of the oldest wars in history and connecting the dots (kind of) to every other war in history has to give one pause, one would hope, that countries be a little more cautious, less blasé about solving every conflict with swords and guns, cannons and bombs, IUD’S and missiles.

If compelling theatre is in the stars for you, I give it two thumbs up. 

And yes, “Imagine all the people living in peace”.  

See you, virtually, at the theater, 

Cinematographer/ Editor and Photographer: Aaron Rumley

“An Iliad” will be Streaming December 9, 2020– January 24, 2021.

 

      Jessica John makes her coming out solo debut in Roustabouts “No Way Back”.

Therapist turned writer, Mahshid Fashandi Hager wrote the play “No Way Back”, Roustabouts Theatre Company is giving it a riveting world premiere filmed production and Fran Gercke is directing. But it is Jessica John who breathes life into Mahshid’s plight as the ten year old, who with her family is forced to flee their home in Tehran, Iran during the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

This true story is seen and told through the eyes of a child (John, Mahshid’s alter ego). She doesn’t miss a beat taking on each member of her family and their relationships with one another, their responsibilities, respect for and about one another and their devotion to family, the beauty of her country, the struggles, trauma’s and obstacles they encountered, the dangers they faced and finally, survival and ‘triumph’. 

And that’s the point of John’s coming out solo debut. John ‘swore she would never be able to star in a one-woman show’, but somehow the ‘script resonated with her deeply because it depicts a very similar escape her family took to flee the Middle East many years ago when her Assyrian grandmother was a young girl”. “She escaped, but her mother, brother and 21 of her relatives died in their efforts to reach the United States”. 

To put it mildly, John nailed it with razor sharp intensity and focus.  Her accent, her mannerisms and her facilal expressions never faltered. There wasn’t a time in the 100 minute or so show that I doubted she was young Mahshid. 

Jessica John (photo Daren Scott)

From the time she heard the gunshots outside her bedroom windows, to the heavy footsteps in her house, to the anxious waiting for her “dad” to come home, to her “mom” calling her for dinner (and not to get her clothes dirty), to their leaving their beloved home with only one bag of belongings, to their being confronted by Iranian guards, Kurdish soldiers, bandits and Turkish henchmen,( as well as a small amount of sympathizers,) to their trek over mountains in the snow to reach Germany by way of Turkey and finally to The United States, her performance felt as natural as if she was Mahshid. 

John can never go back to not performing in a solo show. Her fate is sealed. If it took her personal interest in the story, deft direction by Gercke, and a theatre (Roustabouts) with Phil Johnson willing to stream new plays like “No Way Back” and “Roosevelt: Charge the Bear” (Just recently seen) then so be it. She deserves a standing ovation and this is my way of doing it. 

Brava! 

John hopes this play offers viewers a way to understand the sacrifices immigrants make to come here especially in these tremulous days of using immigrants and refugee’s as pawns of a phobic and detestable administration blocking immigrants from entering our shores to separating children from their mothers. We are and always will be a nation of immigrants like John’s family, my family and Ms. Hager’s family and thousands of others that make up the fabric of our nation. 

Here are the family Roustabout-er”s that give it the finished and final look. 

Design/Props: Tony Cucuzzella

Costume Design: Jessica John 

Assistant Costume Design: Ross Stewart 

Lighting Design: Joel Britt 

Sound Design: Matt Lescault-Wood 

Director of Photography/Editor: Michael Brueggemeyer 

Film Consultant: Jonah Gercke 

Video Operator: Mark Maisonneuve

Photo: Daren Scott

Where: On line at www.theroustabouts.org

Runs through December 13

Prices: $25.00 to $100.00

Please contact Box Office @infotheroustabouts.org 619.568.5800 for discount offers. 

See you on line at the theatre.

JQA”: POSNER’S LOOK AT AMERICAN HISTORY THAT CUDDA, SHUDDA MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 

I wish I paid more attention to my American history. Living in Boston in my growing up years where so much history was made, I knew that John Adams second president of the United States was from Boston; Braintree, Mass. to be exact. But when you’re that famous, Boston will do. His son, John Quincy Adams, was the sixth president. There was also a John Adams II. No accident, he was born in Quincy, Mass. Technically parts of Braintree broke away to form Quincy, Mass. Been there, done that. But that’s another history lesson. So, the Adams’ family (not to be confused with the Addams Family) is certainly well known in them thare parts. We even have an Adams Ave right here in San Diego.

Now to the subject at hand, “JQA”. Or to put it in other words, John Quincy Adams. Who knew? Another president, another time. 

                                                 JQA

“JQA” is a relatively new play by playwright Adam Posner (“Stupid Fu**ing Bird”). It streaming on line through the 29 th. of Nov., from the folks at The San Diego Rep. under the deft direction of Artistic Director Sam Woodhouse. 

Between the musicals “Blood, Bloody Andrew Jackson” (2006) “Hamilton the Musical, “1776”, and more and with plays like “Necessary Sacrifices” and “Roosevelt: Charge the Bear”, and provided we all come out of this pandemic and the last four years of one of the most gawdauful and depressing times (read DJT) in our history, we should all have fun with these historical American figures.

Playwright Aaron Posner’s latest, I hope hit “JQA” has so much to talk and think about that one hardly knows where to begin. But if we must start at the beginning let’s first begin by announcing that JQA is “NOT historically accurate, but it is largely historically feasible.” It’s a what if, who, how and when. You can almost forget how Posner sucks you in to believe or want to believe that all he says is accurate. Imagine if you had a chance to talk with any one person from history, dead or alive, who would it be?  My twelve year old grandson chose John F. Kennedy. Smart boy.

 In Posner’s JQA”, John Quincy Adams, oldest son of John Adams; statesman, congressman, president, husband and father, (and not a very good one by his own admission: “they bore me to hell”) has an opportunity to interact with George Washington, Henry Clay, Andrew Jackson, James Monroe, Abraham Lincoln, and Fredrick Douglass. (Remember him in “Necessary Sacrifices” in conversations with Abraham Lincoln?)  

All of those characters and more are played by four actors; two male, two females who all turn in brilliant work in the flash of the moment or next scene. There are ten starting in 1776. We begin with some historical background and then:  John Adams is teaching his son John Quincy at age 10: asking, “Do you know what government is?”

Posner’s conversations (again imagined) between Adams and other historical figures cover topics from an exchange with George Washington (played with panache by Rosina Reynolds (she also plays an older Abigail Adams and James Monroe.) The young Adams is played by Crystal Lucas Perry They are in Boston (shown drinking from paper coffee cups). Adams was 27, Washington is 62. Washington appoints Adams to be his Minister to the Netherlands. When Adams hesitates: G.W. “I’m The President, the father of your damn country, and you probably don’t want to piss me off.” And so, it goes.

L. to R. Crystal Lucas Perry, Larry Bates, Rosina Reynolds , Jesse Perez.

The multi-talented cast includes Larry Bates, (Andrew Jackson and Frederick Douglass), Rosina Reynolds, Chrystal Lucas-Perry and Jesse Perez. Perez takes a turn (they all play multiple characters) as Secretary of State Henry Clay who warns that if “You can’t learn to compromise you’re going to be playing more golf than governing.” Sound familiar? Perez plays the senior Adams and Henry Clay as well. He's also not without his bias toward immigrants, Jews, Blacks and the list goes on. ("You can take away their liberties...and as often as not they'll thank you for it.") How true.  

Crystal Lucas Perry as  Adams' wife Louisa has one of the more constant roles of adversary, mother and wife.  When Adams is indifferent to her feelings, or when he’s off on the trip or disregards her ill feelings about his parents, Abigail and John Adams, she lets it all hang out. She is especially vocal towards his mother who treated her ‘brutally in her words, and that she must’ve been broken inside because she had so many miscarriages’ she has no trouble letting him know. 

    Larry Bates as Frederick Douglass and Rosina Reynolds as JQA                                      

If truth be told and that may be the truth, she is pretty faithful to him and may be the only person who really tells him how things are. Later on, in the play she shows up as young Abraham Lincoln facing the elder statesman JQA now played by Perez and that turns into a very revealing conversation especially when Adams cautions Lincoln ‘to do right.’ 

It seems the slavery issue isn’t going to be solved overnight. If you remember “Necessary Sacrifices” and the then conversations between Lincoln and Douglass in 1863? In “JQA” that conversation happens again 1843. No need to repeat that history. It's already being repeated.

With the tumult in the country now, history is repeating itself as we speak. And talk about history, the conversations between Adams the President and his Secretary of State Henry Clay played zealously by Jesse Perez and sounding the alarm as if the words came straight from the lips of DJT. (Scare the fuck out of them. Give ‘em something to fear. Something dark... and dangerous... and disturbingly different from them. “) It's astounding!

     Crystal Lucas Perry as young JQA and Rosina Reynolds as GW.

And so it goes with each and every historical personality with whom Adams comes into contact, and Posner's JQA matching these men and women of history and bringing their voices to the fore of the 21st century is brilliant, entertaining, humorous, and eye opening. 

Lest we think DJT is the worst of bunch, there were others, not in our lifetimes though, who could have done as much damage as this one, but men and women of honor who stood for creating a strong, free independent nation and fulfilling the dreams of the signers of the Declaration of Independence let their voices be heard. They were not afraid. 

Hats off to The San Diego Repertory Theatre.

The production team is rounded out by: Justin Humphres (Set Design); Anastasia Pautova (Costume Design); Chris Rynne (Lighting Design); Matt Lescault-Wood (Sound Design); Joel Castellaw (Dramaturgy); Film Directing by Tim Powell, Rebecca Myers (Assistant Director); and Kim Heil (Casting Director & Associate Producer), Photos by Daren Scott.

Tickets are $35. 00 + fees for on line tickets.

It will be streaming through November, 29, 2020

For more information visit:

sdrep.org.

 Just as an afterthought, you might be interested in  reading :Obama needs to follow John Quincy Adams' lead back to Congress

Hayes Brown 

 

 SDO “LA BOHÈME: “SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT IN THE YEAR OF COVID.

It’s been years since I’ve been to a drive in of any kind, and I’ve been around long enough to remember drive in restaurants where the servers were in roller skates. If that’s hard to imagine, imagine a drive in opera. It’s not so farfetched in the year of Covid 19 but it, in a way, farfetched as well. With theatres dark and with the exception of those creative enough to figure out ways to film and stream one or two person plays, the prospects of seeing live performances is almost unheard of …until now.

Enter the bold and courageous San Diego Opera. For all intents and purposes and because of the restrictions and health standards, the opera would not begin to have a season. The Met. is shuttered as are most opera houses around the world. At the beginning of the pandemic, yours truly was watching operas from the past that were recorded for history. This held my interest for several months until they started repeating them. 

No more! Believe it or not, we here in San Diego are able to see Puccini’s gorgeous “La bohème” in the comfort of our cars in the parking lot of the one-time Sports Arena parking lot now Pechanga Arena. It was made possible by generous donors and the inspired mind of General Director David Bennett. 

Together with Conductor Rafael Payare, and the reduced (23 musicians) SD Symphony Orchestra, Director Keturah Stickann, costume designer Opera dé Montreal, Lighting Designer Chris Rynne, Sound Designer, Ross Goldman and Stage Manager Michael Janney it was an opera lover’s paradise.

                     

                                    Tenor Joshua Guerrero

Reimaged as a memory play instead of in the moment, Rodolfo finds himself ‘reflecting on a bittersweet moment’ ten years earlier of his first meeting with Mimi and the story of the beginning of their love affair and its tragic ending. 

Making her company debut as Mimi, is the lovely Ana María Martínez who replaced Angel Joy Blue (health reasons) and did it in a way that won the hearts and minds of those who love a beautiful love story. The vulnerable and sickly Mimi (Martìnez) never disappointed living up to her vocal challenges especially when in duets with Guerrero. Her “Si. Mi chiamano Mimi”  telling Rodolfo about herself sets the tone for some stunning singing. 

Her poet lover Rodolfo, tenor Joshua Guerrero, is excellent, and that was immediately apparent in his tender aria “Che gelida manina” in Act I when they first meet. The two are a perfect match vocally.

                 

      Robert Mellon in background, with Ana Maria Martinez as Mimi

 There are lighter times however when Soprano Andrea Carrol’s Musetta comes to the outdoor celebrations in the Latin Quarter with her rich sponsor, Alcindoro, bass baritone Scott Sikon. Left holding the dinner check and looking completely baffled, she taunts her ex-lover painter Marcello (Baritone Alexander Birch Elliot) in her centerpiece aria, “Quando m’en vo" about her popularity. Bass Collin Ramsey, and baritone Robert Mellon’s Schaunard along with Rodolfo round out the roommate trio. Both Mellon and Ramsey have more to do in a full length rendition, but the entire cast was more than up to the task the night I attended.  

Andrea Carrol's Musetta

The entire production lasts about ninety minutes without intermission. Rynne’s crisp sound design was heard  by tuning into the car's FM radio. There are sufficient screens placed strategically around the parking lot allowing  anyone and then some, not close enough to the stage, to be able to watch mostly everything on a super large TV screen with Supertitles.

The one drawback was that, while we could see and hear each of the performers singing one or two at a time, we were not able to see the entire cast on stage; a small price to pay to see live performances at this time when everything else we see is filmed and streamed. 

The changes in the format of Puccini’s  "La bohéme” under Director Keturah Stickann was a necessity especially in the time of Covid, safety protocols, and social distancing on stage. The lack of chorus and keeping a distance of 15 feet of each other with each singer having four feet on either side worked just fine. In a way, while the distancing could have thrown an emotional wrench into the passionate feelings, it never felt less than passionate. In fact, so strong were the voices and so avid the feelings, honking (instead of clapping) to the cacophony of car horns was quite novel. 

Cast of La Boheme

But in the times of a major pandemic, we have to give a shout out to the San Diego Opera Company for this big boost to the arts our and

our well being.

There is nothing like a good cry at the end in the privacy and darkness of your own car and your own bubble. Sigh.

It will be shown again on October 30th and November 1st. Do enjoy!

San Diego Opera

233 A Street, Suite 500

San Diego, CA 92101

T. (619) 232-7636

W. sdopera.org

 Photo: Karli Cadel

 NORTH COAST REP. OFFERS UP A BIT OF FLUFF IN BERNARD SLADE’S VINTAGE “SAME TIME NEXT YEAR”

“The Times They Are A Changin.” Over the course of twenty five years, people change; love grows deeper; people fall out of love, grow older and values change. In Bernard Slade’s bitter sweet love story, his 1975 “Same Time, Next Year”, starring the real husband and wife team of Bruce Turk as George and Katie MacNichol as Doris, and directed by NCR’s artistic director David Ellentsein the couples’ once every year clandestine rendezvous brings with it a new revelation with each passing year.

The play unfolds every five years starting in 1951 in a comfortable Spanish style (Marty Burnett) motel room in Northen Ca. They met over a steak dinner. No, they were not dining together, he sent a steak over to her table as a gesture. I guess people fall in love over less expensive food choices, but that’s the story we’re stuck with. It doesn’t end there, however. It moves into an overnight tryst and then to a weekend long date, one laced with guilt laden explanation as to why and how it’s going to work out. 

The two are so uptight that first morning when they awake, and after a night of lovemaking Doris wraps herself up in the bed sheets crawls out of bed and gets dressed in the bathroom. That doesn’t stop them, however from meeting at the same time and same place each year.

                      

No big surprise. The next scene, five years later (we know because there is a hint hanging on the piano: ‘5 year anniversary’ in bold red letters) the clothes and wigs have been updated from 1956’s to ‘70’s (Elsa Benzoni and Peter Herman) with 50’s dresses with garter belts and crinoline slips to hipster beads and suede vests to slacks and tops for Doris with an assortment of wigs noting the hair styles and slight noticeable changes in the styles of George’s clothes, the lapel widths, shirt designs and a slight graying at the temples.

They talk, they sleep they exchange little stories about their lives, their mates and they make love. In fact, in that time George and Doris made love together one hundred and thirteen times. Now most married couples, at least the ones I know don’t keep track of their lovemaking, but here’s the scoop: Doris and George are married but not to each other, they are carrying on a ‘secret’ love affair behind their spouse’s backs and George is a wiz at numbers. 

Slade is clever enough to toss in just the right amount of pathos, family illness, the Vietnam War, the drug culture, death of a child, near death of a spouse. He balances the serious with the light and frivolous, and to the actor’s credit, they manage it with ease making the most of the situations and giving it and them a measure of credibility. 

Over the course of the years she grows more self-assured, finishes college, opens a thriving business and learns to be content with her husband, George. On the other hand, he grows more serious as his business grows and he sees Doris changing, but not at all to his liking. 

Both manage to rein in their differences as they become more in tune with each other, older, comfortable and the shifting attitudes of the times. Their personal triumphs and disappointments are met with understanding and love as they share stories, empathize and commiserate; he even helps with the birth of her fourth child in one of the funniest scenes in the play.

Slade’s play ran on Broadway from 1975 to 1978 with over 1,453 performances and was later (some might remember) made into a movie starring Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn. It earned her a Best Actress Award. Slade also created “The Partridge Family,” “The Flying Nun “and “Bewitched”. Now that would be fun to see. But more than morals changing and with everything going viral, in retrospect its difficult not to wince at the dialogue, gender roles, reference to race and religion (“You must be Jewish… because they’re always feeling guilty.) and corny jokes. As I said it's vintage, but not necessarily good.

To that end, with Covid in the picture and theatres having to reinvent themselves “Same Time Next Year” with husband and wife playing against each other, the choice of this two person play makes sense at least as a filler. 

 I can't help comparing the excellent and intense past production of  "Necessary Sacrifices” and "Same Time". It is a bit like comparing apples and oranges, you can’t. That’s not to take anything away from the fine acting of Turk and MacNichol, and perhaps a little levity is what folks at home want to see. 

I may be an old fuddy- duddy, but give me something fresh and new and gutsy and I’m a happy camper. 

“Same Time Next Year” will be streaming on line through Nov. 15th. @northcoastrep.com

North Coast Rep. 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive  #D, Solana Beach, Ca.  

Photos: Aaron Rumley

Props: Philip Roth

Phone: 858-481-1055