FOOD FOR THOUGHT FILLS "OUR TOWN" AT ROGUE THEATRE

21 Jan 2010 07:39

By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

 

“Our Town” by Thornton Wilder has become a time machine, a string of bench marks for social change. Set in Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, at the beginning of the 20th century, we all believe the play represents a pretty accurate picture of what life was like in the New England countryside back then – a community that was 86 percent Republican and 85 percent Protestant.

 

Now the Rogue Theatre brings us a crystal clear and totally heartfelt production, with all the familiar roles nicely done by a talented cast directed by Joseph McGrath. Fidelity to the playwright’s intent is the rule of thumb here. The play was first presented in 1938. A similar time comparison would be seeing a play today about small town New England life set in 1972.

 

Since the Rogue Theatre is developing its own identity as Tucson’s thoughtful theater company, it seemed a curious choice to produce a threadbare war horse like “Our Town.” The wholesome courtship of George and Emily is so square. The dedicated housewives Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb are so out of touch with today’s females. One doesn’t exactly find the cutting edge of creativity by looking 100 years into the past.

 

But once the Stage Manager steps onstage and starts talking about what seemed like ordinary life back then, we are forced to consider what our society has become today. In our present fevered state of political correctness, where everyone seems ready to pounce on everyone else for some perceived impropriety, life in Grover’s Corners becomes surprisingly significant.

 

It is that benchmark thing again. Each person in the audience will be compiling a personal list of pluses and minuses comparing life then and now. What did we gain, what have we lost.

 

 In the play, women’s value in the home as commanders of family life was far more important than women’s worth in the marketplace as individuals working for wages.

 

Back then all foreigners were regarded with suspicion, too, even the white ones. There was no mingling of the races. There was no welfare, either. Families provided for their own. Church activities were naturally embraced as a part of daily life.

 

“Our Town” feels controversial now because it reminds us of who we were. You wouldn’t think thoughtful people these days would need to go see “Our Town” with friends, then rush to a coffee shop and talk about it. But that’s exactly what happens.

 

In some ways, those folksy stories about the families of George and Emily were the Good Old Days….in some ways they weren’t so good. We always need to believe our society is progressing, but what is the cost is this progress? Just because things are changing doesn’t mean they are progressing. So plan, indeed, on seeing “Our Town” with friends and having a spirited discussion afterward.

 

Among a cast of equally fine performers, Alexandra Franklin as Emily was a little more equal. This newcomer to Tucson’s theater scene makes a remarkable debut, catching the cautious optimism of adolescence at a time when teens thought it was important to act responsibly. The kids in Grover’s Corners were not kids who couldn’t wait to get away from home.

 

Free thinkers like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn would have been looked on with suspicion in Grover's Corners. Becky Thatcher would have fit in a little better, however. It is thoughts like these that make Rogue Theatre’s production of “Our Town” worth seeing, and thinking about.

 

Performances continue Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m., until Jan. 24. All tickets are $24; pay-what-you-will performances are Jan. 14 and 21. For details and reservations, 520-551-2053, or visit www.theroguetheatre.org

 

"The Hunt" danish film

DANISH DRAMA FILLS "THE HUNT"

Whether it seems intuitive or not, many of our life-shaping lessons really are learned in kindergarten and on the grade school playground. All that early socialization which the academics study these days is often a simple reflection of primitive survival skills.

Danish director and co-screen writer Thomas Vinterberg explores this phenomenon in the subtly complex "The Hunt," now playing at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

Mads Mikkelsen plays Lukas, a bit of an odd sort who can't find a job as a proper school teacher so he takes a post at a rural kindergarten where the rest of the school staff is female.

Lukas is also going through confrontational divorce proceedings with his wife and son living elsewhere, though the son would prefer to live with Lukas.

The set-up isn't presented too clearly, but there is a sweet five-year-old, Klara (Annika Wedderkop), who attaches herself to Lukas. Klara's parents argue a lot and never have much time for her. Klara's brother, several years older, is far more interested in girls his own age.

So Lukas the playful kindergarten teacher is the most fun person Klara knows. Why shouldn't she make him a glittering paper heart, and want to give him a big hug and a kiss on the lips when he's rolling around on the floor with all the kids.

Not quite understanding the situation, Lukas gently suggests Klara give the paper heart to her parents and reminds her it is not appropriate to kiss anyone but your parents on the lips.

Disappointed, Klara tells the kindergarten principle that she hates Lukas. She innocently adds on some of the sex talk she heard from her brother, and includes the word "penis."

As the story develops from here, Lukas finds himself sinking in the Kafkaesque quicksand of immorality. Nobody will tell him exactly what the charges are, because they are too embarrassed to use that kind of language. But they keep insisting rather sinisterly that children never lie.

So the more Lucas protests, the deeper he sinks. Even in Denmark the subject of child sex abuse is rarely discussed in public. Nobody wants to ask Klara directly what happened, and since she is only five her every nod and frightened look is misinterpreted. The kindergarten principal and other adults who want to be helpful keep jumping to more unfortunate conclusions.

The film grows in power as we see there are no villains here. Everybody wants to do the right thing, but just like a tiny spark can ignite a blazing forest fire, Klara's misleading remark is exaggerated into child abuse and sexual molestation.

That's when "The Hunt" lives up to its name, with truth becoming an elusive prey which becomes ever more elusive the more intensely it is hunted down.

"hell baby" movie

HELL FUN IN "HELL BABY"

It's good to know, going into "Hell Baby," that the two wild and crazy chain-smoking exorcist priests are also the co-writers and co-directors of this unabashed over-the-top juvenile comedy that is pretty darn funny.

Get in touch with your inner middle-school-troublemaker.  This movie is now playing at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., and should also have a long, happy life in videoland.

Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant (the "Reno 911" TV series and matching movie, and "Night At The Museum") are willing to go the extra mile, push the envelope a little further, do most anything to get that extra ounce of laughing disbelief.

But gross-out sex and gross-out body functions are not in their tool kit to build this joke machine. Well, maybe a little, but just enough to reassure us they are really more interested in being clever.

Rob Corddry and Leslie Bibb do all the heavy lifting as Jack and Vanessa, a clueless yuppie couple who move into a dilapidated New Orleans ghetto mansion straight out of the horror movie set design catalogue.

Full of annoyingly idealistic virtues, they intend to fix this house up, sell it for a huge profit and upgrade the whole neighborhood at the same time.

Stealing his every scene is Keegan Michael Key as F'resnel, the eccentric neighbor who occasionally sleeps in their house's crawlspace and loves to describe in disgusting detail the most gruesome murders that took place in this old house.

It doesn't take long for evil things to begin happening, as extremely pregnant Vanessa takes to drinking large glasses of wine and slurping down handfuls of Valium.

Additional cast members begin adding to this merriment from the dark side. Notable are skeptical police officers played by Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer of "Human Giant" and…delightful for her excess energy…country comedian Rikki Lindhome (of Garfunkel & Oates) as Vanessa's uninhibited sister.

As the horror energy accelerates, and the fumbling cops investigate, it becomes clear that supernatural powers are involved and an exorcism must be performed.

Enter those two Father Guido Sarducci-styled priests, willing to perform the exorcism as long as Cardinal Vicente (David Pasquesi) approves their per diem.

Also watch for the brief appearance of Indian

comedian Kumail Nanjiani, making a positive impression just by saying he's only there to hook up the cable TV.

"Adore" film

"ADORE" IS A SWEETLY GUILTY PLEASURE

Artfully done guilty pleasures don't come along that often. So we happily embrace the Australian delight, "Adore," now playing at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

Although the dueling mature beauties are played by Robin Wright and Naomi Watts, the rest of the production is rather international. Anne Fontaine, the director and co-writer, was born in Luxembourg. Nobel Prize-winning Doris Lessing, who wrote the script and the novella, is from Persia (now Iran).  Most everyone else lives in Australia.

The overwhelmingly lovely ocean lagoon setting is in New South Wales and, we hope, looks just as seductive today as it did when this picture was filmed. Only two homes face the lagoon, both large and airy places, where two families have lived happily for decades.

Most especially Roz (Wright) and Lil (Watts), who grew from perennially bronzed girls in the water to best friends with husbands. Each also has an equally handsome adult son and graceful surfer. They are Tom (James Frecheville) and Ian (Xavier Samuel).

Tom's mom is Roz, whose husband is a university professor.  Lil's son Ian feels a little more responsible after his father dies without warning soon after the movie begins.

So it seems natural enough (so to speak) that Ian should find himself attracted to Roz. After all, on this idyllic bit of sheltered cove, there are no other people. We don't know how far Ian would have to travel to find a sun tanned beauty his own age.

Roz isn't about to help him figure out that one.

So, when Tom learns of his mother's hook-up with Ian, quick as a flash Tom puts his best moves on the widow Lil.  Certainly we are sympathetic to Lil's needs, even if Tom does seem to be somewhat motivated to avenge his mom's wandering eye.

But, heck, this movie is only getting started. Once both young men learn of their own mothers' indiscretions, the moms are quick to calm their offspring's anger.

These two mothers and sons quickly agree, for the sake of their future happiness, they will just continue these unusual but mutually satisfying arrangements.  The husband of Roz, a rather taciturn Ben Mendelsohn, is seen now and then but never disturbs this accommodating arrangement.

That's when the sensual and openly sexual fantasies of women from the generation of Wright and Watts begin to blossom in the movie theater without shame or regret as these relationships deepen on the big screen.

Standing in the wings, there is a piper still to be paid, but the price is not in pounds of morality. Rather, it is something much deeper.

MOVING PETE SWAN'S JAM

If you were just old enough to begin drinking when drummer Pete Swan

started his regular Sunday evening jam sessions at the Old Pueblo Grill, 60 N. Alvernon Way, you'd be 35 by now.

Nonetheless,
Pete Swan is moving all of his drums and all of his jazz friends a few
 blocks east on Broadway to Wilbur's Grill in the Viscount Suites Hotel
to begin a new chapter of jazz in the Baked Apple.

Therefore: This is it!

Final Sunday at OPG is this one, Aug. 18, with

drummer Tim Rachbach's quartet featured at 6:30 p.m. There will be a
Special Second Set spotlighting Swan with Matt Mitchell, guitar, and
Scott Black, bass.

After that, starting Aug. 25, all the swinging sounds of Pete Swan's jam sessions will be filling

Wilbur's
Grill inside the Viscount  Suites Hotel, 4855 E Broadway, located on
the north side of Broadway, between Swan Road and Craycroft Road.

The
new jam sessions will begin at the regular time, 6:30 pm. On stage for
this momentous occasion will be the Homero Ceron Quartet.

Everything
else stays the same. No minimum, no cover, with a different featured
musician every Sunday, followed by a vigorous jazz jam.

For continuing details, visit www.peteswan.com

 

YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING winding road theatre

TOUGH "YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING" 

Pretending to be famed writer, journalist and social commentator Joan Didion sounds daunting enough, yet here is Toni Press-Coffman doing exactly that, onstage in the upstairs Cabaret Space at the downtown Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave.

She is performing the demanding 90-minute monologue "The Year of Magical Thinking" adapted by Didion from her award-winning book of the same name. Vanessa Redgrave performed the role on Broadway in 2007.

The autobiographical book describes the author's response when her husband of nearly 40 years, the writer John Gregory Dunne, died of a heart attack at the dinner table in 2003. Less than two years later, their daughter Quintana, passed away following a lengthy illness.

Didion's stated purpose for writing the book, and adapting the play, is to remind us all that the story of her loved ones dying will also be our story one day – every one of us. And in doing so, also remind us that even a profound and devastating loss can be overcome.

Whether you want to be reminded or not is up to you.

Press-Coffman's studied presentation, directed by Christopher Johnson for WInding Road Theatre Company, is a brave performance of understated complexity, both demanding and emotionally grueling. A light-hearted evening of theater this is definitely not.

That title comes from Didion's own way of dealing with the harsh realities she faced immediately after her husband's passing. Clearing out her life, she did manage to dispose of his clothes, but she couldn't give away his shoes – he would need them when he came back, she insisted.

Such magical thinking eased the pathway that circumstance forced her to follow. Yet, this personality also works against her in taking the book from page to stage. That deliberate quality which added literary heft to her experience does not lend itself to theatrical expression.

Press-Coffman has lots of material to get through, but very little opportunity to show us that the words of the script (often taken straight from the book) represented her inner thoughts.

As one critic phrased it, comparing "Magical Thinking" to Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," Didion is a starker and sterner writer who would rather throw up than descend into the mawkish sentiment that Kushner would eagerly embrace. Or even more directly, say, Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays with Morrie."

Didion's carefully described recollections may provide lots more detail than you really need to appreciate the tragedies in her life.

"The Year of Magical Thinking" runs through Sept.15, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, in the Cabaret Space at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Tickets are $20 general admission, $17 for seniors, students, military with ID and theater artists. For details and reservations, 520-401-3626, www.windingroadtheater.org

Grand opening, Great American Playhouse august 2013

GRAND OPENING FOR THE GREAT AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE

In journalism, there is an expression: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are good it's a duck.

 

However, there are exceptions.

 

The Great American Playhouse, far to the northwest in Oro Valley, has opened with a format that is – down to the last detail – strikingly similar to the 35 years old (and more popular than ever) Gaslight Theatre on Tucson's far southeast side.

 

The free popcorn, the corny jokes, the encouragement to cheer those heroes and boo those villains, it's all at the Great American Playhouse, too.

 

But watching the GAP's grand opening melodrama "Pistol Pete, The World's Greatest Cowboy!" is a much different experience from going to Gaslight.

 

Fans of melodrama, you know who you are, won't buy the idea that GAP is just like the Gaslight. It isn't.

 

That's not to say the Great American show is bad. It isn't.  If you've never been to Gaslight, a trip to the GAP will be a good time -- especially if you live on the northwest side of town.

 

Leading the list of players, cast as Pistol Pete that larger-than-life legend of the wide open spaces, is Stewart Gregory. He's got star quality, looking lean and lanky in his bright red cowboy shirt.

 

Adding depth to a smaller role as the somewhat fumbling Mayor-Mushmouth is James Gooden, a pillar of the Tucson theater community.

 

Performing the essential role of the black-clad despicable villain Jeremiah "Bullfrog" Doyle is sinister Sean MacArthur. Nick Seivert provides comedy relief in a scruffy beard as the chuck wagon chef called Cookie. Seivert is also the writer and director of "Pistol Pete, The World's Greatest Cowboy!"

 

Pitching in her own funny moments of over-the-top acting is Jacinda Rose Swinehart with a couple of roles, Gypsy Jeanne Fontaine and Mama Huayne.

 

As the absolutely necessary damsel in distress is Jodi Darling playing lovely Rose Hunt and the legendary giant catfish-riding Slue-Foot Sue.

 

Nancy LaViola is also double cast in those two roles, but more importantly she is GAP's founding sparkplug, chief cook and bottle washer. She's also the choreographer.

 

It is worth noting Gregory, Gooden, MacArthur, Seivert, Darling and LaViola all performed regularly at Gaslight Theatre at one time or another. That company has been a huge influence on this one.

The show itself has Jeremiah "Bullfrog" Doyle trying to take all the land along the incoming railroad route and the good people of Grasshopper Junction, Arizona, fighting to save their town from Doyle's evil intentions.

 

After "Pistol Pete," the cast changes costumes and comes back onstage in more formal wear to present their Broadway Olio. The song list includes "Lullaby of Broadway," "Broadway Rhythm," "Horse Right Here" the opening number from "Guys and Dolls," and "All That Jazz" from "Chicago."

 

"Pistol Pete, The World's Greatest Cowboy" runs through Nov. 16 with performances at 7 p.m. Thursdays, 6 p.m. Fridays, 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays, 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Sundays. All performances are at the Great American Playhouse, 13005 N. Oracle Rd., in the shopping mall at Oracle Road and Rancho Vistoso Blvd.

 

Tickets are $17.95 general admission, $15.95 seniors, students and active military, $7.95 children 12 and under. For details and reservations, 520-512-5145 or visit www.greatamericanplayhouse.com