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the year in
review
I remember reading of the earliest years of the 1900s. The Teddy Roosevelt years, the years when disease still ruled the sewers and when planes and motorcars seemed incredulous developments. Ladies and gentlemen, we are suddenly in a 1900 of our own. One day one century from now, people will look back and see how far we were from knowledge and the truth. How our guesses were so frequently wrong. We will seem deceived victims of another time. But our theatre is of this time. It has to be. And if it's good, it will last. Just ask Chekhov and Shaw. We can't know what 2100 will know. We can only hope to express our dreams so beautifully that they will last. Well, 1999. I became a full-time critic for t2k; I rolled around the Southland looking for magic in darkened places. I didn't see nearly enough shows, but what I saw I frequently liked. Even the atrocious shows had spirit. What follows are ten high points from a fellow who saw a lot of theatre on a big, big beat covering two counties. (Hey Stowe! Get me some stringers!) My ten-best list is balanced to reflect bi-county coverage, but I assessed every show by the same criteria. Did it move me? Did it make me shake? Did it make me laugh? Did it hit me in the face? Did it make me cry? If it did two or three of those things, it's on this list. And now, in order of greatness... 1). "900 Oneonta" (Odyssey Theatre Ensemble) -- What a ballbuster. This was a major production of a major American play - a play, ironically, that had been a critical and commercial smash everywhere except America. David Beaird's Southern Gothic dramedy presumes you're familiar with Tennessee Williams, then supercharges the debauchery and drama of peak Williams to epic new proportions. Call it a Greek tragedy transferred to 20th century America. Unfolding in real time (the second act is literally played against a clock), 900 Oneonta gave audiences a ride as thrilling as any rollercoaster at Knotts or Magic Mountain, and Leland Crooke, Jon Cryer, Ben Daniels and Terrence Beasor gave standout performances. After two hours and forty minutes, I wanted more...so I saw it twice. The most perfectly written play I bought tickets to all year. (June). 2). "Bill and Eddie" (Playwrights' Arena) -- I've seldom been scared out of my wits in a theatre, but Robert Harders' mesmerizing one-act packed a jolt. What starts as a mundane, almost Beckettian story of two gay men living out a mysterious and miserable existence unfolds into something way off the Sick-O-Meter. Michael Kearns, Jeff Daurey and Fred Russell gave fine and subtle performances in a play indebted to both love stories and snuff films. Jon Lawrence Rivera directed the proceedings with the trauma they deserved. When you left Playwrights' Arena after this one, you definitely saw a bad moon rising. (July). 3). "Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love" -- (Rude Guerrilla Theater Company) -- - Santa Ana's Rude Guerrilla continues to impress. While "Corpus Christi" grabbed all the headlines, the real Orange County story was this production. Sexy, gripping, honest and unflinching, this Brad Fraser script plunged some 20-something actors into strong waters and forced them to swim. Todd Kulczyk and Kristina Leach especially excelled in Dave Barton's tautly directed show. One wishes that all O.C. theatre companies (and all of O.C.'s young actors) could commit themselves to their art so bravely. (August). 4). "Bitter Women" (CAST Theatre) - I confess I am in love with Julia Campbell, whose turn as the beanpole geek Nancy was the finest comic performance I saw in 1999. In real life, Campbell is gorgeous; she has looks worthy of any model. But as I continue to write this reminiscence with my free hand, I can only think of her perfect klutziness in this Justin Tanner comedy. Sometimes you will meet a woman who doesn't realize how beautiful she is; sometimes you see a woman discover just how wonderful life is. Campbell's performance turned Tanner's bumbling protagonist into just that woman. The Matrix Theatre Co.'s Lisa James directed a young, hot cast to milk every laugh and nuance out of rich material. (November). 5). "Streamers" (Hudson Backstage) -- I sometimes think of David Rabe as the Oliver Stone of playwriting, and Michael Arabian's direction took us deep into the barracks for a revival of the American theatre's premier Vietnam tragedy. A group of grunts stage a Vietnam of their own without ever leaving American soil - forced into enmity not by the threat of war, but the threat of love. This 1976 work lost none of its power in this production, thanks to great work by Shawn Woods, Tim DeZarn and Jonathan Breck. (February). 6). "Coal" (Stages) -- I was late to catch the train of this critically-adored Orange County production, but I was so glad that I did. Mitchel Faris' plays have been quite well-reviewed on this site, and understandably so; he doesn't waste a line of dialogue, and cuts to the chase with great skill. He often writes about good people crushed by the twin wheels of history and fate, and this tale of Scots-Irish coal miners trying to love and live in 1870s Appalachia grabbed your heart from the opening curtain. Faris must be Orange County's best young playwright. Gavin Carlton's electric turn as the haunted mine foreman could have lit a small city. (September). 7). "Straight As A Line" (Playwrights' Arena) -- Luis Alfaro's one-act, here given an Anglo-Asian spin with great performances by Emily Kuroda and James Sie, had the qualities of a dream. A mother comes to understand a son who comes to understand a mother at last. Another feather for a tiny and very good theatre. (December). 8). "The Philanderer" (South Coast Repertory) -- It seemed like a weird choice when it was announced, but SCR had already put up virtually all the major Shaw plays - and look what it did with this minor one. Wonderful performances by Nancy Bell, Douglas Weston, Kaitlin Hopkins and François Girauday. David Emmes' perfectly controlled direction heightened every laugh, and his final tableaux put an interesting new twist on the ending. (September). 9). "Alone at the Beach" (The Stella Adler) -- The Neurotic Young Urbanites delivered a memorably funny production of Richard Dresser's 1986 nod to "The Cherry Orchard". Jen Maxcy and Derek Webster played a perfectly contentious husband and wife at the center of a sadly funny comedy. (January). 10). "Schadenfreude" (Rude Guerrilla Theater Company) -- What a pleasant surprise! In a short-run show that appeared with short notice, two of the actors who had bared their bodies in "Unidentified Human Remains" bared their souls (or something like them) in this sharp collection of one-acts about gay and straight relationships. Todd Kulczyk and Kristina Leach dealt with lust and love among the unmarrieds with unusual wit and maturity for authors (apparently) under 35. (October).
I hope the resurgent actors' playhouse takes over Long Beach; I hope Costa Mesa's Theatre District and Beverly Hills' Theatre 40 find good homes; I hope the El Portal and the Colony succeed in the Valley; and I hope Ron Link is directing all the angels in heaven... |