Review: Well done The Foreigner at Village is a familiar farce

Erik Gratton, Angela DiMarco, Jonathan Crimeni in The Foreigner (Tracy Martin)

The Foreigner

Village Theatre

Issaquah through March 2

Everett: March 7-30

The Foreigner by Larry Shue is a tight, almost perfectly written farce: every little detail introduced into the plot is used later and is a clue to the unfolding mystery. Case in point, at the beginning of the play, we find out that a young man who is developmentally disabled is said to take one bite out of an apple and then leave the apple behind, and deny that he’s even done it. The audience thinks it’s quirky character development, until we later find out who has been leaving the apples and why.

There are half a dozen tiny moments like that in the script and as you begin to see them unfold, your interest in what you already saw and what it might mean later deepens. An old bromide, attributed to Anton Chekhov the playwright, is that if you put a gun in your play, it better get shot later on. In The Foreigner, all the “guns” get shot. You can see for yourself at the Village Theatre with their well done production.

Celebrated musical writer, Brian Yorkey, returns to his old home at Village Theatre to direct this play, their annual non-musical production. He directs a solid cast of seven who sometimes make their numbers look larger (through adept costuming).

The basic ingredients start with a despondent Brit (Erik Gratton) being dragged to rural Georgia by his army buddy, Froggy (Patrick Phillips), to get cheered up while his buddy does some military drills there. But he is so shy and afraid of people that Froggy, spur of the moment, tells the proprietess, Betty (Sharva Maynard), that Charlie doesn’t speak a word of English, hoping to ensure that everyone will leave Charlie alone. Once Charlie is thought not to understand, secrets start pouring out around him and he finds a facility inside himself to begin to enjoy life.

The plot developments are a bit absurd, and Charlie is supposed to find a way to rescue everyone, but it’s a romp with great fun moments. There is a wonderful bit where Charlie is “taught” English by the young disabled boy Ellard (Anthony Lee Phillips) that is a crowd-pleaser. Ellard’s sister, Catherine (Angela DiMarco), is being duped by her fiancée (Jonathan Crimeni) and a nasty side-kick (Eric Ray Anderson who starts off nibbling the furniture and ends up biting big chunks of it in a hysterical bad-guy turn).

Technical support here is luscious, as usual, with a great thunderstorm on a unit set depicting an old lodge (by Matthew Smucker), essential sound work from Brent Warwick to create the outdoor noises, intricate lighting from Tom Sturge, and fun costuming from Melanie Burgess. Charlie’s get up, in particular, helps set a complete tone for his character.

For more information, go to www.villagetheatre.org or call 425-392-2202. Comments welcome on this blog.

Review: American Wee-Pie: A cupcake of sweetness in every performance

Tracy Leigh and David Goldstein in American Wee-Pie (Paul Bestock)

AMERICAN WEE-PIE
SEATTLE PUBLIC THEATER
Through February 16 

We're having a terrific start to 2014 with theatrical productions this month. One of those productions you should definitely plan to see is Seattle Public Theater's American Wee-Pie by Lisa Dillman. It is a sweet morsel of a play (couldn't resist!) that focuses on a very identifiable human condition: what the heck do we do with ourselves once we are on this earth? Is it enough to just 'have a job' or is life supposed to be more than that? Where is the joy? The answer: the clowns bring it. 

Personality-less, humorless Zed (Evan Whitfield) has come back to his boyhood home to bury his mother. The only other family he has is a sharp-tongued, impatient older sister, Pam (Alyssa Keene), who has impatiently already packed up almost everything in the house. He isn't even certain that he has many feelings about losing his mother - none that he can access, at least. 

He bumps into school friend Linz (or Lindsay) (Tracy Leigh) who gallantly says that when other kids thought he was retarded, she defended him and said he was shy. Linz is the great heart of the play. She is full of feeling and bigger than life and readily admits that she had a shitty time in school, too, and could be very much like Zed, but had found her man, who loves her completely for herself. She takes the meeting as a sign that destiny is afoot, and Zed is to quit his boring, disconnected job to come work for them in their cupcake shop. 

Linz' man is Pableu (David Goldstein), a cupcake auteur who is trying to create the perfect cupcake, with ingredients like root vegetables and odd spices. Some of the funniest scenes involve elaborate tasting rituals that amp up the clowning aspect, though they don't necessarily add too much to the story. But these small savored moments are part of the fabric of small moments that Dillman seems to want to point to and say, 'Hey, these are the roses you're supposed to be smelling.' 

There is a friendly local postman who made friends with Zed's mother (one of several roles for Stephen Grenley), and who befriends Zed, as well, over Scrabble. There is a burial plot salesman (Grenley again) who somehow brings such enthusiasm for his trade that he entices Pam into giving up her job to try it. Zed gets more and more emotionally available and alive as the play moves on. 

The ensemble here is lovely and Whitfield draws the audience into applauding his successful reclamation of life. He plays mostly the straight man to the other four clowns of varying depth. This is subtle clowning, the exaggeration of human characteristics to make us laugh, but all tightly within the confines of a certain reality. Leigh has mastered her character, in particular, to be everything silly, bumbly, and yet raging with love. 

Director Anita Montgomery moseyed over from ACT Theatre to create this little dream cake and gets topnotch production help with gorgeous sound design from Robertson Witmer, quirky character costuming from Candace Frank, and subtle lighting from Tim Wratten. A somewhat static set, mostly a cupcake looking shop, by Andrea Bryn Bush, works well for some scenes, but not quite for those in the family home. But at least scene changes are immediate. 

The play was first performed in 2013, so it's very current in understanding our recession and people getting stuck in jobs they are afraid to move away from with great unemployment still rampant. But Dillman is there to encourage you not to be afraid and to give change a try. Who knows? You might like it a lot more than what you've got right now. 

For more information, go to www.seattlepublictheater.org or call (206) 524-1300. Comments welcome on this blog.

Review: The Little Dog Laughed at ArtsWest - More Than a Comedy

Heather Hawkins, Alex Garnett, Jeff Orton (photo by Michael Brunk)

THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED
ARTSWEST PLAYHOUSE
Through February 16

Suppose you are a closeted actor on the verge of getting a really big film, and you and your agent are on the verge of making it to the top of the heap, instead of crawling around the pile with the rest of the grunts. Suppose the biggest irony is that the script of the film is about two Gay men, but the idea that Gay men would actually play the roles is gross to the powers that run Hollywood, so if you come out, you could ruin the movie and your big career move. 

In fact, that's still very much a Hollywood stereotype, if you look at huge films like Brokeback Mountain, and more recently at Behind the Candelabra, the HBO giant starring Matt Damon and Michael Douglas, even now winning the top awards for not being Gay. So, the script story in The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas Carter Beane is not too far off, even today, though he wrote the play in 2006. 

The ArtsWest production, starring the quartet of Alex Garnett, Jeff Orton, Heather Hawkins and EmilyRose Frasca, does a fine job of presenting the dilemma. 

Mitchell (Garnett), the actor, hasn't even been that interested in sex all these years, still conflicted about his sexuality, and insecure. Every once in a while, he pays for some fun, and meets Alex (Orton) after a phone call to an 'agency.' Diane (Hawkins), the agent, saw something in Mitchell and has stuck with him through thin, but when she sees his deepening relationship with the 'rent boy,' she starts to get worried. 

Alex, as written, is full of contradictions. He makes his money by having sex with wealthy men, but does not consider himself homosexual. He kind of has a girlfriend, Ellen (Frasca), though she also has sex with wealthy men. Yet, when he has the chance, at the top of the show, to 'roll' Mitchell and split, he doesn't. Something in Mitchell's vulnerability stirs something more in Alex and he finds himself wanting to stick around. 

That is a piece of the buggy ride that this more-than-comedy takes you on. It feels like a romp, and Hawkins' foul-mouthed, off-hand delivery definitely keeps that feeling alive. But there are also tender moments and some (perhaps unintentionally) awkward ones. Mitchell starts to accept himself and wants to out himself, consequences be damned. The men begin to have real emotions toward each other. 

In an interesting twist, Alex's character arc is most interesting. He has the farthest to go in finding out about himself and has the most integrity. Mitchell, at least, knows he's homosexual and it's more a matter of whether he will make that public or not. 

While Hawkins gets most of the big laugh lines, she is occasionally a bit broad, needing a stronger hand from director Annie Lareau. But by the end of the play, her character's smarts and calculation are fully revealed, and an appreciation for all that she does is inevitable. 

Caution for children younger than mature teens: there is a brief moment of male nudity, aside from regular vulgar language. For more information, go to www.artswest.org or call (206) 938-0339. Comments welcomed on this blog.

I'm proud to be a Seattle Theater Writer and help select the Gypsy Rose Lee Awards!

In the interest of posting these awards as widely as possible, I'm posting them here, as well.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/seattle-theater-writers/finally-the-winners-of-the-2013-gypsy-rose-lee-awards-are/518834764891126

For the Love of Theater

Theater has always been a passion and a love for me. Watching it, creating it, and being a part of the community have always been a huge part of my life. I remember being taken to theater as a very small child. One of my memories is being about eight years old and sitting on the floor in the front row as The Three Little Maids sang their song directly to me! I was thrilled!

Some theatrical performances were so profound that I have never forgotten them. When I was 12, I went to Goodman Theatre and saw a performance of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail. I haven't read or seen it since, but I am pretty sure that it was one of the plays that caused me to feel like I wanted to do "that" the rest of my life.

I saw the Broadway Tour of "Hair" at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, when I was 13. I dreamed about that musical for MONTHS. I wanted to run away and become part of the "tribe"... It was also thrilling. It was a tumultuous time in the United States and Hippies were everywhere. I wanted to be a hippie, but I was scared of running away, as so many teenagers did then. I liked the peace-niks and the natural life, the unfussy flowy clothing, not cutting hair, not shaving legs... I just didn't care for the "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" side, not being old enough to be ready for sex, not liking drugs (they're unnatural, right?), and not liking rock and roll that much. Were the Beatles rock and roll?? I liked some rock and roll, then.

I loved folk music: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, the Midnight Special radio program in Chicago, and the comedy of the pre-Monty Python set, and Firesign Theater. I'm writing this as I mourn the passing of the great Pete Seeger. I know he was 94, but still I wish he could live at least a bit forever more.

It's hard to put into words what it is about theater that grabs me and won't let go. And indeed, these days, as many shows as I go to, I still want to immerse myself more. For some practitioners of theater, after they are done with their own show, seeing others is a "bus-man's holiday," but not for me. While I might get tired, I never get tired of theater. See ya at the show!