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Saturday, Jul 04, 2009
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Well - to your health |
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| Well - to your health | ||
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by Miryam Gordon -
SGN A&E Writer Well Directed by David Hsieh Hugo House Through June 1 This is a pretty good play, as written. The title, Well, refers to illness and getting well. The playwright, Lisa Kron, constructs this evening as a theatrical experiment that she's presenting on note cards. Her mother is played by an actress, but is introduced as her mother. That sounds like any other play, but it's a little more complicated. Probably, even when the playwright performed this play as "herself," she still had an actress onstage playing her mother, while she seems to be introducing her real mother, who is not an actress and doesn't want to be in a play. Kron wants to explore the idea of getting well. Some people can, others can't. Some people do, others don't. Is there some reason that can be found for who does which? Her mother has been sick for what is described as most of her life, but not so sick that she can't end up leading a neighborhood association enough to revive the entire neighborhood. These facts appear to be real-life facts about her and her mother. But she says the play is not about her personal life. She just uses her personal life to examine the larger question. This production is generally well done, enough so that you can hear what the playwright has to say. The problem is that the production has not honed in on how to make it work. There are cadences to the speech that are just missing the mark. There is a sharpness and snappiness to the script that isn't apparent in the actions here. Roberta Furst, playing Lisa, sort of as herself, is a lovely actress, and she did all the right kinds of things to inhabit this character. Walayn Sharples did a great job playing the mother, Ann. The supporting cast - Ellen Dessler, Marcel David, Gordon Hendrickson, and the director, Shawn J West, filling in for an injured La'Chris Jordan - played their multiple roles and distinguished between the characters with fun transitions. Overall, however, despite their best efforts, the play feels like it's an ill-fitting suit of clothes. The jokes don't quite hit, the "real" part doesn't feel real. There is a veneer of fakeness over it, rather than the feeling of it happening right in front of you. It just seems a little messy. Despite describing that, the production is a worthy effort and you may well enjoy seeing it. It's got a great message and has a good cast of actors. Perhaps you won't have the same experience of something missing and the whole thing will mean more to you. For more information, go to www.reacttheatre.org or call 206-364-3283. Comments on reviews go to sgncritic@gmail.com |
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