The Rake Magazine

Tag: theater

  • All Hopped Up on Russian Rye

    I could tell jokes about Tsarist Russians all day long, so I’ll just leave it to the folks at the Guthrie’s Wurtele Thrust Stage, where a new adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s 19th century comedy The Government Inspector runs through August 24. Local playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (The Falls and the screenplays for Stage Beauty and Casanova) lends his trademark humor to the madcap proceedings where, unfortunately, the parts do not add up to a whole.

    The heads of a small Russian village are horrified to learn that a government inspector is coming to make a thorough visit to the town. Even worse, he may be in disguise. Mayor Anton Antonovich (Peter Michael Goetz) knows his town isn’t an exemplary place – the hospital was built the same size as its model, the school principal is frightened of his teachers and geese are being raised in the courtroom jury box – so he proclaims that the government inspector must be found and dealt with. A case of mistaken identity leads them to Ivan Alexandreyevich Hlestakov (Broadway vet Hunter Foster), a down-on-his-luck-and-finances card player on his way to visit his father. He unexpectedly finds himself the object of everyone’s affections, getting bribes thrown at him from the men of the town and much, much more from the women.

    The sardonic examinations of greed and corruption are balanced with as many sex jokes and innuendos as you would imagine in a Russian play. No doubt taking many liberties with the source material, Hatcher and director Joe Dowling have crafted several moments of uproarious hilarity. It really is a pity that the comedy isn’t consistent; when the jokes fall, they fall hard and the play creeps to a crawling pace. The cast is a worthy ensemble, but they cannot help when audiences are thrown yet another joke about what Russian alcohol is made of or a talk about seduction shortly before the most repulsive woman walks in. As a result, the play is only truly captivating when certain performers are on stage. When they’re gone, you’re in for the long haul.

    In the central role, Foster gives an admirable performance. Another unfortunate mistake is making Foster’s character one of the least interesting in the play. Ivan is a typical, likable doofus in way over his head, but when Foster gets the chance to reach beyond that, he is truly hilarious. Whether it be showcasing his physical abilities when drunk or composing an impromptu poem/love song to his supposed sweetheart Marya (think "aria" or… "operaria"), he shows a wide array of comic talents that are suppressed more often than not. In having Ivan attempting to make himself seem like a gentleman, we get a character that is too typically bumbling, especially when the audience knows the performer is capable of so much more.

    As the mayor’s wife, veteran performer Sally Wingert easily walks away with the show. Decked out in a set of increasingly ridiculous dresses, Wingert completely inhabits the role of lusty, jaded and ignored woman and runs. She manages to take every line, no matter how cliché, and turn it into comedic gold; while butchering French for comic effect is hardly a new joke, Wingert’s crass and brash destruction of the language has audiences splitting their sides. Kris L. Nelson and Lee Mark Nelson do a twisted, lispy riff on Tweedledee and Tweedledum to great effect. And in a brief but memorable role, Jim Lichtscheidl is hilarious as a laidback, honest and gossipy postman.

    The other members of the cast are more or less successful in their shtick: Raye Birk, Wayne A. Evenson and Stephen Yoakam are funnier in their neurotic town head roles; Maggie Chestovich less so as the mayor’s daughter, playing her as the stereotypical whiny teenager without any real innovation. But they play off each other well. Sparks fly in some cases; Foster’s secret trysts with Wingert and Chestovich are among the high points of the play, even if the circumstances surrounding their meetings are no more than afterthoughts.

    Set in what may be the brightest and most colorful version of Russia ever, Dowling directs the production with the intent to make everything fast and snappy. From the plywood cutout set by John Arnone, to the cartoonish costumes by Ann Hould-Ward, everyone involved seems determined to make audiences forget ever thinking that Russians are dark and depressing. With transitions offset by a raucous ensemble of villagers and a turntable on the stage (why not?), everything flows quickly. Until, of course, the jokes fall flat and the pace drops dead.

    The Government Inspector is far from tedious in the end. It is always entertaining and frequently laugh-inducing. Just not as consistently riotous as it should be. A likable cast with more than a few comic gems is enough to pull the production out of any rut and make even the lamest of jokes admirable. And in a show where making a good, lasting impression is the most important thing, the folks at the Guthrie have certainly accomplished their mission.

  • Letters from Eurydice

    Hi,
    this is Steve Hendrickson, a local actor living in the Twin Cities and
    an Artistic Associate of Ten Thousand Things Theater (hereafter known
    as TTT). I’ve been asked by The Rake to do a blog on TTT’s upcoming
    production of Eurydice. TTT is the brainchild of Michelle
    Hensley, who founded the company in LA and then moved it here to the
    Twin Cities. TTT is distinctive in that is has no permanent theatre
    venue. Instead, TTT takes it’s productions to people who might
    otherwise never be able to experience a live theatrical performance. We
    tour prisons, homeless shelters, drug rehab facilities and other sites
    who minister to the poor and otherwise disenfranchised of our society. (We
    also do two weeks of paid public performances. These occur the first
    two weekends in March at the Open Book and Minnesota Opera Center.
    Check the website below for dates and move fast, these performances
    sell out fast.)     We perform for these audiences, not out of charity
    or pity, but to acknowledge our common humanity and facilitate a
    wonderful barter: our audiences participate in the wealth of a live
    performance and, through them, we re-explore, re-imagine and
    re-invigorate theater.

    OK, lofty grant-proposal words. In common parlance, here’s how they translate:

    Being a TTT actor is hard. TTT shows tour
    and must play in spaces not designed for performance- gymnasiums,
    cafeterias, lobbies, etc. Of necessity then, the productions must be
    spare. There is no theatrical lighting- we perform in whatever light
    the room offers, frequently fluorescent. Everything we bring, sets,
    props, musical instruments, etc. Must fit in the back of one small
    rental van. The company (frequently at 9:30am) unloads the van, sets
    everything up, get dressed in a classroom or bathroom or no room at all,
    plays the show, stays and talks with the audience if they’re willing
    and able, takes down the set, packs it back into the van and heads home.

    But
    because TTT shows are spare, they focus almost exclusively on the text
    of the play, it’s characters and their relationships. TTT presents
    theatre at it’s most essential, reductive level. There’s an old adage:
    you need four elements for a theatre: an audience, a player, a passion
    and a place to stand. There can be no disguising the shortcomings of a
    TTT production through dazzling scenery, lighting and special effects.
    It’s just the actors and the audience, an arrangement at once
    terrifying and exhilarating because…

    Our
    audiences are smart. Not educated, perhaps (though you would be
    surprised at how often they’ll quote Shakespeare back at you), but you
    can’t survive on a poverty level income without knowing a bit about the
    world, the people in it and how they think and engage with each other.
    They recognize dishonesty, deception and plain bullshit five miles away
    whether upwind or down and have no reservations about letting the
    characters in a play (or the actors playing them) know when something
    smells. These audiences are used to dealing with officials in power,
    where the wrong form or the wrong word could mean the difference in
    getting a hot meal or a warm bed on a twenty below night in St. Paul.
    In non-prison venues if they don’t like the show, they leave, usually
    with a "this is bullshit!" for us to remember them by. On the other
    hand, true kindness, compassion, generosity and love are also quickly
    noted, prized and embraced. TTT audiences can be openly engaged,
    enchanted, enthralled. With the intelligence of adults but seldom any
    of the reserve of traditional audiences, they are the closest modern
    equivalent we have to the groundlings of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.
    Hamlet, sword in hand and pondering the killing of King Claudius as he
    is praying asks "and so he goes to heaven, And so am I reveng’d?"

    Audiences at the Guthrie may think things like "No, wait!" or "do that motherfucker!" TTT audiences will say them, no, shout
    them. And, gentle readers, let me say when that happens there is no
    situation close to it. It is one of the most exciting, visceral
    theatrical experiences anyone, actor or audience member, can undergo.

    Which
    is why, for most local actors, working on A TTT production is a highly
    prized gig. TTT attracts some pretty impressive talent: Sally Wingert,
    Bob Davis, Sonja Parks, Richard Ooms, Kate Eifrig, Jim Lichtscheidl,
    Kevin Kling, Norah Long and Bradley Greenwald, to name only a handful,
    have all been tapped by TTT and I suspect are eager to return.

    So TTT is something extraordinary among extraordinary theatres. Next time, I’ll write about our current production, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl.

    For more information on Eurydice and all things TTT visit our website at http://www.tenthousandthings.org