The Family Game
by Don Grigware

A child abuser is “sick in his soul.” Georgia Flosi’s words from her play The Family Game could not be better chosen. Currently at the Theatre of Hope in NoHo, the play explores a father’s sins and their long-range effect on his daughter’s unhappy existence.

What makes this frequently told story so special, apart from the lucid writing, is the appearance of Charlie Brill and his adorable wife Mitzi McCall. Top comic headliners since the 60s, Brill and McCall play a husband and wife whose life together is interrupted not only by his lethal cancer, but by their daughter Kate’s accusation that he molested her as a child. This is material 360 degrees away from what they usually play and they do honorable justice to it.

Will and Maureen come back into their daughter’s life at a point where he needs sympathy and closure. Most unfortunate is that Kate’s married life has been a living hell due to the past. She has a daughter Darcy who adores her grandpa. For fear that his perversion will also have its effect on Darcy, Kate refuses to share her with him. Kate also has issues with her mother, who had left her alone with her stepfather and had ignored Kate’s stories of abuse. Kate’s brother Chris had also been abused by Will, but has managed to come to terms with the past and be forgiving, as he has turned to the ministry of Christ.

The gritty play has many high and low moments. It is straight-forward with a wonderful ensemble, headed by Brill and McCall. Under the capable hands of director Cynthia Baer, outstanding work emerges from Joanne McGee as Kate, Ryan Cassidy as the sweet brother Chris, Gary Lamb as Kate’s bitter husband Stan and Jessica Harrow as Darcy.

When Kate ends the play with the comment that the best thing Will ever did was to die, we can only hope that therapy will eventually make her more tolerant. However, above any other concluding remarks, rings loud and clear the message “children have to be protected.”

A Hatful of Rain
by Don Grigware

"When you love, you have to be responsible to what you love” is a most unheeded piece of advice - and always has been. In the 50s, when Michael V. Gazzo wrote A Hatful of Rain, drug addiction was prevalent among GIs returning from Korea. Satisfying heroine dependency becomes top priority in Johnny Pope’s (Dominic Comperatore) uncertain life, even if it destroys his family. The production currently at the Actors Forum Theatre directed with expert detail by Audrey M. Singer succeeds admirably, as it focuses completely on Gazzo’s basic theme of need.

Keeping the addiction private and lying to family members deepens the wounds as it intensifies the conflict. Johnny’s wife Celia (Laura Lamson in a beautifully restrained performance) is unaware that Johnny’s gang are victimizing and killing him. His visiting father John Pope Sr. (an aggressively funny portrait by Bob Sutton) is left in the dark as well, attributing Johnny’s useless behavior to past failures. Only brother Polo (a magnetic Fred Saldone) knows the truth and unjustly conceals it. What make matters worse is a deep attraction that exists between Polo and Celia. Both have needs whose fulfillment may be considered unacceptable under one roof, but that does not make them any less strong. Polo turns to the bottle and a pregnant Celia to a rejection of Johnny whose own problems have already distanced him from the family core.

This is kitchen-sink reality, achieving maximum effects in this intimate space, and audiences will be chilled by the power of Johnny’s pain and Celia’s compassion. Polo’s volatile nature and his father’s stern detachment are equally affecting and even Putski’s small acts of sensual playfulness (Pam Levin is memorable, proving that there is no such thing as a small part) demand to be witnessed.

Champagne Powell as Mother, Anthony Martins as Chuch and Joseph Guarnieri as Apples prowl around appropriately as the true vermin of humanity.

The play’s content may be a bitter pill to swallow, but it tests just how keenly we are aware of our own frailties and those of others. Five star production.

After the Fall
by Don Grigware

As the curtain rises on Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, Quentin questions if he has lived life in good faith. He talks of his mother’s passing as well as that of his second wife Maggie. He is not grieving, but far worse - seeping into a state of malaise. Currently at the Fountain Theatre, this After the fall receives a no frills production thanks to the candor of director Stephen Sachs.

Sachs concentrates wholeheartedly on Mil-ler’s probing of man’s pointlessness. Quentin (a brilliant turn from Morlan Higgins) is a lawyer who has chosen to defend a dear friend being subpoenaed to name names during the era of McCarthyism. He himself faces being branded a red lawyer – thus, the ruin of his career. His wife Louise (a formidable Jacqueline Schultz) has already accused him of treating her like his mother. He also must face a failed marriage. When Maggie comes into his life, he lauds her innocence and sense of truth – "she wasn’t upholding, defending, or accusing anyone." Maggie’s character bears a remarkable resemblance to Marilyn Monroe, and when the play first opened, it instantly sparked controversy. Fall features the incredibly talented Tracy Middendorf as Maggie. Maggie is all love and charity. After she and Quentin marry, though, problems escalate and little by little she descends into a world of pills, delusion and self-destruction. Quentin faces another failed marriage – and this time with a totally different kind of woman.

Doubt finally turns to optimism in the presence of Holga (Colleen Quinn), a German woman who became Miller’s third wife. With her, Quentin sees hope and learns “not to be afraid. Perhaps that’s all one has.” She teaches him “to take one’s life in one’s arms.”

The power of Arthur Miller’s words is fully realized in this production, thanks to a great ensemble of actors, which also includes Mimi Cozzens and Malachi Throne as Quentin’s parents, Cooper Thornton as the doomed Lou, and Laura Margolis as the cute girl with the nose job.

Hell’s Cuisinart
by Michelle Malik

You haven’t really seen New York if you haven’t seen in through the eyes of David Caudle’s curious comedy Hell’s Cuisinart. A far cry from the Tamarind Theater along Hollywood’s trendy Franklin Avenue, the play is set in the undesirable part of NYC, Hell’s Kitchen, a raw, tenement-plagued part of town where homeless folks take up house if they like and floozies bring their married boyfriends to their brother’s digs for a few kicks while he’s at work.

Director Joseph Greco directs a stunning cast of real people who tangle us into their web of cramped spaces, failing relationships, insanity, and goofy visitors from other regions all in one apartment building. This is no Barefoot in the Park folks. You will see the layers peel, and it isn’t always pretty.

Robert Caso plays the dual roles of the tremendously tender, scorned gay lover and later a nice guy who finally musters up the courage to tell his younger sister (Jenette Kozak) off. Jenette also epitomizes the trashy Queens landlady. Bob Spletzer plays the guilty married lover and Carey Dunn as her brother’s hilarious, uninvited Belgian houseguest. Edward Deraney is the honest, struggling actor who lacks support from his preoccupied father and cold roommate played by Patricia Tallman, who later is outstanding as the mentally ill, largely neglected wife who suffers from a Walter Mitty complex. William Makozak is her uninvolved, typewriter-tinkering husband as well as the newly-outted gay man who jeopardizes a loving same-sex relationship to test other waters. Matt Stevens and Bess Fanning are the compassionate Midwesterners that feel for hustler homeless guy (Jeff Sable) but do not want to be taken for a ride.

Hilde Garcia is the show’s producer and co-chairperson of the Florida Project, a marvelous and quickly spreading organization of creative souls who contribute their acting, writing, and other artistic talents to see that plays, shows, readings, and workshops are continually produced in Florida, New York, and Los Angeles. Check them out at www.floridaproject.org. I highly recommend it!

Victor
by Michael Jarrett Christensen

"Creation holds a trap for foolish minds." This enigma is ultimately carried to conclusion of the play Victor by Alistair Faulkner at the Eclectic Company Theatre. We are warned of our limitations but are goaded by our potential, thus the separation between the two becomes increasingly thin.

We are familiar with the story of Frankenstein, how a scientific genius created life from death, and how the aberration became his own undoing. Shelly's novel ends with the doctor chasing the creature toward the Arctic Sea. But what happened?

We find ourselves transported back in time. Director Taylor Ashbrook's extraordinary use of simple, even crude props establish the period and mood. Costumes are also realistically vintage. The sparse set gave unto itself a dramatic tone. Placed in a remote island on the northern tip of Scotland, we witness a curious existence for the characters. Our heroine, Freya Gifford, (played by a naturally charismatic Alison Robertson) is trapped in a life of recklessness and despair, as she longs for the bright lights of London.

Elizabeth Derment deftly captures the loyal Agnes who sincerely gives of herself. The idealistic doctor James Gifford (Brian David Pope) is forever changed by an accident, and is literally attached by Victor's influence. James Castle Steven plays the title character with restraint and poise, a subtle and refreshing interpretation. The creature is played with benevolence by David Rey-nolds, as he is looking for cosmic answers we take for granted. A force to be reckoned with is Christopher Corey-Smith as Ewan Sinclair. John Dickey rounds the cast as Captain Robert Walton, who serves as the play's chorus.

Victor is a metaphor for who pursue their creation, their creation pursues them. The two are inexorably linked, of how we chase the spirit that created us, continually asking questions that we fail to hear or understand. The continuation of life is juxtaposed to the finality of death. We feel Victor's and the creature's pain.

More Theatre
by Archie Rothman

The Gefffen Playhouse becomes a large Baptist church in God’s Man in Texas. Watching this new play by local playwright David Rambo I wondered why the Geffen chose to stage it. It’s not a comedy or a satire or a drama. It’s not innovative nor original. In fact much of it repeats well-known speeches and plots. It rehashes familiar faults about spirituality and its failings.

Into the sprawling Rock Baptist Church in Houston, a house of worship that combines a recreation center with swimming pools, bowling leagues, singles’ nights, a television show, and all the comforts of a contemporary American church center, comes a San Antonio minister Dr. Jeremiah “Jerry” Mears (Frances Guinan), whose salesman-preacher father vanished in mysterious circumstances. A complete opposite is Dr. Philip Gottschall (George Coe) a crusty, cantakerous, octogenarian school preacher whose board members want him to leave. But he isn’t going as long as he’s healthy enough and his tv ratings stay high.

Completing the threesome is Hugo Taney (Ian Barford) who suggests that Mears use a more folksy approach in his sermons. The escalating tension between Gottschall and Mears drives most of the play’s action, but Randall Arney’s direction can’t help the very talky and preachy sermons and dialogues that fill the almost 2 hours and 20 minutes running time. Modern religion’s commercialism is a good subject for a play, but this is so dull and familiar that many in the audience left the Westwood Theatre after the first act.