THE WICKED STAGE and the gag reel

By Rob Kendt

Nothing says summer fun like Samuel Beckett, eh? Let the masses flock to the multiplex for comic-book movies and air conditioning; we theatregoers prefer our art straight, no popcorn chaser. Closing this weekend at the Odyssey (which last week was cool in the theatre, hot in the lobby) is a much-lauded production of Endgame, which I would recommend for the chance to see the play mounted (the last local production was 10 years ago at the Matrix, and I don't expect to see it tackled again soon), though I had my reservations about the production, directed ably by Kristina Lloyd. I enjoyed the hypnotically twitchy exertions of Zachary Quinto's punkish Clov and the letter-perfect work of Del Monroe as the desperate, weary, ashcan-confined Nagg (but speaking of nagging, why are those ashcans so low to the ground? It removes any sense that Nagg and Nell are confined anywhere but a comfortable below-stage trap space). As the blind, officious Hamm, Nicholas F. Leland gives a heroic but effortful performance; physically it's a tour de force, as Hamm sits and fusses meaningfully in his wheely chair, and Leland does mine some genuine pathos. But I found his reading overall too one-note, all petulant, needy surface; there is no threat in this impotent Hamm, and hence no suspense in his master/servant dynamic with the feisty Clov.

Beckett's slightly more oft-performed Waiting for Godot (the Matrix and San Diego Rep both did it, masterfully, in 2000) has just been announced for an Aug. 1 opening at NoHo's American Renegade Theatre. Producer/director K. Douglas McKennon and his "gay-owned and -operated" Anaglyph Productions are new to me, though some choice quotes from the press release go a long way toward making an introduction: McKennon, it reads, "is not interested or concerned only in entertaining, but enlightening and educating his audience. Artists, audience members, and critics alike might consider this a slap in the face, but he believes that is the purpose of theatre." Bring it on, K. Later, the press release explains that "controversy arises regarding [McKennon's] techniques… [which] have been considered a conglomeration of the Group Theatre, Meisner, Grotowski, Stanislavski, Brecht, and the Living Theatre. But one cannot argue that this producer/director does not meet each actor on his own level…" The cast is inarguably eclectic, at least from the single credits listed in the press release: We learn that J. Patrick Wade, who plays Estragon, has appeared on Ed; that Sean Allen Jones, who plays Vladimir, has appeared on The West Wing; that Kevin C. Carr, who plays Pozzo, was a professional clown in Ringling Brothers' Barnum and Bailey Circus, and that Alberto E. Apodaca, who plays Lucky, was a publishing executive at Tina Brown's Talk magazine. Quaquaquaqua?

• I caught the packed last performance of Cornerstone's Order My Steps and, despite the warnings of colleagues, was pleasantly surprised. The show must have tightened up since opening, because Tracey Scott-Wilson's play seemed to move smoothly between the story of a couple ostracized by their church for contracting HIV and the glossy, musicalized storytelling of an urban-circuit-style fictionalization of their relationship. Indeed, it moved all too smoothly, so that the point of the back-and-forth, and the contrast between "real life" and the musical, was eventually lost. Ostensibly developed around the themes of AIDS among African-Americans and the response of their churches to the pandemic, Wilson's play was ultimately less about AIDS than about religious attitudes toward homosexuality; this was essentially Far From Heaven set in a black church, with a similarly anguished if more urgent ending, to the rousing strains of the Andrae Crouch classic that gave the play its title. As the woman seeking answers first from her conflicted husband, then from the church that rejects him, Adina Porter was extraordinary; a relatively recent addition to the Cornerstone acting ensemble, Porter has a haunting presence that somehow combines sleepy calm with raw nerve. She's a riveting performer. And scenes between seasoned pro Jeris Lee Poindexter, as a duded-up deacon, and the conflicted pastor, played by the effortlessly authentic George W. Gant (a real-life church deacon and realtor by day), had wit and snap. Still, these, like the rest of Wilson's play--staged in a sleek theatre space at Phoenix Hall, in the same labor/arts center in Watts where Cornerstone did its definitive L.A. bridge show, The Central Ave. Chalk Circle in 1995--were ultimately more entertaining than earth-shaking.

For sheer entertainment value, it's hard to beat the promise of Cornerstone's next big project, planned for a collaboration with Southland Islamic communities: An adaptation by Peter Howard of Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You, set among a contemporary Muslim family. Granting these rare reworking rights to the 1930s classic was Christopher Hart, the playwright's heir who recently staged his father's Light Up the Sky to acclaim at Malibu Stage.

One former Cornerstoner, Tamar Fortgang, is the driving force behind another promising production: a new Taming of the Shrew to be staged environmentally throughout the resplendent Downtown movie palace the Orpheum. It's officially a Zoo District production, in collaboration with the Orpheum and its owners, the Needlemans, and the L.A. Conservancy, but there's no question who's wearing the pants here (Fortgang is playing Kate, after all). It opens in September under director Alec Wild, and promises to take a roving 90-person audience on a sort of tour as it tells the Bard's agelessly problematic battle of the sexes.

• Tennessee Williams fans should rejoice at the upcoming convergence of two infrequently produced works: Vieux Carre, opening Aug. 2 at the Ivy Substation, and Small Craft Warnings, to open Aug. 7 at the Evidence Room. The latter is a revival of a production spotted by theatre maven Travis Michael Holder at the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in March; he's persuaded the original producer/director, Stacey Arton, to come West with a few of the actors, filling the rest of the local cast with such talents as John Fleck, Wendy Johnson, Jeremy Lelliott, Don Oscar Smith, and Christian Svensson. As for Vieux Carre, the producers have a treat in store, for a few evening hours before the performance on Sunday, Aug. 10: A pre-show symposium of Williams scholars, including Robert Bray, Ph.D. (moderator), the founding editor of The Tennessee Williams Review; Gavin Lambert, the writer who adapted The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and Sweet Bird of Youth for their screen versions; Leon Katz, a Professor Emeritus of Drama from Yale, and Carl R. Mueller, Ph.D., a theatre history professor at UCLA with a four-volume Euripides translation on the way. Truth be told, it's Williams, not Beckett or the ubiquitous outdoor-fest Shakespeare, whose plays were made for these lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.