LOS ANGELES TIMES
October 9, 2003
THEATER REVIEW
In Venice, this fable of
rebirth is ambitious but not outstanding.
by Rob Kendt
All Tennessee Williams plays are like operas without music, but
few have quite the hot-blooded, primal sweep of his turgid 1955 melodrama,
"Orpheus Descending." This fable about a guitar-picking drifter who
blows into a Southern town and romances a middle-age Italian woman is
perilously close to self-parody--"Lady Chatterley's Lover" spiced
with Gothic apocalypse. Done right, though, it can be a heady, shattering
cocktail.
Director Elina de Santos' new production nails the tangled
relationships and mines the play's wicked humor but fails to build its steadily
encroaching threat of fateful violence.
From her first entrance on Stephanie Kerley Schwartz's lived-in
set, Lady (Marilyn Fox, in a beautifully arced performance) exudes exasperation
with her sickly husband, Jabe, with her gossipy circle of fair-weather friends
and with life in general. But she gradually reawakens under the sway of the
dubious but undeniable young newcomer Val (Greg Vignolle).
Also stirred by Val are Carol, the town's jittery outcast (a
movingly haggard but miscast Alley Mills, whom costumer Audrey Eisner decks in
anachronistic hippie/punk duds), and Vee, a religious nut played by Sharron
Shayne as sweetly dizzy rather than slightly disturbing, thus draining some
crucial suspense.
Giving a clearer sense of the dangerous stakes of Lady's
predicament is Brad Queenquist's Jabe, who deeply chills his few scenes.
Also standing out are Clarinda Ross as a dishy loudmouth, Dan
Verdin as a redneck sheriff, Diane Hurley as a cranky nurse and Jake Arnette as
Lady's former beau.
Williams' denouement is so cataclysmic that perhaps only the
graphic realism of film--or some crashing chords from an orchestra and high
notes from a dying soprano--could do it justice. Still, Ed Cha's otherwise fine
lighting falters here, as does the tinny sound design (credited to Glass Tea).
On the strength of its central performances, this
"Orpheus" does hit home.
It ought to burn down the house.
*
'Orpheus Descending'
Where: Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice
When: Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m.
Ends: Dec. 7
Price: $20-$23.50
Info: (310) 822-8392
Running time: 3 hours, 10 minutes