Our Season Reviews
Excerpts from Reviews of the 2008-2009 Season
The Best Man,
by Gore Vidal
Directed by Sue Trigg
Facebook, October 14, 2009
…The Best Man is a story designed to elicit examination of the election
process. In this play, which is set in the 60’s, former Secretary of
State, William Russell, is running for job of president. We meet this play’s
characters in their respective hotel rooms during a major party’s national
convention. Russell (Richard Aiello) and his wife, Alice (Beth Chastain),
have re-united for appearance sake to make Russell’s run for the presidency
a possibility. Their personal relationship has been carefully hidden from
the public for years, due primarily to Russell’s dalliances with other
women. His principal opposition within his own party is a right wing evangelistic
wild-man, Senator Joseph Cantwell (Jim Janisch), who is accompanied to the
convention by his opportunistic wife, Mabel (Kristie Maloney).
Former president Arthur Hockstader (Dean Creighton), describes himself as a good
ol’ boy, “the last of the great hicks”, a powerful politician
whose nomination endorsement is highly sought by both candidates…
…This is a play that is really a perfect choice for the tenor of
our times and this local production is exceptionally well done.
Director Sue Trigg has gathered together a quite excellent cast who give you
the best of Gore Vidal. Aiello is very believable as a presidential candidate
with what seems to be more scruples than the average politician, even if his
personal morals are not above question. This play points out the fact that some
of our greatest presidents performed very well in their jobs, but very poorly
in their personal lives. Jim Janisch is quite excellent as the religious zealot
willing to compromise anything to get the power and prestige of the presidency!
The entire cast performed very well.
This is an engaging and very well done show, certain to get your thought processes
working!
The Underpants,
by Starl Sternheim, adapted by Steve Martin
Danville Weekly< January 23, 2009
'Underpants' - a revealing look at society
Steve Martin's adaptation of 1910 comedy filled with subtle insights
by Geoff Gillette
…A play originally written by Carl Sternheim in 1910 and adapted by comedian Steve Martin, "The Underpants" shows the silliness of cultural mores and the hypocrisy of those who view such things in black and white terms.
Taking place within the confines of the small home of Theo and Louise Maske, the show focuses on a simple wardrobe malfunction and the far-reaching consequences it brings.
While Theo and Louise (Eddie Peabody and Xanadu Bruggers) are attending a parade she experiences an unfortunate mishap where her underpants accidentally slip off and fall to the ground.
Theo, a government clerk, believes his life may have come to an end as a result of the event, while Louise doesn't think anyone even saw it, as the King was going by at the time.
The couple soon find themselves bombarded by men looking to rent the empty room. First comes Versati (Craig Eychner), a nobleman, poet and dandy who is besotted with Louise and her daring exposure. Then comes Cohen (Michael Sally), a sickly Jewish man also suddenly in love.
Louise seeks advice on how to deal with these romantic entanglements from Gertrude (Bonnie DeChant), the upstairs neighbor….
All members of the cast work well in giving the double entendres and innuendoes associated with "The Underpants" a thorough workout. Director Sue Trigg makes good use of the simple yet engaging set designed by Eleisa Cambra in moving the players around with an energy at times bordering on the manic.
Manic would also best describe actor Michael Sally's portrayal of Cohen, a character that could easily be lost behind the power of Blitt's hale and hearty Theo or Eychner's foppish Versati.. Sally channels a demented sort of Jerry Lewis physicality to Cohen's character, allowing him to steal more than one scene.
Bruggers and DeChant have a number of scenes together and the pair complement each other well. DeChant's salacious Gertrude proves a strong enabler to Louise's burgeoning sexuality, urging her along toward an affair with Versati while she herself is drawn to the loutish Theo.
Peabody does an excellent job of making Theo larger than life… He is a poster child for "do as I say, not as I do."
Kudos should go to John Blytt as well in the understated role of Klinghoffer, a third boarder attempting to rent the room and completely unaware of the ongoing uproar around him. His scenes with his pet fish Ludwig brought down the house. ...
…The Role Players cast utilizes Martin's trademark style, in turns with the deftness of a surgeon's scalpel or the power of a sledgehammer, reducing the audience to quivering laughter and applause.
What makes the show work so well is that it holds up a mirror to the cultural views regarding sex and gender that continue even today. It's easy to laugh because at some level we are laughing at ourselves.
Contra Costa Times, 4/20/2009
Review: Danville Role Players Ensemble brings emotional punch to “Three
Tall Women”
by Pat Craig
From the time he debuted the work in the mid-'90s, Edward Albee made it clear his "Three Tall Women" was his effort to come to terms with the relationship he and his adoptive mother endured.
But the play, being performed by Danville's Role Players Ensemble, is so much more than the airing of dirty laundry. It is the examination of a detailed tapestry of human emotion, exploring the nooks, crannies and backwaters of life in the long run.
It's a story told by three
women of different ages: Old and dying A (Elinor Bell), middle-aged B (JanLee
Marshall) and 20-something C (Sarah Kate Anderson). Or, as seems clearer in
the second act, it's the examination of one life from different ages.
It's a riveting yarn, told beautifully by the Role Players' cast, which immediately
picks up Albee's realistically packaged theater of the absurd and runs with
it.
In the first act, Bell gets all the good stuff, as a 90-some-year-old woman reaching the end of her life and exasperating the two younger women. And Bell is absolutely terrific in the role that moves her range from coquet to codger as she alternately relives her highlights over again in her memory and then is nearly paralyzed emotionally by the prospects of the slender future in store for her.
The play’s lines are more heavily divided in the second act, but the two younger women, aspects of the older woman’s life, remain at least somewhat overshadowed by A, who appears both as a mannequin, silent beneath her oxygen mask in bed, and as a fully mobile character on stage.
It is also here that the play's fourth, mute character, The Boy (Aaron Scherbath), comes into the room to sit silently beside his mom's bed. As he sits in silence, the three women relive A's life, revealing details and sharing secrets from different perspectives, in what is much more clearly Albee's autobiographical commentary.
Director Richard Robert Bunker, has created a crisp, clean piece
of theater, working with his actors to give the absurdist dialogue the ring
of realism, which makes the various tricks of dialogue and repeated lines as
effective as possible.
Contributing to this realistic feel is the master bedroom set design by Eleisa
Cambra
Charles Jarrett Reviews
Rossmoor News, April 19, 2009
Time stopped this week for Edward Albee’s Pulitzer prize classic, “Three
Tall Women”, in Danville… Three Tall Women is a brilliantly written,
powerful testament to the survivability of the feminine gender. It is engaging,
endearing, and arresting while attesting to the triumphs, tragedies and universality
of women..
Three Tall Women is a play, not of plot but of nuance, Albee being more interested
in how time and experience changes our voices…
Three Tall Women is like two different plays contained within one. The first
act appears to be a fairly common storyline, with generic characters, three
tall women who are the subject of the story…”Lady A” (Elinor
Bell) is a 91 year old wealthy woman in failing health, with various bodily
functions intermittently going astray... Lady “C” (Sarah Kate Anderson),
an impatient 26 year old legal aid… Lady “B” (Jan Lee Marshall)
is a 52 year old caretaker for the elderly woman.
The first act engages the three women as they discuss and deal with the many
moods, anger, distrust, intermittent dementia, pranks and foibles of the aging
Lady “A”. ..
When the second act opens and moves forward, we are at first confused, perhaps
even slightly bewildered, as the same three tall women are now on stage, having
left behind their first act characters, becoming instead three age specific-incarnations
of Lady “A”. They interact much like spirits, standing in the same
bedroom, apparently following Lady “A’s” stroke (where Lady “A’s “ body
still reclines in the bed). Lady “A’s “ son enters the room
and without expressing a word, pulls up a chair next to the bed, sits next
to his mother’s reclining form, and holds a vigil over her as the play
continues. The three tall women continue to be absorbed in a discussion between
themselves about “A’s” life’s experiences. Sarah Anderson
is now portraying Lady “A” as a 26 year old, Jan Lee Marshall examining
Lady “A’s” life experience up until her 52nd year, and Elinor
Bell summing up Lady “A’s” life’s collective experiences
to this point in time, in her 91st year. ..
Director Richard Robert Bunker has provided the audience with a richly rewarding,
albeit darkly illuminating, experience. He selected three extremely talented
actresses who are right on the money. While I was standing in the foyer of
the theater at intermission, I overheard a gentleman speaking to others about
how brilliantly portrayed these characters are. He exuberantly explained that
he “knew each of these women intimately”. I stopped him moments
later and asked him about his basis for making these statements. He conveyed
to me that he had been in the business of working with senior citizens as a
manager for a senior citizens home and convalescent care center for 28 years.
He again concluded that the director and actors had delivered very real characterizations
that he could relate to and was frankly amazed at such a great portrayal. I
have to concur! Superb performances, superb acting, superb set (Lisa Cambra)
and costumes (by Lisa Danz).
Danville Weekly, April 29, 2009
A night at the theater: Opening night of new
Role Players show is smooth sailing
By Geoff Gillette
As a former thespian in community productions, I am excited to visit backstage at the Village Theatre on Friday just prior to the opening of the Role Players Ensemble Theatre’s new production “Three Tall Women.
My own memories of opening nights fill me with anticipation of the buzz and activity backstage as time winds down and the actors prepare for the lights to come up. Role Players Artistic Director Sue Trigg ferries me back to the dressing room, where the three women in question ready themselves for their first appearance.
On our way we pass the lone male cast member, Aaron Scherbath, grabbing a quiet moment and a cigarette in the parking lot behind the theater. Trigg calls out to the young man and asks how he's doing.
Nervous," he says. "I'm nervous but I'm OK."
Trigg smiles and nods, "Nervous is good," she says and offers him
the traditional actor's salute of "break a leg."
Inside the building I get a chance to spend a few minutes with the three tall
ladies, Elinor Bell (A), JanLee Marshall (B) and Sarah Kate Anderson (C). Normally,
those would be actual names in the parentheses, but in Edward Albee's play
the women are never identified, so letters serve to set them apart.
The dressing room this evening has an energy to it, not of panic or fear but
of quiet expectancy. These actors have been rehearsing the play for the last
few months, but tonight it is real.
Bell is deeply engrossed in the process of transforming herself into the 92-year-old
A that she plays in the show. When I ask if I can snap some pictures of them
getting ready she offhandedly responds, "As long as I don't have to pay
attention."
Moments later as I head out to take my seat she murmurs, "Well, that was
pretty painless."
Ten minutes later the house lights dim, the stage lights come up, and the
show begins, a dissection of the final days in the life of an elderly woman.
In the first act, she is awake and talking with her nurse (Marshall) and an
attorney (Anderson). Her mind drifts in and out of the here and now, sometimes
weaving conversations now with events that happened long ago. The two other
women try to follow along with the twisting paths of thought, with only limited
success.
Through it all, you get a picture of what the woman's life was like, its highs
and lows.
The second act takes a turn and the same three women retake the stage as aspects
of the elderly woman from the first act, at different moments in her life.
They vividly display the joy of youth, the disappointment of middle age, and
the sagacity of the elderly.
Director Richard Robert Bunker chose his cast wisely; these three women work
well individually and together to present the life of A.
Bell turns in an astounding performance as her physicality coupled with the
makeup transform her into a convincing 92. The scenes where she is grappling
with her shifting memories ring true with a poignancy that is difficult to
attain. ..
Marshall's performance requires a more layered approach, as she plays the nurse/attendant
with a wry good humor in dealing with such subjects as loss of bladder control
and keeping pace with her cantankerous charge.
Yet in the second act she is forced to act outside that character, showing the
bitterness and anger that can fester in a life unfulfilled. Betrayals and disappointments
build up, and in a scene where she finally erupts at her long lost son (Aaron
Scherbath) the anger she displays scorches the air.
Anderson, the youngest of the three, displays the qualities of youth. The arrogance
of a life yet to be lived and the loss of innocence that comes with the discovery
of her own mortality. In talking to her older selves, she sees what is to come
in her life and questions her future, wondering if she will be happy.
Scherbath has a difficult role to play, as the son who is only seen but never
heard. He serves as the lightning rod to Marshall's anger but is unable to
respond. Yet his facial expressions speak volumes as he watches his mother
in her final moments…
The show is well done, in all aspects, from set design to lighting to costuming.
Even minor audio hiccups fail to distract from the tableau created by the three
actresses. "Three Tall Women" is a fascinating examination of a life
as it ends, and Role Players more than does the work justice
Charles Jarrett Reviews,
Rossmoor News, April 23, 2008
“Treachery 101, lots of fun in The School For Scandal”
The Role Players Ensemble Theatre in Danville is currently presenting a brilliantly clever restoration comedy, The School for Scandal, by the very articulate author, renowned orator and British parliamentarian, Richard Brinsley Sheridan…
This is a very complicated play and certainly a very ambitious play for community theatre.
There are 15 diversely comic and intriguing characters in this farcical story about sibling rivalry, love, lust, fidelity, infidelity, and artificial relationships…
Director Sue Trigg has done an excellent job of selecting cast members capable of providing full meaning to their characters. This is an outrageous farce, a grand comedy and for the most part, it is carried off very well. (more…)
Meghan Neal,
Danville Weekly, April 25, 2008
“A Scandalous romp. Comedy of manners proves that gossip is nothing new”
…The show holds nothing back. Ripe with unabashed sexual insinuation and tongue-in-cheek wit, it relentlessly pokes fun at the members of this London society…
The plot makes the ride even more fun. It's full of love triangles, scandalous affairs and irresistible deceit. And the talented cast provokes laugh-out-loud moments more than a few times. (more…)
Town of Danville Box Office: (925) 314-3463 www.villagetheatreshows.com
