Quotations
beautiful from minds profound
Those Whistling
Lads!
The Poetry and Short
Stories of Dorothy Parker
Written by Maureen
Van Trease
Adapted from works
by Dorothy Parker, with permission of the NAACP
Directed by Bricken
Sparacino
Midtown
International Theatre Festival (www.midtownfestival.org)
Workshop Theatre,
Equity Showcase (through
Review by Michael
D. Jackson
Maureen Van Trease has written
and stars in a kind of biographical play that utilizes the works of Dorothy
Parker to tell the Algonquin Round Table alumnus’ story during the 1920s. With
a focus on Parker’s relationships, Van Trease dramatizes five light romantic
stories and a sprinkling of poems and witty one-liners, with the help of an
ensemble of six actors to play a variety of roles.
Van Trease plays (and is a
dead ringer for) Parker herself, as narrator and protagonist. Parker as a
character, however, does not have a great deal to do, though she is a constant
presence. She is mainly relegated to the job of master of ceremonies, only
participating in scenes occasionally. The meaty scenes are acted by the
ensemble in the adaptations of “Here We Are”, “The Sexes”, “You Were Perfectly
Fine”, “A Telephone Call”, and “Dusk Before Fireworks.”
Although each scene has
charm, they mostly go on too long. None of them are substantial enough to
really sustain and they seem overwritten. In every single sequence, the gimmick
of the scene is established pretty quickly and then the idea is run into the
ground before a blackout brings it to an end. All of the scenes are a good idea
and have funny bits to savor, but a careful editing might have kept these
sketches clean and snappy. In “Here We Are,” a newlywed couple (Ethan Angelica and Hannah Wolfe) battle through wedding night nerves as they travel to
their honeymoon hotel by train. The wife is overly sensitive and finds offense
at every other thing the husband says. The poor guy doesn’t mean to insult his
new wife, but he can say nothing right. This routine is funny three times and
then it becomes tiresome.
The same is true for “Dusk
Before Fireworks,” when Kit (Natalie
Wilder) and Hobie (Glenn B. Stoops)
are interrupted by Hobie’s phone ringing. Kit can only imagine it is another
woman competing for Hobie’s affections and proceeds to make a mountain out of a
molehill. After Hobie calms Kit down and gets her back into a romantic mood,
the phone rings again and it’s fireworks once more. This routine is played out
one too many times and disintegrates. That said, there are many fun moments, a
lot of enthusiastic energy from the cast, and the over all length of the piece
is just right for a collection of vignettes. Justin Herfel and Annalyse
McCoy round out the formidable cast.
Bricken Sparacino has found
clever ways of staging the material with only basic props and furniture. She
has guided the cast to a sort of ballooned delivery of the material, giving it
a comic attitude, but the material might have played better if more emphasis
was given to finding a naturalistic reading of Parker’s heightened words. There
is a sense that the actors are working awfully hard to ensure the laughs. Helen Muller’s costumes are well
thought out, keeping the ensemble women in related pastels suggesting the
period. The men are less stylized in their attire, but wear enough of the right
things to maintain a unified look to the overall design. Sound is handled thoughtfully
by Michael Lanning, with period
music and vintage phone ring tones. Lighting by Diana Kesselschmidt does the job adequately under limited
conditions.
Van Trease has a terrific
start on what could become a very interesting and entertaining view of Dorothy
Parker’s material. If the material could be judicially edited and weave more
into the biography, rather than treated like variety show sketches, the show
could blossom into something quite special. Another approach might be to drop
the biographical character narrative altogether and find a new harness for the
vignettes. Whatever the answer may be, here’s hoping that Van Trease and
company keep working and growing with this material.
Writing: 1
Directing: 1
Acting: 1
Sets: 1
Costumes: 2
Lighting/Sound: 2
Copyright 2008 by Michael D.
Jackson
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