from the C-T...
BG--
immediate theatre project shines twice
by Tony Kiss
On a pretty summer day, a passionate baseball fan might exclaim “Let’s play two!” Asheville’s immediate theatre project is now doing just that, performing a pair of shows, one after another, at the cozy N.C. Stage Company space downtown.
And these aren’t quick, connected one-acts. “On the Verge or the Geography of Yearning” and “Below the Belt” are not linked in any particular way, except sharing the same director (Hans Meyer) and some offstage crew. The cast, playwrights and stories are different. Audiences can watch one, or both, or come to see the plays on different nights.
It’s a lot of work for this little acting company, which has established itself as one of the city’s best. And it’s a lot of theater to absorb in one evening (or matinee, as the case may be). On opening night, “Verge” began at 7:30 p.m. and “Belt” ended around 12:30 a.m., which included intermissions in both programs, and a break between the two.
But again, it’s not necessary to catch them both in one sitting, though it makes for an interesting and entertaining experience.
“Verge” centers on three women explorers in the late 19th century, making a bizarre jungle journey. “Belt” follows three guys toiling in a prisonlike manufacturing plant, two of them constantly snapping at the third.
‘On the Verge’
“On the Verge or The Geography of Yearning” by Eric Overmyer has three Victorian-era women in some thick jungle to explore a land they call Terra Ingognita. Fanny (Katie Langwell) is the conservative housewife, Mary (Vivian Smith) the no-nonsense traveler who usually goes solo, and Alexandra (Trinity Smith) the youngest and the dreamer in this bunch.
Quickly, it’s obvious they’ve slipped into a time warp, and the further they go, the more they travel to the future, and the stranger the tale becomes. Erik Moellering plays a handful of supporting male characters. By the year 1955, they have come so far from their own time that some personal decisions need to be made.
‘Below the Belt’
“Below the Belt” is plenty quirky as well. In an industrial plant, eager new arrival Dobbitt (Chris Allison) finds himself in workplace hell, toiling alongside the fidgety, hair-triggered Hanrahan (Darren Marshall in the strongest performance in either show) and their nasty boss, Merkin (Strother Stingley). While Dobbitt only wants to please, the others torment and turn against him at every turn. Here, too, a choice must be made, with Merkin pulling Dobbitt into a plot that’s totally against his nature.
This one is a bit like The Three Stooges meet “Seinfeld” – and it’s a howler that leaves you buzzing at the end. With the shows running through Aug. 17, make a point to catch this engaging “experiment in theater.”
01 August 2008
On the Verge & Below the Belt
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3 comments:
Just came home from seeing Below the Belt and it is really excellent, top to bottom. Very clever script, great acting from all three players, smart direction, hilarious nod to Arrested Development (the shortly-lived cult hit sitcom, not the hip hop group) at one point. Seeing On the Verge next weekend and may be tempted to catch BtB a second time.
Last night I had the opportunity to see ITP's other current offering, On the Verge. Though performances and production value were about equal with Below the Belt, I didn’t enjoy this script nearly as much. The idea of it has merit and is interesting but the language of the play seemed really self-conscious in its quirkiness (with a lot of repeated words and phrases for no reason I could discern other than the playwright liked how they sounded) and the winks at what America has become in the last hundred years grew tiresome for me. The litany of items and concepts that these women “osmosed” about the future started to sound like a prescient version of “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
All that said, the production was still of high quality. The cast had a good chemistry and I found Katie Langwell to have a stand-out performance, though the other three actors were all quite good. The costumes were fantastic and the choice to have basically a blank canvas as their landscape was effective, and made it fun for the audience when the characters would make a discovery hidden on this stage that appeared to have no hiding places.
I definitely recommend both plays and I have heard both to be various audience members’ favorites of the two.
So I went the double header route and caught both On the Verge and Below the Belt last night. More on the effect of the format in a moment.
I'd like to start with Below the Belt. If one goes with the Mamet theory that the only real enjoyment an audience gets from theatre is the joy of feeling that they are in on the joke or the meaning of the play ( a bit of a morbid view), I would still unashamedly say that Below the Belt was like sitting down with an old friend for a nice chat over coffee. This mostly leads me to say that while I don't want to take the gushy stance of 'Best show of the year!' I will at the very least say that the writing and genre of the piece made it my most personally enjoyable theater experience so far this year.
The acting was nicely put together with only a few third week line issues. Chris Allison held the majority of my focus as Dobbit, a very Dudley Doright role of dark comedy. The straight man is never an easy thing to be and Allison nailed every timed reaction. Strother Stingley absolutely shined as the upper level manager with the unfortunate name of Merkin. I was a bit of a virgin to the seemingly prolific Darren Marshall, having only seen him prior in Crown of Shadow's Gilgamesh and the ultimate talent potential scale that is No Shame Theatre. I certainly wasn't disappointed, as Marshall filled out the role of Hanrahan nicely with just enough emotion shining through the stoic nature.
As far as tech, Sound and costumes of Below the Belt were well executed, and lights by Jason Williams (designer on both shows) very nicely complimented the show's scene shifts. Set was interesting because while the base set of both plays was really nice and had a lot of cool flexible features, the furniture brought on for Below the Belt was a tad familiar from other shows. Considering how many times I've seen apple boxes recently (both from me and others) I honestly don't think it's a cardinal sin.
And now we get to On the Verge. I honestly don't know how to discuss this play partially due to the format of the evening. I'm not saying that anytime there's a festival, double feature, or two news stories really close together in the paper that I start freaking out, but On the Verge felt like an especially dense work that didn't get a chance to leave much of an impression on me as I was blown away by the Below the Belt 35 minutes after On the Verge. I think I'd just give a blanket recommendation to split your viewing of the plays into two nights if at all possible.
The script is fine and gets yet another handicap for the rocky start we had together (I have a neurotic fear of puns which left me wary through most of act 1). Even through that I genuinely fell in love with many segments of the script (the top of act 2 comes to mind). I was disengaged again toward the end of the play, oddly coincidental to the main characters' costume changes toward the end. I think parts of this may be effected by the format, but a major feeling I get is that the script is a lot of fun but wouldn't be hurt by losing perhaps 30 minutes and a few lists and repetitions.
The performances of On the Verge were a high point. Katie Langwell, Trinity Smith, and Vivian Smith created a nice ensemble making fine work of many challenging lists and monologues with great character work underneath it all. Erik Moellering does some absolutely great work with character acting, although once again he gets a big handicap for the scripts leaning toward the Fonzie feel.
Tech for this show is largely the same with the exception of a few nice underscoring moments from Hans Meyer (one of which kept reminding me of The Clash's Car Jamming) and what one can only assume is good run crew work given the show's quick changes.
All in all a good night of theatre with great work from many of our local artists. It's up for three more days and I recommend everyone check it out.
Ryan
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