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Photo Jeff Zinn
Peter Russell (left) and Stephen Russell, real-life father and son, reprise those roles in A.R. Gurney’s "Indian Blood" at WHAT. |
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''Indian Blood'' flows wildly at WHAT
Theater Review
By Sue Harrison
Banner Staff
If you are a fan of tight and bright ensemble work with simple but innovative set work, don't miss the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater production of A.R. Gurney’s "Indian Blood," now being performed on the harbor stage. It's fun, frenetic and full of top-notch writing.
Director Tom Gladwell has taken Gurney's 2006 Broadway-produced memory play about growing up in Buffalo in 1946 and successfully used it to evoke that fading city and its declining 1940s upper class while still coming across as fresh and engaging. It's a play big on dialogue and short on action Ð though there are plenty of fun action visuals Ð and the ensemble cast is right on the money with timing and delivery. Gurney has handed over a script that's full of charming repartee Ð a very nearly lost art in theater. It sparkles with one liners, classic asides and the feel of truth as if one were surreptitiously watching this family through the window as the small events of their day-to-day life reveal the larger context of their existence.
Making his WHAT big-stage debut is Peter Russell as the main character Eddie, a 15-year-old boy who uses his bit of Indian blood as both a reason to rebel and an excuse for any bad action he gets caught at. Russell has plenty of experience in WHAT plays for kids and high school work at Nauset and proves he is ready for a leading role in an adult play. Opposite him is his real-life father, Stephen Russell, as Charles, the overly pompous dad.
The story centers around a naughty drawing Eddie does in Latin class which brings down the ire of his instructor, Mr. Kenyon (Tom Wolfson), and gets Eddie suspended from school. That is the nut this tree of fun grows from.
Dad is horrified and fears that the disgrace will cause grandmother (Natalie Ross Miller of "All My Children" fame) to have a heart attack. (Like Redd Foxx in the old TV series "Sanford and Son," grandmother, affectionately called "Gog," uses the threat of a weak heart to keep the whole family and the servants in line.) Dad comes up with a bogus tale to tell her, but Eddie's second cousin and deepest blood enemy, Lambert, works overtime to try and tip her off to the real story.
Lambert, played to smarmy perfection by Chris Thomas in another WHAT main stage debut, is just detestable as the teenaged outsider cousin from limited means trying to worm his way in to grandmother’s good graces and ample purse.
Mom (Donna Sorbello as Jane) is far less concerned about the suspension and less judgmental in general except for her acerbic comments on her husband Charles' cloying relationship with his mother.
Grandfather, a complete opposite of the other tightly buttoned characters, is a rough and ready guy with a few fun if dark secrets in his past. He is played with gruff authenticity by Frederick Walters.
Wolfson has a second role as the light-in-the-loafers Uncle Paul who, for some unknown reason, has never married and wears an ascot to dinner. Hmmmm.
Rounding out the cast is Priscilla Manning in three roles: Mrs. Garver, the mom of one of Eddie’s classmates; the longsuffering servant Annie who caters to grandmother's every whim; and the buxom Mrs. Stawicki who is grandfather’s personal secretary and office eye candy.
These actors work seamlessly together to create the bubble of illusion of a loveable if off-kilter family. The play's timeframe is near Christmas and the snow falls outside as the family prepares for grandmother's annual big deal Christmas dinner. Clearly everything will come to a head and be resolved one way or the other.
The set by Kevin Hardy is comprised largely of different chairs and a series of mesh screens that slide out onto the stage where images are projected on them to mimic rooms and the countryside laden in snow. Eddie tells us early on that some things like big casts and elaborate sets are only for the movies and not appropriate for theater where one's imagination is expected to create the hinted-at reality. That remains true throughout as the audience’s imagination is intentionally called into play over and over.
Costumes by Carol Sherry are perfect for the era. Sound and music (Andy Reynolds and John Thomas) keep the mood going.
This is a very satisfying piece of theater that will make you smile throughout and laugh out loud often. It makes one think of old movies where the characters really talked to one another and had terrific conversations all the time. Nothing heavy, just a sweet look back that casts a kind recollecting eye on everyone, faults and all. In the end, it’s all about the dialogue, and this cast delivers everything called for like a well-oiled machine.
"Indian Blood" by A.R. Gurney's play is performed on the Harbor Stage, 1 Kendrick Ave., next to the Wellfleet town pier by the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Wed. through Sun. through Oct. 14 at 8 p.m. Tickets $29 general admission, $26 Outer Cape voters, $14.50 student rush. (508) 349-WHAT.
artseditor@provincetownbanner.com
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Sep 20th, 2007