John Garcia's THE COLUMN
Reviews
April 2, 2001
North Texas Premiere, THE MEMORY OF WATER by Shelagh Stephenson
Circle Theatre, Ft. Worth, Texas.
*(Reviewed 03-31-01)
Production runs March 14-April 14, 2001
Directed by Linda Leonard
Scenic design-Nathan D. Landrum
Lighting design-John Leach
Costume design-Barbara C. Cox
Stage manager-Lara Marez
**CAST**
MARY-Ellen Locy
TERESA-Beth Bontley
CATHERINE-Nicole Case
VI-Kristina Baker
MIKE-Bill Jenkins
FRANK-Andy Gwyn
THE MEMORY OF WATER-
Water. This liquid substance runs through a person's life from birth to
death. We are born being surrounded by it, we drink it, it falls from the
sky on us, it gives life to so many things, when we feel certain emotions,
it falls from our eyes. But water also can be clear, or it can be dark,
muddy, and you are not able to clearly see through it. But we also take this
very valuable source of life for granted, we only miss it when it is gone.
If you take all these analogies, you get the theme that flows, like water
(pardon the pun) in Circle Theatre's North Texas premiere of THE MEMORY OF
WATER (TMOM).
TMOM presents the story of 3 Northern England sisters, who are planning the
final touches on their mother's (VI-Kristina Baker) funeral. MARY (Ellen
Locy) the eldest, is a doctor who is having an affair with a married doctor
who hosts a local TV show, MIKE (Bill Jenkins). TERESA (Beth Bontley) the
middle daughter, along with her husband, FRANK (Andy Gwyn), own a health
food store, and last, but not least, the youngest daughter, CATHERINE
(Nicole Case), who can't seem to find the right man, or the right path for
her life.
The entire piece takes place on Nathan D. Landrum's beautifully crafted set,
done up in hues of various greens (a color that seems to be a theme in the
play), with dark cranberry curtains. The main set piece is an old, oak bed
in the center. Landrum's set gives the real look of a bedroom in England, it
just haves that look, from the various furniture pieces, to the bric and
brac strewn on the set.
You can tell that all of the designers and director really worked hard on
having themes flow through their works, such as the color green. The set is
colored in this, when the mother appears (as a ghost, and only to her eldest
child), she is dressed in green taffeta, but the lighting (superbly created
by John Leach) also bathes the mother in soft green, but around her face it
is normally lit, adding such depth to the piece. Barbara Cox's costumes fit
the characters perfectly, they really do give the audience secondary
information about these characters.
Ellen Locy heads the cast as the doctor, who has secrets of her own that
slowly starts to crack into the story, in fact, at the beginning of the play
there is discussion of the crack on the wall of the set, thus setting
wonderful symbolism and foreshadowing of what is going to be revealed within
the evening.
Locy reminds me of Gwyneth Paltrow in SLIDING DOORS, tall, blonde, and
beautiful, but yet, you see the sadness in her eyes. Locy's role has the
hardest arch/apex written into her role, I mean the girl goes through one
hell of an emotional ride during the evening. But Locy keeps her character
from going into that hammy soap opera acting, but instead pushes her
performance from her emotional guts, Locy makes sure not to force the pain
of her character down our throats, which, let's face it, its written to go
into that method of acting easily, but instead Locy keeps her just carefully
tiptoeing on the cliff of emotional despair, thus making me feel this
woman's pain even more. Just a moving performance of true acting craft.
Beth Bontley plays TERESA with tics, twitches, and one of the most irriating
characters ever written for the stage, but you find out why in the second
act why she is written that way. Bontley's task is to make this "Miss know
it all/I was here for momma" character likeable and to be accepted by the
audience, she succeeds like a pro. Bontley's acting has that breathing, pace
flow in her speech pattern that makes her delivery come out so natural, it
fits her performance like a glove. But her facial expressions are so honest,
when someone on stage says something that really does not fit into TERESA's
way of life or thinking, Bontley gives her this facial expression that you
know is saying, "I heard, but I am not listening"-we have seen that look in
some people, and here it gives Bontley deep subtext that reads beautifully
within Circle Theatre's intimate setting.
But my personal favorite, and the star of the evening falls at the glitter
platform shoes of Miss Nicole Case as CATHERINE. This actress stole the show
with her perfect comedic timing and pace, but yet also delivers on her
dramatic undertones of her role as the youngest daughter who in her mind,
has the "best" problems than anyone else around her.
Case has the bulk of comic one-liners in the script, and like the true
comic actress that you can tell she is, she devours them with pure comedic
success.
Cases bursts into the production dressed in tight grey pants, tight red
blouse, and some hilarious silver glitter platform shoes (Be careful Miss
Case, my addiction to glitter was not helped with your shoes!-hehe). Case's
CATHERINE is a pot smoking, booze drinker, goes through men like tissue-and
yet has her own pains and problems to deal with-and yet,Case gives her role
such utter despair in act two, that you really know what she means and
feels, she connects so brilliantly with her role and the audience, she won
us over.
Finally rounding out the actresses is Kristina Baker as VI, the mother of 3
really screwed up daughters. Baker gives VI undertones a woman who wanted
more out of life, to have people respect her, to really understand her.
Baker, who is a beautiful woman, gives her performance such deep pathos of
pain. Baker's delivery of the line to her daughter, "I respected you! But
you were always ashamed of me", that put a lump in my throat quickly. That
one line, Baker pushed forth 30 years of a very difficult relationship
between mother and child, that is the sign a true actress. Baker's big
dramatic scene with her eldest daughter is one of the finest moments in
acting that I have ever seen. Both actresses, Locy and Baker, played off
each other with blazing honesty. The looks of pain, of lost love, of being
misunderstood, of being alone, it is pure theatrical magic. While Baker is
showing what a mother really feels, splattering her pain on that stage, and
seeing Locy's face show the inner pains of a child now realizing who her
mother really was, it is tour-de-force acting that never goes into mushy,
sentimental crap, but instead brutal pain of what happens behind close doors
of real life.
Okay, what is about Bill Jenkins and his DFW tour of "me and my women"? Mr..
Jenkins was the sole male actor in Watertower's RAVENSCROFT, and now here he
is (along with Andy Gwyn) again surrounded by women!
Jenkins has the difficult task of having the role of a doctor who is having
an affair with MARY, but his wife is ill, and there are other secrets that
break through the crack of their relationship. Jenkins, has classic
handsome features that really work for his character's inner conflict. By
this I mean, that when you look at him, and you think, he has it all-but
then you realize just how screwed up his life has become, the good ole,
"don't judge a book by its covers" theme. Jenkins has some delicious comedic
moments that just caused the audience to guffaw loudly, but then he is able
to rein that in and bring forth a man who dearly does love this woman, but
how far can that love really go? Jenkins shows this conflict flicker in his
eyes and face, that you really feel for him.
Finally, rounding out the cast is Andy Gwyn as FRANK, a man who just goes
through life, just trying to make it through the day. Gwyn gives this very
hen pecked role a very humorous performance. But when it comes time to
reveal the hidden layers of the role, Gwyn succeeds. He brings to the stage
lights a performance of a man who really does love his wife, but he needs
more out of life, and he hopes she will accept on what he desires to achieve
this change. Gwyn hits comic gold pay dirt in his hilarious scene with Case
and her moaning of "why do all men suck?", its a delight to watch.
Director Linda Leonard has assembled one of the best casts in the metroplex
this season so far, we are talking not one weak link within its company of
actors.
Leonard's blocking is natural, and she makes sure to open up her "acting
spaces" so that we all see what is happening on stage. But she gives us
"naturalism" blocking, by this I mean there are times when someone's back is
to you, or they face each other, for long periods of time, like you would in
real life, and that's okay. Sure we have the ole theory,"The audience needs
to see your face", but not all the time. Leonard knows this, so she gives
the blocking purpose. Leonard has the pace at a good, natural flow, the
production clocks in at almost 2 and a half hours. But you don't notice it.
Leonard makes sure to let the exposition get out there quickly, and there is
never a lull in the actor's delivery of lines. The actors never drop the
"ball of energy" in delivering their lines. Leonard gives her 3 actresses
distinct blocking, for example: Case is all over that set, even on the bed,
which so symbolizes her life, Bontley is more of walk straight lines, like
her life, and Locy tends to stay in one place for long periods of time,
again,just like her life. I just loved that subtext in blocking.
Let me also say that the entire cast had crisp, clean and extremely
believable british dialects, not "PBS Great performance" british accents,
but soothing and totally believable.
I just want to also say that the ending images of of Act one and Act two are
so moving, and haunting to see-you will leave each act turning to your
friend and say, in a whisper, "that was incredible". Act one ends in the
taking of a picture, but I won't spoil it for you, but at the end of that
act you are laughing out loud from what just happened, the lights go out, in
the dark we, the audience is still laughing, but then the lights come back
up on stage, and what we see in front of us, catches you off guard, you
actually hear the audience being caught off guard.
Act two ends with a window, snow, and a breeze, and that subtext of what
that "breeze" means is one of the most moving images I have ever seen on
stage in my life, I was deeply moved.
To get an "A" rating from me requires this: A script that can bring either
its comedy or dramatic themes to total commitment and understanding, to not
have a weak actor within its cast, a director that goes beyond on what is
written by the playwright, a team of designers that gives the production a
true sense of working together to bring the vision of both director and
playwright to full exposure, and finally (and most important to me) to have
the acting bring something out me, the audience member, to make you feel,
understand, and create theatre magic-to make you forget that you are
watching "actors", but instead you are watching real life unfold in front of
you.
THE MEMORY OF WATER achieved my checklist hands down!
RATING: A+
