Editor’s Note: I attend about 70 live Central Ohio Theater shows per
year, including high school, community theater, college and professional
productions.
I try
to write something about everything that I see.
I don’t publish all my reviews.
In some cases, it’s because my overall perceptions are negative, and you
know the old aphorism: “If you can’t say
something nice…”
Sometimes I get so busy that I don’t have
time to write a timely, comprehensive review.
It seems sacrilegious to attempt explanations or embellishments for the great words and
wisdom of a master such as Thornton Wilder.
Yet, I feel compelled to describe my involvement with this play.
Writing about “The Skin Of Our Teeth” has
been very difficult because of the uniqueness of the experience and because of
the intensity of emotions and thoughts that it stirred up in me. I have struggled to capture what this show
meant to me.
This review is an anomaly and an exception
to most of my review-writing rules. This is a very “personal” review, because
it was a very “personal” experience.
For that reason, it seems right and proper
that this should be my final review for 2016.
“…Just like the hours and stars go by over our heads
at night, in the same way the ideas and thoughts of the great men are in the
air around us all the time and they’re working on us, even when we don’t know
it…”
Thornton Wilder gives us these and many
other wonderful words in his Pulitzer Prize winning classic “The Skin Of Our Teeth”.
My friends, Director Danielle Filas and Assistant
Director Krista Threadgill put these and a few more of Wilder’s choice words
into my mouth and persuaded me to stand in the middle of the stage and say the
words, out loud, in front of audiences – not once, not twice, -- but three
times, plus a couple rehearsals.
Though I am passionate about theater, for many
years I have sworn multiple oaths against my being on stage. Yet there I was. A friend who witnessed my performance
reminded me, “Never say never. The
experience shook me to my core. That is
why it has taken so long for me to write this review of Curtain Players May
2016 production of “The Skin Of Our Teeth.”
Like most people, my first knowledge of Thornton Wilder came with his Pulitzer
prize-winning “Our Town” which was
performed by my high school drama club when I was a sophomore. That was also my
first solid connection to understanding and appreciating live theater.
My 11th-grade literature teacher led an
extensive study of Wilder’s 1955 script “The Matchmaker” which became the
vehicle for the beloved “Hello Dolly”.
Though “Hello Dolly” maintains much of the wit and wisdom from the
“Matchmaker” it leaves out some of my favorite quotes, including the great Malachi
Stack monolog where he tells the audience that they should learn to nurture one
good vice in their bosom and let virtue spring up modestly around it.
“The Skin Of Our Teeth” is less well known and not as widely performed. It is quirky and somewhat esoteric in its
attempt to capture the allegorical truths of the history of humanity and the
Everyman experiences of the four-person Antrobus family with their maid Sabina as
they survive the ice age, famine, The Great Flood, and war, to carry on as humans
must do through all the cycles and seasons of humanity’s struggles and
triumphs; joys and sorrows.
Scholars and critics describe the piece as a
tragi-comedy with much of the comedy bordering on farce.
For me, the funniest moments come through the
antics and side bits from Sabina (Kasey Meininger) who constantly breaks the
fourth wall. She tells the audience that
she hates this play and is sorry she got dragged into it. She claims to dislike the Antrobus family,
but she keeps going along wherever their adventures take them.
As The Great Flood approaches, Sabina and
the entire Antrobus family find themselves at a significant crossroads, marked
by flashing lights that portend dire circumstances for all.
Fortunately George Antrobus (Casey Merkey)
comes to his senses and saves the mammals, including humans. Sabina begs to be rescued as well, and Mrs.
Maggie Antrobus (Molly Watson) decides to forgive and include Sabina in the
rescue despite Sabina’s repeated treachery and betrayal. Sabina becomes a loving and respectful member
of the family, helping keep the home fires burning in the face of
war.
The acting among principles Watson, Merkey,
and Meininger was uniformly excellent with fine characterizations, believable
relationships, attractive gestures, and effective ensemble work.
Isaac
Barnes brought much credibility to the role of Henry Antrobus, who is a
reincarnation -- or perhaps a loving mother’s re-configuration of the Biblical
Cain, best known for murdering his brother Able. Despite his youth, Barnes achieved a level of
sophistication worthy of the mash-up of the confusing humanness of innocent boy
turned anti-hero who is constantly at war with everybody, including himself.
Jessica Weislogel completed the family
circle as the naive, movie star loving good girl, who comes of age in the face
of the flood and settles into maturity during war.
Supporting players Heather Schultz
(Dinosaur/Fortune Teller), Brian Henry (Broadcaster/Doctor/News Reporter),
Lizzy Merkey (Mammoth/Girl), Martina Holbrook (Telegraph Boy/Girl 2), Heather
Fidler (Muses) Frank Peter (Moses/Covener) and JJ Sheehan
(Homer/Covener/Broadcast Assistant) all distinguished themselves and found
moments to stand out with the help of Filas’s excellent direction and Wilder’s
brilliant prose. I was especially
impressed with Schultz’s comic timing, subtlety and physical expression in
delivering the attitude of the fortune teller.
Pivoting periaktoi’s from Set Designer
Craig Choma and Set Construction/Painting Chief Neil Aring provided clever,
space-efficient, colorful scenic background to suggest various settings,
including the Antrobus living room, a carnival and seaside cabanas.
Lighting design from Denise Dumouchelle
featured a functional weather warning signal, much like a traffic light.
Holly Wetmore Kemeter’s design of the
puppets that Fidler manipulated, provided a special added dimension and helped
create three characters in one person.
Wilder completed this script a month after
the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which led to the U.S.’s entry into WW
II.
According to the Harper Collins study
guide, Wilder’s addition of farcical elements was intended to help audiences accept,
contemplate and understand many of the most horrific aspects of the human
condition. Wilder told people that the
idea for including comedy came from a vaudeville bit where a rubber chicken
flew off the stage and landed in Wilder’s lap.
This script includes references that can be
adapted for local color and current events.
Typically I am not a fan of these
kinds of script revisions and additions because they often descend to petty,
tasteless, partisan political and social statements or allusions to sports that detract from effective theater storytelling. Many audience members, --myself included -- go
to the theater to escape sports.
Filas and her team wisely chose to use the updated, localized bits to incorporate lore that
referred to Curtain Players history and personalities.
My favorite such moment came
when Sabina broke character in the midst of her seduction of George to argue
with Stage Manager Kent Halloran over what the author wrote about the situation,
because such words might “hurt the feelings” of some audience members. (The stage manager is the primary foil for
Sabina’s tirades when she breaks the fourth wall.)
“I won’t say
those lines, and I don’t care what Betty Peters thinks,” she told the stage manager.
This was a reference to my being a stickler
for exact wording on the many occasions when it has been my privilege to serve
as rehearsal assistant for Curtain Players’ productions. The things said by
actors who haven’t correctly memorized the lines, might convey the general
ideas, but these paraphrases usually don’t match the splendor and facility of expression
that playwrights have provided.
I
had registered repeated reminders with Meininger about wording of her monologs
when she played the role of Maggie in “Cat On A Hot Tin
Roof.” Thus it seemed appropriate that
she would convey this ultimate coup de
gras. (By the way, Meininger was
brilliant in “Cat” as well as “The Skin Of Our Teeth”. )
At
my first dress rehearsal for “Skin” Meininger delivered the line directly at
me. It was …I don’t care what that damned
Betty Peters thinks. I instantly burst into loud, hysterical
laughter and kept laughing as Meininger continued the scene.
Some
might have construed this line as vicious, mean-spirited sarcasm. I saw it as an expression of understanding,
acceptance and affection. If they
disliked me, why would they have encouraged me to become an honorary member of
the cast?
I have found that most aspects of life are
more understandable and endurable when I can laugh at myself and with my fellow
human beings. I think that is part of what Wilder wanted people to recognize in
this play. I realized that I was among
family and friends here in my Curtain Players Theater home.
Meininger removed the “damned”
during regular performances, out of respect for audience members who might not
have known who I was or appreciated the extra colorful language. I still laughed every time I heard it.
My appearance on stage came toward the end of
the play when members of the cast allegedly became ill and could not go on
because they had consumed some questionable food from the Green Room
refrigerator. Stage Manager Halloran was
forced to substitute people from the house staff into the roles of the hours. We didn’t have to memorize the lines. We were permitted to read them from the back
of the placards we carried. I tried to
memorize my lines, because – well – it just seemed like the right thing for me
to do, especially in view of the fact that I have been (and continue to be)
that person who insists that actors have to memorize their lines
accurately.
Having endured cold, hunger, flood, war and
many of the other indignities that constantly plague humanity, George and
Maggie Antrobus sit together in peaceful loving embrace. George reflects upon his insights from the
many great books that he treasured. He
tells Maggie that often, in the midst of war, he would stand on a hill and
think about the wisdom of the scholars.
He named the hours after many of the great philosophers.
The lights dimmed on a beautiful stage
picture of Maggie and George together and a bright light appeared at center
stage as the four philosophers, representing the late night hours, poured out
our wisdom.
I was eleven o’clock. I was shaking as I stepped forward to deliver
my line: “This good estate of the mind possessing its object in energy we call
divine. This we mortals have occasionally and it is this energy which is
pleasantest and best. But God has it always. “It is wonderful in us; but in Him
how much more wonderful.”
I was shaking, but at the same time I was
proud to be a part of this beautiful moment and pleased to be able to deliver some
of Thornton Wilder’s wisdom.
