Beautiful Traces

“Beautiful Traces”

SPOILER

Performed at City Theater Sunday matinee on Aug. 19^th, 2007

Writer: Cindy Lou Johnson

Rosannah Deluce: Jen Brown

Henry Harry: Andrew Varenhorst

Director: Susie Gidseg

Stage Manager: Dawn Humphrey

Light Design: Chris Kelley

Sound Design: Jen Brown

Set Design: Dawn Humphrey

Light Board Op: Courtney DeGinder

House Managers: Jenny Jemison & Nicole Perez

The Play:

Entering the cozy theater City Theater (hidden on Airport and 38 ½ St., but worth the search) we see a tall, thin, bearded man, Henry Harry (played by Andrew Varenhorst) moping about a rudimentary and cold cabin. Such is the pre-show, which works nicely as the character neither demands nor implies much of anything. People come in, sit, and talk, quickly registering this performance and move on with their own lives, waiting for the “real” play to start.

And when it does, this essentially one-act play starts soon after Varenhorst falls asleep on his cot. Lights go down and up to full, and after some loud knocks at the door we hear the voice of Rosanna Deluce (played by Jen Brown) demanding to be let in.

She pushes herself in, revealing a dirty woman wearing smudged wedding gown. Brown has a very long monologue establishing the setting (present-day, nowhere Alaska, her car broke-down, cold and snow, etc.). Spying a bottle of whiskey Brown does a nice bit by spilling and wiping it off the table into her glass. Finishing off shows her good commitment (and provokes a nice audience response).

Of course this loud soliloquy wakes Varenhorst, but he doesn’t say anything. Only when the manic Brown, who’s been driving for days straight, complains of a pain and faints does Varenhorst stir from his cot, where he tenderly puts her in his bed and cleans her up.

Brown stirs during her long sleep, saying something about being the prettiest girl in the room before falling back into slumber.

The rest (and vast majority--seventy minutes) of the play is the conversation the man and the woman have once she wakes up from her two-day slumber.

Since I prefer to see a play without preconceptions, I was thinking this was going to be a light romantic comedy about two neurotic people akin to “The Good-bye People” by Herb Gardner. But nope, not this play.

Their neuroses get more and more severe. And what appears to be two barely functional asylum escapees trying to interact like civilized people slowly reveal themselves as two people facing stressful pasts in poor ways. This comes about by wave after wave of the characters raging at each other, punctuated by troughs of sadness where they reveal geneses of their rage.

Sound tiresome? it is! But there is a moment of lightness just past the half-way point about the girl’s prospective new name after her marriage. It gets a great laugh more because the play needs this respite. But pretty quickly the play gets back to its business and continues to hit the same note on the piano until the end, where all their secrets are finally revealed.

Analysis:

This form, the slice-of-life play, is very difficult to pull off (see the failure of my previous review). The writer (Johnson) at least gives us some characters to bond with. And they are nice characters with just enough meat for actors to have fun with.

But I kept thinking as this was unfolding that I would have much preferred two people on the edge of insanity trying desperately not to fall off the brink into madness, despite the efforts of the other. It would have been a more interesting play, as “Brilliant Traces”, by explaining way too much takes the pedestrian turn.

Sure the reveals are there and provide some satisfaction. But these reveals are really pushed very hard (the characters constantly bate each other to tell them what they’re really hiding, even when such an explanation does not make sense). And furthermore, the reveals come out as rather trite and simple, making the characters look like weak fools for going so far overboard about such common traumas.

I must ask: why does Henry respond to his daughter’s death by abandoning all people? Why does Rosannah’s father’s Alzheimer’s cause her to run away?

This play does not supply any answers. And that would be fine, except that the rest of this play is all about supplying answers. And it’s this philosophical inconsistency that’s the crux of what keeps “Brilliant Traces” down in the brack with the tons of mucky plays written each year.

The acting was passable. While Varenhorst had wonderful timing (loved how he answered Brown’s questions before she finished them) and looked the sad loser quite well, his rage/wins left much to be desired. They seemed forced, lacking a concrete anchor to push from.

Brown’s performance went from big to small relatively well, occasionally creating nice pictures with her choices.

But both actors rarely deviated from a simple first reading of the script. They played their characters exactly as written, and little more. Failing to fill the gaps Brown and Varenhorst miss the tremendous opportunity of rescuing this play.

Here’s some off-the-cuff ideas:

Jen Brown, try playing your character like she’s been working as a stripper for the past twelve years. You’re an addict, street-wise, and prone to fits of rage about how much you hate your life. The man you were engaged to is the first man you’ve ever dated who you didn’t meet while naked, and you love him like a saint. Part of the reason you left him is to keep him from finding out what a horrible person deep down you really are. Your dad’s illness is merely the last straw that sent you into a drug/alcohol/driving bender. Now try playing the part.

Andrew Varenhorst, your character is all about self-punishment. A devout Catholic before his daughter’s death, he is now a fanatic member of Opus Dei, regularly flogging himself every night. He tries to spend every second of his life praying, because only while in direct contact with God does his pain abate. Consequently, he is tremendously upset with the girl’s arrival, but since he can’t hurt himself in her presence, he can at least lash out at her.

Okay, it took me five minutes to come up with these character portrayals, both vastly richer than what I saw played.

Susie Gidseg directed this play. What happened? How could you let these fairly talented actors get away with simple on-the-nose performances? Shame on you!

The blocking/staging worked for the most part, but I would have preferred seeing much more interpretation. Have the actors DO SOMETHING while fighting with each other. What does Henry do all day when he doesn’t have a strange woman to argue with?

Oh yeah, as my friend pointed out, “...they alternate waves of rage and grief at each other. Too bad they didn’t have a deck of cards.” This is precisely what a director has to anticipate and correct, even if you have to re-write sections. (I’d especially like to see half the references to the burned shoes cut, the joke got old long before we kept hearing it.)

Tech:

The lighting (by Chris Kelly) did its job: light the actors. And that’s all. Pretty boring, actually; the only apparent lighting change came through the use of the master dimmer. But if you consider that the play moved between two theaters, I’m can certainly cut some slack.

The sound (Jen Brown) was fine: neither intrusive or memorable. Same can be said for the costumes and the single set (Dawn Humphrey). Didn’t notice any tech glitches at all.

Summary:

If I had known that this play was about two different ways of exhibiting grief, I probably would have braced myself more. Having experienced its ravages personally, I now think grief is a form of vanity, a self-indulgence that’s only possible when the world around allows it to fester. A much more interesting topic would have been how the modern world infantilize people, allowing them to wallow in grief without ever waking up from its addictive trance. But that’s another play.

This play, for all its faults, works at the novice level of community theater. The good performance of amateur actors and crew is noted. And hopefully they will find a script with a much better narrative arc. I look forward to their next production, hoping this play increases their talents and raises the bar for future productions.