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| from left: Joey Fechtel as Stumpy, Anna Richardson as Lexi and D. Nail as Latham. Photo courtesy Harlequin Productions |
Harlequin
co-founder and managing artistic director Scot Whitney has wisely recognized
that Horovitz is one of America’s most intriguing living playwrights. Fortunately
for Olympians, the playwright has a daughter who lives here, and it was on the
occasion of one of his visits a few years back that Whitney and Horovitz connected
and teamed up to produce Sins of the
Mother, which was followed by Six
Hotels, Unexpected Tenderness,
and My Old Lady (a film is now in the
works starring Maggie Smith and Kevin Kline). What a string of powerful,
provocative, often hilarious and always dramatic plays culminating, for now,
with this surprise-filled tale.
Horovitz
is a master at capturing the lifestyles and speech patterns of working stiffs —
especially if they happen to live in the seaport town of Gloucester, Massachusetts,
where many of his stories are set. He’s also a master at mixing outlandish
comedy with gritty drama. Imagine an amalgamation of Tennessee Williams and Tom
Stoppard.
Gloucester
Blue takes place in an upstairs apartment in an old industrial building owned
by Bradford Ellis IV, aka Bummy (Tom Dewey) and his wife, Lexi (Anna
Richardson). Steve, also known as Stumpy (Joey Fechtel), has been contracted to
paint the apartment, and he has hired Latham (D. Nail) to help him. As the play
opens Stumpy and Latham are up on ladders scraping and spackling and sanding
the walls to the tune of Aerosmith who is blasting away on a boom box. Stumpy
hates the music and says he is more of an NPR type of guy, thus setting up a
kind of class struggle between these two workmen that in interesting ways
mirrors the class conflicts between them and their wealthy, high-society
bosses, Lexi and Bummy.
Lexi
is spoiled and sexy, and Bummy knows she’s having an affair. Bummy is equally
spoiled. He says he knows how to read Greek and Latin but doesn’t know how to
do anything —including, it would seem, how to confront his wife over her
affair. He’s weak and easily manipulated.
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| standing: D. Nail as Latham, on floor: Tom Dewey as Bummy. Photo courtesy Harlequin Productions |
Latham
seems contented in his working-class status. He is the most deeply layered
character in the play. He has an amazing knowledge of everyone in town, their
pasts and their relationships to one another. He is alternately sassy and gruff
and menacing, has a mysterious past, and nobody is comfortable with him and
nobody knows how to deal with him.
Sex
happens and murder happens and there is one of the most horrendous and
realistic fight scenes I’ve ever seen in live theater (kudos to fight director
Robert Macdougall). That’s all I’m going to say about the plot except to say
there are surprises that I never suspected.
The quartet
of actors is good. One of the four, Nail, is stupendous.
Dewey
quickly had me feeling disdainful toward Bummy — good acting in a tough role to
master because he is not a likeable or particularly engaging character. There
were a few moments when I felt he was overdoing it. When Bummy falls to the
floor in a melodramatic gesture I couldn’t tell if it was the character, the
actor or the director (Scot Whitney) who was overreacting. But he certainly
made it believable that his wife would betray him.
Richardson
creates a believable, strong and sexy Lexi. I had no problem believing she
would do the things she did. Fechtel embodies the character of Stumpy. And
excuse the word play but Nail absolutely nails Latham. His performance is
engrossing. He makes this most complex of characters simultaneously loveable,
creepy and frightening.
Linda
Whitney’s set is great. How they manage to scrape, spackle and paint the walls,
knock over ladders without spilling paint all over the stage and each other,
and almost complete the paint job during intermission is beyond comprehension. Perhaps
I should have stayed to watch instead of stretching my legs in the lobby, but
that would have messed with the magic of the stagecraft. And to think: they
have to restore it to its original condition before each new performance.
This
is a great play. But be warned: it is tough, gritty, violent and filled with
harsh language. It is not for the squeamish.
WHEN:
Thursdays through Saturdays, 8p.m., Sundays 2 p.m. through June 1
WHERE:
State Theater, 202 E. 4th Ave., Olympia
TICKETS:
prices vary, call for details
INFORMATION:
360-786-0151; http://www.harlequinproductions.org/
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