Marvelous Mystery will Snap Up Viewers

Published in The News Tribune, Sept. 25, 2009
Pictured, top (left to right)Mark Peterson as Giles Ralston and Michael Dresdner as Mr. Paravicini; bottom (from left) Deya Ozburn as Miss Casewell, Michael Dresdner as Mr. Paravicini and Alex Smith as Christopher Wren. Photos by Dean Lapin.

There are two things that make murder mysteries – especially of the British variety – insanely popular: complex and surprising plot structures and oddball characters. Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” at Lakewood Playhouse has both in spades.

Most of the actors are outstanding, although a couple of the characters could have been a little more eccentric.

The timing, the plot and even the choice of music between scenes are all excellent. Unfortunately, the balance between intriguing mystery and entertaining characters gets somewhat lost in the second act. What starts out as a hugely entertaining and comical look at a bunch of idiosyncratic characters becomes ponderous as the inquiry into whodunit takes over.

The most entertaining character in the story, Christopher Wren (wonderfully portrayed by Alex Smith with a whole repertoire of eccentric gestures and expressions) fizzles like a dampened firecracker in Act 2.

It’s as if Christie lost sight of him when structuring the unraveling of the murder, and Smith’s great comic acting chops are washed out in the end. Similarly, Mr. Paravicini, another wonderfully eccentric character, sort of fades into the plot, and there’s little actor Michael Dresdner can do to save him despite all his charm.

But then we come to the crux of a mystery – the surprise revelation of whodunit. I am reasonably sure that most audience members will be completely surprised, unless they have read the book or seen the play.

I saw a preview performance. The set (designed by James Venturini) was not quite complete, but it was close enough to see that it was beautifully thought out with precise attention to the smallest details.

The costumes by Diane Runkel also added tremendously to the overall effect – especially Christopher’s outlandish suit and tie and Miss Casewell’s mannish outfit.

Rachael Boyer is outstanding as the somewhat naive Mollie Ralston. Of all the actors, she is the one who seems most unaffected and authentic. When she expresses anger or fear, it is believable.

Mark Peterson as Mollie’s husband Giles is a commanding presence on stage. He portrays Giles as somewhat haughty but basically likable, even though he might very well be a murderer.

Smith’s Christopher is the wildest character in the play: a fey, histrionic young man who lounges and leaps about the set like a lunatic. Smith is new to South Sound stages, and I hope to see more of him.

He reminds me a lot of Josh Anderson, one of the best comic actors in the area.

Syra Beth Puett is convincingly unlikable as the snobbish Mrs. Boyle. I can’t say any more about her without spoiling the plot.

Mike Slease is gruff and officious as Major Metcalf, a character whose inclusion in the story seems almost superfluous until the end.

Deya Ozburn is excellent as the self-contained and mysterious Miss Casewell. She coolly underplays this woman who dresses like a man and is filled with disdain for practically everyone.

Dresdner is delightful as Mr. Paravicini, providing some of the best laughs in the play. He seems typecast in this role, yet I almost wish he had played the detective Sergeant Trotter (Christian Doyle).

Doyle plays Trotter as a high-strung man who doesn’t stand still for a moment. I would have preferred a more arrogant or aloof character in the mold of Sherlock Holmes or Christie’s more famous detective, Hercule Poirot. (Incidentally, Dresdner’s Paravicini sports a Poirot-style mustache; perhaps it was that and his clipped speech that made me wish he had played the detective.)

Director John Munn does an excellent job with timing and blocking. He specializes in directing mysteries and obviously knows what makes them work.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 11

WHERE: Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood

TICKETS: $13.50-$21.50, rush tickets every Saturday 15 minutes prior to curtain; actor benefit performance Oct. 10

INFORMATION: 253-588-0042, www.lakewoodplayhouse.org

Ancient spaceships

Turing Exterra by Rik Allen

Rik Allen’s fantasy spacecraft at Traver Gallery
Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sep 24, 2009

Rick Allen makes amazing spaceships out of steel and glass — mostly glass that looks like steel (or perhaps pewter). What’s fascinating about them is that they look like spacecraft from a future world as envisioned in the early to mid 20th century. I’m talking early sci-fi spacecraft: Buck Rogers, Lost in Space, The Jetsons, but also some pretty authentic looking stuff from the early years of actual as opposed to sci-fi space exploration.

“The futuristic antiquity of this series was inspired by my lifelong fascination with the design of technology — especially the ‘new’ technology of foregone years,” Allen says. These ships are fascinating to see and to contemplate. But does that make them art? To answer that question involves a whole other vein of philosophical and aesthetic consideration that I can’t tackle in the limited space of this column. Even if his work is not museum quality art in the sense that a David Smith or Richard Serra or Louise Bourgeois is, his pieces are something more than just novelty items or conversation pieces. There is aesthetic beauty in these as well, which has more to do with the inherent beauty of the media than with the artist’s arrangement of forms. Give Allen credit for accentuating that inherent beauty in ingenious ways. And for his thoroughness in expressing his personal obsession with space travel.

The most intriguing elements to these sculptures are the use of light and the treatment of surface. The bodies of his ships look like old metal that is corroded with frosted and bubbled glass windows or portholes, but they are actually, for the most part, blown glass that is coated with a kind of metal foil and mounted on steel legs or bases. The surfaces are truly beautiful, and the manner in which the glass lets light in gives them the appearance of being lighted from within. Many of them have a red or orange glow as if there is some kind of high intensity engine inside — the heat of liftoff.

Plus there is the added element of being able to peer inside the glass for surprise views. Look closely for openings you can peer into.

Golem (I love the title) is a saucer on spindly legs with a bubble glass dome on top and inside instruments that look like satellite dishes or ancient instruments of navigation such as some of our readers may recall from a show of Morris Graves sculptures at Tacoma Art Museum.

Buzz may be a tribute to Buzz Aldren, or maybe Buzz Lightyear. Maybe both. It looks like a single engine from a 1950s jet liner and simultaneously like the kind of single-occupancy spacecraft the Jetsons buzzed around in. Minimum Mono Shuttle and Flurbian Nightwatcher are similar one-or-two-person craft. Funny little things.

Turning Exterra is similar to Golem as it marches on spindly legs and has satellite dish-like instruments inside a big frosted glass body. It’s an ominous mechanical creature that is obviously out to destroy Earth. Beware.

I highly recommend this show if, for nothing else, the memories and speculations it invokes and the beauty of the surface and light of Allen’s sculptures.

[William Traver Gallery, Tuesday-Sat 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m., through Oct. 4, 1821 East Dock St., Tacoma, 253.383.3685]

Wilde’s ‘Earnest’ gets an electrical update

The News Tribune/The Olympian
Pictured (top) from left, Christopher Cantrell, Kathryn Wanless, Jane Brody, John Abbott and Patrick Wigren (bottom) Cantrell, Wanless, Wigren. Photos by Toni Holm.

Olympia Little Theatre has updated Oscar Wilde’s classic comedy of manners “The Importance of Being Earnest” to the swinging England of 1968, the era of such popular British films as “Georgy Girl” and “Alfie.” This play, performed in the round, has much of the flavor of those films. Other than a florid manner of speaking, which may have been the height of fashion among pretentious Brits in 1895 but which seems stilted today, the update seems perfectly fitted to the affectations and love of fashion in Wilde’s comedy.

But I suspect the real reason for updating the play was it provided an excuse to use fabulous ’60s costumes. The mod outfits were all the rage at the time, and costumier Allison Gerst came up with some doozies for this production. Gwendolyn’s bold-patterned mini-dresses, stockings and high boots are a delight, and the suits John Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff wear in Act 1 are amazing. Algernon wears a mustard yellow shirt with a turquoise blue sports coat while Worthing is wearing an eye-popping electric blue suit. Their neon blue tones contrast with equally bright orange pillows and divan cover, signifying an understanding of color that is impressive.

On the other hand, when John’s make-believe brother dies, he wears black-on-black mourning clothes with a top hat that harkens back to Wilde’s day.

And just as the colors are electric in their intensity, there are electric sparks between the two principal couples – not the lovers so much (Jack/Gwendolyn and Algernon/Cecily) but the buddies (Jack/Algernon and Gwendolyn/Cecily). It is the repartee between the old friends of the male sex and the newly bonded friends of the female sex that truly sparkle.

Seldom will you see any two women spat so joyfully as these two do and then collaborate with such mutual admiration after they discover they are each engaged to the same man (which they’re really not). And rarely do drunken buddies fall all over each other so happily as Jack and Algernon when they sing “What’s New Pussycat.”

Christopher Cantrell plays John, who is sometimes called Jack and who has an imaginary brother named Earnest, as a proud but confused young man who is simultaneously blustery and vulnerable, and believably sincere even when he is lying. Cantrell is masterful in this role. He seems not to be acting at all. He does anger with grand intensity. When he professes his love for Gwendolyn, his eyes sparkle, and there is no doubt he is head-over-heels in love with her.

Kathryn Wanless as Gwendolyn and Quinci Daoust as Cecily are equally bubbly and excitable and marvelously expressive. Wanless is new to South Sound stages, having come here after a long acting career in England. Daoust is also new to the area; she’s a high school student from Portland who is commuting for this performance. Despite their actual age difference, both women are convincing as impressionable, lovestruck 18-year-olds. Both are charmingly effervescent.

The fourth member of these couples is Patrick Wigren as Algernon. Tall, thin and handsome, Wigren wears a wig I would not have known was a wig if I hadn’t seen him take it off. He hams it up as the histrionic Algernon, a character that allows an actor to go all out. He lounges like a diva on the divan and minces his words and delicately fingers his cucumber sandwiches. Algernon is not gay, but he is an alter ego for Wilde, who was flamboyantly gay, and Wigren seems to inhabit Wilde’s devil-may-care spirit.

“The Importance of Being Earnest” is not an uproarious comedy. It’s not the kind of comedy that makes people stomp their feet and fall out of their seats laughing. It’s more a thinking person’s comedy. I admire the writing, with its Shakespearean identity confusions and parallel fantasy lives, and I admire the acting by the four principal characters.

I saw this play in rehearsal with some of the actors still on book and without complete lighting and sound. I enjoyed it very much, and I predict it will be even more entertaining in full production.


WHEN: 7:55 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays and 1:55 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 11
WHERE: Olympia Little Theatre, 1925 Miller Ave. N.E., Olympia
TICKETS: $10-$12, available at Yenney Music Company on Harrison Avenue (360-943-7500) or www.buyolympia.com/events
INFORMATION: 360-786-9484, olympialittletheater.org

Losses and Longings

Exciting modern paintings steeped in history and myth

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 17, 2009
Pictured:"Sudarium," oil on canvas by Jethaniel Peterka


Painter Jethaniel Peterka shows a deft touch and a fertile mind in his paintings and assemblages at Fulcrum Gallery. The show is called Losses and Longings, and it presents a record of how Peterka’s work is evolving and how individual works come into being. Paintings over a period of time showing an evolution of style are paired with preliminary studies to give a snapshot of works in progress.

Much of the imagery and Peterka’s painting style remind us of some of the great works of the Renaissance and of the French Impressionists, but there are distinctively modern and surrealistic touches, and his latest works are more illustrational than painterly, with a raw, dashed-off, sketchy quality. There is a tremendous amount of variety in this little show.
I see hints here of Titian, Valasquez and Carravagio, and even Salvador Dali.

I greatly admire Peterka’s sensitive touch with the brush, but great technique alone is not enough to make art stand out nowadays; there must be something else, and usually something indefinable. Peterka’s paintings seem to have that. His assemblages not so much. They are intriguing, but do not have the power of the paintings.

My favorite painting in this show may be a little figure study in the back gallery titled "Twins." It is a painting of two identical nudes lounging in chairs facing each other. The figure on the right is a finished to a high polish while the figure to the left remains sketchy and unfinished, with preliminary pencil marks showing and dark and light areas loosely blocked in. It is almost like a textbook illustration of the stages of a single painting.

Also in the back room are the assemblages, small works with mechanical parts and body parts, hearts encircled by thorny crowns in two pieces and in another a strange mechanical device with the carcass of an insect. Very strange, but as I said, nowhere near as exciting as the paintings. There are also two very nice drawings from his sketchbook in this back gallery.

The most dramatic painting in the front room is "The Sudarium." This large painting (48 by 25 inches) of two angels in modern dress holding an infant was done as a commission for an album cover for a Brooklyn-based metal band. The angel’s black wings are dark and vibrant and their faces and figures are painted with softly modulated brushstrokes, while the background is painted in a looser style with a stormy sky a la El Greco and a city skyline barely indicated.

Another favorite is "Medicine," which is as serene and classical as "The Sudarium" is romantic. It is a painting of a naked woman in a typical Renaissance pose but with modern drug paraphernalia and nipple rings and a modern-day, shaved-head druggie crouched down behind her in a pose borrowed from Rodin’s "Thinker."

Another excellent painting is "After the Accident," a closeup of a woman’s face in a loose impressionistic style with tones of pink and blue-gray that remind me of the best of Renoir’s paintings. The coloring and paint handling are beautiful despite the horrific subject matter of a bruised and bleeding face.

Peterka mines art history to create his personalized vision of contemporary life.

[Fulcrum Gallery, through Oct. 3, noon to 6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Sunday and by appointment, 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, 253.250.0520]

Visual arts on the cheap

This is a little piece I wrote for the Weekly Volcano's Fall Arts Guide.

Art on the cheap? You can’t get much cheaper than free, and that’s what it costs to get in any of the art galleries in the South Sound. Museums charge admission fees, but compared to the cost of movie tickets, or a cover charge and a drink or two at most night spots, or tickets to a Rainiers game (forget a hotdog and a beer) it’s the cheapest form of entertainment available — and it won’t rot your feeble little brain. General admission to Tacoma Art Museum is $9 and Museum of Glass $12, and both are free during Third Thursday ArtWalk.

Of course the reason art galleries are free is because they want you to buy the art. But we’re not talking used car sales. Nobody’s going to pressure you. Gallery owners fully expect that 99 percent of their visitors are just window-shopping, and they’re happy for you to do so. And if you do decide to buy an original work of art, it might well be the best investment you’ll ever make. People think only the rich can buy art. How stupid, stupid, stupid that is. Yeah, maybe only the rich can buy an original Andy Warhol silkscreen or a painting by Jasper Johns, but almost anybody can afford paintings and sculptures by local artists, which will give you endless hours of enjoyment and will almost certainly increase in value. We’re talking the cost of a big date or a few dinners out.

So what is the state of the gallery scene in the South Sound? Considering the economy, it’s not bad. Most galleries are holding on by the seat of their pants, but they’ve always done that. We’ve lost some good ones recently. The Helm obviously comes to mind. And Grand Impromptu lost their building when the Grand Cinema needed to take it over in order to expand. Hopefully they’ll be able to find another venue in which to carry on. On the other hand, Fulcrum Gallery and Robert Daniel Gallery seem to be thriving.

Down south in Olympia, things are not looking so good. The only vibrant, avant-garde gallery in town went out of business a year ago, and just about the only galleries in town now are Childhood’s End and Art House Design. I don’t know what gives with Olympia, but this town that is so well known for music and theater has never had an exciting visual art scene. Not that there are no artists in town. They’re all over the place. They just don’t have many places to show their work. What a shame.

Ah! But then there are the typically overlooked art galleries that typically show quality work but are seldom visited by the general public. I’m talking about college and university art galleries. Kittredge Gallery at University of Puget Sound, the galleries at Tacoma Community College and Pierce College, PLU, UW-Tacoma, The Evergreen State College — they all have excellent art galleries but there’s a general feeling among the gallery-going public that they’re for students only, and the colleges don’t do a very good job of dispelling that myth. As a rule, they do a lousy job of publicizing their shows, so we seldom see them. To remedy that, I suggest bookmarking their Web sites and looking for them in the Weekly Volcano arts calendar. — Alec Clayton

[Fulcrum Gallery Art Space, 1308 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, 253.250.0520]
[The Robert Daniel Gallery, 2501 Fawcett Ave, Tacoma, 253.227.1407]
[Childhood’s End Gallery, 222 Fourth Ave W, Olympia, 360.943.3724]
[Art House Design, 420 Franklin St SE # B, Olympia, 360.943.3377]
[Museum of Glass, 1801 Dock St., Tacoma, www.museumofglass.org]
[Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, 253.272.4258]

Last days

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 10, 2009
Pictured,sculpture by Lynn De Nino courtesy Two Vaults Gallery.

There are two art exhibits running in Tacoma that end this weekend, one very serious and high-minded and the other cute enough to make you want to puke. I’m talking kitsch cute that’s so bad it’s good. The shows are "Flux" at Gallery Madera and "Rabbitual" at Two Vaults. Both shows run through Saturday, Sept. 12.

"Flux" is part of the citywide MetalUrge show, which has been going for quite some time, and features wall mounted sculptures by Christine Parent, Chris Spadafore and Jennifer Weddermann-Hay, free-standing sculptures by Danella Sydow and Chris Wooten, and jewelry by Amy Reeves and Cynthia Wood. Plus, Madera Furniture designers Carlos Taylor-Swanson and Steve Lawler will feature new works, and as if that were not enough, the show also includes new paintings by Angel Matamoros.

"Rabbitual" at Two Vaults has 77 works by some 45 artists, and they’re all about rabbits. There are sculptures, paintings and drawings by artists such as Catherine Swanson, Diane Kurzyna, Carol Hannum, Joseph Batt and Lynn DI Nino. Most are simply too cute and cuddly for words. Some are rather macabre, such as Zoe Williams’ stuffed and mounted bunny rabbits, which are white and fluffy and mounted on the wall like deer heads as if shot by some mad hunter — Elmer Fudd, perhaps. Or a piece by Di Nino with a sculpted white rabbit climbing up the outer shell of a sliced-open earth that looks like half a watermelon, trying to grab the carrot that’s planted here. Or like Lee Musgrave’s "Soft Encounter," a drawing of a nude that looks like Boucher’s "Miss O’Murphy" — the corniest piece of soft porn ever created by an artist — only she’s a sprite on a stump face-to-face with a rabbit.

Cynthia Wood’s jewelry pieces at Gallery Madera are bold and elegant and influenced by marine life and sailing in the Puget Sound.

Works from Danella Sydow’s "Aphrodite" series are sensual abstracted forms in bronze based on women’s bodies.

The works in "Flux" are as serious, heavy and commercial as the works in "Rabbitual" are fluffy and sweet.

I have reservations about a lot of the works in each of these shows as being too cute or too commercial, but each show has enough really good stuff to make it worth seeing.

Coming up next at Two Vaults is a show of paintings by Christopher Mathie depicting the animal life in and around the Puget Sound. These works promise to be big and bold in Mathie’s painterly style, which will be a departure from the rabbit theme while still dealing with animal imagery.

[Gallery Madera, Flux, through Sept. 12, 2210 Court A, Tacoma, 253.572.1218, www.gallerymadera.com]

[Two Vaults Gallery, Rabbitual, through Sept. 12, 602 S. Fawcett, Tacoma, 253.759.6233]

‘Star-Spangled Girl’ sparkles at Tacoma Little Theatre

Published in The News Tribune, Sept. 11, 2009
“The Star-Spangled Girl” stars (top photo from left), Luke Amundson as Andy, Gretchen Boyt as Sophie, and Blake R. York as Norman. Photos by Dean Lapin.


New Tacoma Little Theatre artistic director Scott Campbell promised a season of comedy, and the revamped 91-year-old theater is starting the new season with a laugh-out-loud glance back at the ’60s, Neil Simon’s “The Star-Spangled Girl.”

What I love about this show is that there is nothing superfluous – no big set changes, no big effects (just a couple of little effects that are quite surprising), no unnecessary characters or rambling monologues – just three eccentric but believable characters and a lot of witty dialogue.

Luke Amundson as Andy and Blake R. York as Norman Cornell are a deliciously odd couple, making two totally outlandish characters seem almost normal. Throw in Gretchen Boyt, a cross between Carol Burnett and Jane Krakowski, as Sophie – the rah-rah, All-American girl from Arkansas who moves in next door – and you’ve got a hit.

Andy is an idealistic radical who publishes the alternative magazine Fallout with Norman, his one-person writing staff, working out of their San Francisco apartment in 1967. Their already crazy lives are thrown totally out of whack when Sophie knocks on their door.

The dialogue is witty and fast-paced, more a parody than an accurate reflection of the era.

Director Elliot Weiner writes in the program that Simon was critical of this play and “complained that he should never have tried to be political.” It is clear that Simon did not have a clear understanding what it was like to be a poor political activist in 1967. The political arguments between Andy and Sophie, which are supposedly the crux of the play, are actually some of the weaker scenes. But the complex love-hate relationships between (separately and each with its own sexual tension) Andy and Norman, Norman and Sophie, and finally Andy and Sophie – not to mention a trio of characters who never appear on stage, including Sophie’s Marine boyfriend; the landlady, Mrs. MacKaninee, with whom Andy has on ongoing relationship to keep them from being evicted from the apartment they cannot afford; and a creditor who keeps calling and whom Andy keeps putting off by pretending to be various other characters.

The casting for this play is outstanding. I can’t imagine any trio of actors fitting their parts better than Amundson, York and Boyt. I have enjoyed Amundson and York in many local productions, but this is their best outing to date. Boyt is a welcome new actor to South Sound stages.

Amundson plays the idealistic and revolutionary Andy with controlled fury. His love for Norman and disdain for Sophie are palpable, and he shows great skills for mimicry in impersonating a Chinese laundryman, an Italian restaurateur and other characters.

Boyt makes you love Norman even when he is doing things that should have him thrown in jail. He stalks and harasses Sophie relentlessly, but he does it with such a sweet and innocent smile and such a look of goofy adoration that you just can’t help but love him.

Boyt makes you believe that Sophie really is a proud and patriotic hillbilly, and her Southern accent is believably subtle.

“The Star-Spangled Girl” was never as big a hit as plays such as “Barefoot in the Park” and “The Odd Couple,” which made Simon one of America’s favorite playwrights. But 40 years later, it is still fresh and delightful. I suspect that one reason neither the Broadway production nor the movie version were big successes was that it is too small and intimate for Broadway or film, but that intimacy makes it perfectly suited for the newly expanded TLT stage.

If you’re going to see it, be sure to note that TLT’s evening performances start half an hour earlier this year, at 7:30 p.m.