Category: Theater Reviews

Everybody Has to Die but Nobody Wants to Make This Journey Alone

A Theater Review by Julinda D. Lewis

At: Theatre Gym, 114 West Broad Street, Richmond, VA 23220

Performances: June 2-19, 2022

Ticket Prices: $40

Info: (804) 282-2620 or https://tickets.va-rep.org/events

EVERYBODY is a modern play about an age-old problem: death. Written by award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, it is a morality play based – with few significant changes – on a 15^th century morality play, Everyman, believed to be one of the earliest recorded plays in the English language. Set in the here and now, EVERYBODYhas been revamped to reflect today’s politics, belief systems, and world views and to be inclusive of current racial, religious, and gender concerns.

The morality play is a once-popular genre designed to teach a lesson – in this case, how to live better and be a better person in general – and features characters who are personifications of abstract qualities. In EVERYBODY the original qualities of Fellowship, Kindred, Goods, Discretion, Five Wits, and Knowledge have been rebranded as Friendship, Kinship, Stuff, Mind, Five Senses, and Understanding. With a few exceptions, the stellar cast of talented actors (Debra Wagoner, Jacqueline Jones, Audra Honaker, Jamar Jones, Katrinah Carol Lewis, Maggie Roop, Tyer Stevens, Desirée Dabney, alternate Tatjana Shields, and supporting actors Keeley Maddux and Charlotte Hall) must memorize the entire play, because at each performance the roles are chosen by lottery at the start of the play. Among the fixed roles, Wagoner appears as the Usher, God, and Understanding, Jacqueline Jones plays Death, and Dabney is Love.

With Debra Wagoner providing much of the narration, actors emerging from the audience and entering and exiting from the center aisle, and projected titles, there is a sense of controlled chaos – an appropriate response, one might concede, to the unexpected summoning of God and the unwelcome appearance of Death. God has summoned Death to bring Everybody for an accounting. But since it’s today, the accounting takes the form of a final presentation – you know, like a PowerPoint presentation. Feeling unprepared, Everybody negotiates for more time, and goes looking for someone willing to accompany them on this journey. Friendship and Kinship are the first to excuse themselves, providing a list of reasons ranging from the valid to the humorous. Even Stuff, decked out in a poncho-like garment covered with, well, a collection of stuff, makes a fast exit, while Mind and the Five Senses initially promise to accompany Everybody to the grave but both flake out at the last minute. In the end, it is only Love who completes the journey with Everybody – but only after making them strip down and perform a humiliating act of contrition (involving the repetition of the confession, “my body is just meat”).

EVERYBODY is performed on a nearly bare black stage, with minimal props and costumes, and disconcerting voice over scenes that occur in complete blackness. It is a play of universal themes leading to an inevitable conclusion, performed in earnestness by a fully committed cast. I particularly enjoyed the simultaneously funny and terrifying Skeleton Dance and there is no denying that Debra Wagoner and Jacqueline Jones fully inhabited their roles However, much like Zombie Life (Firehouse, August 2021, https://jdldancesrva.com/2021/08/26/the-zombie-life/) which I heard more than once actor compare to EVERYBODY, I can only admire it from a detached distance; it just isn’t my cup of tea. But if well-crafted existentialism and humor-infused treatises on the meaning of life excite you, you can – and should – see EVERYBODY through June 19.

Julinda D. Lewis is a dancer, teacher, and writer who was born in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Eastern Henrico County.

EVERYBODY

By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Directed by Rusty Wilson

CAST

Usher/God/Understanding     Debra Wagoner

Death                                     Jacqueline Jones

Somebody                               Audra Honaker

Somebody                               Jamar Jones

Somebody                               Katrinah Carol Lewis

Somebody                               Maggie Roop

Somebody                               Tyler Stevens

Somebody alternate           Tatjana Shields

Girl/Time                                Keeley Maddux

Girl/Time                                Charlotte Hall

Love                                         Desirée Dabney

Voice-Over Artists               Juliana Caycedo

                                                Anne Michelle Forbes

                                                Tyandria Jaaber

                                                Elle Meerovich

                                                 Hannah Hoffert

CREATIVE TEAM:

Director                                    Rusty Wilson

Assistant Director                   Tim Glover

Scenic Designer                       Emily Hake Massie

Costume Designer                   Sarah Grady

Lighting Designer                    Alleigh Scantling

Properties Designer                Ellie Wilder

Scenic Charge                          Emily Hake Massie

Sound Designer                       Joey Luck

Technical Director                   Chris Foote

Stage Manager                        Maggie Higginbotham

Production Manager              Alleigh Scantling

Skeleton Dance Choreographer Laine Satterfield

Puppet Designer                     Kylie Clark

Photos by                                Jay Paul

UPDATED POLICIES: Virginia Rep has been following local, state, and federal health guidelines, and keeping a close eye on the policies of peer theatre companies regionally and nationally. As a result, proof of vaccination is no longer required. Masks, covering the face and nose, are required for all patrons while inside all VaRep venues, lobbies, and restrooms. At this time, no food or drink is allowed in the theatre.

Photo Credits: Jay Paul

A Timeless Love Story

A Theater Review by Julinda D. Lewis

At: Hanover Tavern, 13181 Hanover  Courthouse Rd, Hanover, VA 2309

Performances: March 18 – April 17, 2022

Ticket Prices: $48.

Info: (804) 282-2620 or www.virginiarep.org

It was inevitable that Dear Jack, Dear Louise would prove to be such a heart-warming story. It is the story of playwright Ken Ludwig’s parents’ courtship, performed by a couple of actors who are married to each other in real life.

The story begins when aspiring actress Louise Rabiner received a letter from U.S. Army Captain Jack Ludwig, a military doctor stationed in Medford, Oregon. The first letter is dated June 1, 1942. The tentative and touching relationship grows warmer with each exchange of letters until August of 1943, when Louise is preparing for a big audition and Jack is awaiting orders to deploy overseas, they each sign off their letters with “love.” For those of us accustomed to the fast pace of modern life and the directness of relationships initiated through dating apps, the leisurely pace and storybook romanticism of this budding relationship is both shocking and sobering – in a delightfully endearing way.  

Set mostly in Jack’s office in Oregon – and later, his undisclosed overseas deployment – and the New York City boarding house and various dressing rooms occupied by Louise, Dear Jack, Dear Louise is not just a story of a romance, but also a story of war and how it touches individuals who are powerless to affect the outcome, or even control their own involvement. After months of planning, Jack and Louise must postpone their first date due to escalating war activities.

Louise’s side of the stage is populated by signs for a NYC automat, the Barrymore Theatre, and 42^nd Street, while Jack’s side has the drab accoutrements of a military base and a sign for a diner. There are wall telephones with cords and Jack even sends Louise a telegram when he needs to get an important message to her quickly. Further drawing us into this historical fiction, Ludwig (the author, not the character) has the audience join his characters  in listening to songs, like, “Yes, We Have No Bananas” (first published in 1923 and resurrected during periods of rationing during WWII), and Louise’s big audition is for Hellzapoppin’ (1938), the longest running Broadway show during that time period.

Sue Griffin and Marcia Miller Hailey’s costuming for Louise is a veritable fashion show of WWII women’s garments, from the sweater with one black sheep to the classy plaid traveling suit to the high-waisted pants that remind me of the pants worn in The Color Purple (that I have yearned for since the VaRep production of that show some years ago).

When date night rolls around, (October 2, 1943), Louise is on tour in Cincinnati and Jack is in Ft. Houston en route to his deployment. October 31, that same year, Jack received a care package from Louise. She’s in Tennessee and he’s now somewhere in England. And then the letters stop. Louise receives a letter from Jack’s friend, informing her that Jack is MIA. But we know this is a love story, and it has a happy ending. Miraculously, Jack returns home, some three years after that first fateful letter, and the play ends with a first kiss.

Lydia Hundley has some wonderfully meaty comedic turns, and Neal Gallini-Burdick comes across mostly as sincere and delightfully awkward in matters of the heart. Debra Clinton’s direction is nicely paced, and somehow even the pauses – the times when communication between Jack and Louise breaks off – never become boring. Hundley and Gallini-Burdick, who met in college and married in May 2021, have appeared in five shows together, and may have had the advantage of drawing on their own love story to bring authenticity to Dear Jack, Dear Louise. And, if course, once cannot watch a wartime play these days without reflecting on current events in the Ukraine.

Comedy, romance, war, two actors with great chemistry, and good direction equals a heart-warming play that effectively meets the challenge of balancing love and war, reality and fiction.

Julinda D. Lewis is a dancer, teacher, and writer who was born in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Eastern Henrico County.

Cast

Jack Ludwig……….Neal Gallini-Burdick

Louise Rabiner…….Lydia Hundley

Direction & Design

Direction: Debra Clinton

Scenic Design: Dasia Gregg

Costume Design: Sue Griffin, Marcia Miller Hailey

Lighting Design: Matt Landwehr

Sound Design: Jacob Mishler

Stage Management: Joe Pabst

Assistant Stage Management: Amber Hooper

Photo Credits: Aaron Sutten

War is Still Hell

A Theater Review by Julinda D. Lewis

At: Dominion Energy Center, Libby S. Gottwald Playhouse, 600 E. Grace Street, RVA 23219

Performances: March 24 – April 16, 2022

Ticket Prices: $24 – $45

Info: (804) 340-0115 or quilltheatre.org

AN ILIAD (2010) is a masterful piece of storytelling. Director Lisa Peterson and actor Denis O’Hare adapted Homer’s epic poem, The Iliad, into a play for one actor. Many of the characters – and places – will be familiar to some: Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector, Paris, Helen, Troy. But even if you did not pay attention in your high school literature classes, you will be able to relate. This is more than a retelling of an ancient tale. Whereas Homer’s The Iliad tell the story of the final year of the Trojan War, An Iliad tells the story of the Trojan War from a contemporary perspective. What makes it relevant? Well, the Trojan War went on so long – some ten years – that people began to forget why they were fighting, what they were fighting for, what the end goal was, and that has a ring of familiarity for us today.

The Poet (Alec Beard) appears carrying a battered suitcase filled with a bottle of whiskey, a glass, and some papers containing, what – photos? memories? His overcoat, hat, and scarf signal that he is a time traveler. The stage is a war-torn battleground of scaffolds, an overturned chair, deserted props and tools. It is a place that appears to have been abandoned in a hurry, due to the ravages of neglect, disinterest, a war, a pandemic, or some unnamed man-made catastrophe. A ghost light on stage at the beginning and ending of the play seals the metaphoric atmosphere: security, superstition, repetition, tradition.

Beard holds our attention from start to finish, wielding a paint roller as a scepter, a random table leg as a spear, and words as weapons and keys. Beard is mesmerizing as The Poet. In the background, cellist Chris Chorney provides a timeless acoustic soundscape, and serves as a foil for Beard’s ruminations. When Beard tells a joke about Achilles, Chorney remains poker-faced; it’s as if he’s heard it all before, many, many times before. The Poet is like a vampire, immortal, timeless, no longer moved by the bizarre and inexplicable road rage that litters human history, even when animatedly re-enacting scenes from the past atrocities we seem determined to repeat. Director James Ricks has created an immersive experience that makes it impossible for the audience to distance themselves emotionally or intellectually. The Gottwald Playhouse becomes transformed, temporarily, an intimate cocoon that wraps around the performers and audience and only releases us when the lights come back up.

An Iliad includes a litany of wars, conflicts, and invasions, starting in ancient times and concluding – for now – with the current events in the Ukraine. Does An Iliad encourage the audience to understand the past by placing it into a modern context, or does it inspire us to understand the present by comparing it to the past?  Like Achilles, are we, too, addicted to rage, or do we need to re-examine our definition of heroes?  Returning the ghost light to center stage before exiting, The Poet asks, “You see?” But do we…

An Iliad

By Denis O’Hare & Lisa Peterson

Cast

Alec Beard as The Poet

Christopher Chorney as Muse

Direction & Design

Director:  James Ricks

Composer: Niccolo Seligman

Dramaturg: Dean Simpson

Lighting Designer: Gretta Daughtrey

Scenic Designer: Missouri Flaxon

Production Manager: Oliver Samson

Box Office Manager: Margot Moser

Marketing Consultant: Emily Adler

Stage Manager: Corrie Barton

Assistant Stage Manager: Hope Jewell

Scenic Construction: Quinlan Boyle

Run Time: 90 minutes with no intermission

Julinda D. Lewis is a dancer, teacher, and writer who was born in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Eastern Henrico County.

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Photo Credits: Dave Parrish Photography