-Ed
Today we talk about a professional theatre community with a review of Studio Theatre's production of Invisible Man based off of the awe inspiring and lyrically ridonkulus novel by Ralph Ellison. No, not the THE Invisible Man with the invisible murderer in late Victorian London written by H.G. Wells. I'm talking about Invisible Man your High School English Teacher (and I) actually care about. The one with the racial commentary and the Marxist and the Africanism critique. Yeah. That one. Studio theatre staged It. Cue much fanboying.
Since Invisible Man was one of the rare books that I liked as much as my English Teacher I am obviously coming in with a bias. I know the material and themes are good. On the flip side I am paranoid that they'll mess it up. Still, since this wasn't Student Theatre and all of the actors on the program are Equity I knew not to be too afraid. In fact spoiler alert: It was really really quite good. Not perfect but well worth seeing and an exemplary bit of theatre. Let's take a look at the Invisible Man shall we?
Company Presentation:
It's Studio Theatre and they are professionals. Despite this, however, the poster and the image on the program was incredibly lackluster showing a purple hatted silhouette on a blue background. Go figure. I want my advertising to grab me by the balls and I felt rather unmolested.
Set:
Invisible Man takes place in Studio Theatre's Metheny Theatre which is a demi-thrust a-La the Betts Theatre, only far smaller and the proscenium portion is elevated very slightly. Also like the Betts there are four vomitory aisles (two in the middle two on these sides) that the directors of the space like to abuse for some prime-time fourth wall breaking.
But this is all the boring stuff, since the set on the proscenium is gorgeous in it's dilapidation. While certainly not 'realism' the set mostly looks like, as it's supposed to look like, an underground bedroom in a crappy mid 20th century apartment. There's a disgusting bed, some crates, a table etc. Further downstage are staircases that lead to a balcony area, as well as projector screens that act as thematic observers to the action, showing busy streets, rallies, etc.
The sets real virtue however is it's versatility. It can suddenly become a southern bar, a busy new york street, a college board room, a rally…at the drop of a hat. Since the framing device is the Invisible Man's memory and the play strays from realism this works incredibly well.
Lighting
Sexy-Awesome and anyone familiar with the novel knows why. For those of you who aren't however, in the book the first description we get is of the hidey-hole our nameless protagonist has set up in, and the main features of that hidey-hole are the LIGHTS. He has hung hundreds of thousands of lightbulbs and chandeliers of every kind from the ceiling without rhyme or reason, because even though 'he's invisible he loves light'.
Naturally Studio Theatre replicated this with great success. The low hanging ceiling even rises when he's reenacting a scene from his memory and the lights give a sharp pulse along with a sound cue whenever a moment needs punctuating. Apart from the obvious though the rest of the lights on the set do a good job of ranging from subtle and ethereal for the more surrealist moments of the play, and more hard and rigid for the realist ones. Even the vomitory aisle cast their actors in a kind of half light when called for. Very cool.
Acting
Since Invisible Man is quite a large novel with several notable characters that appear across several locations the cast of ten, save for the nameless protagonist, play multiple characters and take part in a Greek Chorus like-ensemble. Suffice it to say they're all extremely talented however a few standouts do deserve mention.
First and foremost of course is Mr. Teagle F. Bougre, who plays the titular Invisible Man. While his acting was compelling, heartfelt, and powerful, when his character needed to portray extreme despair he very nearly avoided hamminess. Despite this though he as able to switch between the narrator and the participator of his life at the drop of a hat, and all the scenes when his character needed to make speeches were so effective that I wanted to join Mr. Bougre's in rioting in the street. All and all a powerhouse performance from a gifted actor.
Johnny Lee Davenport deserves noting, especially in his role as Doctor Bledsoe. While the character only appears at the very beginning of the play, his ability to portray a corrupt, charming, smug, Uncle-Tom who ironically is more powerful than his 'masters' was astounding. Mr. Davenport, also understands the twisted majesty of the character as well playing him with a sense of royal entitlement to his college rather than a sense of insecurity.
Finally Julia Watt's Emma was incredibly well realized and even has the honor of deplaning my previous vision of the character. Ms Watt portrays the complexities of a young charming socialite, devout ideologue, and manipulative sex-kitten with ease and more importantly, restraint. It was probably the most reserved performance even during the (hilarious) seduction scene and for that it was all the more intellectually stimulating and sexy. Well done Ms. Watt.
Direction.
I could go on and on and on about how fantastic Christopher McElroen's direction of the play was, so let's just assume that everything I talk about was perfect, engaging, clever and respectful so we save time shall we? Here's what I saw.
Since the novel drops in and out of different times, spaces, memories and literary style the production does the same. Sometimes the director opts for more conventional ways of staging to get points across but more often than not he lapses into thematics. To accomplish this McElroen uses actors like props to embody concepts, placing them half-lit in the vows, behind screens, and around corners. A particularly compelling scene was when a a character describes his deceased wife and an actress just wanders in slow motion in shadow upstage behind a scrim.
McElroen is also respectful of the racialized nature of the text and as such engages in traditional African American theatrical practices. Namely through song and poetic nature of expression. Throughout the production there are numerous musical interludes that are all thematically and tonally meaty. For those of you unfamiliar with Black Theatre I'm not saying that suddenly it became a musical, I'm saying that they sang songs that never effected the plot but nevertheless strengthened the production. Another clever touch was that whenever there needed to be a crowd of white people (three out of the ten actors were white) they'd have the other actors wear incredibly creepy and intentionally soulless white masks. All and all an extremely good move on McElroen's part.
Invisible Man is a Studio Theatre production that closes on October 28 based off of the novel by Ralph Ellison, adapted to stage by Oren Jacoby and Directed by Christpher McElroen. If you have not seen it as of yet, make it a priority since it's one of the more unique and engaging pieces of art available. If not, at least read the novel.
See you in the theatre,
-Max
Edited for spelling and grammar 10/25/12
Edited for spelling and grammar 10/25/12
No comments:
Post a Comment