Theater Reviews: All My Sons, Opus, King Lear: The Madmen

Also, Praying Small, The Fantasticks, Amadeus and more

Comments (0) By L.A. Weekly Theater Critics Thursday, Jul 1 2010

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PHOTO BY CHELSEA SUTTON

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SORORITY QUEEN IN A MOBILE HOME Michael DiGaetano and Kevin A. Mahoney's pair of monologues twirl on and around Scenic Consultant James Spencer's bifurcated set of a Bakersfield trailer-home and a local-occupancy hotel. These are lived in respectively by a former sorority queen, Grace (Amanda Weier), and her ex-, now down-and-out husband, Dennis (Colin Walker). Act 1 belongs to Grace, who pretty much explains the story of her life, with a brief interlude for a scene with her dotty real estate agent "friend," Judith (Caitlin Renée Campbell), who's trying to persuade her to sell the trailer in order to purchase a local home. There's also a nerd Boy Scout (Conor Lane) drop-in to this gentle comedy as though from a Christopher Durang farce. Judith has fantasies of being a country singing star in Las Vegas, and she's saving her pennies. Under Paul Kampf's direction, the play accrues almost no momentum because of Weier's show-and-tell interpretation. She broadcasts every attitude and opinion of this frustrated hausfrau, resulting in a parade of the obvious. Weier was terrific and stylish in this theater's earlier production of Light Up the Sky, so this would appear to be an issue of guidance rather than talent. Her former Hubby takes focus for Act 2, retelling the same events from his perspective. Walker's performance is comparatively understated and wry, but his account is almost identical to Judith's, so even the Rashomon structure feels pointless. His conflict with friend Woody (Tom Burrus) brings the production to life, but it's late in the game, in a play about being late in the game. Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A.; Wed.-Thurs., 8 p.m.; through July 15. (323) 882-6912. (Steven Leigh Morris)

TWELFTH NIGHT Shakespeare isn't usually the hottest ticket in town (that honor currently belongs to In the Heights), but that's more the fault of buttoned-up high school standards that refuse literature teachers the freedom to explore and explain the rampant bustier-and-trouser unbuttoning in the First Folio. Director Jeff Soroka continues modern theater's attempt to unclothe the plays in Theatre Unleashed's production of the comedy that, typical of Shakespeare, derives its plot from mistaken identity. Sprawled drunkenly between two of his harem at the start of the show, Shawn Cahill's Orsino is one of the most animalistic incarnations of a Shakespearean character in recent memory — the audience smells before it sees him. Yet he rises both to the heightened language and demystifies it with a bold physicality; Darci Dixon, as Viola, has a fine command of the language, but her energy is so contained and her reactions so muted, she seems to be performing for the camera as opposed to the stage. Fortunately, the show's jesters — Thomas W. Ashworth as Feste, Paul Bond as Sir Toby Belch, and Jim Martyka as Sir Andrew Aguecheek — are respectively as witty, bawdy and stupid as intended; and Noah James Butler's excellent turn as the fraught Malvolio provides the prissy tautness to Cahill's alpha-male dispassion. Though Soroka's eye is on upping the sexual ante with his staging, unintentionally comical modern-dancing belly dancers and a boring, throwaway final scene (ah, Shakespeare's ever-problematic wrap-ups) leave the audience answering the eternal conjugal question, so often inspired by the Bard, with the reply: "No, that wasn't so good for me." The Sherry Theatre, 11052 Magnolia Blvd., N. Hlywd.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through July 31. (818) 849-4039 (Rebecca Haithcoat)