May Issue - Stage Directions Magazine

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The Play’s The Thing By Stephen Peithman All Over The Map Diversity in subject matter and tone characterizes this month’s installment. This month’s roundup of recently released plays is all over the map — not geographically, but in terms of style, audience, and impact. An adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Austin Tichenor’s one-act Dancing on the Ceiling is designed for young audiences. That’s because Tichenor believes that Kafka’s darkly comic tale of a man turned into a cockroach will strike a chord with adolescents who are often experiencing struggles with their own changing bodies. He’s most likely right on the mark here, for like his work for the Reduced Shakespeare Company, Dancing on the Ceiling is both smart and fun; it’s youth theatre that grownups will enjoy, too. Two males, three females. [Broadway Play Publishing] A.R. Gurney’s Post Mortem is set in the not-too-distant future, when the religious right holds sway. Alice, a lecturer in drama at a faith-based state university in the Midwest, and Dexter, an enthusiastic student more interested in his teacher than the theatre, discover a play by an obscure late 20th century playwright. When the authorities destroy the script, the two work to piece the play together, and with it the future of a world seemingly gone mad. Gurney displays an earnest concern for our country’s well-being, but manages to keep the tone light most of the way, whether he’s on the attack against the current political situation or the lack of cell phone etiquette in the theatre. One male, two females. [Broadway Play Publishing] From Yale University Press comes Eugene O’Neill: Collected Shorter Plays, which includes The Hairy Ape, Hughie, The Long Voyage Home, Fog, Thirst, Bound East for Cardiff, Ile, The Moon of the Caribbees and In the Zone. As a group, they represent the broad span of O’Neill’s work. Hughie is a two-character play set in the lobby of a New York hotel, and received acclaimed productions starring Jason Robards (1964) and Al Pacino (1996). The expressionist masterwork The Hairy Ape (1922) tells the story of a brutish, unthinking laborer who searches for a sense of belonging in a world controlled by the rich. The Long Voyage Home is an intriguing early play about a Swedish sailor who is kidnapped in London and forced to sail on the worst ship on any sea. Interestingly enough, the 1940 film version of The Long Voyage Home also used elements of The Moon of the Caribees, In The Zone and Bound East for Cardiff — all of which can be found in this excellent collection, which includes a helpful introduction by Robert Brustein. [ISBN 978-0-300-10779-1, $15.95] Many studies have shown that moving is one of the most traumatic events in life. That’s the starting point of Bernard Slade’s Moving, which covers the journey that 11 characters go through in one day that alters all their lives. Based on his script for the 1987 TV movie Moving Day (featuring Candice Bergen and Keanu Reeves), the stage version is touching, insightful and humorous, as one might expect from the author of Romantic Comedy, Tribute and Same Time, Next Year. Slade doesn’t work hard to create tension — comic or dramatic — but simply lets the story develop from the characters themselves. Six females, five males. [Samuel French] We end, as we began, with a play for young audiences. In Beckwourth: The Later Years, Mark Weston tells the story of frontiersman and scout James P. Beckwourth, who discovered the best route into northern California in 1850, known today as the Beckwourth Pass. Named a chief of the Crow Nation, the African-American Beckwourth’s accomplishments have gone largely unsung in American history. However, Weston’s single-act play makes this obscure but important historical character come alive, telling his tale with wit and honest emotion. That’s particularly so at the end, when Beckwourth contemplates his complex relationship with the Native American tribe he called his second family. This well constructed play may be done as a one-man performance, or with a cast of up to 15 supporting male players. 42 May 2007 • www.stage-directions.com
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