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REVIEW Blood,Smoke and Flame A new production from a new playwright gives cause for hope. BY STEFFEN SILVIS 243-2122 EXT. 343 |
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Mary Tudor CoHo Productions at the Riverstone Condominium 804 NW 12th Ave., 295-3593 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays Feb. 7, 14 and 21. Closes Feb. 21 $10-$12 When asked once why there weren't more good plays in America, Harold Clurman replied, "The question should be: Why aren't there more bad plays?" Clurman believed that bad plays were the necessary manure for good theater, and that the more bad plays produced the better, as this created activity and would impel theater practitioners to strive harder. It's a colorful theory, though I find it dangerous. Not that I quarrel with Clurman's logic, but great heaps of dreck on stage, however nuturing to theatermakers, is bound to affect the audience abjectly. A few weeks back, I hazarded to make public the opinions of artists and writers on Portland's theater. Pained cries rose that this was unfair, as I had asked for views from people who didn't attend the theater. This criticism ignored that most of the respondents had gone in the past but chose to stop. I've made abundantly clear in this column that I don't subscribe to the belief that PICA and Imago are the sole saviors of theater in Portland--though the quality of life here would diminish dramatically without them. But rightly or wrongly (and on good days I believe wrongly), the general impression among polled artistic peers is that the theater here has failed them. They've looked out upon the steaming piles of farce and sing-along that scab the land and missed the few blooms of true art that push through it. But is that their fault? My task is to steer readers to the plays, productions and performances that are seriously devoted to the art of the theater and that warrant discovery. Though rare, they are there, and I will, to the best of my ability, honor them. Imago or PICA aside, I have felt that only three productions in the last two years reached a crystalline perfection. The first was Portland Repertory Theater's Molly Sweeney (which belatedly proved that Dennis Bigelow was more than a showman for common minds). The second was Profile's Wings, and the third was Bridge City's remarkable Waiting for Godot. I can give no higher praise to these productions other than to say that I think about them still and that I remain humbled by them. After waiting some while for a similar encounter with a play, I was fortunate at last to see CoHo Productions' Mary Tudor. The playwright, William S. Gregory, is a virtually unknown local writer who is enjoying the first public performance of his work. The company, CoHo, is a movable feast that only mounts plays in which it has great faith. The cast is a collection of newcomers and veterans as committed to the play as the producers--and justly so, as Mary Tudor is a beautiful piece of work. Some may think it quixotic to take a 16th-century English queen as a subject for a modern play, but as Gregory points out in the brilliantly written program, Bloody Mary's is very much a tale for our times. The structure of Gregory's piece is impeccable, and it moves with all the grace and gravity of his writing. It could be that the language is too lush at times--if lushness in an age of mumbling and tongue-piercing can be thought a fault--and there are one or two metaphors that are strained (the threshing room images conjured up between Lady Pole and Jane Seymour, for example). But as Jane Unger, director of Profile Theatre, has just reminded us in her equally thoughtful program notes on Tennessee Williams, the love of and use of language has been tragically devalued in our time. Perhaps Gregory comes closest to achieving what Maxwell Anderson strove for. The frequently leaden solemnity of Anderson's verse is absent, however, and in its place stirs the spirit of Wilde. Gregory is a true wit, and his dialogue is peppered with maxims that La Rochefoucauld would've been proud to claim. For any of it to work, of course, one needs a strong cast and director. As the latter, Robert W. Holden has done a splendid job of realizing Gregory's world. The cast is one of the best assembled recently. One comes to expect an excellent performance by Michele M. Mariana, but here her Lady Pole is revelatory. Mariana is at the height of her art. Other actors, such as Diane Englert and Sarah Dresser, are hard-working, dependable artists who here reach a new level in their craft. Dresser gives a startling, complex performance as Lady Shelton. As the damaged child destined for the throne, Lisa Rowan's Mary is haunting. Alyson Ayn Osborn as the quirt-tongued Anne Boleyn, Sam A. Mowry as Henry VIII, and Jocelyn Parrish and Diana Grogg as the dowds and nursemaids all contribute to making Mary Tudor unforgettable. Here is some pure soil from which to grow.
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