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| Amanda Saunders and Daniel J. Travanti - Photo Cai Dixon |
You’ve work your whole life for that one defining moment. As you observe, you hold your head high knowing
that you made this, that an idea you crafted is about to be realized, and you
laugh as you take pride in the inconceivable imagination that created this
marvelous piece of work.
But in the back of your mind lies a disturbing and lingering
thought, that somehow, you’ve missed, you didn’t make the statement you thought
you were going to make. And the weight of your past mistakes come back to haunt
you.
Silently, after ideas fall hopelessly like smoldering embers,
you pray to the creator, for a sign that an idea, or someone is going to walk
through your door and give you what you’ve been searching for these months or
years.
And, oddly enough, an inspiration on a pedestal appears. A very good looking one who is capable and
who launches every esoteric idea out to the winds in the hopes they are
reachable. But is she the solution or a false solution?
False Solution written and directed by Oren Safdie starring
Daniel J. Travanti and Amanda Saunders is now playing the Santa Monica
Playhouse through May 11, 2014.
Daniel J. Travanti best know as the character Captain Frank
Furillo in Hill Street Blues is on the boards again in this West Coast
Premiere, live, in a very intimate setting, just minutes from where you live.
A cool summer breeze wisps in and around the building of an architecture
firm when Linda Johansson (Amanda Saunders) walks in and gives us a brief
introduction into the life of an architect, how after architects die, their
work lives on for many years, perhaps centuries. Architects want to be remembered for the
defining moments of their working life.
When a structure they have imagined soars to life and lifts the spirits
of those who enter.
But Johansson takes a look at the model and, without word, is
less than impressed. She takes a couple
of pieces on the table as though she were going to add something to it. Her backside faces the entryway (an interesting
and unusual choice) and waits for the master, Anton Seligman (Daniel J.
Travanti), a renowned architect to enter.
She observes the jumbled mess of architraves, spandrels, volute
spires, thrusts, and studies the mock up
that Seligman has on his desk of a new Holocaust Museum in Poland.
Walking carefully and slowly down the staircase is Anton
Seligman, nicely dressed in a red kerchief, black shirt, brown belt, black
pants, and brown shoes carrying a leather man bag on his left side. All together he presents an impressive
figure. But fighting an unseen foe from
an uncertain place and looking as though we has already toiled wearily this day,
he takes very little notice of the intern, now standing and watching him. The weight of the world and gravity is
pulling him into his last production as he takes off his jacket and throws the
bag under his working desk reliving him of some of his weighted burden.
Johansson is youth personified. She wears a light brown
sweater, a tight fitting white dress, and has brown and tan shoes. Bubbling, she takes a moment to stare and
absorb all that is he. She is a stunning
creature with long blond hair, nicely put together, and her attraction for him is
for an entirely different purpose.
Getting down to business Seligman opens a book on a
Holocaust museums, explains their structures, the use of light, how people use
the building. They stand so close to
each other, a hair strand away, absorbing unfamiliar body heat before they take
a moment to separate.
Seligman’s mental block is the model of the museum sitting
on his desk and wants to know if Johansson has any ideas. He is inexorable in
wanting information from his intern, including her background, for which she is
not a willing participant.
“Harvard?”, he asks.
No, “Columbia on a full scholarship.” she beams.
“I wrote a paper on you this semester.” – Linda
So Linda knows all about this man, or at least she thinks
she does. And it takes her a few minutes
before she is comfortable enough to convince him that what he is doing needs to
be reconsidered, for the sake of the town and the Holocaust survivors. Her
background knowledge suggests the town was complicit in their silence and Linda
feels the building should reflect their silence.
And so Seligman contemplates the idea, as he contemplates
the idea of having her at his side, on this night. They work on another idea, one that will offer
a solution to the town, to them, and to the ones who died, but in doing so both
will pay a price.
But, I have questions and sometimes I need to be hit over
the head with the answers.
My first question is:
Why is Linda there and who sent her?
She is an intern, a second-year graduate student at that, and she is
going to change the mind of a world-renowned architect? How?
Through her sagacious wit, or sententious rhetoric, or her what? Okay, so I have a lot of questions. And, that aside, through the course of the
play, no one is really searching for the answers, mentally or physically. There is a lot of verbal foreplay without the
culmination of anything resembling an answer to the questions and I believe
another eye on the actors would have gotten the play more mileage.
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| Amanda Saunders and Daniel J. Travanti - Photo Cai Dixon |
Amanda Saunders
plays the intern Linda Johansson and at first we get the shy, envious,
schoolgirl crush on this mentor but that goes away quickly when the character
turns beyond the second-year grad student into someone who is worldly and well
beyond her years. Certainly there is a fine line, a place to pick your moments,
to grow into that confident person who will stop at nothing to complete her
objective. She has a reason, which is to
be discovered during the course of the play, but that reason should be evident
from the moment she walks onto that stage.
It is the cause of her being, the reason she needs to be there, the
thing that will not stop her. Saunders is a delightful actor and there is more
to be gained by stepping back and understanding who you are, where you are
going, and how you are going to get there.
Daniel J. Travanti
does a fine job as Anto Seligman and it is always nice to see an actor come
back to the stage and give it his all.
Taking chances and putting yourself out there for the sake of a new play
is always a welcome opportunity in my book.
Travanti looks physically fit, someone who does yoga, and it fits with
the character that is always staying fit and looking for new female opportunities
despite the fact that he has a wife at home. I did get the thread, the through line, of
Seligman’s character. We get the
architect objectives, but why now and why this night? What is the thing that completes his
objective on this day? That aside, and
on the night I was there, Travanti seizes a moment at the end, an emotion deep
within him that captures his exquisite brilliance on stage and that is
something I’ll take with me for the rest of my days and is well worth the price
of admission.
The show was nicely producer by Producer Jacqueline
Bridgeman.
Other members of the crew are as follows:
Assistant Director/Dramaturg – Shelagh McFadden
Costume Design – Kate
Fry provides costumes for the actors who were immaculately dressed. http://www.katefry.com
Set Design – Evelyn
Ellias makes a wonderful use of the space.
Lighting Design – Rusty
Gaidzik
Stage Manager – Cheryl
Valice
Publicity – Philip
Sokoloff
Run! And take someone who wants to discover the life of an architect.
RESERVATIONS: (800)
838-3006.
ONLINE TICKETING: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/588251
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