 |
| L - R Oscar T. Basulto, Marc Pelina, West Liang, Pamela Guest, Kavin Panmeechao |
By Joe Straw
I’ve not had the pleasure of seeing any productions at The Company of
Angels. They’ve been around “forever” over on Hyperion and, six years ago, they
moved to the haunted Alexandria Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Spring Street.
I arrived a little early and witnessed “different” kinds of people in
front of the building. Multiple tattoos,
shaved heads and bodies parts pierced from artists seemed to be the norm at the
Alexandria Hotel.
But, from the outside, there was no trace of the theatre other than the
huge Company of Angels flag flying outside of the hotel.
I make a quick trip through the lobby and notice old people sitting,
who appeared to be sleeping or thinking and not bothering to look up as I
passed. Actually, this looked like the
beginnings of a terrifying Kubrick film.
“The Company of Angels, third floor, that elevator over there.” said a
man at the information desk, holding a phone on his ear, and interrupting his
conversation like he’s probably done a thousand times before.
Looking like a scene from an old Hitchcock film, the elevator rumbled
to the third floor. Step out, no signs, no
people, only hotel doors. Now, I am totally freaked out. – The narrator.
The Company of Angels presents the World Premier of Their Eyes
Saw Rain written by West Liang and directed by Justin Huen at the Alexandria
Hotel on Spring Street in Los Angeles.
First, this is a shoddy title for a play. I prefer “They Saw Rain”, or “He Saw Rain”. But what do eyes do but see? Isn’t “eyes saw” redundant?
Nevertheless, Their Eyes Saw Rain is a wonderful Twilight
Zone science fiction thriller, with wonderful performances, by a very exciting
cast. The play is under the skillful
direction of Justin Huen, who will have you squirming in your seats, and
dripping with fear, as the show leads the audience into an unexpected nightmare
of an ending.
Once you leave the theatre, connecting the dots in this
thriller is a wonderful exercise. One can’t help but sit down and decipher all
that was witnessed. I love it when that happens. I believe this play has more
meaning than the literal description in the press release.
The play starts with a man as he sits on his porch watching
the rainfall. The setting is sometime in
the late forties in a small dying southern town known as Castle. Since an
unexpected death 70 days ago, it has rained nonstop. Or so, that’s what some people think.
Upstage center sits Terrance (West Liang), a lonely young Asian
American man. He watches as the rain
falls off his porch and onto the ground listening as the thunder rolls in the
background. Terrance lights himself a joint or a cigarette, takes a deep breath,
and coughs violently. He stands, with his head extended away from his body near
his chest, and he blinks forcefully, trying to wipe the floating images that continually
linger in his eyes. Something is
wrong. He is violent in manner, without verifiable
reason.
“Billy! Get your jacket on!
Billy!” – Terrance
Joanus (Kavin Panmeechao), his other brother, comes into the
room instead with some unexpected news that he is unwilling to divulge. Instead he talks about a cookbook. In fact, they talk about books all the time
as though they were selling them.
“Listen. We’ll be late.” –
Terrance
“I’m ready. Want me to fetch
him?” – Joanus
But all Terrance can do is vigorously shine his shoes, and
not very well at that. Still he attempts
an aggressive attack on the toes. And he
shines Billy’s shoes as well, toes only.
Joanus hesitantly says that Billy needs some down time and
that sends Terrance into a tither.
Billy, hearing the angry noises, comes out. But he is not ready. Oddly enough Billy is wearing the same black
coat, and tattered black pants, as the two brothers. But he is not wearing his
black tie. He is in his stocking feet and
he doesn’t want to go.
Terrance slaps Billy. It is a violent slap signifying
something more sinister than that of an angry man.
“We stay together.” - Terrance
Joanus ties Billy’s tie and they leave for places unknown.
 |
| L - R Samantha Klein, James Thomas Gilbert |
Meanwhile, in another part of town, Peach (Samantha Klein)
steps into her kitchen, wearing a stained slip, and reading or cutting coupons
from the paper. From outward appearances, she is dirt poor, and does whatever
she can to get by. Stepping out from the
bathroom, with no shirt and tightening a belt around his waist, Jake (James
Thomas Gilbert) walks into the kitchen as though he is very familiar with the
home and Peach.
Peach reads from the papers that the school is closing,
which she takes as a sign that things are moving in the wrong direction. Jake
thinks the school closing is just fine.
Nevertheless, Jake wants more. He wants to get married to Peach and to take
care of her and her boy, Joseph. Only there is a slight problem. Even though he’s the sheriff of this dead-end
town, Peach does not love him. She informs
Jake that she has been seeing Joanus for some time.
That doesn’t sit too well with Jake as he slaps on his gun,
throws on his sheriff’s shirt, and takes a swig of some nasty liquor.
In another part of town, Rosetta (Pamela Guest) enters the
room with cookies, offering the boys every bit of southern hospitality.
Fable (Oscar T. Basulto), Rosetta’s husband, carries a stick. He playfully wants to know if the boys have a
book on sex. He takes a liking to this form of education much to the dismay of
Rosetta.
Terrance starts to cough violently and runs out of the room.
Billy and Joanus tell Rosetta that everything is fine and really “…there is no fixing things in Castle”.
“Billy, its getting worse.” - Rosetta
Rosetta likes Billy.
She sees a light from his eyes and takes the initiative to help Terrance
with this disease that he appears to have caught from his father.
Fable has also seen that the disease is getting worse in
Terrance.
“Nothing is getting any better, Terrance.” – Fable
Terrance assures Rosetta and Fable that they are making
progress.
Later that night, Joanus is with Peach and it is clear that
Peach is infatuated with him. But Joanus
tries to dissuade her by saying that Jake wants her.
“I don’t want him.” – Peach
Joanus says he’s got no money except what he carries around
in a shell of a book that he turns over to her.
(She says she got a job but it’s not clear what she does as she seems to
be in her slip all day long.)
Peach wants to change this boy who is barely a man. Even Joanus admits he “ain’t strong like a
man.” But Peach brushes that aside.
“Change don’t come from wishing things.” – Peach
Meanwhile Jake stops by Terrance’s home. He enters and lights a cigarette, which don’t
sit too well with Terrance. He tells
Terrance that he wants to speak to Joanus because he has a bone to pick with
him and things got to change, even in Castle.
“I’ve been fine to you boys since your daddy died.” – Jake
Jake gives the impressions he wants the “boys” out of town
and soon. Terrance tells him Jake may be
a bigger man now that he’s wearing his father’s sheriffs uniform but that Terrance
and his brothers aren’t going anywhere. Even
Billy tells him to “git”.
“Someone will be leaving Castle, and it ain’t me. – Jake
To gather support, Jake starts a petition for community
residents to sign asking for the “boys” to leave. Rosetta and Fable refuse to sign. Jake argues that he is protecting the people
of the community. Jake may be doing this but for the wrong reasons.
In the beginning of the second act, Rosetta has a secret while
the town meeting is taking place. She passes
out cookies to the audience of the town meeting (us). When Terrance starts to
cough violently, Dr. Landy (Gregory Niebel) comes down to help. That’s when we are privy to a remarkable
truth that takes us to the shocking ending.
There are a number of fascinating aspects to this production
although much of it is open to dramatic interpretation. But suffice it to say
that this is a wonderful production by fantastic actors giving it their all.
Oscar T. Basulto
as Fable did a fine job although I didn’t understand why he carries a stick around
with him. The stick must have a purpose, and must be connected to the story,
otherwise why have the stick? And as
much as I liked his performance, I would have liked to see a stronger choice, a
clearer emotional life, and a stronger objective. Still, there was some very
nice work done.
James Thomas Gilbert
was incredible as Jake, the sheriff. He
is the small-town sheriff that doesn’t have enough sense to go after bigger
fish. Actually, he’s unaware of the big fish. If he was aware, I think he go
about the expulsion a different way. Interestingly enough (and probably by
mistake), Jake has his pulse on what he must do around Castle. Try as he might,
he will never get the girl. Gilbert does a remarkable job.
Pamela Guest plays
Rosetta and is sympathetic. She has a soft spot for one of the boys. And she has
long-standing relationships with them, although the nature of the relationship
is unclear. She humors her husband but pushes
to get these boys professional help because of a need that she sees. Guest is marvelous in this role searching for
a dramatic truth. She is physically and
emotionally specific to the character in a job well done.
Samantha Klein as
Peach is torn between two men. One she has given up on, still he is there,
coming out of her backroom partially clothed, making him coffee, and emotionally
supporting him. There is a slightly
sinister side to her behavior. She is in
love with another man and she makes no bones about wanting out of relationship
with her “law friend”. She uses him to
get things fixed around the house: fixing the toilet and fixing the radio. Still
she supplies him with liquor, so maybe she wants a little more. Klein is very good in the role and presents a fertile
emotional life. But her intentions with
each man is secretive and possibly not all that honorable. Klein’s working
class portrayal is simply splendid.
West Liang does a
marvelous job as Terrance. His amygdaliform
eyes straining, constantly blinking away the sight of seventy days of perpetual
rain, knowing full well something is wrong. Perhaps he has a bad case of ombrophobia. As the character, Terrance believes he needs
to take care of his brothers at all cost. He is not willing to leave them but
he also understands they need to make a living and does his best to keep them
focused on making money so they can survive. Liang is magnificent in the role
he wrote. And he brings very specific
physical actions to compliment a volatile inner life.
Kavin Panmeechao
plays Joanus, the middle brother. He
seems conflicted in his relationship to Peach and with leaving his younger brother
to the ruthless demands of his older brother. Panmeechao could show us more of
his objective and the conflict that interferes with that objective.
Marc Pelina plays
the younger brother, Billy. Billy seems
to be the smartest of the three brothers and he knows this life is going to get
him into a lot of trouble. Try as he
might to get away from something contagious, he is bullied into remaining with
his brothers. Pelina’s objective is not focused. He needs to find someone—his brother or his
neighbors—to help him with his predicament.
Gregogy Niebel
does some exciting work as Dr. Landy/Daddy. He is a caring community doctor who
tries to help Terrance of this affliction.
He’s seen it before; he knows about it, he tries to administer some kind
of help. But in the end, he can’t help
the patient if the patient is unwilling to help himself. Niebel has a
commanding stage presence and has two very exciting parts and really shines in
both.
This can’t be a story about small town tribulations; we’ve
already seen that. There is something
more to West Liang’s play. The play has a deeper meaning pointing to something
very sinister underneath. The town
people are slightly aware that something is creeping up on them but they seem
helpless to stop or to get help. No one
takes corrective measures because they are not fully aware of the problem. One can walk away seeing what they want to see
in this production, a literal presentation, or a dramatic play that takes us
deeper in our self conscious being.
There are simple things in the play that are missing in Justin Huen’s direction. The brothers wipe the books they are selling in
preparation of a sell but money is never exchanged. Terrance
articulates an idea of taking it over the empty school, yet he doesn’t have a
plan and he doesn’t move in that direction. There appears to be a concerted effort by his
neighbors to get him to the school to get medical attention but that action is
not visible on stage. The other characters
do not question Terrance’s motives or sanity. They should know something is wrong when a man
sees rain for seven months when it hasn’t been raining. But they don’t know how to help him. But aside from these small quibbles, Mr. Huen has done a remarkable job and is worthy of your immediate attention.
The fight scenes by Fight Director Edgar Landa were very
real and very violent and I squirmed when bodies hit the floor.
Other members of this remarkable production are:
Produced by: Richard Azurdia
Stage Manager: Jennifer Perez
Assistant Stage Manager: Adam Gonzalez
Scenic Design: Gregory A. Crouch
Assistant Scenic Design: Luis Galindo
Lighting Design: Justin Huen
Costume Design: Jackie Gudgel
Sound Design: Howard Ho
Prop Master: Art McDermott
Fight Director: Edgar Landa
Graphic Design: Xavi Moreno
Run! And take a
friend with an open mind.
Through December 16th, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment