L to R Colleen Greenhalgh, Ryan Hughes, and Justin Powell |
By Joe Straw
EXTENDED!! Culver City Players at AmVet Post 2 House.
EXTENDED!! Culver City Players at AmVet Post 2 House.
Saturday, April 21, at 8:00 pm
Sunday, April 22, at 7:00 pm
Saturday, April 28, at 8:00 pm
Sunday, April 29, at 7:00 pm
Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets
Culver City Players
10858 Culver Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90230
(424) 360-0330
Culver City Players
10858 Culver Boulevard
Culver City, CA 90230
(424) 360-0330
Elysium Conservatory
Theatre in association with Wende Museum of the Cold War presents Alik by Julio
Vera and directed by Cassandra Ambe is now playing through March 30, 2018 in
Culver City.
Some things happen by happenstance, free parking at the Vets
center to see a musical, turns into an unexpected turn, a discovery, and an unanticipated
focus on the new Wende Museum of the Cold War. In that moment of curiosity there was a
dogged determination to collect bits of information that caused me to look
through the window.
The museum appeared to be closed, but the doors were open,
the staff provided a friendly greeting and asked if “I was here to see the play”. I wasn’t aware there was a play in this
building where observable Stalin sculptures glowered and Russian paintings were
absorbed in mental limitations.
This is a place to study a particular time and place, a
polemology of the Cold War. It is a natural venue for those who necessitate the
gathering of information and disbursing it for consumptive purposes or
otherwise.
And this is a perfect venue for this play.
Emerging from the darkness, a soft-spoken writer, Julio Vera
introduced himself. He shares that the play, Alik, is a drama about Lee Harvey
Oswald and his wife Marina living in an apartment in Minsk in 1961 and 1962. Curiosity runs deep of that time and place
where in hindsight governments had little to share.
“This play is a work of fiction.
Names, people, places and incidents are the creation of the playwright
and used fictitiously. Any resemblance
to actual events, locations or people (living or dead) is coincidental.” – a
note in the program – Author Unknown
The actual playing space in the museum is probably the size
of your living room. At first one wonders how they will manage to create an
apartment in Minsk in 1961 with nothing visible. The audience sits in two sections facing each
other about fifteen feet apart.
One imagines the theatre patrons are the observers of that apartment
in Minsk. This darkened utopian socialist
world is one where we are all gathering information. Intentional or not, we are the
KGB, the CIA, and any other spy entity you care to mention - eavesdropping by any
conventional means or otherwise.
Alik by Julio Vera is a wonderful play performed by a
magnificent company, the Elysium Conservatory Theatre.
The equally magnificent Cassandra Ambe, the director, has a
critical eye of character, moments, movement, and relationships that tie the
entire night together. She moves the
actors through time and space without missing a beat and it is a wonderful journey of story and craft.
The actors give depth and meaning to their performances.
Only a few moments into the play, we observe that they have had extraordinary
training.
Suddenly, the minimal set pieces move in quietly, small
walls interchange, and turn an empty space into a viable arena, Set Design and
Construction by Julio Vera and Gerard Moore.
Marina (Lauren Fordinal) walks into the apartment with a
bright red summer dress and matching seductive lipstick. In comparison to other apartments in the
area, this apartment is a penthouse with a great view. She is excited to be
there.
Justin Powell, Lauren Fordinal |
Following Marina is Alik (Justin Powell) who has managed to
bring her up to the room. Alik, 23, is infatuated with her, her red lipstick,
and lets it be known that he would like to kiss her.
“I must touch your
lips.” – Alik
But Marina is cautious. She doesn’t know this man, although
she would like to, and there are many unanswered questions about his history
and reasons he has the apartment.
Alik, an American, with his southern accent, and Robert
Mitchum eyes, is not exactly forthcoming.
He tells her that he is an orphan, he’s from New Orleans, he loves classical music,
and he leaves out a lot of information before he gets to the part that his real
name is Lee Harvey Oswald and that he is 21 not 23 years old.
Ryan Hughes, Colleen Greenhalgh |
They know who he is.
Pavel (Ryan Hughes) is a “friend” who is happy to be with him as he
negotiates his way around Minsk. Pavel
tells him to be careful about what he says in his new apartment, where to speak,
because they are always watching. (Little does he know.)
Larissa (Colleen Greenhalgh) is Marina’s friend. She is
there with Pavel and they are a couple of sorts. Marina lived with Larissa and Valentin (not seen) for a brief time.
Later, they celebrate Lee’s and Marina’s wedding but in the
middle of a toast, Lee gets distracted grabs the wine glasses and takes them
back into the kitchen, spilling the wine on the floor in the process.
Beyond the circumferential wall of their apartment, Oswald’s
head is filled with demons from his past.
The empty wall presents shadows of his past life and animates the room with
traumatic moments that expose his psyche. We see his brother Robert (Ricardo
Diaz), his therapist Evelyn (Mariah Kirstie), his former Soviet girlfriend
Rimma (Tory Castillo), and most of all, his mother Marguerite (Michele Schultz)
who chases him like a roach on a wall, banging incessantly with her shoe, until
he either surrenders or is squashed.
Vera’s play is wonderful heightened reality, august in it’s
flow, and breathes at times like Chekov. (Oh, the boundless melancholy of
suffering Russians waiting in long lines for cutlets now missing as they
finally reach the barren shelves.) It
is amazing in its simplicity and movement that explains two lives struggling in
Minsk. There is an extraordinary amount
of work here, fine details about the participants’ lives, things we knew and
things that ring a dramatic truth despite being a work of fiction. The
references to Eartha Kitt and jazz plays beautifully with the struggles they
all endure.
Lauren Fordinal
(Marina) is a stunning creature who is grounded in character and in place.
Marina holds her own position to get what she wants from her husband, never
letting go of her own dream. Her performance is wonderful and her craft is
amazing.
Justin Powell is
Alik, the title of the play. He is
actually Lee Harvey Oswald who has to overcome the demons brought on by his
mother, brother, wife, and his former girlfriend. Powell’s actions are
measured, letting little go until the right time. In his internal pain he is
craving for help but little is given. His performance is remarkable.
Ryan Hughes does
good work as Pavel and friend and co-worker to Oswald. Hughes has a strong
presence and in character is a man that you don’t want to mess with.
Colleen Greenhalgh
is Larissa, Marina’s friend. She is the
open eye and an instigator of sorts, one minute saying Oswald is a good catch,
the other minute saying Marina should leave him. Larissa never gets in the way of
others but that doesn’t stop her from trying.
Greenhalgh is another remarkable actor that brings an incredible truth
to the character.
Ricardo Diaz plays
Robert, Oswald’s brother. There is much to his performance that rang a sincere
truth, simplicity of desire, of want that needed something from his younger
brother. But what that was was so deep
to be incomprehensible, or at least, ambiguous. In any case, fascinating to
watch. Re-thinking the costume for this
character would be the only thing to change, as it looked too modern.
Michele Schultz
is Marguerite (Oswald’s mother) and comes on really strong in the
beginning. This is a character that
grows on you during the course of the play. The scene with the therapist perhaps lingers
on and could use some work. Marguerite
is a woman who wants to become famous and in any way possible.
Mariah Kirstie as
Evelyn, a therapist to a younger Oswald, who tries her best to save him but
loses out to his mother. Kirstie does an
admirable job playing to a young Oswald and a younger mother.
Tory Castillo has
some wonderful moments as Rimma, Oswald’s former “friend” and tour guide. Much
is brought to the forefront about Oswald’s current past when he first entered
Russia. Castillo comes in late in the
show but shows a remarkable relationship with all who are in her scene.
This was a play with massive costume changes by Cassandra
Ambe, also was responsible for the lighting design and the direction. But, rather than stop the action, the fellow
actors changed the costumes on stage with hardly a break in the action. In
fact, everyone chipped in to keep the play moving marvelously. Larissa
is wearing a wedding ring in the opening moments of the play, and it is a nice
one. (One suspects that ring is not
coming off for the purposes of the play.)
There is much more to write about this play. I may come back to it. (Check in from time to time.) The show is
closing this weekend and something must be said before it does close.
Run! Run! Run! And
bring a mysterious comrade!
Wende Museum of the Cold War – 8:00pm in Culver City- 310-216-1600
-->addendum
I had the opportunity to see this remarkable production two weeks later at
the AmVets Post 2 house just a door away from the Wende museum. I wanted to see how the cast settled into the roles and also to witness three new cast
members.
The moments in this version were
heightened and the relationships worked marvelously.
Sam Flemming
played Pavel and was quite different from the earlier Pavel. In this version, Pavel was much more imposing,
the beard gave a great look to this Russian, and his relationship to his
girlfriend added an extra flavor to the role. Flemming moved seamlessly into his role and
gave the character another essence and one more dimension.
Melissa Ortiz plays
Evelyn with a stronger New York presence and a strong accent (Brooklyn?). There was a quiet dignity in Ortiz’s
performance as a character that wanted to get to the bottom of the child’s
problem but she was conflicted by the law that ultimately ruins her work.
Monica Ross is
outstanding as Rimma, a Russian woman, a Muscovite that has had a previous
relationship with Oswald. This Rimma was flamboyant, vivacious, and a little
coy in her brilliant scene near the end of the play. Ross used the space
remarkably well as though Rimma had known Oswald’s apartment inside and out.
Charlotte Spangler
also plays Rimma but did not perform the night I was there.
There was so much more to get viewing Julio Vera’s play the
second time around, subtle moments that are jarring. Vera doesn’t come right out and say “this is
what happened” rather, he explains events, not in one moment, but over the
course of the play.
Alik is a remarkable play, with an equally remarkable cast,
and has an outstanding director, Cassandra
Ambe making her directorial debut.
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