Sunday, July 21, 1996
Substantive characters enhanced by solid performances from castBy Michelle Nguyen
Summer Bruin Contributor
With only 10 feet between the audience and the actors, there's no room for indifference.
In "Four By Tennessee," a performance of four of Tennessee Williams' renowned one-act plays, you are forcibly drawn into the world of his characters.
The play is set in the Fountain Theatre's "Lab" theatre which used to be a dressing room. The room, which is 25 feet by 15 feet of dark wood, seats 21 people in plush red velvet seats. As cozy as your living room, it sets the stage for the rare and delicious intimacy of the play.
This is only the second time the Fountain Theatre has used the "Lab" for a production.
Even though it might have been the first time for many of the actors to perform in this "Lab," this was no lab experiment the actors perfected their roles with the ease of those who are accustomed to intimacy between the stage and the audience.
The first one-act, "Lord Byron's Love Letter," is a touching story of two old maids whose lives revolve around their possession of an extraordinary love letter from Lord Byron.
Moray Koontz plays the younger spinster whose reflections on Lord Byron's love letter are as wistful and memorable as those a young girl has for her very first ball gown.
The way these two women cling onto the letter with every utmost effort is moving. It is amazing that such a short play could pull the sympathies of the audience into the lives of these two women.
"The Strangest Kind of Romance," follows and is even more gripping, because it gives a deeper development of the characters.
The distinction between audience and actor is lost further in this play to the point where the audience is literally smelling the apple that is eaten and tasting the bittersweet sourness that these characters have towards life.
Doug Chambers plays the Italian "little man" whose loneliness is eased by the adoption of the lingering cat in his hotel. He claims that he is a "ghost of a man" to Bella, the landlady; but he is more real and human to the audience than a ghost could ever be.
Bella (Casey Kramer), the brash and forward landlady, seems to rub people the wrong way with her piercing hyena-like laugh. But she grows on you like all of Tennessee Williams' peculiar characters once you see how much human grit she possesses.
Kramer plays out the role of the brandy-sipping, hard-talking landlady beautifully, showing us that her hyena-like laugh is a cover-up of something deeper. Her substance is seen in the hollows of her melancholy song about the Danube river and the desperate way she strums her guitar.
Bella's father-in-law (Henry Lide) may be thought of as a ranting old man whose breath smells of alcohol. But he compels us to listen to every word he has to say until we want to sit and talk with him about days of old.
The characters in "The Strangest Kind of Romance" grab the audience with their touching past and then lose that pensive hold the next minute when they make you burst out laughing with their wonderful quirkiness.
"A Perfect Analysis Given By a Parrot," on the other hand, is an uphill roller coaster of laughs. Sharon Madden and Koontz appear as Bessie and Flora, two members of a ladies' auxiliary who end up at a cheesy, deserted bar shooting the breeze and drinking beer.
Bessie and Flora are a riot as the two man-hungry best friends, and they know it. Bessie talks loudly of Flora's bad hairdo and how "no one's got any pride where men are concerned."
Flora talks equally loudly of Bessie's weight problem and her own pathetic life regarding men. They powder their noses synchronously, chomp on their popcorn with baring teeth and drink their beer in fishbowl cups.
It is all very typical but they are great fun; they liven up the deadbeat bar the second they come storming in with their painted eyelashes and rolling banter.
The fourth one-act, "I Can't Imagine Tomorrow" was not done this night because one of the actors was unable to perform.
An actor must pull off his role perfectly in order to convince the audience of the uniqueness and humanness that are so inherent in Tennessee Williams' characters. This is especially true when the audience is practically sitting in the laps of the actors in this small theatre.
But the actors were polished, solid and very, very real which was amplified by the in-your-face setting. This made for a performance where the credibility and vibrancy of the characters was crystal clear. They drew the audience in until there was no distance left between them.
Stage: "Four By Tennessee" is playing at The Fountain Theatre through July 28. Tickets $15. For more info, call: (213) 663-1525.
Moray Koontz and Sharon Madden in Tennessee Williams' "A Perfect Analysis Given by a Parrot."
Bella (Casey Kramer), ... seems to rub people the wrong way with her piercing hyena-like laugh. But she grows on you like all of Tennessee Williams' peculiar characters.