If I’d had my act together, I would have seen the two first shows of the 19th season from the Actors Co-op on their opening nights. And then posted reviews of them on the Reviews blog. I mean to do that in the future, adding a new category for theatre reviews. But in the meantime, I’ll make some observations here.
I’ve supported the Actors Co-op for most of its history, and always been impressed with their consistences. From time to time, I may have questioned their choice of certain weak shows, but they’ve always delivered solid productions and performances. This year is no exception.
The opening show for the season was Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along. It’s a challenging show for the audience, since the story is unfolded backwards from a disasterous scene where we see the final breaking of a long-standing friendship because of the utter commercialization of one of the main trio of characters, a song composer turned producer. Each following scene moves back in time, slowly revealing how he had been diverted from his original creative ideals. The final scene, where the three friends first meet and inspire each other is heartbreaking because we now know how and why it will fail. If only they had chosen differently! The company did a pretty good job of handling this complex storytelling.
For me personally, the show pushed some buttons, because one of my “pending” (that is, unfinished) writing projects has a similar theme: how creative individuals can go astray, lose their original inspiration. One difference though between this show and my play (titled The Wrecks of Glory) is that I believe that original inspiration can be regained and that loss and diminishment is not necessarily inevitable. I’m not sure that is what is intended in Merrily, but it could easily be taken that way. In any case, the show nudged me about my own project, and has stirred the pot on that bit of writing.
The second show is the Neil Simon comedy God’s Favorite. The simplest way of describing it would be the Book of Job presented as a modern sitcom. But it doesn’t take the core issue as ridiculous: that a man’s choice to stay committed to God in the face of all disasters is not easy nor ignoble. This production is very effective in presenting the emotional challenge of holding on – and Steve Gustafson as Simon’s Job, Joe Benjamin, does a fine job in conveying both the humor and pathos of his character. And it spoke to Real World matters for me: not just the challenges I am facing myself, but also the challenges that many of my friends – unemployed in this harsh economy – are dealing with. If you have to get messages from God, getting it in a satisfying piece of entertainment is a good thing.
Coming soon from the Co-op will be their short-run Christmas show, Doris Baizley’s adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Then after the new year, the company will be presenting Shakespeare’s King Lear, with Horton Foote’s The Traveling Lady to close out the season.
I recommend you Check Out the Company.
