Greetings! A heartwarming holiday play
A heart-warming, engaging play, Greetings!, written by Tom Dudzik, is a story that examines life, love, family-relations, and religion during the Holiday season.
Set in Pittsburgh, a former minor-league baseball player and devote Catholic, who is now an old and embittered man, Phil, played by Charles Merlis, is the family patriarch.
His wife, Emily, played by Lynne Mazotas, is the doting but frustrated wife, who has taken to nagging her husband for spending hours in the basement drinking beer.
They have two sons. One of the sons, Andy, is a successful ad writer in New York, played by Victor Gonzalez, who is bringing his fiancé, Randi, played by Jessica LaRussa, home for the dysfunctional family holidays.
Phil is a devote Catholic, and when he learns that Randi is Jewish, and an atheist to boot, he feels somehow that invalidates own belief system.
The other adult son, Mickey, is autistic, played by Greg Murphy. For some of the play his only words are “Wow” and “Oh Boy!”
Every member of the cast fits their roles as if they were born to them; however, Murphy’s character, which is clearly the most challenging to play, was revelation.
Without giving too much of the plot away, Mickey undergoes a transformation so surprising and convincing, that it is like a miracle.
There is humor in the show too, when Phil says he was so poor growing up “we would take the garbage out, and then bring it back in and eat it again.”
Gonzalez’s Andy is amusing also, when, after the initial shock of Mickey’s transformation, rhetorically asks: “Does anybody remember what normal breathing feels like?”
LaRussa’s Randi is moving when she speaks to her estranged father, and Mazotas’ Emily, was believable as the beleaguered but loving mother and wife.
The surprisingly spacious venue, with dinner theater seating, is attached to Kelly’s Pub, at 69 North Street — tucked away in a residential neighborhood.
This is the new home for Phoenix Theater, which is a vast improvement from their pervious location in a church basement in Glastonbury, and hopefully a space where they will perform for many seasons to come.
Greetings!
Three Stars
Theater: Phoenix Theater
Location: Kelly's Pub, 69 North Street, Manchester
Production: Written by Tom Dudzik. Directed by Dan Coyle. Produced by Chris Ryan and Jessica LaRussa
Running time: One hour and 45 minutes with one intermission.
Show Times: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.
Tickets: $20. For further information call their box office at
291-2988, or visit their website at www.phoenixtheater.us.
ACTOR...CHARACTER
Victor Gonzalez...Andy
Jessica LaRussa...Randi
Lynne Mazotas...Emily
Greg Murphy...Mickey
Charles Merlis...Phil
Monday, December 10, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
Hartford Stage Company's A Christmas Carol a spooky holiday present
Three Stars - very good
Theater: Hartford Stage Company
Location: 50 Church Street, Hartford
Production: From the story by Charles Dickens. Adapted and directed by
Michael Wilson. Associate direction by Jeremy B. Cohen. Choreographed
by Hope Clarke. Original set design by Tony Straiges. Costume design
by Zack Brown. Lighting design by Robert Wierzel. Original music and
sound design by John Gromada.
Running time: 2 hours including one 15-minute intermission.
Show Times: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30
p.m., with matinee performances Wednesday and Sunday at 2 p.m. through
Dec. 29. No Thursday, Dec. 13 or Tuesday, Dec. 25 performances. One
Sunday night performance Dec. 23 only.
Tickets: $42.50 to $61.50. For further information call their box
office at 527-5151, or visit their Web site a
www.hartfordstagecompany.org.
ACTOR…CHARACTER
Bill Raymond…Ebenezer Scrooge
Bill Kux…Mrs. Dilbert, his housekeeper; Jacob Marley
Robert Hannon Davis…Bob Cratchit, his clerk; Mr. Fezziwig
Chris Connor…Fred, his nephew; Young Scrooge
Nafe Katter…First solicitor, undertaker
Gustave Johnson…Second solicitor
Johanna Morrison…Bettye Pidgeon, a doll vendor; Spirit of Christmas Past
Helmar Augustus Cooper…Bert, a fruit and cider vendor; Spirit of
Christmas Present
Kit Treece…Scrooge at 14-years-old; Party guest
Natalie Brown… Mrs. Fezziwig; Old Jo
Rebecka Jones… Mrs. Cratchit
Maya Stogan...Martha Cratchit
Zachary Cyr or Brendan Fitzgerald…Tim Cratchit
Michelle Hendrick…Martha Cratchit; Party guest
Matt Faucher…Mr. Topper; Party guest
Amanda Tudor… Nichola, Fezziwig's daughter
Kaitlin Marrin…Wendy, Fezziwig's daughter
By Kory Loucks
Journal Inquirer
HARTFORD — They say practice makes perfect.
After 10 years of producing "A Christmas Carol," at the Hartford Stage
Company, under the direction and adaptation of Artistic Director
Michael Wilson, nothing could be truer.
Just in case you need a little jump-start to get into the Holiday
spirit, this show more than fills that bill.
Bill Raymond has started a tradition of his own — returning for a
second year to play that timeless tightwad in major need of an
attitude adjustment, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Raymond's Scrooge is a kinder, gentler version of the notorious
penny-pincher, when even in his meanest moments he couldn't quite
suppress a twitch of his nose or a twinkle in his eye.
The ghosts however, were an altogether different story.
From the show's first moments the ghosts where shockingly scary,
flying through the air in flowing white costumes adorned with nasty,
bloody cleavers and daggers stuck at odd angles into their bodies, and
finished off with grotesque masks by costume designer Zack Brown.
The apparitions danced to the accompaniment of marvelously eerie
original music and heart-thumping thunder by music and sound designer
John Gromada, and generous lightening by lighting designer Robert
Wierzel.
For the two or three people in the world over 10-years-old who are
unfamiliar the classic Charles Dickens tale, it is about a bitter,
greedy, old, wealthy man named Scrooge, in Victorian England, who
loved money far more than anything or anyone in the world.
He treats his employee, Bob Cratchit, played with sympathy by Robert
Hannon Davis, terribly — paying him a meager salary, refusing to allow
him any heat while he works, and begrudging giving Cratchit his one
paid Holiday a year — Christmas Day.
Cratchit had a large family to support and one sickly young boy, Tiny
Tim, who needed medical assistance the family could not afford.
But it turns out Scrooge wasn't always such a "baa-humbug" meanie.
One Christmas eve Scrooge has a visitation from the ghost of his
former business partner, Jacob Marley, played with theatrical misery
and remorse by Bill Kux, who tells Scrooge he must change his
penny-squeezing ways or he too will die and be doomed to eternal
suffering in the hear-after.
Scrooge is next visited by three different ghosts who guide him from
the past, when he was a young boy and youthful man, to the present,
and then to the future, after he is dead, where he learns what others
really think of him.
Two children under 10-years-old who had never seen a play before had
similar opinions about the play.
Connor Hillemeir, 8, a hardened veteran of many scary horror movies
admitted: "The ghosts kind of freaked me out."
Afterwards, however, he highly recommended "A Christmas Carol" to
others, "because it is really awesome and scary."
His brother, Christopher, 6, also found the ghosts difficult to watch.
He spend the first half of the production with his hands clasped
firmly over his eyes, peaking out from between his spread fingers when
the ghosts appeared.
Christopher said with unbridled enthusiasm he recommended the show
because: "Its delighted."
When asked why he felt the play's ghosts were so much more frightening
than a scary movie, Christopher said: "Because they were real."
Connor felt the booming thunder accompanying the bright flashes of
lightening was too loud, but was quick to add he has exceptional
hearing, which might have made it more intense for him than for
others.
Connor also was amazed the actors could remember all their lines.
"Their jaws probably hurt now from talking so much — probably more
than 3,000 words," he estimated.
Christopher said it was important for people to know Tiny Tim's "dad
doesn't have enough money to take him to the doctor."
Connor said the moral in "A Christmas Carol" is "a rich man in the
play should have gave the people who work for him some money to use."
Connor said capital letters should be used for the most important
lesson of all — "BE GENEROUS."
And if Christopher and Connor get their wish, the tradition of "A
Christmas Carol," will continue at the Hartford Stage Company for many
years to come.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Hartford Stage Company’s A Christmas Carol a spooky holiday present
HARTFORD — They say practice makes perfect.
After 10 years of producing “A Christmas Carol,” at the Hartford Stage Company, under the direction and adaptation of Artistic Director Michael Wilson, nothing could be truer.
Just in case you need a little jump-start to get into the Holiday spirit, this show more than fills that bill.
Bill Raymond has started a tradition of his own — returning for a second year to play that timeless tightwad in major need of an attitude adjustment, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Raymond’s Scrooge is a kinder, gentler version of the notorious penny-pincher, when even in his meanest moments he couldn’t quite suppress a twitch of his nose or a twinkle in his eye.
The ghosts however, were an altogether different story.
From the show’s first moments the ghosts where shockingly scary, flying through the air in flowing white costumes adorned with nasty, bloody cleavers and daggers stuck at odd angles into their bodies, and finished off with grotesque masks by costume designer Zack Brown.
The apparitions danced to the accompaniment of marvelously eerie original music and heart-thumping thunder by music and sound designer John Gromada, and generous lightening by lighting designer Robert Wierzel.
For the two or three people in the world over 10-years-old who are unfamiliar the classic Charles Dickens tale, it is about a bitter, greedy, old, wealthy man named Scrooge, in Victorian England, who loved money far more than anything or anyone in the world.
He treats his employee, Bob Cratchit, played with sympathy by Robert Hannon Davis, terribly — paying him a meager salary, refusing to allow him any heat while he works, and begrudging giving Cratchit his one paid Holiday a year — Christmas Day.
Cratchit had a large family to support and one sickly young boy, Tiny Tim, who needed medical assistance the family could not afford.
But it turns out Scrooge wasn’t always such a “baa-humbug” meanie.
One Christmas eve Scrooge has a visitation from the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, played with theatrical misery and remorse by Bill Kux, who tells Scrooge he must change his penny-squeezing ways or he too will die and be doomed to eternal suffering in the hear-after.
Scrooge is next visited by three different ghosts who guide him from the past, when he was a young boy and youthful man, to the present, and then to the future, after he is dead, where he learns what others really think of him.
Two children under 10-years-old who had never seen a play before had similar opinions about the play.
Connor Hillemeir, 8, a hardened veteran of many scary horror movies admitted: “The ghosts kind of freaked me out.”
Afterwards, however, he highly recommended “A Christmas Carol” to others, “because it is really awesome and scary.”
His brother, Christopher, 6, also found the ghosts difficult to watch.
He spend the first half of the production with his hands clasped firmly over his eyes, peaking out from between his spread fingers when the ghosts appeared.
Christopher said with unbridled enthusiasm he recommended the show because: “Its delighted.”
When asked why he felt the play’s ghosts were so much more frightening than a scary movie, Christopher said: “Because they were real.”
Connor felt the booming thunder accompanying the bright flashes of lightening was too loud, but was quick to add he has exceptional hearing, which might have made it more intense for him than for others.
Connor also was amazed the actors could remember all their lines. “Their jaws probably hurt now from talking so much — probably more than 3,000 words,” he estimated.
Christopher said it was important for people to know Tiny Tim’s “dad doesn’t have enough money to take him to the doctor.”
Connor said the moral in “A Christmas Carol” is “a rich man in the play should have gave the people who work for him some money to use.”
Connor said capital letters should be used for the most important lesson of all — “BE GENEROUS.”
And if Christopher and Connor get their wish, the tradition of “A Christmas Carol,” will continue at the Hartford Stage Company for many years to come.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL - A CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY
Three Stars
Theater: Hartford Stage Company
Location: 50 Church Street, Hartford
Production: From the story by Charles Dickens. Adapted and directed by Michael Wilson. Associate direction by Jeremy B. Cohen. Choreographed by Hope Clarke. Original set design by Tony Straiges. Costume design by Zack Brown. Lighting design by Robert Wierzel. Original music and sound design by John Gromada.
Running time: 2 hours including one 15-minute intermission.
Show Times: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with matinee performances Wednesday and Sunday at 2 p.m. through Dec. 29. No Thursday, Dec. 13 or Tuesday, Dec. 25 performances. One Sunday night performance Dec. 23 only.
Tickets: $42.50 to $61.50. For further information call their box office at 527-5151, or visit their website a www.hartfordstagecompany.org.
ACTOR...CHARACTER
Bill Raymond...Ebenezer Scrooge
Bill Kux...Mrs. Dilbert, his housekeeper; Jacob Marley
Robert Hannon Davis...Bob Cratchit, his clerk; Mr. Fezziwig
Chris Connor...Fred, his nephew; Young Scrooge
Nafe Katter...First solicitor, undertaker
Gustave Johnson...Second solicitor
Johanna Morrison...Bettye Pidgeon, a doll vendor; Spirit of Christmas Past
Helmar Augustus Cooper...Bert, a fruit and cider vendor; Spirit of Christmas Present
Kit Treece...Scrooge at 14-years-old; Party guest
Natalie Brown...Mrs. Fezziwig; Old Jo
Rebecka Jones...Mrs. Cratchit
Maya Stogan...Martha Cratchit
Zachary Cyr or Brendan Fitzgerald...Tim Cratchit
Michelle Hendrick...Martha Cratchit; Party guest
Matt Faucher...Mr. Topper; Party guest
Amanda Tudor...Nichola, Fezziwig’s daughter
Kaitlin Marrin...Wendy, Fezziwig’s daughter
HARTFORD — They say practice makes perfect.
After 10 years of producing “A Christmas Carol,” at the Hartford Stage Company, under the direction and adaptation of Artistic Director Michael Wilson, nothing could be truer.
Just in case you need a little jump-start to get into the Holiday spirit, this show more than fills that bill.
Bill Raymond has started a tradition of his own — returning for a second year to play that timeless tightwad in major need of an attitude adjustment, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Raymond’s Scrooge is a kinder, gentler version of the notorious penny-pincher, when even in his meanest moments he couldn’t quite suppress a twitch of his nose or a twinkle in his eye.
The ghosts however, were an altogether different story.
From the show’s first moments the ghosts where shockingly scary, flying through the air in flowing white costumes adorned with nasty, bloody cleavers and daggers stuck at odd angles into their bodies, and finished off with grotesque masks by costume designer Zack Brown.
The apparitions danced to the accompaniment of marvelously eerie original music and heart-thumping thunder by music and sound designer John Gromada, and generous lightening by lighting designer Robert Wierzel.
For the two or three people in the world over 10-years-old who are unfamiliar the classic Charles Dickens tale, it is about a bitter, greedy, old, wealthy man named Scrooge, in Victorian England, who loved money far more than anything or anyone in the world.
He treats his employee, Bob Cratchit, played with sympathy by Robert Hannon Davis, terribly — paying him a meager salary, refusing to allow him any heat while he works, and begrudging giving Cratchit his one paid Holiday a year — Christmas Day.
Cratchit had a large family to support and one sickly young boy, Tiny Tim, who needed medical assistance the family could not afford.
But it turns out Scrooge wasn’t always such a “baa-humbug” meanie.
One Christmas eve Scrooge has a visitation from the ghost of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, played with theatrical misery and remorse by Bill Kux, who tells Scrooge he must change his penny-squeezing ways or he too will die and be doomed to eternal suffering in the hear-after.
Scrooge is next visited by three different ghosts who guide him from the past, when he was a young boy and youthful man, to the present, and then to the future, after he is dead, where he learns what others really think of him.
Two children under 10-years-old who had never seen a play before had similar opinions about the play.
Connor Hillemeir, 8, a hardened veteran of many scary horror movies admitted: “The ghosts kind of freaked me out.”
Afterwards, however, he highly recommended “A Christmas Carol” to others, “because it is really awesome and scary.”
His brother, Christopher, 6, also found the ghosts difficult to watch.
He spend the first half of the production with his hands clasped firmly over his eyes, peaking out from between his spread fingers when the ghosts appeared.
Christopher said with unbridled enthusiasm he recommended the show because: “Its delighted.”
When asked why he felt the play’s ghosts were so much more frightening than a scary movie, Christopher said: “Because they were real.”
Connor felt the booming thunder accompanying the bright flashes of lightening was too loud, but was quick to add he has exceptional hearing, which might have made it more intense for him than for others.
Connor also was amazed the actors could remember all their lines. “Their jaws probably hurt now from talking so much — probably more than 3,000 words,” he estimated.
Christopher said it was important for people to know Tiny Tim’s “dad doesn’t have enough money to take him to the doctor.”
Connor said the moral in “A Christmas Carol” is “a rich man in the play should have gave the people who work for him some money to use.”
Connor said capital letters should be used for the most important lesson of all — “BE GENEROUS.”
And if Christopher and Connor get their wish, the tradition of “A Christmas Carol,” will continue at the Hartford Stage Company for many years to come.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL - A CHRISTMAS GHOST STORY
Three Stars
Theater: Hartford Stage Company
Location: 50 Church Street, Hartford
Production: From the story by Charles Dickens. Adapted and directed by Michael Wilson. Associate direction by Jeremy B. Cohen. Choreographed by Hope Clarke. Original set design by Tony Straiges. Costume design by Zack Brown. Lighting design by Robert Wierzel. Original music and sound design by John Gromada.
Running time: 2 hours including one 15-minute intermission.
Show Times: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., with matinee performances Wednesday and Sunday at 2 p.m. through Dec. 29. No Thursday, Dec. 13 or Tuesday, Dec. 25 performances. One Sunday night performance Dec. 23 only.
Tickets: $42.50 to $61.50. For further information call their box office at 527-5151, or visit their website a www.hartfordstagecompany.org.
ACTOR...CHARACTER
Bill Raymond...Ebenezer Scrooge
Bill Kux...Mrs. Dilbert, his housekeeper; Jacob Marley
Robert Hannon Davis...Bob Cratchit, his clerk; Mr. Fezziwig
Chris Connor...Fred, his nephew; Young Scrooge
Nafe Katter...First solicitor, undertaker
Gustave Johnson...Second solicitor
Johanna Morrison...Bettye Pidgeon, a doll vendor; Spirit of Christmas Past
Helmar Augustus Cooper...Bert, a fruit and cider vendor; Spirit of Christmas Present
Kit Treece...Scrooge at 14-years-old; Party guest
Natalie Brown...Mrs. Fezziwig; Old Jo
Rebecka Jones...Mrs. Cratchit
Maya Stogan...Martha Cratchit
Zachary Cyr or Brendan Fitzgerald...Tim Cratchit
Michelle Hendrick...Martha Cratchit; Party guest
Matt Faucher...Mr. Topper; Party guest
Amanda Tudor...Nichola, Fezziwig’s daughter
Kaitlin Marrin...Wendy, Fezziwig’s daughter
"Pentecost" gets high marks
STORRS — If plays were given points for degree of difficulty, as in Olympic gymnastic competitions, for example, playwright David Edgar’s play “Pentecost” would be awarded the highest marks.
This tour-de-force production, directed with dexterity and authority by Gary M. English, head of UConn’s Department of Dramatic Arts and artistic director of Connecticut Repertory Theatre, is a complex and intense play requiring no less than your full and undivided focus
But it is worth the investment.
Set in an unspecified eastern European country, formerly under communist rule, a local curator, Gabriella Pecs, played by Heddy Lahmann, discovers what could be a pre-Renaissance fresco behind a brick façade in a dilapidated graffiti-ridden church, which could be a major find for the art world.
She convinces Dr. Oliver Davenport, a visiting art historian, played by Nicholas Dillenburg, of the possibility of its significant value, and the search for the painting’s provenance begins.
Davenport playfully, and at times patronizingly, teases Gabriella for her broken English, when she uses such words as “de-headed” for “beheaded,” “mending cottage” instead of “repairing a cottage.”
Without question, this intellectual play demands its audience to pay attention. There are no less than eight languages spoken among the 24 characters, most times with translations, but occasionally without.
In this play, written in 1994, language and words are the thing, with the implications of a world in flux, including power, treachery, violence, religion, and the nature of communication and connections are all closely scrutinized.
At one point when numerous languages converge, a character suggests: “We can all be good Europeans and speak in American.”
But because of the extreme emphasis on language and ideas, something has to give, and what does is an emotional connection with the audience to the characters.
They become more representatives and archetypes of their homelands and religious backgrounds, whether a Kurd refugee, an African, Serbian or Bosnia, a tourist, or a Muslim, Christian or Jew.
The Jewish-American art history consultant from Columbia University, Leo Katz, played with a terrific combination of irreverent confidence by Christopher Hirsh, is the most complex character in the play. He was also the easiest to understand, with no foreign accent to slow him down.
Most of the multitudinous accents were finely wrought, with the exception of Dillenburg, whose English accent drifted arbitrarily.
The single large set of the interior of a church by Tina Louise Jones was sturdy and appropriately decrepit, but the fresco, which may or may not have been painted by the Italian pre-renaissance painter Giotto, uncovered beneath a layer of brick, was beautifully realized.
The reference to Giotto was far from arbitrary, since it was the painter Giotto who first took the quantum leap from the Byzantinian 2-dimentional painting style to a 3-dimentional, secular and more realistic style — laying the ground work the Italian Renaissance, which included such artists as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafael and beyond.
There is one brief scene with non-gratuitous male nudity that should be noted for those who might find that offensive.
Near the end of the play, one of the characters said to the another: “We are the sum of all the people who have invaded us,” which is as good as saying, “we are all in this together.”
Pentecost
Three Stars
Theater: Connecticut Repertory Theatre
Location: Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, (lower Jorgensen) 132 Hillside Rd., Storrs.
Production: By David Edgar. Directed by Gary M. English. Scenic design by Tina Louise Jones. Lighting design by Dan Rousseau. Costume design by Lucy Brown. Sound design by Wilson Tenneman. Dialect and language direction by Dudley Knight.
Running time: 2 ½ hours with one 15-minute intermission.
Show Times: Wednesday and Thursday Dec. 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m., and Friday Dec. 7 at 8 p.m.
Tickets: General admission $25 to $28 and $11 to $18 for UConn students. Call 486-4266 or visit their website at www.crt.uconn.edu.
ACTOR...CHARACTER
Nicholas Dillenburg...Oliver Davenport
Heddy Lahmann...Gabriella Pecs
Christopher Hirsh...Leo Katz
Michael Solomon...Grigori Kolorenko
Dudley Knight...Father Sergei Bojovic
Luke Daniels...Father Petr Karolyi
Karen Ryker...Anna Jedlikova
Robert McDonald...Nico
Joseph Gallina...Swedish Man, Raif
Sarah Murdoch...Teenage Girl, Fatima
Peter Mutino...First Soldier
Noah Weintraub...Second Soldier; Derek; Commando
Jeremy Garhinkel...Pusbas
Daniel Sheridan...Michail Czaba
Meghan O'Leary...Czaba’s Secretary, Toni Newsome
Joseph Cisternelli...Restorer, Commando
Zachary Kamin...Restorer, Commando
Quinn Uniacke...Police Woman, Marina
Aaron Johnson...Antonio
Michael Hanson...Abdul
Lauretta Pope...Yasmin
Hillary Leigh Parker...Amira
Kate Shine...Tunu
Alexandra Petrova-Emisti...Cleopatra
STORRS — If plays were given points for degree of difficulty, as in Olympic gymnastic competitions, for example, playwright David Edgar’s play “Pentecost” would be awarded the highest marks.
This tour-de-force production, directed with dexterity and authority by Gary M. English, head of UConn’s Department of Dramatic Arts and artistic director of Connecticut Repertory Theatre, is a complex and intense play requiring no less than your full and undivided focus
But it is worth the investment.
Set in an unspecified eastern European country, formerly under communist rule, a local curator, Gabriella Pecs, played by Heddy Lahmann, discovers what could be a pre-Renaissance fresco behind a brick façade in a dilapidated graffiti-ridden church, which could be a major find for the art world.
She convinces Dr. Oliver Davenport, a visiting art historian, played by Nicholas Dillenburg, of the possibility of its significant value, and the search for the painting’s provenance begins.
Davenport playfully, and at times patronizingly, teases Gabriella for her broken English, when she uses such words as “de-headed” for “beheaded,” “mending cottage” instead of “repairing a cottage.”
Without question, this intellectual play demands its audience to pay attention. There are no less than eight languages spoken among the 24 characters, most times with translations, but occasionally without.
In this play, written in 1994, language and words are the thing, with the implications of a world in flux, including power, treachery, violence, religion, and the nature of communication and connections are all closely scrutinized.
At one point when numerous languages converge, a character suggests: “We can all be good Europeans and speak in American.”
But because of the extreme emphasis on language and ideas, something has to give, and what does is an emotional connection with the audience to the characters.
They become more representatives and archetypes of their homelands and religious backgrounds, whether a Kurd refugee, an African, Serbian or Bosnia, a tourist, or a Muslim, Christian or Jew.
The Jewish-American art history consultant from Columbia University, Leo Katz, played with a terrific combination of irreverent confidence by Christopher Hirsh, is the most complex character in the play. He was also the easiest to understand, with no foreign accent to slow him down.
Most of the multitudinous accents were finely wrought, with the exception of Dillenburg, whose English accent drifted arbitrarily.
The single large set of the interior of a church by Tina Louise Jones was sturdy and appropriately decrepit, but the fresco, which may or may not have been painted by the Italian pre-renaissance painter Giotto, uncovered beneath a layer of brick, was beautifully realized.
The reference to Giotto was far from arbitrary, since it was the painter Giotto who first took the quantum leap from the Byzantinian 2-dimentional painting style to a 3-dimentional, secular and more realistic style — laying the ground work the Italian Renaissance, which included such artists as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rafael and beyond.
There is one brief scene with non-gratuitous male nudity that should be noted for those who might find that offensive.
Near the end of the play, one of the characters said to the another: “We are the sum of all the people who have invaded us,” which is as good as saying, “we are all in this together.”
Pentecost
Three Stars
Theater: Connecticut Repertory Theatre
Location: Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, (lower Jorgensen) 132 Hillside Rd., Storrs.
Production: By David Edgar. Directed by Gary M. English. Scenic design by Tina Louise Jones. Lighting design by Dan Rousseau. Costume design by Lucy Brown. Sound design by Wilson Tenneman. Dialect and language direction by Dudley Knight.
Running time: 2 ½ hours with one 15-minute intermission.
Show Times: Wednesday and Thursday Dec. 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m., and Friday Dec. 7 at 8 p.m.
Tickets: General admission $25 to $28 and $11 to $18 for UConn students. Call 486-4266 or visit their website at www.crt.uconn.edu.
ACTOR...CHARACTER
Nicholas Dillenburg...Oliver Davenport
Heddy Lahmann...Gabriella Pecs
Christopher Hirsh...Leo Katz
Michael Solomon...Grigori Kolorenko
Dudley Knight...Father Sergei Bojovic
Luke Daniels...Father Petr Karolyi
Karen Ryker...Anna Jedlikova
Robert McDonald...Nico
Joseph Gallina...Swedish Man, Raif
Sarah Murdoch...Teenage Girl, Fatima
Peter Mutino...First Soldier
Noah Weintraub...Second Soldier; Derek; Commando
Jeremy Garhinkel...Pusbas
Daniel Sheridan...Michail Czaba
Meghan O'Leary...Czaba’s Secretary, Toni Newsome
Joseph Cisternelli...Restorer, Commando
Zachary Kamin...Restorer, Commando
Quinn Uniacke...Police Woman, Marina
Aaron Johnson...Antonio
Michael Hanson...Abdul
Lauretta Pope...Yasmin
Hillary Leigh Parker...Amira
Kate Shine...Tunu
Alexandra Petrova-Emisti...Cleopatra
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