Theatre Reviews

In a Dark, Dark House: Treehouse of Horror



By Mary Damiano

Terry Hardcastle and Ricky Waugh play brothers with a dark past in In a Dark, Dark House at Mosaic. Photo: George Schiavone

Innocence lost is the pervading theme in Neil Labute’s In a Dark, Dark House, now getting a handsome production at the Mosaic Theatre in Plantation.

LaBute is a playwright who enjoys exposing humankind’s darker proclivities. In a Dark, Dark House he examines the short and long term effects of child sexual and physical abuse and how that abuse shapes the adults those children grow up to be.

As the play begins, Terry (Terry Hardcastle) visits his brother Drew (Ricky Waugh) on the grounds of a high-end court-ordered rehab. There’s a lot of tension between the brothers. Blue-collar working man Terry exhibits contempt for younger brother Drew, an affluent, disbarred lawyer. Terry has been summoned to corroborate some details of a memory that Drew told his doctor in therapy, that he was sexually abused by a family friend. While Terry agrees to help his brother, he is unnerved, and LaBute being LaBute, it’s not for the reason you might think. And Terry being Terry, he tracks the alleged abuser to a miniature golf course he owns, but not for the reason you might think, only to find the man’s teenaged daughter.

Best to leave the story there for now, and not give anything away in arguably the most complex of the play’s three scenes. In a Dark, Dark House is designed to make audiences squirm and think and re-examine what they think they know.

Mosaic’s production has strong direction by Richard Jay Simon and two powerful performances by Waugh and Hardcastle, who contradicts his boyish good looks with seething rage barely hidden below the surface. But the real star of In a Dark, Dark House is Sean McClelland’s scenic design. With just a few changes, the sprawling set is the rehab grounds, a miniature golf course and Drew’s expansive backyard. It’s also a perfect metaphor for childhood, an outdoor paradise filled with trees that beg to be climbed and a swing that yearns to be swung. And there in the center, looming over the brothers’ every move, is their childhood treehouse, complete with all the trappings of childhood. Except it’s on its side, the better for us to see what’s inside, but also to illustrate a childhood turned topsy turvy, off kilter, frozen in time, and still haunting the adults who once played there.

In a Dark, Dark House runs through June 21 at the Mosaic Theatre in Plantation. For more information and tickets, visit www.mosiactheatre.com.

Summer Shorts: Undershorts: Racy and Raucous Late Night Fun

By Mary Damiano

Stephen Trovillion, Laura Turnbull, John Manzelli and Stephen G. Anthony in Sodom & Gomorrah: Priced to Sell. Photo: George Schiavone

There’s a lot to like about a program that begins with Erin Joy Schmidt as a ditzy, leather-clad dominatrix and ends with her as a uni-browed Bulgarian peasant in a red white and blue bikini.

But that’s Undershorts, the adults-only program of City Theatre’s annual Summer Shorts festival, which is now in its second year. Undershorts is billed as more adult entertainment, sort of a not ready for prime time collection of one-act plays—the curtain time for the program is even a relatively late 10 p.m.

Seven actors portray a variety of characters in seven plays, including three world premieres. (The same cast also performs all the plays in Signature Shorts; see review below.) Three of the better plays in Undershorts are the first three—they come at you right out of the gate, a rat-a-tat-tat of racy wackiness. In April Showers by Francesca Rizzo, the aforementioned Schmidt’s dominatrix has trouble performing a requested sex act on a bound and blindfolded preacher. In Sodom & Gororrah: Priced to Sell, the incredibly versatile Stephen Trovillion plays a gay real estate agent trying to interest a conservative couple in a home in the infamous twin cities, where a copulating conga line wafts past a window. And in Pass the Salt, Please by Jeffrey James Ircink, a bored married couple (Trovillion and Elena Maria Garcia) take their mundane dinner conversation to a super spicy level.

Then there’s I Call Your Name by Tim Acito, in which a woman (Laura Turnbull) discovers she can transport herself through time and space while having sex. Turnbull’s luminous performance lends the piece a refreshing innocence and sense of awe. And then there’s Betty the Clam Girl by Michael John LaChiusa, an off-beat musical unlike anything even die-hard Summer Shorts fans have seen before.

The cast is uniformly excellent, with energy and versatility to spare. Trovillion is in five of the seven plays, is both hysterical and touching, combining the two perfectly in Pass the Salt, Please. The cast’s quick change of both costume and character is something to behold.

One wonders how the plays are divided into the Mainstream Signature Shorts program and the racier Undershorts. April Showers, Sodom & Gomorrah: Priced to Sell and Pass the Salt, Please are no brainers. But Bulgarian Rhapsody by Rich Orloff, an over the top riff on the meaning of freedom about a family of peasants longing to go to America? Sure there are a few off-color words, but nothing excessive. Or So I Was Wondering… by Christopher Demos-Brown, a funny and insightful play about a terminally ill man who asks his best buddy to sleep with him before he dies? They just don’t fit the raucous, rollicking tone of the program. If there’s a weakness in Undershorts, it’s that some of the material chosen doesn’t fit the program’s billing.

Undershorts runs Fridays and Saturdays at 10 p.m. through June 20 at the Arsht Center in Miami and June 26 and 27 at Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.citytheatre.com.

Summer Shorts: Signature Shorts: Stripped Down and Streamlined

By Mary Damiano

John Manzelli and Erin Joy Schmidt face the Spanish Inquisition in Orlah. Photo: George Schiavone

City Theatre’s Summer Shorts festival is more streamlined this year. Gone are the Program A and B of past years; now there’s an abbreviated Signature Shorts, the festival’s mainstream program; Undershorts, the late night program, and Shorts 4 Kids, featuring plays designed for family fun.

The eight plays in Signature Shorts shares its cast and directors with Undershorts, while Shorts 4 Kids has a completely different cast.

Signature Shorts gets off to a wacky start with Falutin’, about a classical flautist and her trombonist lovers whose backstage quickies gives their music passion. Stephen G. Anthony and Elena Maria Garcia are terrific as the randy musicians. Local playwright Michael McKeever’s Cravin Tutweiler (The Real Life Story Of) gets its world premiere after being written overnight last November for Naked Stage’s 24 Hour Theatre Project. It’s an outrageous piece about three very different women who reflect on the man who changed each of their lives, and provides terrific roles for Garcia, Laura Turnbull and Erin Joy Schmidt. Turnbull and Stephen Trovillion are achingly real in Gary Garrison’s Storm on Storm, a lovely but overlong piece about a New Jersey man with strange relationship with weather.

But even with only eight plays in Signature Shorts, there are some head scratchers. Jettison by Brendon Andolsek Bradley, about three men adrift in a lifeboat is predictable and goes nowhere. There’s nothing predictable about Christopher Durang’s Kitty the Waitress, about a divorced man who has a unique encounter with a particularly provocative waitress, which reaches fever pitch before sputtering to an end. Both plays do provide some juicy moments for the actors, especially John Manzelli in Jettison and Elena Maria Garcia as the titular waitress. Garcia gets all feline on us, showing off her mastery of physical comedy. The New World Order by Harold Pinter never fulfills its deliciously unnerving beginning.

The most powerful and unforgettable play in Signature Shorts is Orlah by Andrew Rosendorf, the resident playwright at Florida Stage in Manalapan. This is the world premiere of Orlah, a stunning visual piece about a Jewish couple (Schmidt and Manzelli) during the Spanish Inquisition, who risk their lives for their faith. Without using dialogue, Rosendorf illuminates the power of religious devotion and the horror of persecution. Avi Hoffman’s strong direction and Jeff Quinn’s evocative lighting enhances Rosendorf’s ideas. Orlah is the kind of play that makes one thankful for City Theatre and their annual celebration of short plays; otherwise, we might never get to experience the beauty and power of Orlah.

Signature Shorts runs Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays through June 21 at the Arsht Center in Miami and June 25-28 at Broward Center in Fort Lauderdale.. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.citytheatre.com.

Have a comment about what you’ve read? E-mail letters@miamiartzine.com.