Harpo (Jomar Tagatac), and Bozo (Patrick Alparone) prepare to bring Mo (Rod Gnapp) home in EVERY FIVE MINUTES at Magic Theatre through April 20. By Linda McLean, directed by Loretta Greco. Photo: Jennifer Reiley
Every Five Minutes: Drama by Linda McLean and directed by Loretta Greco. Magic Theatre, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd., Building D, 3rd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94123. 415.441.8822 or www.magictheatre.org. March 26- April 20, 2014
EVERY FIVE MINUTES features Rod Gnapp at his best [rating:2] (2/5)
Linda McLean’s latest play Every Five Minutes is being given its world premiere by the Magic Theatre known for its strong commitment to new, innovative and avant-garde theatre. Two years ago they mounted a brilliant production of McLean’s stunning, sharp edged Any Given Day. That play was part of Magic’s annual Virgin Play Series where scripts are in various stages of development are read and critiqued. Author McClean, who is highly respected in her native Scotland and throughout the UK, was experimenting with form. She continues that experimentation with Every Five Minutes but she misses the mark and seems pretentious.
This time the experimentation is depiction of a mind thrown into turmoil after 17 years of incarceration and torture. It is the mind of her major character Mo being given a superlative performance by local icon Rod Gnapp. His unique ability to create believable characters with tortured and often convoluted minds is legendary. His notable most recent time upon the stage were Buried Child at the Magic and Storefront Church at SF Playhouse. He is at his best again and single-handedly gives credibility to McLean’s and Magic Theatre’s attempt to give credence to the play.
Non-linear plays tax the audience’s ability to make sense of time frame shifts and eventually understand what is happening. To aid the audience in this endeavor the author and director Greco use projections with simple “This Time”, or “This Time, Before” or “This Time and Another Time”, or “This Time but earlier” and later “From the Beginning.” Interspersed with these and other projections are a cacophony of sound and light that jar the senses.
Those blaring sound and lights supposedly are reflections of Mo’s troubled mind. It all begins simply enough when Mo is returned to his home after his hellish incarceration. We learn the convoluted facts in bits and pieces. McLean invents two clowns Bozo (Patrick Alparone) and Harpo (Jomar Tagatac) as figments of Mo’s mental deterioration. They verbally and physically abuse and assuage Mo brutalized mind.
We eventually learn the time frame of the play and Mo’s relationship to his past by the fact that early on there is the birth of baby Molly to Rachael (Carrie Paff) and Ben (Sean San Jose). When Molly enters late in the play (Shawna Michelle James) she is 17 years old and Mo’s faulty recollection becomes a major crisis.
Patrick Alparone and Jomar Tagatac carry the physical burden of the play with professional style being both insidious with a modicum of humor. The charming Maggie Mason gives a solid performance as a Census Taker and other ensemble roles. Carrie Paff and Sean San Jose are underutilized in their parts adding little to McLean’s experimentation with decent into madness.
Running time a long, long 90 minutes.
CAST: Rod Gnapp, Mo; Mia Tagano, Sara; Sean San José, Ben; Carrie Paff, Rachel; Patrick Alparone, Bozo; JomarTagatac, Harpo; Maggie Mason, Census Taker; Shawna Michelle James, Molly.
CREATIVE TEAM: Set and light design by Eric Southern, costume design by Alex Jaeger, sound design by Sara Huddleston, and innovative video and projection design by Hana Kim
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
Harpo (Jomar Tagatac), and Bozo (Patrick Alparone) prepare to bring Mo (Rod Gnapp) home in EVERY FIVE MINUTES at Magic Theatre through April 20. By Linda McLean, directed by Loretta Greco. Photo: Jennifer Reiley
Harpo (Jomar Tagatac) and Bozo (Patrick Alparone) ) in EVERY FIVE MINUTES at Magic Theatre through April 20. By Linda McLean, directed by Loretta Greco. Photo: Jennifer Reiley
