{"id":15490,"date":"2014-11-21T19:39:15","date_gmt":"2014-11-22T03:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=15490"},"modified":"2014-11-21T19:46:07","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T03:46:07","slug":"two-albee-plays-on-college-campus-are-funny-intense-and-absurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/two-albee-plays-on-college-campus-are-funny-intense-and-absurd\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Albee plays on college campus are funny, intense and absurd"},"content":{"rendered":"

Woody’s [rating: 4]<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mrs. Barker (Isabel Heaviside) seemingly is shocked by what Grandma (Keara Reardon) divulges in \u201cThe American Dream.\u201d Photo by Robin Jackson.<\/p>\n

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Daddy (Jon Demegillo) and Mommy (Melanie Macri) act like flesh-and-blood wind-up dolls in Edward Albee\u2019s \u201cThe American Dream.\u201d Photo by Robin Jackson.<\/p>\n
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Skylar Collins (right, as Jerry) and Jesse Lumb (as Peter) star in \u201cThe Zoo Story.\u201d Photo by Robin Jackson.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Director Mike Nichols\u2019 death saddens me.<\/p>\n

His eclectic work ranks high on my all-time favorites\u2019 list, especially the Monty Python musical \u201cSpamalot\u201d and a pair of films, \u201cThe Graduate\u201d and \u201cWho\u2019s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three disparate entertainments indeed.<\/p>\n

At the pinnacle is \u201cVirginia Woolf,\u201d the Edward Albee masterwork that ripped the veneer off the institution of marriage.<\/p>\n

No director ever pulled more out of Elizabeth Taylor or Richard Burton.<\/p>\n

I distinctly remember, too, that Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill had blown me away in the original \u201cVirginia Woolf\u201d on Broadway in 1963.<\/p>\n

All that history bounced around in my mind as I walked into the College of Marin\u2019s Studio Theater to watch two cerebral but passionate one-act Albee plays, 1959\u2019s \u201cThe Zoo Story\u201d and 1961\u2019s \u201cThe American Dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having seen thousands of theater pieces, somehow I\u2019d never seen either.<\/p>\n

To be sure, these were campus performances, yet both were equal to the professionalism of any Bay Area community theater \u2014 and, in fact, to some of the top nearby stages.<\/p>\n

Funny. Intense.<\/p>\n

Absurd.<\/p>\n

W. Allen Taylor, whose directorial chops leave nothing to be desired here, notes in the program that, although neither play rings \u201ca rational bell,\u201d both clearly address Albee\u2019s \u201cdissatisfaction with [the American emphasis] on material and consumer-driven values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Zoo Story,\u201d in which human beings eventually mirror a vicious dog and other animals, slowly builds on a foundation of isolation, loneliness, dysfunctionality and non-communication.<\/p>\n

The two-man park bench encounter tragically ends in violence.<\/p>\n

Supposedly penned in less than three weeks, \u201cThe Zoo Story,\u201d which triggered Albee\u2019s reputation as a pioneer of the Theatre of the Absurd movement, was the playwright\u2019s first major drama. Its West Berlin debut was half a double bill with Samuel Beckett\u2019s \u201cKrapp\u2019s Last Tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its power \u2014 and a stunning performance of Skylar Collins as Jerry, a \u201cpermanent transient\u201d \u2014 actually made me shudder at its climax.<\/p>\n

“The American Dream,\u201d in sharp contrast, made me laugh aloud \u2014 numerous times.<\/p>\n

Despite it dealing with real or imagined adoption, mutilation and murder.<\/p>\n

With a spartan set and tasteful costuming appropriately limited to shades of ultra-neutral beige, the background blandness helps exaggerate the perma-smiles plastered onto the faces of flesh-and-blood wind-up dolls, Mommy and Daddy, and their haughty socialite visitor, Mrs. Barker.<\/p>\n

Melanie Macri, Jon Demegillo and Isabel Heaviside, respectively, nail the satire with over-the-top looks that pinpoint their faux sincerity and politeness (even to the point of partially disrobing when requested).<\/p>\n

And Keara Reardon goes them one better as an absent-minded yet crafty Grandma.<\/p>\n

Albee, an 86-year-old, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, has peppered the play with wondrously insightful one-liners.<\/p>\n

Such as: \u201cI can live off you because I married you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has said \u201cThe American Dream\u201d is \u201ca condemnation of complacency, cruelty, and emasculation and vacuity, a stand against the fiction that everything [in the United States] \u2026is peachy-keen.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the College of Marin stage, though, because of the supreme skills of playwright, director and actors, everything is<\/em> peachy-keen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe American Dream\u201d and \u201cThe Zoo Story\u201d will run at the College of Marin\u2019s Studio Theater, 835 College Ave. (corner of Sir Francis Drake and Laurel Avenue), Kentfield, through Dec. 7. <\/em>Night performances, Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; matinees, Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets: $10 to $20. Information and tickets: 585-9385 or\u00a0<\/em>www.marin.edu\/performingarts\/drama\/contact.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or check out his new blog at www.vitalitypress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Woody’s [rating: 4] Director Mike Nichols\u2019 death saddens me. His eclectic work ranks high on my all-time favorites\u2019 list, especially the Monty Python musical \u201cSpamalot\u201d and a pair of films,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"