Art Beat With Lauren Landau – Candide

By: Lauren Landau   April 29, 2013

Spooky Action Theater

Apr. 29-May 19: Candide
Is the glass half empty, or half full? If a man is an optimist, does that make him a fool? Spooky Action Theater presents OPTIMISM!, a modern adaptation of Voltaire’s Candide by Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright TJ Edwards. In 30 acts and just over two hours, the spirited cast performs a rhyming tale of love, death, misfortune, and good, though possibly misplaced, faith. The irreverent story has been banned many times over, but you can check it out through May 19.

‘Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide’ at Spooky Action Theater

May 1, 2013  by Roger Catlin

By the time Voltaire got around to writing Candide, he had been kicked out of Paris a couple of times for his outspoken work. The 1759 book, whose subtitle was “or Optimism,” earned him the enmity of the government and religious leaders alike, as well as lasting fame.

The latest variation on Candide aims to be just as brash and scathing as the original, in which all manner of misfortune makes the title character’s cheery outlook look more and more absurd.

Such is the focus of the Spooky Action Theater’s delightful adaptation that it has inverted the original title as Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide.

Candide was originally written following some immense calamities, from the Seven Years’ War to a 1755 earthquake and tsunami in Lisbon that destroyed the city and killed up to 100,000 people. Following all of that, the idea of “all is for the best” seems ludicrous, or at least ripe for satire.

So, then, is the current version, coming at a time of its own calamities, following the 30 chapters of Candide’s travels in a hyper-condensed, hyper-active presentation that uses every inch of the basement theater of the Universalist National Memorial Church.

As the play begins, a series of two-foot letters cut in Styrofoam scatter around the perimeter of the theater in the round, and in the four banks of seats the cast of nine eventually make their way. Soon, the characters jump from their chairs, grab letters and re-arrange them to the motto of the day: THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS before the series of unfortunate incidents begins to undermine the notion.

… its excesses continue to speak to our times

Fresh-faced Ryan Alan Jones portrays young Candide, who takes absolutely seriously the optimistic teachings of his philosophy teacher Pangloss (Michael Kevin Darnall). He’ll need it as he slams into all kinds of adversity – falling in love with a beauty named Cunegonde, and getting immediately banished for it; being abducted, lashed, and inducted into an army by the Bulgars.

That only begins a journey to Lisbon, Buenos Aires, El Dorado, Surinam, and Turkey in travels that inevitably bring death, disaster, riches, ruin, and torture amid scores of characters. Still, Candide is bent on keeping a smile and holding hope he’ll find his original love, whom he heard has been raped and disemboweled, and survived, but turned ugly.

Eventually there is a reunion of many of the main figures and a turn toward true happiness that involves a little more practicality and still rings true for the 21^st century.

The long journey is kept light, however, by the marvelous adaptation by T.J. Edwards, who rewrites everything in witty, modernized couplets that rejects out of hand the musical version of Candide that had previously been a hit. Basing his version on Richard Aldington’s 1928 translation, he layers on the rhymes that alternately induce delight and groans, with internal rhymes that whatever the success have to be admired. Like the most nimble wordplay in hip-hop, it’s an accomplishment that doesn’t fail to entertain, and the beauty of an in-the-round presentation is that you can see the smiles on the rest of the audience as it goes along as well.

But the Spooky Action production directed by Michael Chamberlin is more than in-the-round, it’s 360 degrees in every direction, with actors diving from dumbwaiter doors, popping out through projection room holes, jumping from chairs and scuffling on the floor, painted in the blues of the ocean or earth’s cosmos.

It wouldn’t work without a top notch cast game for such action, and this production has one. Besides Jones, the only other character to play just one role is Patricia Lynn, whose Cunegonde has two personalities after she somehow turns from beauty to monster.  Others in the diverse, able ensemble, each with their own highlighted moments include Adeoye, Rosemary Regan, Jessica Shearer, John Tweel, Ryan Tumulty, and Gregory Stuart in addition to Darnall (who may have the coolest credit in the bios: playing Omar’s lover on HBO’s “The Wire”).

The set design by Giorgos Tsappas is nothing if not versatile (with the letters making a key return in the end); it’s highlighted by Brian S. Allard’s light design and Bradley Porter’s sound, with birdcalls even before the action starts. The cardboard cutouts of Deb Crerie’s props lend them a nifty uniformity.

Voltaire’s work has endured because its excesses continue to speak to our times, and the dazzlingly alive Spooky Action Theater production found an exceedingly entertaining way to bring it to life.  The company’s name, incidentally, comes from the Einstein term for two particles that can become so related that a change in one brings a change in the other no matter the distance. The theater certainly finds a way to close that distance.

Running Time: Approximately 2 hours 20 minutes with one intermission.

Advisory: Adult themes.

Optimism! Or Voltaire’s Candide runs at the Spooky Action Theater in the Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16^th St. NW, Washington D.C., through May 19. Tickets are available at 202-248-0301 or here.

Arts & Entertainment : Theater Review – Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide

A Candide adaptation twists the naïf

By Chris Klimek • May 3, 2013

Voltaire was the Trey Parker-Matt Stone irreverence engine of 18th century Europe, but 254 years after its publication, Candide—the best remembered of his many libelous, seditious, blasphemous, or at least discomfiting-to-the-powerful writings—is no longer recognizable as satire. Not without help, anyway. Three or four lifetimes removed from the zeitgeist it skewered, Candide, encountered in the wild—instead of in, say, ENG 555: French Literature of the Enlightenment—might just seem like a long, episodic, somewhat shapeless story of a guileless young guy who gradually groks through many bruising experiences that optimism is a workable philosophy only insofar as it motivates you to “tend to your garden” and “work and work and work some more.” Bill O’Reilly would not disagree. Neither would Henry Rollins.

Playwright and actor T.J. Edwards completed this rhyming adaptation of Candide in 2010. At Spooky Action Theater, it distributes the narration more or less equally among the nine-member cast, each of whom plays multiple roles. One at a time they enter the church basement performance space, arranged in-the-round for this production, and each pulls from a stack of letters—two-foot-high versions of those alphabet refrigerator magnets you might’ve played with as a kid—in the center. Eventually they ring the room with the phrase “The best of all possible worlds!” That’s the shrugging worldview espoused by Candide’s tutor, Pangloss, at the beginning of the tale: that events shall unfold as they should. Candide (an appealingly naïve Ryan Alan Jones) does his best to retain this sanguine outlook as his beloved Cunegonde (earnest Patricia Lynn) finds herself repeatedly raped and sold and sold and raped, a fate to which she seems resigned.

Edwards’ script isn’t a revelatory update of its source—certainly not in the way that Will Eno’s new Gnit modernizes and refreshes Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, for example. (Edwards also has the characters verbally introduce each of the novella’s 30 chapters, and the constant time-checks make the piece feel even longer than its 165 minutes, intermission included.) Thus the work of making this material accessible falls wholly to the hardworking actors, who are fun to watch even if their abundant energy isn’t as specifically directed as it might be. Adeoye exhibits an impressive physical and vocal refinement in the role of Jacques, and Michael Kevin Darnall, as Pangloss, has a commanding voice even when you can’t tell what accent he’s trying to emulate. John Tweel once again proves his worth as comedic all-rounder, having long ago mastered the cartoony style in which this production finds its most satisfying moments.

Given the minimalist feel that pervades the play—only a few simple props are featured, though that boat is pretty cool—it’s surprising that Monalisa Arias’ fight choreography is as realistic as it is. Especially considering the close quarters the actors and audience share, Candide’s violent encounters have a palpable speed and danger. Satire’s edge may be dulled over time, but blood is evergreen.

Adapted by T.J. Edwards
Directed by Michael Chamberlin
At Spooky Action Theater to May 19

OPTIMISM! or Candide’s Voltaire, sparkling wit in rhyme at Spooky Action

May 1, 2013  By Hunter Styles

In which Spooky Action Theater’s production of OPTIMISM! and its bow to the great Voltaire inspires Hunter Styles to let loose his inner poet.

—————————————

If wit is your thing, you’ll find buckets to spare
in this thrilling, rambunctious new take on Voltaire,
whose timelessly dark sense of humor obscene
still lends much to Candide in 2013…

Read the full review HERE

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‘Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide’ at Spooky Action Theater

by Jessica Vaughan

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Jessica Vaughan

 “Everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” Spooky Action Theater takes Candide’s satire of life, love, hope and human decency to the extreme in Optimism! Or Voltaire’s Candide, their dramatization of his most famous novel. It was adapted for the stage by TJ Edwards from a translation by Richard Aldington. They’ve partnered with the Alliance Francaise for this production.

Spooky Action Theater takes their name from Einstein and the of the quantum mechanics of entangled particles that spontaneously mimic each other no matter how far apart they are. Einstein called it “Spooky action at a distance.” They are a newer company in the DC area and attempt to create that spooky action between actor and audience and play and the world of imagination.

This play is an excellent example of that. It is an ambitious dash through 30 scenes of the 30 chapters of Candide. Nine actors take on dozens and dozens of roles in two-second changes as the action roams from across Europe to South America and back again following young Candide (Ryan Alan Jones) as he attempts to find the truth about the nature of life. An old philosopher, Pangloss (Michael Kevin Darnall) has told him that this is the best of all possible worlds; everything that happens is for the best, and therefore whatever happens is the best.

Each scene is a test of that optimism. Candide is tortured, beaten, whipped, flogged, sunk, and thrown out of more places than I could keep track of. His love Cunegonde (Patricia Lynn) is raped, sold, and beaten…repeatedly. And yes, this is a comedy. Every character they meet along the way seems to have some story of woe, and Candide is continually flabbergasted that this could be the best possible world. And that’s before he hits the Inquisition. Like the best satire, I found myself both horrified and laughing uncontrollably throughout the play.

People have had that reaction to the work since it’s publication in 1759. Francois-Marie Arouet (Voltaire) drew on the clichés of the romance and adventure stories of the day and was inspired to question prevailing philosophies by the realities of the Seven Years War and the Lisbon Earthquake, both times of terrible suffering in Europe. The church immediately banned the novel because he does poke serious fun at their institutions but it quickly took off and remains popular today and more relevant than ever.

There is no permanent seating in the theater, allowing the company to set the entire theater however they like. Set Designer Giorgos Tsappas creates four risers of seats in the four corners surrounding a raised square platform that starts the play piled with white letters. The best part of the set is the floor – painted in swirling oceanic blue. That square platform becomes all-important as the stage for many different places.

The sound design by Bradley Porter enhances the play from the first moment with twittering birds and subtle music, lending a soundtrack to the production – though the actors themselves provide many of the sound effects – from wind to canons to bells. The play begins as actors grab the letters to spell out the key phrase of the novel, “The best of all possible worlds.”

They don’t bother with subtlety as characters narrate through both the plot and the philosophy, but the glee with which they approach every moment saves it from becoming preachy. The script is a delightful mash-up of philosophy and comedy as raunchy and hilarious as any modern Apatow film. Similarly, the language is a mix of complicated poetry and modern slang. The entire play is done in rhyming couplets. Edwards skill with language and rhymes is very impressive.

Director Michael Chamberlin staged shipwrecks, sea battles, earth quakes and more with just the actors onstage. Often they themselves were the props, moving a ship or acting as horses carrying one another. Not content for them to enter and exit like most humans, he also has the actors diving onstage from a dumbwaiter, climbing up and down walls to openings far above the seats and cart wheeling off chairs. The play is long with it’s 30 scenes, but Chamberlin keeps the action moving in a choreographed dance of chaos that works well for the fantastical elements and skims through some of the more gory details.

Fight Choreographer Monalisa Arias took full advantage of these talented actors. They crashed into everything and to each other. I was shocked when they jumped right back up unharmed.

Michael Kevin Darnall (Pangloss) does great things with the language in a charming southern accent and has timing as smooth any Shakespearean comedic actor. He disappears into many of his varied roles. Ryan Alan Jones (Candide) is a physical actor, reveling in his earnest, innocent character. He and Patricia Lynn (Cunegonde) both have great timing and delightful chemistry. They bring tons of energy to their parts and have fun with their lightning dialogue.

Rosemary Regan (Old Woman) is spry and hilarious, running as fast and as hard as the rest of them. Adeoye (Jacques) has huge stage presence and an ear for accents. He embodies some of the craziest characters and plays a very convincing horse.

The rest of the cast (Jessica Shearer, Gregory Stuart, Ryan Tumulty, and John Tweel) slide in and out of roles smoothly and effortlessly and often it is their own reaction to the material that creates the best humor of the piece. The seamless, complicated blocking, where they are often more acrobat than actor, is entertaining and the accents they don – from Jamaica to Brit and back are awesome.

The costumes by Laree Lentz include a versatile collection of patched coats and dresses that transform a beggar into a priest in seconds or trade one character’s shirt for another’s apron ten scenes later. There are very few props and most are ingenious creations of brown paper designed by Deb Crerie. For the rest, the cast makes do with their imagination. The lighting design by Brian S. Allard does much of the heavy lifting, drenching the stage in reds whenever anyone is murdered or hurt.

“Prepare for the worst…It’s pretty gory,” Cunegonde warns at one point, and the warning is right on. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is off-limits. This is an unapologetic farce – loud, over the top – and yet strangely hopeful. They captured Voltaire perfectly. This play may or may not leave you with a shred of hope for the human race, but at least we can still laugh at ourselves, and this production is worth seeing just for the incredible job the cast does at travelling around the world as dozens of people with just two chairs, a boat, and a bit of brown paper.

Spooky Action Theater has created a rollicking, laugh-out-loud evening!

Running time: 2 hours and 40 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.

Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide plays through May 19, 2013 at Spooky Action Theater – 1810 16th Street, NW, in Washington, DC. Purchase tickets online.

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Spooky Action’s ‘Optimism!’: The best of all possible ‘Candide’ adaptations?

By Jane Horwitz, Published: May 5, 2013

A few cast members wander in and mingle with the audience just minutes before “Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide” gets underway in Spooky Action Theater’s high-energy and highly inventive staging. The actors’ early entrance remains so low-key that many theatergoers will focus more on the jumbled pile of foot-high block letters stacked atop a platform in the middle of the performance space. (The enjoyably toy-like props and witty sets were designed by Deb Crerie and Giorgos Tsappas, respectively.)

The nine-member cast dives headlong into T.J. Edwards’s sprightly adaptation of Voltaire’s novella, arranging the block letters into the book’s catchphrase, “the best of all possible worlds,” and announcing they’ll cover “30 scenes in just over two hours!” Well, more like two hours, 38 minutes, and things drag occasionally, but never for long. The 1759 book, with its bloody dissection of human hypocrisy, is a classic for a reason, and Edwards holds handily onto that. Director Michael Chamberlin’s in-the-round staging even makes droll use of little dumbwaiter doors in the walls of Spooky Action’s church-basement space. And into all the scenic atmosphere, Chamberlin’s actors bring an easy athleticism and a light touch with Edwards’s rhymed couplets and whimsy.

A naive European sub-aristocrat, Candide (a winningly wide-eyed Ryan Alan Jones), must go into exile for daring to kiss his higher-born cousin Cunegonde (worldly, flirty Patricia Lynn). He encounters on his travels the horrors of war, religious persecution, slavery and natural disaster. Everything young Candide sees puts the lie to the feel-good philosophy he learned at the knee of Cunegonde’s tutor, Pangloss (Michael Kevin Darnall) — that we live in “the best of all possible worlds.”

Darnall’s Pangloss is a young hipster, eclectically turned out in argyle socks, two-tone shoes and aqua jeans (the fun, period-jumbled costumes are by Laree Lentz). He’s a dissolute phony, a wise guy posing as a wise man. We eventually learn he doesn’t even believe his own philosophy. You see, Edwards’s adaptation reminds us, how everything old is new again?

Another highlight in a uniformly able cast is Rosemary Regan’s Old Woman, who helps Candide and Cunegonde find each other and navigate royal courts, jails, slums and worse. A onetime aristocrat who fell on hard times, she tells the youngsters how she lost one buttock to invading soldiers in search of meat. With her raspy voice and deadpan delivery, Regan makes the Old Woman seem world-weary, but with a little reserve of friskiness.

This is a good point to note that the play has many references to rape and venereal disease, so despite the whimsy, it’s probably not for middle-schoolers or even young teenagers, depending upon parental taste.

A New York-based actor and writer who has appeared off-Broadway and in TV shows such as “House of Cards” and “Law and Order,” playwright Edwards was a major participant in Washington area theater just as its growth spurt began in the 1980s and ’90s. He acted at Woolly Mammoth, Studio Theatre and the Washington Shakespeare Company, now WSC Avant Bard. His plays “New York Mets” and “National Defense” premiered at Woolly Mammoth and won Helen Hayes Awards for outstanding new play in 1987 and 1988.

This reviewer remembers those plays. The same wit, occasional glibness and good-humored edge show up in “Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide.” Some of Edwards’s lines may overreach in the modernity department (“Gimme a break!,” “Puh-lease!”) or smack too much of ’60s and ’70s hippie musicals (“O happy day, auto-da-fe!”). A Jewish joke also falls flat. But overall, he has crafted a swell adaptation — modern, but never losing touch with Voltaire’s time and place.

Early on, Edwards takes a little shot at the oft-revised 1956 musical “Candide” and its composer, Leonard Bernstein (whose surname the actors mispronounce; it’s “bern-STINE,” not “bern-STEEN”). That musical, despite its many flaws, deserves better. And the story as it unfolds in Edwards’s script, so rousingly performed by Spooky Action, isn’t really all that different.

Horwitz is a freelance writer.

Candide

by François-Marie Arouet (Voltaire), adapted by T.J. Edwards. Lighting design, Brian S. Allard; sound, Bradley Porter; fight choreography, Monalisa Arias. With Adeoye, Gregory Stuart, Ryan Tumulty and John Tweel. About two hours, 38 minutes, including an intermission. Through May 19 by Spooky Action Theater, at the Universalist National Memorial Church, 1810 16th St. NW. Visit www.spookyaction.org or call 202-248-0301.

Spooky Action Theater is currently accepting submissions from playwrights in the Greater Washington Metro Area.

If your script is chosen, the first step will be a sit-down reading, including feedback and discussion with Artistic Director Richard Henrich, our staff and the reading cast.

Scripts that go to the next level will be rehearsed and presented for a limited number of workshop performances as book-in-hand productions.  For these, the play is up on its feet, actors carry the script, and the staging is supported with lights, sound and minimal set and props.  Workshop performances are offered free of charge to patrons on the theater’s mail list, and at least one performance will include a post-show discussion to engage audience response.

Submissions likely to be chosen will be in line with the Spooky Action aesthetic. This includes plays that reach beyond naturalism, stretch the imagination and evoke the subconscious by using multiple layers of reality, inventive juxtapositions of past, present and future, and a vigorous movement-based performance style.

At this time we are only able to accept electronic submissions.

Please submit your script to New Works Director Kristy Simmons at ksimmons@spookyaction.org .

Get in on the Action — Thanks!

Optimism!
or Voltaire’s Candide 

by Francois-Marie Arouet
adapted by TJ Edwards

April 25 – May 19, 2013

Directed by Michael Chamberlin

Voltaire’s masterpiece, adapted for the stage in rhymed couplets by playwright TJ Edwards, is an assault on society, religion, human nature, education, government and above all, optimism. Candide’s journey is here enacted by nine actors playing over 70 roles in a madcap journey to discover just what it is that makes life worth living.

Spooky Action Theater and the Alliance Francaise!
For this production, Spooky Action Theater is associated with the Alliance Francaise.  We are happy to promote their spring events:  Histoires Exquises  and Urban Corps:  a Transatlantic Hip Hop Festival.

Come see Optimism! or Voltaire’s Candide,
and you could have a chance to win tickets for one of these productions!

A fluid journey where time is relative and nothing is mundane, Kafka on the Shore is intense, engaging, and erotic. With this play, Spooky Action Theatre takes the audience to the edge and back again. That edge is surreal, where reality and dreams mingle. If you are looking for a theatrical experience that could be described as Zen meets avant-garde, Kafka on the Shore may be your kind of show.

The title may be familiar to aficionados of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami. Murakami’s acclaimed work has ranged from collections of short stories to the more grounded “Norwegian Wood.” “Kafka on the Shore” has been described as a “metaphysical novel with a twist of Japanese magical realism” and “quintessential Murakami.” Having not read his work myself, I’ll take their word for it.

Frank Galati adapted Murakami’s 457-page novel for Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre a few years ago. (He is a Tony Award-winner for his adaptation of The Grapes of Wrath on Broadway.) Spooky Action Theatre is now presenting the second professional production of the Kafka on the Shore. As directed by Rebecca Holderness, the action flows stylishly throughout the performance.

Galati’s script focuses on the plight of two characters: Kafka, a teenager, and the mature Mr. Nakata. The boy and the old man never meet yet their stories intersect unexpectedly. Scenes begin and end simultaneously and time is a malleable conceit, not measured in neatly divided increments. Ghostly figures slide and glide their way in and out of focus while anthropomorphic animals observe and assist the main characters.

If you embrace the experience of this play, Kafka and Nakata’s crisscrossing journeys have the potential to grip you. But remember, you have been warned: you cannot check your brain at the door.

Kafka, 15, flees his tyrannical father in Tokyo and runs away to another city. He seeks his mother and the comfort of books, while being guided by a talking crow. He crosses paths with three women and the Oedipus parallels begin. Kafka is drawn by his heart and his libido to Miss Saeki, a beautiful older woman. When their psychic connection crosses the line into sexual contact, the dreamlike atmosphere makes the encounter more palatable.

The play also presents Mr. Nakata’s odyssey. Mentally challenged, Nakata is a gentle soul with the ability to talk to cats and dogs and does so to help find lost pets. He begins investigating a lost cat, which leads him to a notorious killer who takes on the persona of Johnnie Walker (of whisky fame) for a little taste of Grand Guignol. After rescuing the cats, Nakata finds himself on a quest for a mystical stone and an inexplicable connection to Kafka.

Kafka is played by Michael Wong, an adult actor, who is strangely believable as a fifteen year-old. Wong successfully conveys a sense of wonder as Kafka struggles to find out who he really is. As Nakata, Al Twanmo’s soothing, voice and calm demeanor plays in contrast to the fantastic creatures and figures he meets.

Both Kafka and Nakata encounter a myriad of characters on their respective journeys and the acting ensemble creates vivid portrayals which serve to illuminate, confuse, answer questions and pose even more.

Among the cast, Steve Beall makes a malevolent Johnnie Walker and a memorable Colonel Sanders, who also crossed paths with Mr. Nakata. (Fun fact: the late Col. Sanders now works as a pimp.) From the animal characters, Sarah Taurchini embodies sex appeal in feline form as Mimi the cat and as the colonel’s number one menu item.

Tuyet Thi Pham makes a strong impression as a transgendered librarian who befriends Kafka. And as Kafka’s dream woman/mother figure, MiRan Powell is a picture of maternal grace and feminine beauty.

From the beginning, Kafka is guided by Crow, personified brilliantly by the sinewy and sensual performance of Dane Figueroa Edidi. Always watching, unseen by others, Crow is like a metaphysical Jiminy Cricket and one-person Greek chorus. When Kafka and Saeki share a dreamy night of passion, Crow punctuates their offstage sexual encounter with a serpentine fan dance, executed beautifully by Edidi.

Rebecca Holderness’s work as director is abetted by the designs work of Brooke Robbins (sets), Zachary Dalton (lighting), Sara Jane Palmer (costumes), and David Crandall (sound).

Revealing other plot threads or characters would do disservice to Kafka on the Shore, which needs to be seen and heard to be truly appreciated. Head to 16th Street to Spooky Action Theatre’s home in the basement of the Universalist National Memorial Church. And prepare for a waking dream.

KAFKA ON THE SHORE by Haruki Murakami, adapted by Frank Galati - Produced by Spooky Action Theatre, performing at 1810 16th St NW; Washington, DC 20009 (Universalist National Memorial Church, basement).

Directed by Rebecca Holderness. Cast (alphabetically): Steve Beall, Wonsup Chung, Dane Figueroa Edidi, Jon Jon Johnson, Jennifer Knight, Steve Lee, Julia Nakamoto, Tuyet Thi Phan, MiRan Powell, Sarah Taurchini, Al Twanmo, and Michael Wong.

Set Design by Brooke Robbins; Lighting Design by Zachary A. Dalton; Costume Design by Sara Jane Palmer; Sound Design by David Crandall; Properties Design by Deb Crerie

January 31- February 24, 2013: Thursdays-Saturdays at 8:00 PM; Sundays at 3:00 PM. Phone: (202) 248-0301. info@spookyaction.org. Click here for tickets.

Two generations of Japanese men search for their destinies not knowing where their journeys, which span the time and space continuum, might lead them.  That is the fundamental conception of Haruki Murakami’s acclaimed 2002 novel Kafka on the Shore, which was later translated into English in 2005. 

It’s a story we have all heard many a time before, but the way Murakami infuses ancient Japanese culture and traditions, and modern values and norms that transcend national boundaries into the story sets it apart from others.  In Murakami’s fantastical world – where we don’t always know where reality ends and fantasy begins – it’s not so much where one ends up that’s important, it’s the path one takes to get there.   Since it’s the journey and not the destination that matters, there is ample opportunity to theatricalize this metaphysical tale.  Certainly Frank Galati saw this potential when he adapted the post-modern story for the stage in 2008.

First premiering at Chicago’s acclaimed Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Galati’s adaptation of Kafka on the Shore is receiving its East Coast premiere at Washington’s small but ambitious Spooky Action Theater.  While the Rebecca Holderness-directed extravaganza features some uneven acting, it stays true to the Japanese roots of the story.  From a production standpoint, it also offers the audience some gorgeous imagery as they consider the metaphysical, spiritual, and cultural lessons of the deceivingly complex story – the details of which will not be spoiled here since they need to be experienced to be believed.

The success of telling such a story is largely dependent on the strength of the actors embodying the two men on journeys – different journeys to be sure, but ones that share common characteristics.  In the case of this production, the two leading actors aren’t quite up to the acting challenge.  Although to be sure, it’s a formidable one.

As the self-named Kafka, a teenage intellectual who flees from a difficult home situation, Michael Wong has the awkward mannerisms of someone who is ‘not-quite-an-adult, but not-quite-a-kid’ down pat.  When he learns of a tragedy at his home, his reaction is naïve, but detached. At the same time, he can discuss great works of philosophy with the best of them.  Unfortunately, Wong lacks stage presence and spends much of the show looking down at the stage as he softly delivers his lines.  The timidity could be excused in those scenes where he’s expected to demonstrate his young age and lack of surety, but does not lend itself to other scenes where he must demonstrate strength to fight his inner demons.  A certain lack of chemistry with some of the people he meets along his journey also makes it difficult to care about where this young man ends up.

Like Wong, Al Twanmo does not particularly rise to the challenge of embodying an older man (Nakata) who has experienced great tragedy and once again must take control of his ‘life’ and destiny even as he continues to face seemingly insurmountable challenges.  He has an endearing presence which works in his favor as he tries to do what’s right and good, but a failure to remember all of his lines and speak clearly and with emotion and purpose ultimately also makes it difficult to care more about his physical and spiritual journey.

The supporting players – the ones that Kafka and Nakata meet as they make their way to their ‘destinations’ – fare exceedingly better and ultimately are among the major reasons I’d recommend this show.   Although all are quite strong, three deserve specific mention.

Dane Figueroa Edidi takes on Crow, Kafka’s omnipresent spiritual guide, with reckless abandon.  He has oodles of stage presence and charisma to the point where it’s difficult to take eyes off of him as he moves gracefully yet athletically across the stage in a black, anime-inspired costume (Sara Jane Palmer) in the reality and fantasy-based worlds in which Kafka resides.  At the same time, he never oversteps his role and does not detract from the story, but enhances it.

Tuyet Thi Pham offers a grounding presence as Oshima, a young transgender who kindly offers Kafka guidance and shelter as he flees from his home.  Equally able to handle comedy and drama, including a rather satirical scene as gender equality issues are discussed, she is certainly a formidable acting force and is one of the few who is able to bring some life out of Wong as Kafka.

Jennifer Knight’s natural acting style is also perfect for playing Sakura.  Like Oshima, Sakura offers seemingly wise advice to Kafka as he tries to make the best of his newfound situation.  Knight’s light-hearted, but experienced take on a young girl who doesn’t quite fit in, but has done the best she can to make her own personal journey a productive one offers a nice juxtaposition to Wong’s Kafka.  The fire in Knight’s eyes is undeniable and makes her a joy to watch. Her consistent (albeit one-sided) chemistry with Wong makes the culminating scene where the audience realizes how the two characters are connected all that more powerful.

Recommended
Kafka on the Shore
Closes February 24, 2013
Spooky Action Theater
1810 16th St NW
Washington, DC
2 hours, 40 minutes with 1 intermission
Tickets: $20 – $25
Thursdays thru Sundays
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Production-wise, Holderness is mostly successful in focusing and containing the sprawling story while balancing reality and fantasy.  The majority of the success comes in Act I and the final moments of Act II. Leveraging Brooke Robbins’ set – comprised of sliding panels, Asian art, and vivid colors – and some culturally-appropriate compositions/sound design by David Crandall, she’s able to create realistic and non-realistic worlds that contain elements that allows audience members to recognize the Asian roots of the story, but also the idea that the experiences portrayed on the stage are quite universal.  The end result is a series of beautiful and evocative images.

The lighting design (Zachary A. Dalton and Kyle Grant) is minimal given the constraints of the space.  At times it does not allow all action to be seen, but not to the detriment of the telling of the story.  However, the lighting design is eerily effective in perhaps one of the most powerful scenes of the show when the audience sees the shadows of all of the people and animals that Kakfa and Nakata have met or been influenced by on their journeys.

While this production is far from perfect, I give definite kudos to Artistic Director Richard Henrich and his creative team for taking on the ambitious project.  In an era where many companies are shying away from difficult material in favor of known quantities that will sell tickets, this is a welcome addition to the DC theatrical landscape.

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Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Marakami, adapted by Frank Galati. Directed by Rebecca Holderness . Featuring Michael Wong, Al Twanmo, Dane Edidi, Steve Lee, Tuyet Thi Pham, Steve Beall, MiRan Powell, Julia Nakamoto, Sarah Taurchini, Jennifer Knight, Wonsup Chung, and Jon Jon Johnson. Production:  Set Design by Brooke Robbins, Lighting Design by Zachary A. Dalton, Costume Design by Sara Jane Palmer, Sound Design by David Crandall, Properties Design by Deb Crerie. Produced by Spooky Action Theater . Reviewed by Jennifer Perry.