Onto a stage filled with boxes at various levels, parts of a painted backdrop against a backstage wall and bits of props scattered about, a stage manger removes the ghost light. Reality enters in the form of actors with suitcases. These and the relatively bare stage are supposed to suggest movements to various places during a life cycle of members of a family. The actors appear in "everyday" clothes from 1930 through 1960s America, time and place of five of Thornton Wilder's short plays. They are all downers, at least as played in this production of Wilder! Wilder! Wilder! under Matthew Arbour's direction.
Infancy comes off lightest and even a bit funny. Two babies (of whom Kevin Stanfa's Moe is scintillatingly silly) in oversize prams decry their parents' lack of caring for them and teaching them to talk correctly. Their concern is emphasized by nurse Millie (Hannah Rose Goalstone, cold and with an Irish broque so subtle it's nearly missing), who flirts with a patrolman (Peter Mendez, stiff and with a poor excuse for an Italian accent) who's not supposed to be friendly with anyone on the beat. The parents appear to be ciphers. Wilder inserts some cogent observations about language that probably are more effective when read.
Allegorical Childhood has a Father wishing to penetrate his children's play-world, a morbid one in which they imagine their parents dead. At one point Caroline (strong Sarash Gavitt) plays going on a trip with the Father (John Cabrera, who gains sympathy) as driver of a bus on which the family goes through dangerous places and experiences. Mother (tame Nissa Perrott) is a teacher too. Archetypes all. When the bus comes to the Mississippi River, both real and a great American symbol, the passengers decide to go back. The kids (played by Gavitt, Kirstin Franklin, Ghafir Akbar) leave, shunning adults they feel will never understand them. Psychoanalysis dramatized!
The Wreck on the 5:25 has the ritualized actors-in-chairs-on-the-sides-of-a-chalked-in-central-playing-area staging. They sometimes make outsiders' comments on what goes on in the living room where Mrs. Hawkins (distressed Perrott) and her daughter (nonchalant Alexandra Guyker) await Mr. Hawkins, who's late coming from work. A man outside looking into their window causes enough worry for police to be called. The man turns out to be Ghafir Akbar, effective but in a too brief role as Mr. Hawkins, who always wondered what went on behind the windows of places he saw from the train. Now, he has unexpectedly inherited money and, thinking of going far away, he came to look into his own windows.
The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden typifies Wilder's suggestive staging with a family of four on two tiers of chairs simulating an auto trip. It's marked by observations of ads and signs, a stop for hot dogs, and singing. The journey may be happy, but the end is sad. They see the daughter who is weak after just losing a baby. She remarks that Pa looks sick too. Sarah Gavitt (in good voice) with a religious song gives the journey -- and play -- a melancholy finale.
The Rivers Under the Earth has characters who represent Middle Age looking back. Stanfa as Tom exhibits a teenage Oedipus complex, Hannah Rose Goalstone recalls herself as young and beautiful, enjoying a vacation spot that others in her family remember differently. Mr. Carter (Mendez, better than earlier), now a senator, remembers a high rock as an Indian place where he decided to become a
lawyer. None hold much interest.
The Wilder selection here affords the tamest training ground for FSU/Asolo Conservatory actors in many a year. This audience member's reaction? Awful! Awful! Awful!
