First Stage, Milwaukee’s long-running children’s theater company, is reviving its 2004 hit, Holes. The play, based on a Newberry Award-winning book by Louis Sachar, is an engaging tale of a boy mistakenly sentenced to a detention camp in the desert. It’s called Camp Green Lake, but it is neither green nor contains a lake. It is located near a dry riverbed. Fourteen-year-old Stanley (Kaden Rhodes) is the main character who believes that his family has been cursed for generations (by the same gypsy who supposedly caused the lake to dry up). So he’s not surprised to end up here. As the story unfolds, Sachar’s novel hits on various themes that range from racism to superstition and greed. To a lesser extent, it focuses on the “haves” and the “have-nots.” When Stanley’s impoverished parents seem pleased by the prospect of sending him to “camp” like wealthier kids his age, they have no idea of the sort of place where Stanley winds up. (This development is a bit mystifying. Don’t parents usually ask questions before sending their son away from home – even if decreed by a judge?) Poor Stanley arrives unequipped to face the obstacles at “camp.” At first, he is tested by the other boys sentenced to camp. Stanley has to find his place in the “hierarchy” of these boys (the Rattlesnack cast played on opening night; the theater company rotates two casts of young actors). Once Stanley “earns” his camp name, “Caveman,” he feels more accepted by the others. A typical day consists of digging holes in the dry river bed. The boys are under the watchful eye of Mr. Sir (Todd Denning), a bad-guy supervisor who wears a cowboy hat and a gun strapped to his hip. Denning plays this role to the hilt, earning chuckles from both kids and adults for his performance. Mr. Sir warns the boys that misbehavior will result in being punished by the warden. This turns out to be a pint-size Mary MacDonald Kerr, who takes obvious relish in her atypical bad-guy role. She wears a black cowboy shirt, black hat, black jeans and black boots (costumes by Lyndsey Kuhlmann). The warden’s purpose is as black as her outfit. She expects the boys to find treasure that was buried at the site long ago. Director Jeff Frank does an excellent job of interjecting scenes from the past into the present. For instance, Stanley’s great-grandfather appears in one scene that explains why his family receives the gypsy’s curse. The scene is played upstage, behind the hole-digging boys, who are now silent and still. (This is perhaps one reason the show is rated for children age nine and older; younger kids may not grasp the concept of the play moving back and forth in time.) The only minor quibble with the production is that the beginning is so packed with details that it tends to get bogged down. Perhaps some of the smaller ones, such as Stanley’s father’s quest to find a cure for foot odor, should be eliminated. Zach Thomas Woods plays the father, as well as a half-dozen other roles in the production. Most of the time, he reminds one of a bumbling Tim Conway in an old episode of “The Carol Burnett Show” on TV. Stanley’s mother is played by Bree Below, who also appears as several characters. The best of these is Kate Barlow, a kissing murderer who reigned in the days of the Old West. She was once the town’s schoolteacher. However, she turned to the “dark side” after her friend, a kind black man, was shot by the townsfolk for kissing a white woman. The action picks up momentum in Act II. “Zero” (Colin Woldt), one of the smaller boys in the pack, escapes from camp. Stanley follows him, not quite knowing what he will find amid the endless miles of tumbleweed and sand. Once reunited with Zero, the boys find sustenance in an odd location. It helps Stanley recall elements of his family history to discover the treasure buried by his great-great-grandfather almost a century earlier. Holes plays out on a realistic, desert-colored collection of boulder-sized rocks. Some of the rocks contain small holes, from which poisonous lizards dart out on cue. On opening night, the realistic movements of the rubber lizards were a highlight for the audience’s younger kids. Credit goes to a small group of young (unseen) actors for creating this effect. The desert sky frames the boulders at dusk in rich sunset colors (lighting by Nick Belly). There are a lot of additional plot elements to digest in “Holes.” Suffice to say that it’s a ripping-good mystery that deserves a revival. Those who didn’t see it the first time around should definitely consider seeing this production during its current run.
