A Time To Kill

Rupert Holmes has adapted a classic best seller and movie for the stage.  John Grisham's first book and now his first play for the stage is a remarkable work that needs just a bit more work before its ready for prime-time.

Leading the pack is the very handsome Sebastia Arcelus (Jake Brigaance).  Hi charm and good looks held my attention but there was something perhaps a bit detached or formulaic in the courtroom drama.  When staging a scene, or in this case an entire play, around a courtroom you need to have crisp, quick dialogue.  It was almost there, but some of his colleagues on stage - primarily former senator and presidential candidate Fred Dalton Thompson (Judge Omar Noose) need a bit more time in rehearsal.

Tom Skerritt (Lecien Wilbanks) exemplified the second problem with this play - I couldn't hear him.  He's not a stage actor by trade.  And when a play takes a tact to not mic the actors (i liked the idea too) you had better cast actors who can speak up!  Sadly this was not the case.  Lastly, Tonya Pinkins (Gwen Hailey) is brilliant but wasted in the small role.

These problems aside, I think there is merit in the production and there's hope for some improvement.  The stage design by James Noone is remarkably engaging with its rotating platform constantly changing perspectives in the courtroom.   I hope the rest of the play brings itself up to the brilliance of the rotating courtroom.

The Forest

What a satisfying evening in theatre.  The ensemble cast at Classic Stage Company has put on yet another gem.   Headlined by Diane Weist, the entire ensemble was a powerhouse.  The Forest is a play originally by a Russian, Alexander Ostrovsky (think Chekov), which has been adapted by Kathleen Tolan.  It concerns a powerful woman in Russia who has some money, is a little cheap but cares for and raises poor young children from the town.  'Tis the age of arranged marriages, dowries, male dominated business and politics, and many formalities of public life.   It's a romantic comedy of days gone by.

Here we have a young girl who is promised to man whom she does not love.  She loves a boy from the town madly (and secretly) who does not have the dowry to pay to marry her.  There's a poor young man at the estate who is not too smart and can't figure out how to please the mistress of the estate.  The mistress of the estate who is in love with the young boy but for the formalities of life, is afraid to tell him. There are two vagabond actors, one of whom is a long lost relative, a few townspeople and two servants on the estate.

The actors all serve up outstanding performances - from the comedic to the dramatic and you left the theatre with a sense of just having witnessed true professionals delivering the goods.  Bravo!