A dive jam-packed with brilliance

REVIEW | Cast of 49 cogitates in David Cromer’s latest

Think Robert Altman meets Sam Shepard by way of David Lynch, though they’re all on their way to a 21st century version of "Lord of the Flies" — one that appears to be playing itself out in a rotting foreclosed house on some sinister urban side street that might just be where you live.

Yet even that description does not fully conjure the hallucinatory nature of the theatrical experiment called "Cherrywood," a show that is now jamming a cast of 49 into the intimate confines of Mary-Arrchie Theatre’s second-floor attic of a home, and that is revealing, once again, that director David Cromer is the possessor of an eerie black magic.

The work of playwright Kirk Lynn (who devised it for the Austin, Texas-based Rude Mechanicals), "Cherrywood" has been hugely expanded and reimagined in a way that only Cromer (whose "A Streetcar Named Desire" is now wowing audiences at Glencoe’s Writers’ Theatre) would ever dare attempt.

Part rant, part requiem, it is a disturbing fantasia about the late-adolescent-through-early-twentysomething generation now moving through high school and college, and into a world of unemployment, shrinking dreams, moral disillusionment, psycho-sexual dislocation, ecological meltdown and spiritual confusion.

Wittily subtitled "The Modern Comparable," it feels like a contemporary variation on the work of the Living Theater of the 1960s, with Mary-Arrchie artistic director Richard Cotovsky as the grizzled and bloodied survivor of that time. All around him are the equivalent revolutionary cries, and the personal anguish, wretched excess, half-drugged ques- tioning, nonsense and profundity, tragicomic posturing and fear and loathing of that earlier, upheaval-filled (if more affluent) era.

Part college kegger from hell, part scatological rave and mystical chant, it is sophomoric in its philosophy and end-of-the-world in its mass psychology nightmares. A "Spring Awakening" for the age of Internet dissociation, "Cherrywood" pulls you in with its sense of raw alienation and organic communalism.

It is all but impossible to imagine the nightmare logistics involved in staging and performing this 90-minute show. But the ensemble (which matches the size of the audience) lives and breathes as one during this chilling squatters’ house party. And as the actors move from dumpster-decorated bathroom to living room (cheers for set designer Andre LaSalle), they capture the whole cross-section of wasted and thoughtful kids, wild ones and timid ones, tormentors, survivors and victims. The sane and the mad are all dancing on the edge of oblivion. Or, if you believe the transcendental pizza delivery man, on the brink of possible salvation.

This is a show that is sure to have a cult following as it sings its twisted anthem for the new cannibals. Or perhaps we are just watching the latest "lost generation."

Theater review

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company. By Kirk Lynn. Dir. David Cromer. With ensemble cast.

CROWDED HOUSE Cherrywood’s cast runneth over.

Photo: Ryan Bourque

Being at a party is like being on a train, suggests a character in Cherrywood. You want to sit by the beautiful people or, if those seats are taken, by people who are familiar. Lynn’s übermalleable script—first produced by his Austin, Texas, collective the Rude Mechanicals, the play consists of lines and stage directions that aren’t assigned to characters—is like an express train through Austin’s youth culture (not so different from Chicago’s or any college town’s): It makes stops at music snobbery, pungent analyses of party behavior, bourgeois political chatter and the supernatural-ish suggestion of werewolves.

Given the holes Lynn and the Rude Mechs leave to fill, any director mounting this script serves as de facto cowriter. That’s what makes it an ideal match for Cromer, a director who bursts with concepts but always has truthfulness at heart. As with his current, exquisite Writers’ Theatre revival of A Streetcar Named Desire (not to mention the still-chugging transfer to Off Broadway’s Barrow Street Theatre of his Hypocrites-born Our Town ), Cromer, with scenic designer Andre LaSalle, has bent Mary-Arrchie’s space to his desire to get his audiences breathing the same air as his cast. Cromer’s ballsiest move, though, is the size of that cast. For his Cherrywood , he’s cherry-picked around 50 of the non-Equity scene’s most arresting actors to populate his party—about the same number onstage as can fit in the house. Remarkably, it feels not gimmicky but absolutely necessary.

Lynn’s text makes subtext its supertext, with partygoers voicing their inner monologues as the script traipses merrily across genres—from locked-room murder mystery to pop philosophy, from sci-fi to poli-sci. But Cromer’s direction of his dozens of actors somehow transcends mere choreography (though actual choreography does appear, in joyful dance sequences by Patrick Andrews) to become a real meditation on group dynamics. The paranoid party eventually, organically opens into an examination of how abstract talk of capital-C change can become paralyzing when we’re confronted with the actual opportunity, and responsibility, of becoming the change we’ve been waiting for. (It might be of interest to certain impatient voters—of which I’m one—that Cherrywood was first performed in 2004.)

There are metaphorical flourishes in Lynn’s script that teeter on the edge of lib-privilege preciousness, such as Caroline Neff’s monologue on superstores and pricing guns. There are also fantastic individual performance moments, including Geoff Button as a socially skittish partygoer, Allison Cain as the neighbor with a historical chip on her shoulder, Rich Cotovsky’s shambling possible shooting victim and Ryan Bourque’s reluctant group conscience. This iteration of Cherrywood is ultimately an overwhelming, sense-assaulting ensemble piece that almost demands a second viewing to fully soak in. It’s also a production that I think could only take place—let alone succeed—in Chicago.

The Modern Comparable

By Kirk Lynn

Directed by David Cromer

Produced by Mary-Arrchie Theatre, Chicago

At Angel Island

Large cast experimental work has its provocative moments

Mary-Arrchie Theatre and David Cromer and an experimental play are an explosive mixture destined to evoke strong reactions. With a cast of 49 (yes, 49!), set designer Andre LaSalle had to dismantle the basic layout of  Angel Island turning it into a shabby apartment rectangle setting with audience on all four sides.   When the entire cast is onstage, which is for most of the play, the space is wall-to-wall people.

I have mixed feeling about Cherrywood since I’m still thinking about it. My research determined that Kirk Lynn wrote Cherrywood “as a simple list of lines, a play without characters, allowing actors to assemble their roles from the lines they chose to speak.” I’m not sure how much of the above that director David Cromer allowed? I do know that Cherrywood is more of a theatrical event, a sort of happening, than a conventional play. It has a basic structure and several ongoing motifs despite a meandering dialogue spiced with socio-political rants and references “for anyone who wants to change.”

Cherrywood begins with a housewarming party wherein a red flyer promotes “party tonight for anyone who wants to change.” The word gets out and the party attracts a large group of mostly 20-30somethings poor souls in search of sex and free beer. The group appears to be Avenue Q rejects who are being cajoled into drinking a special milk drink that promises to make them into powerful werewolves. The milk promises personal transformation for these alienated souls. Posing the question: if you could change one thing about yourself, would you do it?

At its height, the party is one  gathering of folks who don’t know one another and they find it difficult to communicate their thoughts to each other. There is loads of drinking, a long line to the bathroom with necking and dancing and loads of babbling dialogue from a group of intensely uptight and restless anti-social 20-30somethings. The story changes with each blackout until a gunshot shoots one of the older folks.

After the gunshot, the party becomes a mysterious whodunit that tensely turns into an inquisition. A strong sense of community dynamic emerges as leaders dictate the rules of this newly formed society. Large themes are referenced as fear, control, and apprehension rule the party.

The acting from many of the 49 cast members was emotional, sensual and riveting. Kudos to director David Cromer for navigating his cast through the maze of raw escapism happening in the manic atmosphere. Carlo Lorenzo Garcia leads the talented cast.

Cherrywood is a provocative and challenging work that will leave story-structured theatre patrons scratching their heard asking: “What is the play about?” Fans of large, very large ensemble work performed with liberal freedom by the cast in a experimental structure will find Cherrywood a treat. It sure is different. Serious theatre partons and theatre professionals should take in Cherrywood to see if Cromer’s intriguing staging can make  art from a shaky incomplete script. You may not like Cherrywood, but you’ll be glad you experienced this unique theatrical event. I’m still not sure what to make of Cherrywood as I’m still digesting it.

Recommended

Tom Williams

reviewed by Katy Walsh

Fliers announce ‘Party Tonite for anyone who wants a change.’ Mary-Arrchie Theatre presents the Midwest premiere of Cherrywood: The Modern Day Comparable . A foursome decides to host a party. They have three kinds of chips, an array of music, bottles of booze and a shots of… milk? In response to their fliers, the guests arrive and fill up the house. The usual party suspects are all present. Free loading crashers. Whiny girl. Depressed divorced guy. Unwanted neighbor. Gaggle of gals in bathroom line. P.D.A. couple on the dance floor. Hot shirtless guy. Person continually announcing ‘I’m wasted.’ Sporadic drunken wrestling. It feels, looks and sounds familiar except with a couple of twists: Somebody brought a gun. Everybody has been drinking wild wolves’ milk. People are opening boxes of their secret desires. Cherrywood: The Modern Day Comparable is a virtual reality party experience without the pressure to mingle or the aid of a cocktail.

In a large living-room-like space, the audience seats encircle the action. Closely matched in numbers, the 50+ wallflowers watch the 49 performers party. It’s such a tight fit that I needed to move my purse before a guy sat on it. Director David Cromer has gone fire-code-capacity to create an authentic party.

The proximity blurs the fourth wall completely in deciphering between the party gawkers versus goers. I consciously refrain from shouting out an answer to ‘name a good band that starts with the letter ‘A’.’ It seems like a jumbling of improv mixed in with scripted lines. Crediting playwright Kirk Lynn with some of the best lines, it’s existentialism goes rave with the ongoing philosophy ‘if you want something different, ask for it.’ Lynn writes dialogue describing cocktail banter as ‘question-answer-it-doesn’t-always-happen-like-that’ mockery. One character describes herself with ‘everything I do is a form of nodding. I want to break my neck to stop nodding.’ In a heated exchange, the neighbor jabs, ‘you remember the world? It’s the room outside the door.’ It’s genuine party chatter. Some conversations are playful. Some are deep. Some just don’t make any sense. Clusters of people are sharing philosophical drunken babble throughout the room. A gunshot brings the house of strangers together in a communal bonding alliance.

For the theatre goer looking for a break from classic plot driven shows, Cherrywood: The Modern Day Comparable is performance art. It is a ‘Party Tonite for anyone who wants a change.’ For those who wonder what Chicago actors and designers do off-season, this is an opportunity to fly-on-the-wall it. If you’ve anticipated they hang out together and party, this would be your imagined drunken haze. The who’s who of storefront theater is boozing it up. It’s a Steep, Lifeline, Dog & Pony, House, Griffin, etc. reunion bash, and man do they know how to party!

Running Time: Ninety minutes with no intermission

The Rant
When: Through 3/28: Thu-Sat 8 PM, Sun 7 PM,
Phone: 773-871-0442
Price: $18-$22 (previews $5)
maryarrchie.com

Part identity-politics polemic, part police procedural, Andrew Case’s script feels like an early draft of The Wire. Case, who spent eight years working on police misconduct cases in New York, knows his cops–as does director Sharon Evans, who’s worked with the Chicago Police Department on teen outreach programs. When officers shoot an unarmed autistic black teen, getting the real story proves difficult for an Iranian-American civil investigator and a grizzled reporter. They’re stonewalled by a black cop who may’ve posted threatening statements about the investigator on an Internet police “rant” board. Case’s script feels self-consciously topical at times, but Evans’s pointed staging and the heartfelt performances (particularly Shariba Rivers’s as the grieving mother) offer a peek into a world where calcified personal convictions trump ethics. –Kerry Reid

Source: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/Event?oid=1416782

The Rant By Andrew Case

Directed by Sharon Evans

Produced by Mary-Arrchie Theatre

At Angel Island

The Rant is an urban drama about racial bias and the relativity of the truth

Mary-Arrchie Theatre, a bravely theatre troupe that finds in-your-face powerful plays to produce–has another strong, thought provoking drama with their Midwest Premiere of Andrew Case’s The Rant.

The Rant is a 90 minute police drama written by an eight year investigator from New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board. While this story is fiction, it is based on events that surly could have happened. This play brought me back to my eight years as a Chicago Police Officer in the 1970’s.

The Rant deals with how difficult it is for an investigator to find the truth of about a police involved shooting of a Black teen. When a Black autistic boy is shot three times by a white police sergeant, Lisa Mahnaz (Lindsey Pearlman), an ultra-liberal police-hating lawyer turned NYC Complaint Investigator, aggressively investigates determined to find that the 26 year veteran police sergeant who admits being the shooter did indeed use excessive force. But her investigation casts doubt because she discovers everyone she interviews is lying-sometimes subconsciously as their personal views often color their perception of events.

Case’s play contains a series of monologues before or after play scenes that serve to introduce us to each character as each tries to both justify their action concerning the incident. Mahnaz’s statement from the boy’s mother, Denise Reeves (Shariba Rivers) convinces her (and us) that her boy was shot by the sergeant for no valid reason. Mahnaz meets a newspaper reporter more interested in a “good story” with whom she exchanges information about her investigation in and effort to gain assistance for her cause (to charge the officer with misconduct).

Each person’s bias comes rushing out through their statements. Racial, anti-police and sensational news reporting make the truth a sort of bias. Prejudice, hidden agendas, deceit as well as anonymous threats against Investigator Mahnaz filled this fast-paced drama with questions and suspense as we try to sort out the facts.

The realism of  this riveting, well acted urban tragedy, aptly demonstrates the shades of gray that taints the truth. Contradictory statements  including cops hiding behind the “blue wall of silence” as well as racial bias by all contaminates the truth leaving us to wonder what really happened?  Mahnaz uncovers what she believes is the truth but Stern (Earl Pastko) the reporter debunks her theory and points out that now that other events have rendered the case as closed both in the press and in society.

The Rant is both a mystery and a cautionary tale about the relativity of the truth in emotionally charged racial incidents concerning the police. This is a thought provoking show that will get you debating the facts presented since playwright Case leaves doubt. Plot twist shade the ending.

Emanueal Buckley as Officer Simmons was particularly effective in a cast of outstanding character actors. The Rant is weighty and an honest commentary on the contemporary society’s state of racial relations.

Recommended

Tom Williams

Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast

Date Reviewed: February 19, 2010

This review is also posted on www.mytheatreclub.com/articles.php

At Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan, Chicago, IL, call 773-871-0442, www.maryarrchie.com, tickets $18 -$20 -$22, Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 7pm, running time is 100 minutes without intermission, through March 28, 2010

SOURCE: http://chicagocritic.com/the-rant/

CLOSING WEEKEND - DO NOT MISS!

By Venus Zarris

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. delivers a powerfully captivating Midwest Premiere of How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found. This high-strung story of an ad agent on the edge creates an evening of tense theater as only Mary-Archie can realize.

Charlie’s life is rapidly imploding. Work is overwhelming, exacerbated by an ever-increasing coke habit. When he is found to be embezzling from his company to pay for his vices, flight seems to be the best option. But how does one escape from their life? Can we really disconnect from a life so completely connected to everything and everyone around us?

Playwright Fin Kennedy has crafted a clever machination of a man on the brink of self-destruction. The characters are compelling. The dialogue is wonderful, peppered with profundity and humor in the midst of existential desperation but the pacing and construct of the script seem better suited for the screen, rather than the stage. Although the impact is strongly felt in the theater, the scenes feel more cinematically presentational.

Once again Scenic Designer William Anderson dazzles the Angel Island stage with a staggering creation. The tension and dizzying anxiety of the story is felt before the actors take their first marks. Dialect Coach Kathy Logelin works wonders with the entire ensemble to create a fluid and organic verbal consistency.

Director Richard Cotovsky extracts ever morsel of tension from the script and every bit of skill from his extraordinarily bright and gifted cast. Assembling one of the year’s strongest ensembles, Cotovsky creates a suffocating psychological reality. This is complex dramatic territory and the actors inhabit it with a seemingly effortless ease.

Scott Danielson and Kristina Johnson stand out in the exceptional ensemble with strong control of their multiple peripheral characters. Carlo Lorenzo Garcia creates Charlie, our anti-hero on the brink of self-imposed oblivion, with subtle intensity that adds genuine vulnerability and depth to his personal crisis. But it is Kevin Stark that transcends the already engaging reality of the play as Mike, the instructional grifter who tutors Charlie in the ways of disappearing.

Stark is naturally idiosyncratic, frenetic and calm, a master of the believably odd and understatedly unusual. He is pragmatic and compassionate. He is dethatched and human. His character is an architect of contrivance but his humor is in the moment and irreverent. This is a part that could be easily overplayed but Stark is a genius of subtlety and a dramatic wonder to watch.

In the midst of this dark tale of alimentation and despondency we are given one of life’s most precious lessons as Mike tells Charlie, “Enjoy the little things, cause that’s where the magic is.” Mary-Arrchie’s How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found is no little thing, no small accomplishment, but it is where magic can be found.

3 ½ STARS

(”How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found ” runs through December 20 at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan. 773-871-0442.)

CLOSING WEEKEND - DO NOT MISS!

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. - www.maryarrchie.com

How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found production photos by Ryan Bourque.

SOURCE: http://www.chicagostagereview.com/?p=8549

How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found by Fin Kennedy

Scathing personal view of modern society leads to drastic action
British playwright Fin Kennedy, a young relatively unknown playwright in the USA, is a talented, contemporary writer with an edge to his writing. His Midwest American Premiere of How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found, now playing at Mary-Arrchie Theatre, is a engrossing and cynical condemnation of modern society that causes a corporate middle manager to self-destruct.

With whimsical staging by director Richard Cotovsky and a cast of players sporting mostly authentic middle class contemporary British accents, How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found unfolds as a searing indictment of the foibles of modern society so filled with dehumanizing rituals, long working hours and electronic devices that render personal communication obsolete.

We meet Charlie (Carlo Lorenzo Garcia) as he is in the midst of a physical and emotional breakdown instigated by the death of his mother and all the corporate pressure from long hours doing marketing. Garcia is wonderful as the British middle class everyman with hints of Willy Loman. Garcia’s performance was deeply rooted in truth as he exhibits the neurotic foibles of a man at his wits end. Garcia navigates the action never fully realizing where reality and fantasy begin and end. We empathize with Charlie as the pressures mount and he disintegrates.   Garcia wonderfully delivers a cynically funny monologue about what he could do–but doesn’t as his world falls apart. Garcia’s performance alone justifies seeing this show!

Charlie is forced to  run from criminal charges place against him by his employers that we never learn if they are true. He ends up at Mike’s (Kevin Stark) house–a friend of his departed mother. Mike is an older man and an expert in identity change. He expertly demonstrates to Charlie how to manipulate the British bureaucracy so one person can completely disappear and never be found.  Since Charlie faces jail, he has nothing to lose by disappearing. Mike shows him how to become Adam.

This cleverly written and fast-paced show cover much with wit, humor and a stinging commentary. charlie–now Adam learns the truth that befuddles an identity change: you take your demons with you no matter who or where you are. He learns Mike’s most profound lesson: to enjoy the little things in daily life.

We witness fine acting with smart accents especially from Scott Danielson, Shannon Clausen, James Eldrenkamp, Kevin Stark and Carlo Lorenzo Garcia. Playwright Fin Kennedy is a refreshing new voice that we need to hear from more.

Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast

Date Reviewed: November 14,2009

Jeff Recommended

At Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL, Call 773-871-0442, tickets $20 -$22, Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 7 pm, running time is 2 hours with intermission, through December 20, 2009

Fin Kennedy’s witty dialogue drives suspenseful production

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company presents

How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found

by Fin Kennedy
directed by Richard Cotovsky
runs through Dec. 20 ( ticket info )

reviewed by Leah A. Zeldes

London ad executive Charlie Hunt’s world is disintegrating. He’s just cremated his mother. His all-consuming work leaves him no time to go anywhere or meet anyone, and he’s more and more bothered by a belief that everything in his life is fake. He’s putting massive amounts of money up his nose, his colleagues are asking disturbing questions and he keeps hearing a buzzing in his ears.

Pushed to the edge, one day he simply runs out of his office, leaving his jacket on the back of his chair and his mum’s funeral urn on his desk, and they never hear from him again.

Charlie is the central character of the intriguing "How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found" by rising young British playwright Fin Kennedy , now in Midwest premiere from Mary-Arrchie Theatre at the intimate Angel Island theater . How to Disappear was the first unproduced play in 40 years to win an Arts Council John Whiting Award for New Theatre Writing , after — according to the playwright — being rejected by nearly every theater in London.

Kennedy’s razor-sharp language, exhibited in powerful monologues and witty dialogue, builds a rising suspense as Charlie runs from his former life. Carlo Lorenzo Garcia puts in an intense and fascinating performance as the deteriorating Charlie, expounding on all the frustrations of daily life that all of us experience but few of us act upon. He’s excelled only by the impish Kevin Stark , as Mike, the small-time crook who serves as Charlie’s mentor in disappearing.

Director Richard Cotovsky ’s clever staging adds to the frenetic quality of the work. He gets excellent work from the supporting cast, most of whom play multiple characters — Charlie’s colleagues, chance-met strangers, doctors, telephone operators, etc. James Eldrenkamp stands out in a comic role as a London transit worker, juxtaposing ably with Charlie’s stuffy, upper-class boss.

Dialect coach Kathy Logelin must be an effective teacher — the cast handles class-conscious British with scarcely a stumble. They haven’t spent much on the set, but Scenic Designer William Anderson ’s 2-by-4 and newspaper backdrops contribute effectively to the disjointed, surreal quality of the play.

Although there’s no program credit or reference to it in the script, "How to Disappear" was clearly inspired by the classic manual of the same name by Doug Richmond , first published in 1986 by the late, lamented underground publisher Loompanics Unlimited . In one the best scenes in the show, Charlie’s mentor, Mike, explains the techniques in detail. They’ve been updated — with references to SIM cards and Facebook — and slightly adapted for the U.K., but readers of the original will recognize the mechanics as Richmond explained them two decades ago. Whether they still work in these post-9/11, security-conscious days is debatable. Then, as now, it depends on who you want to get away from.

In Charlie’s case, it becomes increasingly clear that that’s himself.

Rating: ★★★

Notes: Second-floor theater has no wheelchair access. Paid parking may be available at the Mobil gas station across the street.

PHOTOS BY RYAN BOURQUE

Artistic Team