WAKE
Buntport Theatre: 1/25 –
2/23
Whether it’s a wake for
Prospero or a wake-up call for us all, "Wake" leaves lots of head scratching in
its wake.
The reason this reviewer is
so late with this review is that every time I sit down to write it a whole new
level of interpretation arises and I begin to ponder that one.
So I will just tell you,
dear reader, that this work is rich and can be mined at a number of different
levels.
Erik Edborg and Brian Colonna
When a patriarch dies leaving only
fragmentary instructions on the living of life on the island on which his
daughter and slave abide a sense of malaise sets in. Miranda is lonely and
bored. Caliban is tethered and tantalized by an invisible (to him) spirit named
Ariel.
The boat the late patriarch predicted does
not arrive. The skies don’t “pour down stinking pitch.” Nothing ever seems to
happen according to the mysterious words of the old one.
Brian Colonna and Erik Edborg
Prospero is now a ghost who haunts the
island. His words instructing his daughter Miranda that all things are ordered
in Life forbid her to listen to the end of his soliloquy-now only on tape in
the tape recorder he has smashed. These final words are only audible in an incomprehensible
garbled gibberish when the tape is pulled through this broken tape recorder.
"Is it real or is it Memorex?" runs through
one’s mind. (sorry!)
This amalgam of Shakespeare and Beckett and
Buntport is engrossing to say the least. There is more than a little of “Godot”
within its borders and a solid undergirding of Sartre as well.
The show is punctuated with electrical
noise and electronic music as well as illumined periodically by a star-swept
ceiling that appears with the flip of a switch.
The metal runway that stands overhead
turns into a sort of slide from which the actors descend to a patch of astroturf that covers the
top of Caliban’s cage.
Invisible to the eyes of Caliban, Ariel
tantalizes and provokes him by dangling physical objects above him in the way
that one might tease a dog or cat.
Erin Rollman as Miranda
The viewer finds himself in a sort of awe-struck
wonder, then dips into ennui and somehow winds up at a thrilling glimmer of hope.
Perhaps it’s a hope that will end in disillusionment but it’s an anticipation
born of the self rather than of external authority. It’s a hope that’s founded
on the realization that the stories one tells oneself are as important if not
more so than those told by those who came before. The piece feels a bit
Sartrian since Miranda’s freeing of Caliban by untying and unmasking him allows both of
them to take responsibility for their island. That acceptance of responsibility allows for their freedom to discover a Brave New World as
they leave safety behind and step into the unknown.
Observing the final moment
of the play one can’t help remembering the words of Federico Fellini:
“Everything is beautiful to innocent eyes.”
Adam Stone as Ariel(playing electrifying and er Tempestuous music at the Wake)
Erin Rollman Miranda
Eric Edborg Prospero
Brian Colonna Caliban
Adam Stone Ariel
Buntport Theater Presents
WAKE
a corruption of The Tempest by William
Shakespeare
Jan 25th - Feb 23rd
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays at 8pm
and Sundays 2/10 & 2/17 at 3pm
Tickets $16 ($13 for Students and Seniors)
Opening night (1/25) and closing night (2/23)
are $20 and include food & drink receptions
Thursday 1/31 & Monday 2/4 are
Pay-What-You-Can (8pm)
5 weeks only! Reserve tickets now! Seating is
limited!
Marlowe's MusingsMarlowe's Musings
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