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Category Archives: Review

Our Town at OCTA

Edward Albee has called Our Town “the greatest of all American plays” and I might tend to agree with him. It is, oft times obscured, a tough play that is unsentimental and rigorous in it’s assessment of the human state. New Hampshire version.

David Cromer has created a nifty version of the play that is true to the spirit of the piece and yet expansive and revelatory for our modern jaded times. Darren Sextro and OCTA are smart to grab this version and be the first to present it outside of Chicago and New York. Quite a coup for a non professional theatre!

And they do it pretty good justice. You won’t leave dry eyed, I can assure you. In this production, the play is allowed to speak very clearly for itself and, as Mr. Albee and I have told you, it is a great one.
Modern dress, house lights always up, this production does not thrive on artifice. And the actors are up to the challenge. They give simple, honest performances that gather strength as the evening goes along. This is clearly an ensemble effort so I won’t try and single people out lest I forget one or two, but the tone is set by a personable Coleman Crenshaw as the Stage Manager and everyone follows suit.

The third act of this play is a most beautiful 30 minutes. Sadly, having seen the Cromer production in New York, I found the shortcomings of technical resources here to be distracting. A bad wig and a bad set pull you out of the story for a bit but, thanks to some other winning aspects, all is not lost. The play is allowed to work its magic and indeed it does.

This is the best play going in Kansas City right now. You should see it.

Reviewed on KC Stage- Sept 22. 2010

52 Days and 53 Nights: a clown requiem

The Kansas City Star review of 53 Days and 52 Nights:

“Let’s just say up front that sitting in a chair on Wyandotte Street to watch a play enacted on the sidewalk and in a big picture window among First Friday’s milling crowds may qualify as an act of madness.

Yet, amid the ambient sounds of gallery gawkers, street musicians and the occasional barking dog, a whimsical little show called “53 Days and 52 Nights” works its will on attentive viewers.

Created by Heidi Van and Ingrid Andrea Geurtsen, two performers well versed in the art of physical theater, and directed by Damian Torres-Botello, “53 Days” is European clown show that mixes comedy, charm and poignancy in roughly equally proportions.

It’s a tale of two nameless clowns (Van and Geurtsen) who are barred from boarding a train by an officious station agent (Coleman Crenshaw) and then must wait 53 days and 52 nights for the next train. They share a couple of meager meals. They have odd encounters with clothing that seems to come to life (a hat for Van and a coat for Geurtsen). The short clown, Van, goes looking for water but comes back empty-handed.

Eventually the tall clown, Geurtsen, boards the train, leaving her friend behind. Just why the short clown decides to stay is unclear, but Geurtsen and Van have so successfully created distinct personalities that the tinge of sadness in the final moments is palpable.

The live music, which alternates between light-hearted and melancholic, performed by Peter Lawless (accordion) and Daniel Eichenbaum (clarinet), heightens the comedy and colors the poignancy.

This is the latest “window show” from the Fishtank Performance Studio, a nonprofit company in the Crossroads that definitely marches to its own drummer. Kansas City has become a dynamic theater town and this small organization, with its unconventional approach, helps explain why.”