C'est L'Absurd!
Playing March 7-28, 2004
"A rare treat... A rich artistic melange... Priscilla Allen, grand dame of local theatre has outdone herself!..."
--Anne Marie Welsh, SD Union Tribune (Read Review)
"Director Robert Salerno, choreographer Esther Emery and designer Nadja Lancelot all provided me with a hearty boost to my bliss, using their handsome cast of 17 actors as though they had bred them for this very occasion. (Salerno and Lancelot even did a slick new translation ). I just relish the joyous leaps through torn logic and the startling images in such improbable juxtapositions."-- Welton Jones, SanDiego.com
"An evening of absurdist delight... a true tour-de force... astonishing... rife with craft and subtlety... must be seen."-- Charlene Baldridge, Village News
"Two brilliant, hilarious, and thought-provoking productions... "-- Rob Hopper
"ENCORE, DAMMIT! Vantage program reveals void in local theater... This avant-garde milestone...had her (and the rest of us) by the ass."--Martin Jones Westlin, San Diego City Beat
"Entertaining absurdist concoction"-- S.D. Theatre Scene (Read Reviews)
"Using a singular sense of comedy, symbolism, and satire... under the insightful direction of Robert Salerno, the show moves at a breathless pace leaving one always thinking, laughing, and feeling a bit confused – but definitely never bored."-- Playbill.com
"Classic Cocteau... absolutely not to be missed... Priscilla Allen is powerful, in charge, bigger than life... This is a must see."-- Carol Roper, SD Jewish Times
"This is Allen's show, and under Salerno's direction, she sparkles and shines, commanding the stage, showing off her expansive talent and prodigious humor."-- Pat Launer, KPBS Theater Critic
" Priscilla Allen is
masterful... Do get to the Lyceum to see these lovely shows."--
Jenni Prisk, San Diego
Theatre Scene
Robert Salerno's award-winning production of The Wedding on The Eiffel Tower, by Jean Cocteau
Running with Eugene Ionesco's hysterical farce, The Painting,
both starring Priscilla Allen
March 7-28, 2004
TUE, WED @8PM;
SUN @7PM
WINNER
Best Production
Best Direction-- Robert Salerno
Outstanding Costume Design
The Wedding on The Eiffel Tower
by
Jean Cocteau
Directed
by
Robert Salerno
Choreography by
Esther Emery
Art Director
Nadja Lancelot
Costumes: Sheila Rosen
Masks: Nadja Lancelot
Lighting Design: Sally Stockton
Sound Design: Robert Salerno
Photography: Paul Savage
CAST
(IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
Priscilla Allen, Charlie Riendeau..........Phonographs
Jen Meyer.....................The Ostrich, A Telegram
Jim Turner...........................The Photographer
Terence Burke...................The Hunter, A Telegram
Nick Herrera...............The Manager, The Art Dealer
Jen Kraus.........................The Bride, The Groom
Erin McKown...............Mother-in Law, Father-in-Law
Rhys Green.................................The General
Eric George.............................The Ushers
Sandra Little..........................The Bridesmaids
Wendy Savage....................The Cyclist, The Child
Annette Nixon.......................The Bathing Beauty Rachael VanWormer.......................A Telegram Brennan Taylor................................The Lion Tom Fitzpatrick..................The Art Collector
Setting: The Eiffel Tower, Paris, 14 July 1921
C'est L'Absurd!
"The frightening appearance of a drop of poetry under a microscope."- J. Cocteau
Cocteau’s first play, The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower, advances
a theatrical line that extends from Moliere and Jarry and also draws upon
the Elizabethan tradition of “dumb shows” and the French school
of ”guignol.” Corresponding to other trends in early twentieth
century art and music, this “surrealist” work asserts that theatre
need not precisely reproduce the conditions of everyday life. Technology,
war, bourgeois society and the nature of reality itself are subjected to the
scrutiny of Cocteau's unique and poetic vision in this riotous farce.
The play appeared just after World War I, a time of immense turmoil in society
and the arts. Paris was its epicenter, with perhaps the greatest convergence
of artistic talent ever assembled in one place since the Renaissance. Cocteau
was right in the middle of this excitement, and was known for his unique collaborations
with such artists as Picasso, Satie, Man Ray, etc. Between 1914 and 1924 a
complex mood of change was in the air that, in its simplest terms, involved
a new freedom to experiment and a sweeping aside of traditionally held values.
In music this took the form of a revolt against the Impressionism of Debussy
and the dense chromaticism of German romanticism. Jean Cocteau led the way
with his new aesthetic for Parisian musical avant-garde, claiming members
of Les Six as its chief protagonists. The pivotal work as far as Cocteau's
ideas were concerned had been Erik Satie's ballet Parade, which he
saw as symbolizing the emergence of a new Parisian musical avant-garde. It
was the result of the colorful collaboration between Cocteau (who devised
the scenario), Picasso (who designed the sets and costumes), the choreographer
Massine and composer Satie, and its premiere in 1917 caused a riot.
While its revulsion against the meaninglessness
of contemporary civilization is not quite as extreme as the Dada movement’s,
The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower contains much witty and biting social commentary.
Cocteau seizes every opportunity to bend our conception of “reality.”
He uses two “narrators” who are dressed as phonograph machines
(symbolic of the new, post-industrial revolution dominance of technology).
These narrators deliver all of the dialogue as well explanations of the actions
onstage as they are mimed by the “actors.” Not only does this
accomplish a daring severing of the long unquestioned identity of speaker
and actor, but it also makes this play uniquely suited to our time.
Our production attempts to capture the spirit of the original, with the use
of period music, a “cubist” design, use of masks, and the device
(dating back to Jarry) of having one actor simultaneously portray many characters…
and a few surprises.
The Painting, one of Ionesco’s earliest works, was written
at another time of great post-war turmoil. It harkens back to the anti-realistic
styles of Jarry, Apollinaire, and Cocteau. Ionesco likened pure theatre to
a sporting match with “live antagonism, dynamic conflict, and motiveless
clash of opposing wills.” The Painting concerns a wealthy patron
of the arts and a starving artist who engage in a kind of linguistic and aesthetic
slapstick that is hilariously acerbic, sending up not only the bourgeoisie,
but the art world as well. Ionesco exposes the ugly power differential created
by circumstances of wealth and gender within the absurd landscape of his vision
of modern life. That he does so with such hilarity and lightness is truly
remarkable---Robert Salerno
“We laugh so as not to cry.”—Ionesco
Cast
and Crew
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Phonograph Priscilla Allen has been a theatrical institution in San Diego for decades. She has starred on all of the major local stages and has also appeared opposite such stars as Arnold Schwarzenegger in film and TV. Beyond her monumental talent, she is much beloved for her generosity of spirit and her many years of teaching excellence and dedication. |
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The Ostrich
Jen Meyer is a quadruple threat- actor, singer, dancer, choreographer who has worked at Eveoke, Women’s Rep, SD Comic Opera, and the Beacon, Muse, & Stone Soup Theatres. |
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The Photographer Jim Turner performed in the title role of Vantage Theatre’s The Butterfingers Angel, and in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and The Shadow Box, both at Mira Costa College. He also is currently appearing as The Painter in Vantage Theatre’s The Painting. |
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The Trouville Bathing Beauty Annette Nixon is a triple threat. She has performed as an actor at Starlight Bowl (Evita, Jekyll & Hyde), dancer (Disney Cruises), and stage manager at Starlight and SD Rep. |
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The Manager of The Eiffel Tower
Nick Herrera has recently appeared at Mira Costa College’s The Merry Wives of Windsor (as Dr. Caius) and Picasso at the Lapin Agile (as Pablo Picasso). |
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The Hunter Terence Burke has been seen in productions at Vantage Theatre, Coronado Playhouse, 6th@Penn, Lyceum Space, San Diego Opera, and last year’s AASD Actors Festival. |
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The General
Rhys Green is CO/FOUNDER AND ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE SAN DIEGO BLACK ENSEMBLE THEATRE. NEW YORK ACTING CREDITS: THE PHANTOM SWORD, SLAVE TRADE, HOME COURT, THE ROBERTO CLEMENTE STORY, THE COTTON CLUB REVUE AND A RIBBON IN THE SKY. SAN DIEGO CREDITS: FOOL FOR LOVE, THE AFRICAN COMPANY PRESENTS RICHARD THE III, MISS EVERS BOYS, PILL HILL, LIFE’S A DREAM, MOJO AND THE SAYSO, AFRICAN MEDEA, HARLEM DUETS, KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. DIRECTING CREDITS: AFRICAN MEDEA, BONDAGE, SAM I AM, BEIRUT,THE SECRET GARDEN, PROMETHEUS BOUND, AND HOME (KPBS AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR) |
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The Cyclist & The Child
Wendy Savage has performed recently in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Christmas at The Starbrite Diner, and Conventional Behavior. She has appeared in films and on TV (TLC). |
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The Dealer and The Collector of Modern Paintings Nick Herrera & Thomas Fitzpatrick Tom is excited to be a part of this incredible theater experience. Tom was last seen in Flaming Idiots at Lamplighter’s and “not seen” as the Polka-dot Ghost with Big Joe Puppet Production. Other local favorite credits include 6th@Penn’s musical hit Trolls, and Diversionary’s critically acclaimed Psycho Beach Party. Thanks to family, friends and Vantage Theatre. |
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The Mother/Father-In-Law Erin McKown is a newcomer to S.D. She has recently appeared as a dragon for the Playwright’s Project at The Globe. |
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The Usher(s) Eric George is a veteran of AASD and is known about town as one of the mimes of Imagination Express. Eric is also among the Living History crew aboard the Star of India.
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The Bride/Groom Jennifer Eve Kraus recieved her degree in Acting from The College of Santa Fe in 2001. You might have seen her recently at NCRT as Grete in Sight Unseen or as Sara In the Patte Award Winning Ensemble of Stop Kiss. |
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The Bridesmaid(s) Sandra Little. Actor: "Kingdom of the Shadows" (Chronos Productions), "Wannabes: Episode I" and "The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower" at the Actor's Festival 2003;"Deathtrap" & "12 Angry Men" (Parrot Players) and "Hennry the Horse" - Beacon Theatre. Stage Manager:"Farside of Paradise" (6t@Penn). Lighting Tech:"Fridays with Maureen"(Beacon Theatre). |
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V. Nadja Lancelot (Art Director) is an MFA graduate from the Theatre Department at UCSD in scenic and costume design. Theatre productions include Having Our Say at the La Jolla Playhouse, Why We Have a Body at the Diversionary, Macbeth, Mad Forest, and Don Juan at UCSD. Her film credits include Art Director on several Disney productions, Traffic, For the Boys and K-9. Nadja is also a professional murals designer and painter. Sheila Rosen(Costumes) is an award-winning costumer and actor. She has most recently received critical raves for Vantage Theatre’s Frankie and Johnny in The Clair de Lune. Sheila and Nadja won the 2003 "Billie" Award for Outstanding Costume Design for The Wedding on The Eiffel Tower. |
Click picture for more on The Painting, by Eugene Ionesco
Reviews
"C'est L'Absurd" is Allen at Her
Best
By Anne Marie Welsh
THEATER CRITIC, SD Union-Tribune. March 9, 2004
The head that speaks sonorously from a gramophone
in "The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower," now at the Lyceum Stage, is
the same one that exploded for our governator in "Total Recall."
San Diego theater fans will know to whom that putty face belongs: Priscilla
Allen, grand dame of the local stage, Allen's outdone herself in a pair of
little-seen absurdist plays produced downtown by Vantage Theatre as "C'Est
L'Absurd." Jean Cocteau's "Wedding on the Eiffel Tower" and
Eugene Ionesco's "The Painting" both offer strange, demanding roles
to Allen whose vocal and physical resources and sheer stamina are something
to behold.
The "Eiffel Tower"(1921), is one
of Cocteau's first works. Like the Serge Diaghilev modernist ballets that
it so closely resembles, this absurdist romp is both visually fascinating
and gently satirical. Vantage director Robert Salerno staged the cubist-inspired
piece with Allen during the most recent Actors Alliance Festival here, which
may account for the smooth performance when it was revived over the weekend.
Allen and actor Charlie Riendeau are encased
in gramophones on either side of the stage, just their faces showing, as they
narrate the playful, non-linear proceedings. A photographer in formal attire
tries, and perpetually fails, to shoot a picture of the wedding party on The
Eiffel Tower. A dancing ostrich escapes from the mechanism and draws a rifle-toting
hunter. The stuffy Tower manager gets in on the act, as well as a stiff German
general (Rhys Green) and a roaring lion. Members of the wedding party itself
are two-sided creatures, male on one side, female on the other. All wear Picasso-style
masks that show their features from many angles at once. The gramophone faces
speak all the dialogue, while the actors mime. Along the way, new technologies
and proto-fascism come in for mockery that must have seemed even grimmer when
the work premiered just after the devastation of World War I. "Wedding"
is a rich artistic mélange, connected to the progressive music, art,
and dance of its period in ways that few theatre writers and almost no regional
theaters, attempt these days.
It's a rare treat to see it staged. The jaunty,
mildly dissonant musical selections evoke the Paris of the musical collaborative
Les Six (Georges Auric, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger and
others inspired by composer Erik Satie). Happy to report, Salemo, Allen and
company (despite an obviously limited budget) reveal Cocteau's tone and spirit
just so.
The Ionesco piece opened brilliantly Sunday
with Allen as The Corpulent Gentleman delivering a blustery monologue. Dressed
as a fat-cat capitalist who rants about the lack of beauty in his materialistic
life, Allen's Gentleman intimidates a young painter (Jim Turner, wonderfully
obsequious), with a canvas rolled under his arm, who's come to sell "The
Painting." Allen's Gentleman segues ridiculously from bravado to blubbering
as he whines about his unhappy childhood and the ugly, deformed sister whom
he is forced to support, and even worse, to look at everyday.
Ionesco's would-be art patron turns the tables on the painter, forcing him to pay for the privilege of having his work displayed. And in a final inversion, the Gentleman, who's fallen pornographically in love with the sexy woman who steps forth from the painting, turns artist himself. But there's a hitch..The Corpulent Gentleman kills both real beauty and real women to objectify them. Both plays on this "C'Est L'Absurd" program are rife with such timely themes. The more one contemplates the ideas and imagination enshrined in these performance scripts, the more impoverished our contemporary realistic theater seems.
Cocteau and Ionesco Plays
Review by Welton Jones, San Diego.com
The chance to see some virtuoso acting
by a local icon and a general air of saucy abandon? That should be enough
to drawn mid-week audiences to the Lyceum Space Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays
through March 28.
Vantage Theatre has the Lyceum lease
these days for its version of Terrence McNally's "Frankie and Johnny
in the Clair de Lune" but the real news is a pair of plays by Jean Cocteau
and Eugene Ionesco featuring Priscilla Allen, well-known force of nature.
Allen plays a "corpulent gentleman"
in Ionesco's "The Painting," which follows with lip-smacking, ironic
lechery the abuse and misuse of art by commerce (or something) as the gent
perfects the use of violence to transform his surroundings into erotic fantasy.
In Cocteau's "The Wedding on the
Eiffel Tower" (1921), Allen joins Charlie Riendeau as a pair of gramophones
flanking a stage-full of stylized Dada characters including an ostrich, a
cyclist, a bathing beauty, three telegrams and a wedding party as they interact
mutely inside the famed monument. All the words come from the phonographs,
see?
Others may knot their brow over the
meaning of Cocteau plays, but not me. I just relish the joyous leaps through
torn logic and the startling images in such improbable juxtapositions.
On this occasion, director Robert Salerno,
choreographer Esther Emery and designer Nadja Lancelot all provided me with
a hearty boost to my bliss, using their handsome cast of 17 actors (most of
them unfamiliar to me) as though they had bred them for this very occasion.
(Salerno and Lancelot even did a slick new translation of Cocteau's play.)
Allen anchors the Cocteau but she dominates
the Ionesco, with Jim Turner scurrying and dodging as a supplicant painter
and Laura Bozanich swinging between dominant and submissive as the gent's
elderly (and equally salacious) sister. Naturally, Allen fits herself in with
the generosity and craft of the seasoned player but I can assure everyone
of two things:
None of the other 16 actors will soon
forget working with Priscilla Allen, and...
Priscilla Allen is the best (though not the only) reason to seek out this
show.
ENCORE, DAMMIT!
Vantage program reveals void in local theater
by Martin Jones Westlin, San Diego City Beat
The night started when the scurvy little blob of a kid iced the members of
a wedding party ’cause he wanted to share their croutons with the audience.
The gal a few rows down couldn’t have stifled her gale-force laughter
if she’d wanted to; that scene from Jean Cocteau’s The Wedding
on the Eiffel Tower had her (and the rest of us) by the ass.
This avant-garde milestone scathingly slams the advance of technology, class
distinction and wartime mentality. Add the auspices of San Diego’s gritty
Vantage Theatre, and it also becomes a superior entry in a three-play bill
running in repertory at the Lyceum Theatre downtown.
The San Francisco Mime Troupe of 1960s America had a similar idea—social
discontent was acute in Cocteau’s post-World War I Paris, and director
Robert Salerno fleeces the fervor in The Wedding.
He gilds Cocteau’s disenchantment
with the defiance of a true iconoclast. The scene where the boy pelts the
guests is handled almost joyfully, and Sheila Rosen’s bright costumes
and Salerno’s great stop-and-go stage pictures eventually yield dancing
telegrams, a hunter who can’t see past his nose (Terence Burke), a pompous
paper-tiger general (Rhys Green) and the dubious prospect behind ostriches
and lions disappearing into a camera.
A funny Priscilla Allen and Charlie
Riendeau don’t narrate so much as pontificate; their heads are encased
in vintage phonographs to illustrate our technological disconnect. What’s
more, the play is done in pantomime—and as Cocteau robs the actors of
their speech, so too does he predict similar estrangement for us all. His
play is a hilarious textbook on the almost mean-spirited absurdity of everyday
life and the realization that we’re not alone in our dismay.
The second one-act is The Painting,
one of Romania-born playwright Eugene Ionesco’s wonderful works. Ionesco
moved to France in the late 1930s, just as a Hitler sought to plunder the
globe in the name of his Master Race. He found something bourgeois in such
psychopathy and his plays illustrated the asininity of social distinction
and the false values it creates. It’s a world in which the Corpulent
Gentleman (a brilliant Allen) talks a young artist (Jim Turner) into renting
space for display of his own work in the Gentleman’s home. Underneath
his riches, of course, the Gentleman is worth the cost of the carbon it takes
to keep him viable. The crazy climax says as much, preceded by a tirade from
the man’s sister, Alice.
The final entry of the night, Frankie
and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, is playwright Terrence McNally at less than
his best, although the show features the right look and decent production
values. Director D. J. Sullivan patiently shepherds actors Daren Scott and
Devlin in a quirky tale about requited love and one party’s unsettling
persistence to that end. But McNally’s small talk renders Frankie’s
fears almost anticlimactic. And there’s something Woody Allen-ish about
Johnny’s befuddlement—while Scott’s OK philosophically,
he could go further in adopting an according body language.
No such complacency was evident in the
patron who went crazy. She had a ball during the absurdist plays, delighting
in a visit from two of the most renowned figures of their genre. “You
don’t see this stuff done here,” she declared afterward, her smile
threatening to split her face.
Her observation speaks to a trait that
San Diego’s arts scene sorely lacks.
New York and San Francisco came to be
this country’s theater capitals through a key element that San Diego
misses—the true spirit of competition. Competition, after all, yields
the difference between some fine absurdist fare every so often versus a yearly
absurdist festival, however modest.
At this point in San Diego’s theater
history, the like-minded company could essentially create its own ground floor,
propelling others to follow suit in search of that girl who busted a gut.
If relatively unsung heroes like Vantage don’t do it (and here they do it pretty darn well), who will?
The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower and Ionesco's
The Painting
by Rob Hopper, San Diego Playbill
We are gathered here today to join together
Jean Cocteau and Eugene Ionesco for a double-scoop of absurdity that has been
waiting half a century to be wed. It took Vantage Theatre and Director Robert
Salerno to finally tie the knot, opening their C’est L’Absurd
at the Lyceum Space in Horton Plaza with two brilliant, hilarious, and thought-provoking
productions. Both are set in Paris, beginning with Cocteau’s The Wedding
on the Eiffel Tower written just after World War I, and concluding with Ionesco’s
The Painting written nine years after World War II, both starring local favorite
Priscilla Allen.
In Wedding, Priscilla Allen and Charlie Riendeau
are human phonographs who narrate the story and supply a host of quirky
characters
with their voices, while the characters pantomime the actions described by
the phonographs. Cocteau, a friend of Picasso, creates a world that feels
like you’re lost in a Picasso painting. The illusion is aided by the
swirling background of the Eiffel Tower that draws us into the surreality
of the scene, along with the fact that many of the characters wear painted
blocks for heads with Picasso-like faces, some of them being multi-sided
so
that they became two or more characters in one (like combining all four Bridesmaids
(Sandra Little) and the Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law (Erin McKown) ).
These,
along with a colorful ostrich, a body-painted bathing beauty, and dancing
(not singing) telegrams, are just a few of the fantastic and creative creations
of Nadja Lancelot and Sheila Rosen who earned a “Billie” award
last year for their work when Salerno staged this same play at the Actors
Alliance Festival.
This surreal world is situated on the Eiffel
Tower right after World War I, and concerns a professional Photographer (Jim
Turner) whose “birdie” (the one that his customers are supposed
to watch when he takes their picture) is a prancing and head-bobbing Ostrich
(Jen Meyer) who has run away and gets chased by a mighty ostrich Hunter (Terence
Burke) . Meanwhile, the photographer ends up photographing a very odd wedding
party, his camera going even more berserk in the process. Now, instead of
something at least akin to “birdies” popping out, out jumps a
dancing Bathing Beauty (Cristyn Chandler) , an amusing but naughty little
boy (Wendy Savage) who is the wedding couple’s future son and who massacres
the entire wedding party with multi-colored cotton balls of wedding confetti,
and a hungry Lion (Brennan Taylor) who, when not playfully attacking with
the cotton confetti like a kitten, munches on a stubborn and ridiculous General
(Rhys Green) who once had a profound encounter with a mirage, and so now believes
that everything out of the ordinary is a mirage, and therefore isn’t
afraid of the lion who, logically, must not really be there (at least, he’s
not afraid until it is a little too late!). While the grisly feast takes place,
the theme to Platoon plays in the background and the phonographs comfort us
by suggesting that the General’s ironic doom would have amused him.
Using a singular sense of comedy, symbolism,
and satire, Cocteau illustrates the often ridiculous and tragic nature of
war, society, and our social conventions. Technology seems to be out of control
(the freaked out camera) and yet controlling us (with the phonographs dictating
and explaining the actions of the humans). With the charismatic ensemble who
fully embrace Cocteau’s weirdness, and under the insightful direction
of Robert Salerno , the show moves at a breathless pace leaving one always
thinking, laughing, and feeling a bit confused – but definitely never
bored.
After intermission, we find ourselves off the
Eiffel Tower and in a gray room filled with warped furniture and windows.
Within this room, a talkative, intimidating, and sleazy “Corpulent Gentleman”
( Priscilla Allen with greased-back hair) is giving a mousy painter (Jim Turner)
a difficult time as the painter tries to sell his painting. While on one hand
describing his rise from lowly rags to vast riches, The Corpulent Gentleman
keeps haggling the poor painter down in price until the painter is willing
to pay just to have the painting taken off his hands.
The rest is thoroughly Ionesco in style with
bizarre characters and plot twists performed by a fantastic ensemble led by
the amazing Priscilla Allen. Those characters include old, one-armed Alice
(Laura Bozanich) , The Corpulent Gentleman’s “much” older
sister and the bane of his existence, who keeps “accidentally”
sexually harassing the uncomfortable painter as he tries to hang his painting
on the wall. The sexy Jennifer Eve Kraus is the figure in the painting whom
The Corpulent Gentleman later partly undresses and begins to carry out some
of his artistic fantasies with. Rachael Van Wormer is the curious neighbor
who is most impressed with a new art form she dubs “painting by shooting.”
It looks lovely, but the price you pay is enormous!
What with the decline in funding for the arts
and questions over the war in Iraq, this marriage of shows has as much to
say today as during anytime over the past century. Both these remarkably written
and staged satires keep us all laughing and smiling throughout in spite of
the sad and disturbing circumstances they depict. As Ionesco said, “We
laugh so as not to cry.”
VANTAGE POINT
by Pat Launer, KPBS Theater Critic
Just in the nick of time, I caught the near-final performances of the two Vantage Theatre productions at the Lyceum: "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" and "C'est L'Absurd ."And even though I'd seen two of the three pieces before, I was happy to pay another visit. Priscilla Allen does a star-turn in both the Absurds, but Charlie Riendeau (left) certainly holds his own (inside the Phonograph horn) in Jean Cocteau's "The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower." The duo was humorous and vastly varied in their voices and accents. Lovely performances! And those costumes! In her set, costume and art design, Nadja Lancelot does a splendid job of evoking Picasso, who created the original set and costumes for the 1917 premiere. The black and white Eiffel-like painted drop, the cubist masks with Picasso-perspective faces -- sheer delight.
The first time I saw "The Wedding," last year at the Actors Festival
(smaller space, the Ark Theatre), it seemed tighter, more specifically choreographed
(by Esther Emery and director Robert Salerno ). This time, it was a bit looser,
seemingly more random in movement. but the cast of 16 remained quite strong,
and highly amusing, capturing the right, light touch for the absurdist, bizarre
proceedings that skewer society -- its technological inanities, lack of communication,
need to document every act, and create faux-celebrations. Once again, Jim
Turner was noteworthy as the hapless Photographer, who tries to take a picture
of the wedding party, but can't get control of his camera (technology on the
fritz -- then as now!); hunters, lions, ostriches, bathing beauties and all
manner of weird stuff keeps coming out of it. Turner's moves are pure Buster
Keaton; his malleable face and rubber-legged body are perfect in this silent-film
pantomime charade.
Turner appears again, with Allen, in Ionesco's "The Painting." She
is terrific as The Corpulent Gentleman, a rich but parsimonious man who pretends
to care about and collect art, while he abuses the poor, starving artist (Turner).
But he is victimized too, by his invalid sister ( Laura Bozanich , very funny)
who seems like his prey at first, and then emerges from that sham to do a
sadistic number on her bro. The tables turn with breakneck speed, and the
physical and linguistic pas de deux is hilarious. Allen is big and broad and
comical; Turner does his Little Tramp bit. Bozanich is a monstrous chameleon.
Jennifer Eve Kraus (right) and Rachael van Wormer provide ballast. But this
is Allen's show, and under Salerno's direction, she sparkles and shines, commanding
the stage, showing off her expansive talent and prodigious humor. A vicious
commentary on the art world and the perception of beauty, not to mention sibling
S&M. A perfect mate for the "Wedding," in a witty translation
by designer Lancelot and director Salerno.
Our Town
by Jenni Prisk, San Diego Theatre Scene
On Sunday evening, Kim and I dashed down to the Lyceum to share in Vantage
Theatre's absurdities. First up was a reprise (from the 2003 Actors
Festival) of Jean Cocteau's The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower, which I
feel is better a second time around. Priscilla Allen and Charlie Riendeau
provide delightful phonographic text while a nimble ensemble of 14 actors
portray characters as diverse as an ostrich and a telegram. There is
method and meaning in the madness, of Robert Salerno's directing, together
with witty commentary about society in 1920, and now. You don't have
to understand it all to enjoy it.
Eiffel Tower plays in tandem with Ioenesco's The Painting in which Priscilla Allen plays the corpulent gentleman with humor, panache and wickedness. She is masterful. Jim Turner is a wonderful foil, as the painter, for Allen's manipulation. He moves silently around the stage, saying nothing much, yet everything, with his Chaplinesque body language and expressions. How Jennifer Eve Kraus sits for so long as the painting beats me, but she doesn't move a muscle, until she leaps from the frame and seduces this audience with her delicious turn. Laura Bozanich is hilarious as Alice with her gimpy walk and demonic stare. Salerno directed here also.
Do get to the Lyceum to see these lovely shows. They run until March 28 in tandem with Frankie and Johnny in The Clair de Lune , which I greatly enjoyed last year.
San Diego Theatre Scene
This season's Actors Alliance Festival is presented at the ARK Center for the Performing Arts. On Friday night, I was lured out by the combination of Ron Choularton, Priscilla Allen, Cocteau, my North Park News editor Terence Burke, and La Jolla director/playwright Robert Salerno, whose "Orpheus Rox" will never fade from memory. He staged Cocteau's "Wedding on the Eiffel Tower," and I was more than mildly entertained by the absurdist concoction, which makes much of the amusing premise that images captured by the camera can be released accidentally and wreak havoc. The Eiffel Tower setting was cleverly suggested by Nadja Lancelot's backdrop, whose clever and colorful costumes were redolent of Picasso, and the sound design was rife with music of the times including Enrico Caruso and Amelita Gallicurcci, who in later life was a California resident. Allen and Choularton looked like morning glory stamens and pistils. Their faces were the center of old phonograph bells as they narrated the action mimed by Burke, Jen Meyer, Jim Turner, Nick Herrera, Jen Yee, Erin McKown, Eric George, Michael Barnett, Sandra Little, Wendy Savage, Annette Nixon and Reggie Willis.
Playbill.com
The Thirteenth Annual Actors Alliance Festival wrapped up a highly successful two-week event that included the work of some 100 local actors, 20 local playwrights, and 24 plays. This year’s festival featured numerous pieces of polished, entertaining, and creative works, beginning with Jean Cocteau’s The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower , the most anticipated event of the festival starring local favorites Ron Choularton and Priscilla Allen as human phonographs who narrate the story and supply a host of quirky characters with their voices. Cocteau, a friend of Picasso, creates a world that feels like you’re lost in a Picasso painting (aided by the swirling background of the Eiffel Tower that drew us into the surreality of the scene, and the fact that many of the characters wore painted blocks for heads with Picasso-like faces, some of them being two-sided (some four-sided) so that they became two (four) characters in one – just a few of the fantastic creations of Nadja Lancelot).
The surreal world is situated on the Eiffel Tower right after World War I, and concerns a photographer whose “birdie” (the one that his customers are supposed to watch when he takes their picture) is an ostrich that actually runs away and gets chased by a mighty ostrich hunter. Meanwhile the photographer ends up photographing a very odd wedding party, his camera going even more berserk in the process. Now, instead of “birdies” popping out, out jumps a bathing beauty, a little boy who is the wedding couple’s future son and who massacres the entire wedding party with balls of wedding confetti, and a hungry lion that munches on a stubborn general who thinks everything out of the ordinary is a mirage (and therefore isn’t afraid of the lion who, logically, must really not be there).
Using a singular sense of comedy, symbolism, and satire, Cocteau illustrates the often ridiculous and tragic nature of war, society, and our social conventions. Technology seems to be out of control (the freaked out camera) and yet controlling us (with the phonographs dictating and explaining the actions of the humans). With the charismatic ensemble who fully embrace Cocteau’s weirdness, and under the insightful direction of Robert Salerno , the show moves at a breathless pace leaving one always thinking, laughing, and feeling a bit confused – but definitely never bored.
Village News
La Jolla director/playwright Robert Salerno staged Jean Cocteau's "Wedding on the Eiffel Tower" during the Actors Alliance Festival is presented at the ARK Center for the Performing Arts on Kettner Blvd. Salerno, whose "Orpheus Rox" is soon to be staged in Los Angeles, made much of Cocteau's amusing premise that images captured by the camera can be released from the black tunnel to wreak havoc. Art director Nadja Lancelot's black and white backdrop suggested the Eiffel Tower; her colorful costumes were redolent of Picasso. I was more than mildly entertained by the absurdist concoction.
Comments from Rob Hopper- Judge of Festival
2003 Awards
~ Outstanding Direction ~
Robert Salerno for The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower
"The most ambitious production of the Festival
was definitely The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower, a mind-bending romp through
the lands of surrealism, absurdism, and Picasso run amuck in a hysterical farce
that hits on technology, war, society, and the very nature of reality. Director
Robert Salerno’s creative and insightful direction, along with an exceptional
cast and artistic crew, produced a performance that completely sucked us into
this extraordinary world with all its peculiar characters and problems that
strangely mimic the characters and problems in our real world."
~ Outstanding Production ~
The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower
"And finally, the award for Outstanding Production of the 2003 Actors Alliance
Festival goes to the show that offered so much on every level of theatre, from
the beautiful and imaginative surrealistic sets and costumes, to the fantastic
performances by the cast, the incredible direction, and the unusual but unforgettable
script – Jean Cocteau’s The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower."
2003 Playbill "Billie" Award
Outstanding Costume Design:
Nadja Lancelot and Sheila Rosen for The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower (Actors
Alliance Festival)
