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Latest from
Firebelly Effectively Melds Comedy, Drama
by MATT REVILLE, Staff
Writer
(Created:
Monday, October 15, 2007 11:06 AM EDT)
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Firebelly's production of "Nothing Sacred" is a comedy-drama based
on Ivan Turgenev's novel, "Fathers and Sons." (Photo by Raymond
Gniewek) |
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When I'm toodling down
the highway and see someone do something incredibly, moronically stupid in
traffic, I always take a breath before going ballistic, and look at the
license plate of the offender.
“Ah, it's OK,” I'll say softly. “They're from Maryland - that
explains it. They're all nuts over there.”
When it comes to theater reviewing, there's a corollary. When a playwright
pens a work that is essentially indescribable - at various times charming,
caustic, witty and maddening - I look down at the bio. “Ah, he's Canadian
- that explains it!”
Such is the case with George F. Walker, whose “Nothing Sacred” is being
performed by Firebelly Productions, which describes the show as “a Canadian
comedy about a Russian tragedy” (the latter being Ivan Turgenev's 1862
“Fathers and Sons”) and notes, probably correctly, it is, as such, unique in
the annals of theater.
Set in the 1850s on a farm in rural Russia, the production looks at the
relationship between a father from the old school and his son who has been
away at college and has picked up modern-day ideas, such as
nihilism/anarchism, but retains a love of family and the homestead.
Throw in plenty of offbeat characters, and you have more than two hours of
sometimes frustrating but ultimately quite satisfying work.
Patrick Flannery, who I thought did quite well in Firebelly's recent
work-in-progress called “Shelter,” is Arkady, the son caught between two
worlds at a crossroads in Russian history. Arkady is accompanied back to the
farm by Bazarov (Jon Townson), one of those know-it-all, just-out-of-school
firebrands who challenges everyone and everything and does it in as
obnoxious manner as possible.
There, they meet up with Arkady's salt-of-the-earth father (Charles St.
Charles) and his more flamboyantly eccentric uncle (Dave Bobb), along with a
servant (Clarissa Zies) who recently gave birth to the father's illegitimate
child.
After a while, we meet Bazarov's love interest, Anna (Kelley Slagle), who
may be the most sinister of the group. Slagle did so well as nasty Nurse
Ratched in 2006's “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,” and here she gets
another chance to show a sadistic streak, with a side of charm thrown in.
The show cuts back on some of the novel's back stories - we don't see
Bazarov's parents, and the relationship between Anna and the boys is less
fleshed out - and the demise of one of the main characters near the end
occurs quite differently in the book.
I won't spoil said ending (although the accompanying photo may succeed in
doing that), but suffice it to say I'd deduced what was going to happen
early in the show - the fun, like an old “Columbo” episode, is trying to
determine exactly how it would unfold.
The very end of the production contains a quite clever moment that leaves
the characters, and the audience, guessing.
I have no complaints
with the lead actors, and, in fact, all the cast was quite good. In the
supporting ranks, Mitch Irzinski, Craig Lawence and Scott Zeigler stood out,
but there wasn't a poor performance in the show, although there were a few
flubbed lines and some cross-talk during an opening weekend matinee.
Director Robb Hunter keeps the pacing moving in his professional debut. As
with any production at Theatre-on-the-Run that features a cast of more than
a half-dozen, the cramped stage confines provide challenges. Hunter and his
creative team did a good job in surmounting them.
The dialogue is surprisingly modern, done without fake accents (thank you!)
and without the characters calling each other by all their long Russian
names every time (double thank you!). And - just an inside joke for the
Firebelly crowd - there is not a single reference to “fraulein” to be heard.
The playwright and the actors make sure that none of the characters is
totally unlikable - that would have spoiled the show. There is a slice of
humanity to be found in all of them. Vulnerability, too.
It makes for an interesting, entertaining evening of theater.
“Nothing Sacred” runs through Nov. 4 at Theatre-on-the-Run, 3700 South
Four Mile Run Drive in Arlington.
Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors.
For information, call (703) 409-2372 or see the Web site at
www.firebellyproductions.net.
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