drama

Jewish Theatre of Bloomington: Herzog play goes the distance

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By John Lyle Belden

How far would you go for a friend? For someone you love?

The Jewish Theatre of Bloomington presents “4000 Miles,” the 2013 Pulitzer finalist dramatic comedy by Amy Herzog.

Bill Simmons, who directed the Indiana premiere in 2012, is at the helm again. He said that the time that passed between these productions has given him better perspective on the main characters, 21-year-old Leo (Ryan Eller) and his 91-year-old grandmother Vera (Martha Jacobs, who was also in the 2012 Phoenix Theatre production).

Leo arrives unexpectedly around midnight at Vera’s New York apartment. He is excitable with hair-trigger moods, while she is patient and understanding, though a bit bewildered. He brings in his bicycle, having ridden not from his family’s home in St. Paul, Minn., but all the way from Seattle. He does not want his mother to know where he is.

Through 10 emotional scenes we learn what has brought Leo here, and the feelings and issues he must work through. This includes his relationship with Bec (Sofia Salgado), also in New York to attend college. One night, he brings home a young woman he just met, Amanda (Laura Rong), who resembles his adopted sister Lily (Rebecca Von Kirk). He has a lot to deal with, along with a sense that others believe he’s handling it all wrong. Meanwhile, Vera is dealing with her own feelings of things slipping away, including the passing of a dear friend in her “octogenarian club.”

The sharp script, excellent acting, and Simmons’ touch combine to make these strangers feel familiar, like people whose pain we don’t mind sharing. The generation gap and Vera’s feisty attitude generate a good amount of welcome laughs as a little absurdity finds its way into even the most serious situations. Beneath the problems is a genuine sense of feeling and connection, which leads to a hopeful outcome we can all feel as the play concludes.

Travel the much-shorter distance (from Indy) to experience “4000 Miles,” Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, May 15-17-18, at the Waldron Art Center Rose Firebay, 122 S. Walnut St. (ground floor off 4th Street), Bloomington. Get tickets and info at jewishtheatrebloomington.com.

ALT characters only ‘Human’

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By John Lyle Belden

With the passage of time, we are often prone to looking back at particular eras. Stephan Karam’s Tony-winning play, “The Humans” takes a snapshot of a day during the years between the national traumas of 9/11 and Covid.

In this 90-minute (no intermission) drama, presented by American Lives Theatre at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, Brigid and her partner Richard (Susannah Quinn and Trent K. Hawthorne-Richards) are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for her family – parents Erik and Deidre (Eric Bryant and Eva Patton), older sister Aimee (Jenni White), and grandmother “Momo” (Wendy Brown) – in her new apartment located in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

It’s a big place for New York, split-level on ground floor and basement, connected by a narrow spiral staircase, but with a view only of a cigarette butts and ash-filled inner courtyard, as well as the occasional disturbing mysterious noises from the neighbors. The one bathroom upstairs, while kitchen and dining area are below, becomes an issue because Momo has severe dementia and, though able to walk some, mostly gets around pushed in a wheelchair; also, Aimee has frequent intestinal symptoms from her ulcerative colitis.

These factors, as well as general family awkwardness, plus Erik and Richard each relating the weird dreams they have been having, serve up all the ingredients for a family-holiday comedy. However, while there a quite a few good laughs in this show, the overall tone is set by Erik’s Thanksgiving toast “to knowing what’s important,” because “one day, it goes.”

We find that each character has something slipping away or lost. As the plot gains substance, it draws out the essence of American life in the early 21st century: that we perpetually, for the sake of our sanity, ignore that every one of us is one setback away from catastrophe. The odd sounds, the grandmother’s babble of insistent phrases you almost understand, as well as individual reflections on a past September day, bring the fast-flowing currents of fear closer to the surface.

Plus, we learn about “pig smash,” which looks kinda fun.

Matthew Reeder directs, assisted by Jacob David Lang, on an excellent stage set by Rozy Isquith, featuring metal spiral stairs that are legendary around Indy theatres.  

As for the cast, this ensemble all know how to bring the feels. I find it difficult to single out any particular performance – White and Brown are among our friends, but I still think it’s fair to call them exceptional: White can play having all-the-problems while still being sweet and relatable; Brown gives a tender performance, punctuated by confusion, anger, and moments of something approaching mischief. Hawthorne-Richards works with nervous charm as the outsider point of view on the others’ family dynamic, and it’s nice (especially for something set only about a decade ago) that it is this different upbringing more than his skin tone that sets him apart.

Bryant brings gravitas to his paternal role, reflecting experience (on other stages) of seeing the story as a director (here, it’s Erik knowing this may not end well) and feeling it as an actor (struggling with circumstances he can’t control). Quinn plays the desperate soul bargaining that if one dream comes true – Brigid getting a nice place to live – her others don’t have to die, either. Patton maintains the stage tradition of the Mom who is like a rock while dealing with the growing cracks.

Walls thump and lights flicker, but knowing how fantasy stories end, we understand what it is that the ghosts and shadows fear. “The Humans” runs through May 11 on the Phoenix main stage, 705 N. Illinois, downtown Indianapolis. Get tickets at phoenixtheatre.org, information at americanlivestheatre.org.

Southbank: Seeing ‘Red’ in Black and White

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By John Lyle Belden

American-born actor Ira Aldridge was the first man of African descent to play the lead role in Shakespeare’s “Othello” on the London stage in 1833.

(The tragic character Othello, as most know, was a Moor, dark-skinned from African heritage. But especially as he is the title role, even when Black actors were available in England he was always played by a White man in blackface.)

The play “Red Velvet,” by Lolita Chakrabarti, presented by Southbank Theatre Company, is about this and more, taking measure of a complex and controversial artist with particular emphasis on one of his many milestones.

We open and close the play in 1867 with Aldridge (Daniel Wilke) on what would be his final tour of Europe, performing “King Lear” in Lodz, Poland. We learn he has been a celebrity throughout the Continent and in the U.K., where he also managed a theatre. Turning 60, he is impatient, blustery, and forbids any press interviews (we’ll understand why later).

A young Polish reporter, Halina (Hannah Embree), manages to make her way into his dressing room, talking the actor into taking a few questions. Feeling her to be impertinent, he then sends her away. However, the memories have been triggered, and our scene switches to London, more than 30 years earlier.

During a sold-out London production of “Othello,” famed actor Edmond Kean, in the title role, has collapsed on stage and will never tread the boards again. Theatre manager Pierre LaPorte (Brant Hughes), a friend of Aldridge, sees a chance to make theatre history. Politically progressive company member Henry Forester (J Charles Weimer), who also supports the demonstrations against slavery in the British Empire raging at the time, likes the idea, but fellow thespians Bernard Ward (Doug Powers) and especially Kean’s son Charles (Matt Hartzburg) – who plays the Moor’s murderous rival Iago – do not.

It is argued that the British stage is for escapist fantasy, where a regular (White) person can pretend to be something he is not. This form of stark realism, Ward remarks, is as absurd as a real simpleton playing Caliban or a real Jew as Shylock. Still, LaPorte is adamant and the show goes on, with Aldridge baring his natural face.

While the men seem to fit archetypes one would expect to see in a story of shaking up things in a treasured institution, the women each take an intriguing perspective.

Ellen Tree (Liz Carrier), like the tragic female lead Desdemona that she plays, seems caught in the middle. She must act opposite Aldridge, the focus of this controversy, and she is the fiancé of Charles Kean, who threatens to walk out in protest. Her allegiance is to the company, and she seems intrigued by this American’s approach to the play and its characters. Wilke and Carrier, like the actors they portray, skillfully present themselves as professionals rehearsing a married couple who must stand close and touch each other as they are bonded by love and destroyed by jealousy. Is that all we see? Neither they nor Chakrabarti’s script under the direction of Donna McFadden give us an easy or definitive answer.

In a role of sublime subtlety capped by the profound moments when she finally speaks her mind, Kendall Maxwell is exquisite as the servant Connie. Just her presence at the back of the room – standing in contrast to the man of color who is treated as a peer and equal to the others who only see her as little more than a tea-serving automaton – speaks volumes.

Rachel Kelso plays Aldrige’s wife, Margaret, casually trusting and true to her famous husband. Her understanding helps buoy our feelings for Ira Aldridge, who in turn expresses genuine affection for her, especially when she is no longer with him.

Embree is also impressive, giving us a character having to power through her own issues in a society determined to limit her.

Also, in the 1867 scenes Weimer amusingly plays a randy German stagehand, while Powers is Aldridge’s longsuffering personal assistant.

Hughes delivers a sharp performance as one struggling to keep both a career and a friendship without losing both. His character’s Frenchness makes him a sufficient outsider to be the catalyst of change, still, he’s all (show) business for his role in these events.

We come to find in the play’s title an aspect of Aldridge’s life’s arc. He recalls peering through velvet curtains as a boy to see his first plays; as an adult, he dons a crimson velvet cloak as the Moor. (Just one of many excellent costumes by Karen Cones.) Turning convention on its head, in preparing to play the aging King, he applies greasepaint to lighten his skin.

A reflection and commentary on racial and gender discrimination that has us considering how much has truly changed, and what it has taken to change it, wrapped in an intriguing portrait of a historic individual, “Red Velvet” has one weekend of performances left, Thursday through Sunday, May 1-4, at Shelton Auditorium, 1000 W. 42nd Street, Indianapolis (Butler University campus).  Get info and tickets at southbanktheatre.org.

‘Dracula’ stalks Garfield Park

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By John Lyle Belden

Garfield Shakespeare Company is taking on a couple of classics outside the Bard’s folios, including the 1920’s adaptation of “Dracula,” by Hamilton Deane (who was authorized by the Bram Stoker estate) and John L. Balderston.

The play makes some small changes from the novel and sets the story in the ‘20s so that Count Dracula arrives in England overnight by airplane rather than in the hold of a cursed ship. Otherwise, things look eerily familiar.

We open with the events of Stoker’s story already in progress. Mina died in recent weeks of a strange sort of anemia, and now Lucy Seward (Kyarah Love) is weakening from a similar condition. Her father, Dr. Seward (Banjamin Mathis), is perplexed and worried – and further stressed by the rantings of Renfield (Derrick Krober) a troublesome patient in his sanitorium.  Lucy’s fiancé, Joan Harker (Tess Smith), shares Seward’s concern and both have given their blood in transfusions to help sustain her. A new neighbor from eastern Europe, the nobleman Count Dracula (Christopher O’Hara) has also taken an interest.

At Dr. Seward’s request, his friend, the well-travelled scientist Abraham Van Helsing (Aaron Collins) arrives to investigate the cause of Lucy’s malady. We can tell he has an idea of the answer but must ascertain all the facts and ensure that all are ready to accept what he must reveal. Also on hand are the dutiful maid, Miss Wells (Sydney Engelstein), as well as the orderly Butterworth (Jake Hobbs), who has his hands full keeping Renfield in his locked room. Cuthbert, the plush mouse, plays himself.

GSC member Cheri Walker-Owens makes her directorial debut. Cheyenne Henson is stage manager, whose crew includes two – Miranda Khoury and costume designer Ella King – who become thralls of the vampire. Also vital to this production are fight director Chris Burton and especially intimacy director AJ Stannard, considering all the “necking” going on.

The well-paced story acknowledges that the audience already knows what is going on, with the characters steadily figuring it out with only about a scene’s worth of necessary disbelief once Van Helsing reveals the facts. The growing dread as Dracula stays steps ahead of his pursuers is amplified by the genius casting of O’Hara, whose tall frame, cinema-perfect look, suave manner, and mesmerizing baritone voice had us wondering if the Count himself had auditioned.

The gender swap of Joan (for Jon) Harker is barely noticeable as Smith is fierce, her character’s devotion being both shield and weapon against the unnatural foe. For his part, Collins gives an action-hero air to Van Helsing, constantly inspiring the others. Love only plays Lucy passive at first, giving her more range of feeling and a sense of internal struggle as the stakes become clear.

You likely know the story, but it’s something else to see it performed right in front of you, on a fairly small stage level with the seating on three sides. And you can’t beat the price – free! – but contact gscindy.org to reserve your seat. Performances are Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, April 24-25 & 27, at the Garfield Park Arts Center, 432 Conservatory Drive, Indianapolis.

Play presents unstable nuclear family

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By John Lyle Belden

When we see photos taken on the surface of the planet Mars, they are desolate, empty, and yet beautiful – in part because we still want to believe in the advanced civilizations that authors including Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein placed there. We observe the truth but see the myth.

In “Martian Gothic,” by popular and prolific American playwright Don Nigro, Sonia Pretorius looks at a nuclear power plant and, she tells us, sees grand Martian cathedrals.

The play is presented at IF Theatre by Clerical Error Productions, expanding beyond its reputation for farces by bringing us a more complex sort of comedy – laughter-invoking funny at times, while also “funny” like things are not quite right. Local actor and director Jon Lindley, noting an interest in this play for some time, directs, assisted by stage manager Stacy Long.

Set in the 1980s – apparently at a point between when the Three Mile Island incident increased demand for public relations campaigns by nuclear energy interests, and the Chernobyl disaster, which essentially stopped all interest in building new plants – Sonia (Laura Gellin) is the perfect spokeswoman for the local nuclear energy company. She has a genius intellect, knowledge of the systems, beauty with an engaging personality, and is the daughter of famed nuclear engineer Dr. John Pretorius (Brad Staggs). As a girl she loved science fiction, but as a teen her energies were devoted to caring for younger sister Janie (Sarah Powell) after their mother died.

Sonia has a few problems: Janie is an environmental activist, protesting at the plant; the power company official Sonia reports to, Nofsinger (Blake Mellencamp), is a sexist jerk (and wannabe adulterer); and there are disturbing reports written by the on-site Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspector, R. Hooey. Turns out the “R” stands for Ruth (Alaine Sims), who sits hidden away in the basement writing honest reports that no one reads because the NRC automatically approves anything management wants.

Sonia is also our narrator, with a frankness that belies her public niceness. “Thank you for being ignorant,” she says. Her intellectual smugness extends to treating her sister like an imbecile, not just because of Janie’s dyslexia, but mostly for her refusing to see the wonderful benefits of their father’s work. Gellin and Powell give us a heartbreakingly genuine performance of siblings whose love is constantly obscured by differences that have them arguing any time they are together – constantly both desiring and refusing to understand each other’s point of view.

Staggs gives us a man of conscience finding himself forced to reconsider his life’s work. Dr. Pretorius’s priority becomes connection with his daughters, and to understand the truth – whatever form it takes – with the help of his growing relationship with Ruth. Sims displays sharp wit in her straight-shooter character.

Mellencamp makes Nofsinger an irredeemable ass, weasel, or any manner of unpleasant metaphorical animal. Still, his “the facts are what we say they are” expedient manager is not much of an exaggeration from what’s found in corporations, government, or especially where they intersect.

At a time with new designs for nuclear plants being floated, trust in government and corporate interests as shaky as ever, and our continuing to understand how uncertain is the literal ground under our feet, this play is an important thought-provoking parable for today. Nigro’s words, in Lindley’s hands, intwine themes of family and power with fragile nuclear bonds.

Mars remains too distant for us; however, the wisdom of its mythical race is still attainable, provided we can handle what we grok. “Martian Gothic” has performances Thursday through Sunday, April 24-27 at The Blackbox at IF Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, downtown Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org.

What a ‘Web’ they weave in Westfield

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By John Lyle Belden

Quick warning for arachnophobes: Main Street Productions has placed numerous toy spiders (some quite life-like) around the Basile Westfield Playhouse. Guess how many there are (fill in a form during the first intermission) to win a prize. However, (ironically) there are none on the stage.

Count on Agatha Christie to weave an entertaining tangle of intrigue, mystery, and humor – we get all this and more in “Spider’s Web,” presented by Westfield’s Main Street Productions, directed by Jan Jamison.

The setting is a big house in the English countryside (of course), Copplestone Court in Kent, in 1954. While Henry Hailsham-Brown (Kevin Caraher) is away on business for the British Foreign Office, his young and highly imaginative wife Clarissa (Phoebe Aldridge) spins tales and plays tricks on whoever is around. In this case, it’s her former guardian Sir Roland Delahaye (Syd Loomis), his old friend Hugo Birch (Jim Simmonds), and young friend Jeremy Warrender (Jeff Haber). Clarissa also cares for Pippa (Ava McKee), Henry’s school-age daughter from his first marriage who is still fragile after the bitter divorce.

The servants on hand are humble Elgin (Thom Johnson) and his wife (unseen), as well as Mildred Peake (Molly Kraus), the gardener who is quite the busybody and suspicious of everyone. An unwelcome visitor, Oliver Costello (Matt McKee), the new husband of Pippa’s mother, stops by. Also, this being a murder mystery, we will soon meet Inspector Lord (Larry Adams) and Constable Jones (Erin Chandler), with an audio cameo by Greg Vander Wyden as the Doctor called to inspect the body.

Along with the corpus delicti, we also have a rather interesting antique writing desk and the presence of a “priest hole,” a short passage to the library disguised by a bookshelf. And a deck of cards. And a volume of Who’s Who. So many details, in fact, that Clarissa spins a number of stories about the events of the evening, confounding and frustrating the Inspector as we work through the various clues to find who did the deadly deed, and why. (Observant viewers can work it out before the climax, this clueless reviewer nearly did!)

Aldridge is wonderful as the fanciful and well-intentioned lady of the house (Wendy notes that this play could have been subtitled, “Clarissa Explains It All”). Loomis has paternal charm in his supporting role. Kraus eagerly takes on quite an interesting character herself as one who is and knows more than she lets on. Adams makes an interesting sleuth, though the frustrating nature of this caper could make Inspector Lord glad that Christie called on other detectives for most of her stories. Seventh-grader Ava McKee makes a nice stage debut as imperiled Pippa.

The wit is sharp with physical humor and a bit of Pythonesque absurdity. It almost qualifies as a comedy – except for, you know, that body behind the sofa.

This humorous whodunit has four more performances, Thursday through Sunday, April 10-13, at Basile Westfield Playhouse, 220 N. Union St. (note there is some road and building construction in the area). Get tickets at westfieldplayhouse.org.

Epilogue’s ‘Mr. Green’ a memorable visit

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By John Belden

Being unaware of Epilogue Players’ “Visiting Mr. Green,” the self-described “comedy/drama” by Jeff Baron about a weekly appointment at the home of an 80-something single man, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Well, this ain’t “Tuesdays with Morrie” – for one thing, our young adult Ross Gardner (Grant Bowen) arrives on Thursdays at the home of Mr. Green (Tom Bartley). This visitation isn’t sentimental, it’s court-ordered. Ross nearly ran over the old man with his car, and accepted fault and the judge’s unconventional version of community service.

To say Mr. Green is a curmudgeon would be putting it lightly. He’s very set in his ways, accustomed to being alone, and it’s hard to tell whether his mind is slipping or he wears distraction like a mask to hide his loneliness at the passing of his wife Yetta – “59 years, never an argument!” – months ago. He is a devout Jew, while Ross hasn’t done much with his faith since his bar mitzvah.

Bartley manages to portray this effectively without the distraction of aging makeup, brusque in his speech and manners, accompanied by slow but purposeful movement. He’s likable, but some of his attitudes challenge us – hard to brush off as just relics of another time or culture.

Ross tries hard to be accommodating. Bowen portrays him as frustrated, a people-pleaser at heart yet unable to find his own peace. We can tell he’s a good person caught in an awkward situation, something to which we can easily relate.

Over time, as one would expect, the two build a rapport of sorts, however a couple of personal revelations – one involving each of them – threaten to destroy their budding friendship. These visits become a compelling mix of gentle laughs and harsh words. As they both serve this unusual months-long sentence, they must find what – aside from Kosher soup – will be enough to heal their damaged souls.

The show is smartly directed by Mac Bellner with encouragement from Baron, whose recently completed second revision of his 1997 script is produced here.

This charming reflection on family, aging, and personal connections has performances Thursday through Sunday, April 10-13, at Epilogue, 1849 N. Alabama St., Indianapolis. Get tickets at epilogueplayers.com.

‘Misery’ still thrills at BCP

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By John Lyle Belden

In the years since Stephen King published his thriller “Misery” in 1987, there have been countless real-world stories of deranged fans stalking and even killing their celebrity obsessions. Yet this story is the most chilling, thanks in part to the William Goldman film adaptation, directed by Robert Reiner and released in 1990, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates (winning her an Oscar).

Goldman also adapted “Misery” for the stage, which Buck Creek Players now brings to life. Popular author Paul Sheldon (Mark Meyer) awakens severely injured in a remote house in the Colorado Rockies. The home belongs to Annie Wilkes (Lisa Banning), a nurse who rescued Sheldon from an auto wreck during a blizzard – and happens to be Paul’s “Number One Fan.”

Annie is obsessed with Paul’s novels about Victorian heroine Misery Chastain, and while caring for Paul reads his new non-Misery manuscript (which she hates), then makes her way into town to get the latest copy of his just-released “Misery’s Child.” She gushes over this new story, until she reaches the final chapter. Misery is dead?! Seeing this happen to her favorite character – her hero, practically a friend in her mind – enrages her beyond disbelief. Paul must write, and right this wrong!

As in the book and movie, this is an engrossing battle of wits. Paul, in a slowly-healing body, through his fog of pain, desperately seeks a way out of his entrapment. Meanwhile, Annie’s madness grows while sharpening her realization that there is only one way her and Paul’s story can end.

Aaron Beal completes the cast as Sheriff Buster, whose suspicions of what’s happening at Annie’s house grow with every visit.

Banning convincingly portrays Annie’s obsessive nature – at first fawning over Paul, later driving her to treat him like a misbehaving pet, at all times a little unbalanced – as well as her strict moral sense, with a sort of charming (at first) sense of eccentricity. It evokes in the best way the chilling transformation of Bates in the film.

Meyer tackles the role of Paul as a fairly nice regular guy who happens to have an exceptional talent for which he hides away in a mountain lodge to bang out a novel. This disruption to his routine has him forcing Paul to plot events in real life, which proves to be a lot harder than typing them to the page. His moments of pain are quite convincing – here’s hoping he wasn’t too “method.”

Jeremy Tuterow directs, and Susanne Bush designed an excellent stage set featuring Paul’s room isolated away from the more welcoming kitchen, with sight-lines that draw us in to Annie’s tightly controlled world.

Three performances remain of “Misery,” Friday through Sunday, April 4-6, at the BCP Playhouse, 11150 Southeastern Ave., Indianapolis (Acton Road exit off I-74). Get info and tickets at buckcreekplayers.com.

The wisdom of ‘Wizer’

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By John Lyle Belden

“The Wizer of Odds,” written and directed by local playwright Gabrielle Patterson, stands apart from most adaptations of the classic “Wizard of Oz” story by L. Frank Baum, best known from the 1939 MGM film. Rather than try to directly recreate the plot and characters (like in “The Wiz”) this non-musical allegory takes familiar aspects of story, character, and theme to build something both familiar and fresh, timeless and modern.

We start out near Kansas where Camile (Kelly Boyd as our “Dorothy” character) longs for more than what she feels her cornfield town and living with her Gran (Patterson) can offer her. She also wishes to reconnect – or connect at all – with her mother Evelyne (Alicia Sims) who abandoned her as a baby to go live in New York City.

Camile sets out on a road trip for the Big Apple, bringing along best friends Tiny (Cara Wilson) and Stephanie (Ja’Taun Tiara). First, she says goodbye to long-time friend Thomas (Jericho Franke), whose confession of love does nothing to stop her.

On the road, car trouble brings the girls to the shop of Ray Tinman (Bryan Ball), a memorable encounter but Camile doesn’t think much of the man in the oil-stained clothes.

Finally in New York, Evelyn isn’t as welcoming a host as they had hoped. She cares little for reconnecting and just wants to take Camile and her friends out to the hottest club – The Flying Monkey. The evening gets off to a rough start as Camile feels the doorman Leon (Richard Bowman) isn’t aggressive enough in repelling the advances of an obnoxious man (Lamont Golder). At the club, we encounter the charismatic Oz (Chris Shields), who may be just what our heroine is looking for – but how wise is that choice?

Though not a musical, we get brilliant soliloquies in hip-hop poetry for nearly all characters to elaborate how they feel. The straw-colored man, the one who works with machines, and the presumed coward each state their case for how manhood and one’s value are not just what a person presumes, and are worth a better look.

In our three generations we get women who are each intriguing in their own way. Boyd as Camile is smart and likable, but has her gaze too far over the rainbow to see what is at hand, to her own peril. Patterson’s Gran, who also goes by Glinda, has a great deal of wisdom, enough to know she can’t force a willful girl to listen, and to be there with kindness when the lessons are learned. As for Sims as Evelyn, she is a study in dysfunction and self-centeredness – still, as Wendy pointed out, the sight of her “party” outfit may be worth the ticket price alone.

So many good performances in this show. Wilson presents a sweetly true companion (Patterson told me Tiny, like Steph, are analogous to the Munchkins, but I see faithful aspects of Toto too), while Tiara gives us that fashion-obsessed pal who will still drop that designer bag to join you in a fight. Ball easily radiates strength in his roles, and his Tin Man is sturdy. Shields, as Oz, smoothly gives us that outwardly noble man who can go from kissing your cheek to slapping it in a dark instant. Bowman – like the other men, playing more than one role – has the most contrast between his characters. His initial appearance cuts the line between funny and creepy so thin it’s barely visible; however, his lion roars with one of the bravest spoken passages. Franke is charming as Thomas, a man who (like his archetype) is smarter than he looks.  

An entertaining story salted with some hints and Easter eggs for traditional “Oz” fans, with that reliable lesson that there’s no place like home, “The Wizer of Odd” has two more weekends, April 4-6 and 11-13, at IF Theatre (home of IndyFringe), 719 E. St. Clair St., Indianapolis. Get tickets at indyfringe.org.

Mud Creek drama worth the ‘Wait’

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By John Lyle Belden

One thing that tends to be tricky in live theatre is suspense. This is why the thriller “Wait Until Dark” by Frederick Knott is a popular choice for community companies, like the present production at Mud Creek Players, directed by Andrea Odle.

A pair of ex-cons are searching for a particular priceless doll – valuable not for its porcelain face or music box, but for also containing a highly valuable stash of uncut heroin. The woman bringing it into the country passed it to an unsuspecting photographer, Sam (Zachary Thompson), and her accomplices Mike (JB Scoble) and Carlino (Trever Brown) are in his lower-level apartment searching for it. However, the person who called them to be there is Mr. Roat (Kelly Keller), who has smoothly taken charge of the entire caper.

Sam’s wife Susy (Lexi Odle-Stollings) comes home and our criminals note that she is blind, so they can easily evade her. She hears something, and notices furniture has been moved, but blames it on Gloria (Evelyn Odom), the bratty girl who lives upstairs and often comes down to do errands for her.

Preferring finesse to violence (for now), while Sam is away on a bogus assignment, Mike pretends to be his old Marines buddy to talk Susy into divulging the location of the doll. Carlino plays a detective, and Roat adds two roles to the ruse, as the tension builds and their patience wanes. This is set in 1963, so a phone booth just down the block is a vital plot element. As Susy’s necessary attention to details starts to clue her in on what’s happening, how will she get out of this situation? Note the play’s title.

The cast also includes Sidney Blake and Thomas Burek.

Odle’s own attention to detail aids the atmosphere, taking advantage of the fact that the Mud Creek Barn isn’t a large venue, aiding our trapped feeling with lower than usual lighting. Jennifer Poynter is assistant director, and Amy Buell is stage manager.

Odle-Stollings delivers an excellent performance of a woman familiar with fear as she had been blinded only a couple of years before, still, knowing she must rely on her own strength and wits – every day to get around, and on this night as a matter of life and death. She received help from the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired to effectively and respectfully portray an unsighted person.

The fact that Keller is such a nice guy offstage helps make his turn as ruthless Roat all the more disturbing. His villainy is enhanced by his own sense for detail and preparation. Scoble and Brown add a bit of humor to the mix, but we come to see the hardened criminals they play take this all very seriously.

Odom, already quite active as a Mud Creek volunteer, is also a natural on stage, playing the kid who, despite her attitude, truly wants to help – if that involves breaking things, all the better!

Suspense builds to the final scene. See what happens when the lights go out in “Wait Until Dark,” performances Thursday through Saturday at 9740 E. 86th St., Indianapolis. Get tickets at mudcreekplayers.org.