Eli Robinson

Serving up Shakespeare’s slasher

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By Wendy Carson

Indy Bard Fest presents “Titus Andronicus” by William Shakespeare.

First of all, let’s address a few things about the source material. This is not a typical Shakespearean tragedy. It is violent, gritty, and rather mean-spirited overall. However, it is also very realistic in its depiction of the wages of war, the brutality spawned from revenge and the immense savagery of “civilized” society.

Bard Fest states that this is not for children, the warning making the subject matter seem like it leans towards an “R” rating when indeed it is much closer to a “PG” or “PG-13” at the strongest. A few murders do occur onstage, with “blood” spray, but the most heinous of the crimes occurs offstage and is only talked about, with its aftereffects being seen in fascinating detail. Since the stage blood seems more akin to Kool-Aid, none of it feels as gruesome as it could be. In fact, a young gentleman at our performance had no qualms about any of the violence, he was more alarmed at becoming a valet to the Queen at one point.

So, parental discretion is advised but do not let that keep you from exposing kids to this rarely-done show. Who knows, it might make them want to check out more of the Bard’s catalogue.

Although I usually try to summarize the stories here somewhat, it’s really nothing more than a lesson in what “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” justice is like. As you enter the Indy Eleven theater, notice that on the back wall of the audience, there is a chart with Titus’s family listed. As the play progresses, more and more of those names get scratched off until only three are left. Also, enjoy the beginning tableau of the family at the table. This is the only time you will see such happiness and normalcy in the production. Oh, and the rightward section of the audience is the “Splatter Zone.”

Director Matt Anderson does an exceptional job keeping the show enjoyable despite its dark subject matter, at times leaning into its gory nature. In fact, the final scene is more fun than frightening.

Dan Flahive brings Andronicus to life as the world-weary soldier who, upon winning victory over the Goths, refuses the Roman people’s will to rule them and would much prefer to rest in the company of his remaining children.

James Kenjorski brings aspiring emperor Saturninus’s blind madness to the forefront by failing to see how his choices and demands will doom the rest of the characters. They start by seeing his family and kinsmen as enemies and taking the captured queen of the Goths as his bride.

Holly Hathaway Thompson gives a perfect rendition of that queen, Tamora, a proud woman whose vengeance is greater than any man’s and lifestyle would put a modern “Real Housewife” to shame.

Nicholas Johnson plays Aaron, a Moor who aids the Goths, as the devil incarnate, a man whose every action is to inflict evil upon the world.

David Marlowe keeps Bassanus, Saturninius’s brother, an endearing soul to whom fate deals a mortal blow.

Haley Glickman plays Titus’s daughter Lavinia, a young woman in love who becomes a pawn in this massive power play. Even though she suffers the worst degradations of any character, she balances her desire for revenge against the reality of its outcome. Whether eloquent or mute, Glickman’s expressiveness shines through.

Craig Kemp brings Marcus, Titus’s brother and a Roman Tribune, a solid solemnity that while not being a target himself, must witness and endure the tragic events of everyone else.

Tamora’s sons, Eli Robinson as Chiron and J.B. Scoble as Demetrius, give Aaron’s character a run for his money as far as dastardly deeds go. However, they do not escape justice and end up as “just desserts” for their mother.

Ben Elliott is appropriately noble as Titus’s eldest son, Lucius, tasked with helping bring justice to these events. Also notable is young Sam Lee as his son (Titus’s grandson), Young Lucius. 

A crowd-pleaser for the rowdies in Shakespeare’s day, which even includes in this production a scene practically straight out of Wrestlemania, it won’t cost you an arm or a leg (maybe a hand?) to see “Titus Andronicus” in its remaining weekend, Friday through Sunday, Oct. 27-29, at the Indy Eleven in the IndyFringe Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St., Indianapolis. Get tickets at indybardfest.com or indyfringe.org.

‘Angels’ in Indianapolis

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By John Lyle Belden

Indianapolis Bard Fest brings us one of the most important theatre events of the year with its full production of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer-winning “Angels in America,” presenting both Part 1 (“Millennium Approaches”) and  Part 2 (“Perestroika”). 

Such a venture brings with it high expectations, which Bard Fest and director Glenn Dobbs more than meet. This play cycle also makes demands of its audience: two sessions of three acts (with two intermissions) each. However, it helps to consider each hour-long act as part of a six-episode drama series you would normally “binge” at home, but get the full experience with cast and audience at the beautiful Schrott Center for the Arts (Butler campus, just east of Clowes).

This story of a plague, the AIDS epidemic, is set in an era that seemed a little unreal, the 1980s – an actor in the White House, a sense of things both beginning and ending with the almost mythical Year 2000 on the horizon. But for a gay man, suddenly, seeing next year or even tomorrow is an issue. Thus, the deep drama gets punctuated by bits of welcome levity and meaningful absurdity. By the time the actual angel from Heaven appears, it seems all too appropriate.

We focus on a number of personalities whose paths criss-cross in New York. Prior Walter (Jay Hemphill) finds he may have to give up more than his drag act as symptoms including fatigue and sores that won’t heal signal that he has the dreaded disease – a fact his lover, Louis Ironson (Matt Anderson), can’t deal with. 

In another apartment, married Mormon couple Joe and Harper Pitt (Joe Wagner and Miranda Nehrig) have their own issues, namely his secret life and her unsettled mind. Joe has just been offered a position in Washington D.C. at the recommendation of the most powerful attorney in the Big Apple, Roy Cohn (Chris Saunders). Roy doesn’t let little things like the law and ethics stand in the way of what he sees is right; he’s also “not a homosexual” who has sex with men, and “doesn’t have AIDS,” demanding his doctor write liver cancer on his chart. Still, no amount of money and influence can keep him off the hospital AIDS ward, where he is tended to and tolerated by gay nurse – and Prior and Louis’ dear friend – Belize (Allen Sledge). 

Eventually, a drunken phone call will inspire Joe’s mother, Hannah (Nan Macy), to leave Utah for New York, and Prior will start to hear the sounds of great feathered wings and the voice of the Messenger (Afton Shepard).

Among other roles by these actors, Macy appears as the ghost of Ethel Rosenburg, who Roy was proud to send to her execution; Sledge is Mr. Lies, a rather entertaining side-effect of valium; and Shepard is a kind but professional nurse practitioner.

Also, we have shadows – Lucy Fields, Scott Fleshood, Jeff Goltz, Kelly Keller, and Eli Robinson – who appear, looking like ninjas, to move set pieces and more importantly to animate Shepard’s angel and her majestic wings. This effect is especially impressive in the second play, as Prior finds himself in a situation that is both life-and-death, and something beyond. The wings, designed and built by Goltz, are practically a character themselves.

This entire cast that Dobbs has assembled and guided are brilliant actors who give their all to this modern classic. I could go on and on about Hemphill fully embodying his role; Anderson finding a way to squeeze nobility out of weakness; Macy getting to unleash force-of-nature moments; Sledge proudly giving us characters persevering even as patience is tested; Wagner as one working through the confusion of not knowing one’s own self and distressed at what he finds; Nehrig portraying mental illness in a way that’s amusing without mocking or caricature; Saunders as the bad guy still managing to ride out on top; and Shepard as something beautifully other-worldly. 

For anyone good with putting in the time and seeing R-rated content, this production absolutely must be seen. Aside from quality performances, it is a reminder of what cruel indifference to LGBTQ people did in another era, and that compassion and humane politics matter, always.

The performance schedule going forward from this posting is:

  • Friday, June 9, Part 1: Millennium Approaches
  • Saturday, June 10, Part 2: Perestroika
  • Sunday, June 11, Part 2: Perestroika 
  • Friday, June 16, Part 1: Millennium Approaches
  • Saturday, June 17, Part 2: Perestroika
  • Sunday, June 25, Both parts

For more information, and tickets, visit indybardfest.com.

A king’s journey, from fun with Falstaff to hostilities with Hotspur

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This Show is part of Bard Fest, central Indiana’s annual Shakespeare festival. Info and tickets at www.indybardfest.com.

By John Lyle Belden

While I can heartily recommend any of this year’s Bard Fest shows, the one that has the most elements of Shakespeare’s storytelling is the oft-overlooked “Henry IV, Part 1,” presented by First Folio and directed by Glenn L. Dobbs. It combines comedy, drama, adventure, and a bit of actual British history in a rather entertaining package.

It is a story of the misspent youth of “Bonny Prince Hal” (Matthew Walls), the man who would eventually become the legendary King Henry V, as well as the struggle by his father, Henry IV (Abdul Hakim-Shabazz), to maintain a united kingdom.

Hal has his fun with best friend Ned Poins (John Mortell) as they jest with famed drunkard Sir John Falstaff (Matthew Socey) and his minions, cowardly Bardolf (Jonathen Scoble) and berserker Peto (Missy Rump). From these scenes we get a lot of laughs, and are treated to some of the Bard’s more colorfully-written insults.

Meanwhile, the King has to deal with a plot led by Henry Percy (Matt Anderson), known as Hotspur for his fiery temper, aided by relatives Worcester (Sara Castillo Dandurand) and Mortimer (Eric Mannweiler), the Scottish Earl of Douglas (Andy Burnett), and Welsh rebel Glendower (David Mosedale). On Henry’s side stand Sir Walter Blunt (Eli Robinson), Lord Westmoreland (Brian Kennedy), and eventually Hal, the Prince of Wales himself, having sworn off his prior foolishness.

The decisive battle that ensues gives the narrative a sense of completion, especially in Hal’s arc from boy to man, but leaves sufficient details to be resolved in the more serious “Henry IV, Part 2.” Still, this play easily stands alone.

Our cast inhabit the roles naturally — perhaps Socey is just an alias for Falstaff? Hakim-Shabazz is appropriately noble, Walls slips easily into Hal’s many modes, and Anderson can play a villain like no other. Also notable are Afton Shepard as Percy’s bitter wife (as well as a sweet “working girl” at the tavern), and Michelle Wafford as a Welsh lady betrothed to a man she loves but whose language she can’t understand, and especially as the in-charge Hostess of the Boar’s Head Tavern.

Remaining performances are 8 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Saturday (with talkback afterward) and 1 p.m. Sunday at the District Theatre, 627 Massachusetts Ave.

‘Hosanna’ to the Mud Creek ‘Superstar’

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By John Lyle Belden

“Jesus Christ Superstar,” Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera passion play, opened, appropriately, on Good Friday at Mud Creek Players.

The production, directed by Michelle Moore, embraced its setting within the cozy confines of the MCP “barn,” with rough-wood sets and a punk aesthetic, backed by a five-piece rock band. Cast members filled the aisles at times, lending a feeling more immersive than crowded. The costumes appeared to be raided from “Hair” or “American Idiot,” but still worked in the overall look, making our two male leads better stand out — the disciple Judas (Michael Lipphardt) all business in a leather jacket, and Jesus (Onis Dean) dressed casual like a man who, naturally, would fit in anywhere.

For those unfamiliar with this telling of the last week of Christ’s life, these are the main two perspectives — Judas fearing what could happen, and Jesus frustrated that only he can see what must happen — followed by the points of view of Mary Magdalene (Pearl Scott), a woman in love with the man as much as what he stands for; and Caiaphas (Lot Turner), the High Priest who sees a threat not only to his own personal power, but also to the safety of Jews in occupied Roman Palestine.

Dean and Lipphardt sing their hearts out — and I worry for their throats. Scott is pure sweetness. Turner just oozes corruption, ably accompanied by Kata Ewigleben as Annas. We also get good vocals from Eli Robinson as Simon the Zealot and Austin Stodghill as the Apostle Peter. Jeremy Crouch is regal as Pilate, and Rick Barber absolutely fabulous as King Herod.

“Don’t get me wrong, now,” I won’t say this production is flawless, but taken as a whole, in the spirit of this time of year, it is an incredible experience and celebration of a foundational event of Christianity.

Performances run through May 4. Mud Creek Players is at 9740 E. 86th St. in northeast Indianapolis, near Geist. Call 317-290-5343 or visit mudcreekplayers.com.

‘It is, it is a glorious thing!’ Agape kids plunder another classic

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By John Lyle Belden

A year after their triumphant production of “Les Miserables,” the children and teens of Agape Performing Arts Company take on something much lighter, the Gilbert and Sullivan comic operetta, “The Pirates of Penzance.”

In this classic piece of British silliness – with its biting satire of Victorian devotion to class, honor and duty – our hero Frederic concludes his indenture as a Pirate (he was to become a sea “pilot,” but there was a misunderstanding). His duty done, he leaves the ship to do what any good English citizen would do: Fight piracy. When he sees the dozen daughters of the local Major General, Frederic dumps his middle-aged nurse, Ruth, and seeks to woo the girls. Naturally, they refuse, except for nightingale-voiced Mabel, who takes pity on him. But as romance blooms, we find we aren’t yet done with the Pirate King and his crew, especially when Ruth reveals a technicality that could bring Frederic back into their ranks for the rest of his life.

As this large production features so much young talent over its two-week run (ending Sunday), many of the roles were double-cast. The leads I saw, in the “Gilbert Cast,” included Alex Bast as Frederic and Carlynn Berners as Mabel. Maura Phipps was impressive as Ruth, and Tekoa Rea-Hedrick nimbly recited the popular patter of the “Modern Major General.” In the “Sullivan Cast,” these roles are played by Aidan Morris, Christina Canaday, Sabrina Duprey and Luke Proctor. Working with both casts are Eli Robinson as the charming and energetic Pirate King, and spry Carter Dills, showing his dancing skill as Sergeant of the reluctant Constables dispatched to confront the pirates.

While the youths and their adult mentors take their stagecraft seriously, evident by the choreography, excellent costuming, and commitment to the comic bits, no matter how slapstick, there was a definite air of fun throughout. Thus, you won’t find this reviewer nitpicking – no doubt flaws and technical issues are being addressed as I write this, readying this crew to sail afresh on Friday. Speaking of which, it is notable that during the curtain call after each performance, all backstage crew members are called on stage to take a bow as well. Everyone’s hard work is appreciated.

Direction is by Kathy Phipps, with student assistant Mikaela Smith; musical director April Barnes, with Alex Bast. Choreography is by Faith Anthony and Arabella Rollison.

Performances are 7:30 p.m. Friday (Sullivan), 3:30 p.m. Saturday (Sullivan), 7:30 p.m. Saturday (Gilbert) and 3:30 p.m. Sunday (Sullivan) at McGowan Hall (Knights of Columbus #437), 1305 N. Delaware in downtown Indianapolis. Info and tickets at www.agapeshows.org.

Agape Performing Arts is a program of Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church, Greenwood, Ind.

Can you see the children sing?

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By John Lyle Belden

For sheer ambition alone, the children and teens of Agape Performing Arts Company should be commended for their production of the musical “Les Miserables.” And as is often the case with student theatre around Indy, you’ll enjoy this show even if you don’t know the kids involved.

The dozens of youths in cast, crew and orchestra give tremendous energy to the sweeping Victor Hugo saga of redemption, love and revolution in 19th-century France. The production acquired a rotating stage, and made an easily-assembled but stageworthy Barricade that was swiftly put together and disassembled. One death scene utilizes a Hollywood-style stunt fall. Costuming and makeup are excellent.

And while one can forgive the limitations of youth and experience as the actors bravely take on the near-operatic almost non-stop singing, there were some genuine stand-outs, including Samantha Koval as Fantine, Olivia Ortmann as Eponine, Eli Robinson as Javert, Connor Cleary as Marius and Alex Bast as Enjolras. Luan Arnold holds the center of the show as Jean Valjean. Young charismatic Aaron Sickmeier is a Broadway-quality Gavroche. Thomas Tutsie and Hannah Phipps do a gritty good job as the Threnardiers. And as a mild comedy relief character, the drunken member of the student revolutionaries, Christopher Golab is the best Grantaire I’ve seen in any “Les Mis” production.

Agape, a youth arts ministry of Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church, performs the School Edition of the musical, so some language is softened – often cleverly – but not too jarring for those familiar with the original lyrics. Still, the story deals with topics including prostitution, death and war, so it is still “PG” in content. As adult director Kathy Phipps points out in her program Note, the play suits a Christian company as it tells the story of redemption and reaching for goodness, contrasted with a character who thinks he’s serving God by his inflexible adherence to the law.

This production has just one weekend of performances, through Sunday, April 9, at the Knights of Columbus McGowan Hall, 1305 N. Delaware St. in downtown Indianapolis. Tickets are just $10 each, less for students, at www.thelittleboxoffice.com/agape.

John L. Belden is also Associate Editor and A&E editor of The Eagle (formerly The Word), the Indianapolis-based Midwest LGBTQ news source.