The Hyperion Players

Getting in our ‘Steps’

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By John Lyle Belden

In a bizarre coincidence that Alfred Hitchcock would find delightful, this last weekend saw two openings of the British thriller-turned-farce, “The 39 Steps,” adapted by Patrick Barlow from a four-hand comedy by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, heavily based on Hitchcock’s 1935 film of the same name, based somewhat on the 1915 novel by John Buchan.

The movie is notable for helping establish the drama film tropes of man-on-the-run and the potential comedy goldmine of two people who don’t get along being chained to each other. The more interesting scenes and twists? Hitch’s idea.

As noted, there are two productions spaced about three counties apart. Hyperion Players presents its “39 Steps” at the Switch Theatre in Fishers. Meanwhile, Eclipse Productions plays its version in Waldron Auditorium in downtown Bloomington.

The plot (for both): In the 1930s, Richard Hannay, a Canadian living in London, seeks diversion in a music hall featuring a performance by Mister Memory, during which he encounters a woman who ends up back at his flat (oh!), then mysteriously stabbed in the back (ugh!). She had warned Hannay of some international spy intrigue, and her death convinces him to go to Scotland – while London police seek him for the woman’s murder – to figure out what’s happening, including the identity of The Thirty-Nine Steps. On the way, he dodges a police patrol by kissing a woman on the train, who responds by turning him in to his pursuers. As luck will have it, she will later encounter him again, and again betray him. Mayhem follows Hannay up to the Highland moors and eventually back down to London for the climactic showdown that could clear his name and save England (at least for a few years).   

The Barlow script amps up the inherent humor of its Hitchcockian quirks and is staged with improvised props and four actors: one to play Hannay, one to be the women he encounters, and a couple of “Clowns” who play all the other roles.

The Hyperion production does this play silly; the Eclipse production does it weird. Both do it excellently.

In Fishers, Hyperion Players emphasizes the master of suspense. The script does have nods to other Hitchcock films, but here we also get a “Frenzy” of references in the curtain speech. Also, there are a few birds around the stage (crows, I believe, which counts as attempted “murder”).

Josh Elicker plays Hannay appropriately amused and bewildered by all the bizarre goings-on. Sarah Eberhardt is the leading lady, employing comically outrageous accents as German Annabel Schmidt and Scottish Margaret, contrasted with the more natural manner of Pamela (the woman on the train).  The Clowns are frenetically and effectively played by Becca Bartley and Ryan Moskalick, who makes a brilliant Mister Memory. Evangeline Bouw directs.

The set, designed by Beth Fike, looks like a stage with random pieces upon it like it’s between shows. The players make good use of items including a door frame, a piece of wall with a window, and a single comfy armchair. The plot moves along earnestly following the beats of the film, but in a manner showing they don’t take themselves too seriously. The result is like a spy-thriller sitcom.

Down in Bloomington, Eclipse (no relation to the summer student company in Indy) emphasizes the Clown aspect of the production. In fact, in a nod to theatre traditions including commedia dell’arte, we have one regular actor, Konnor Graber as our dashing Hannay, dealing with a small troupe of traditional costume-and-makeup clowns: Shayna Survil (the leading ladies), Steve Scott, Vera Wagler, and Jada Buehler. Having three rather than two “Clown” players makes for creative division of roles, including Mister Memory simultaneously presented by Wagler and Buehler, working almost like conjoined twins adorned in classic Tragedy and Comedy masks.

Speaking of which, assistant director Jeremy J. Weber invites all in attendance to put on one of the provided masks (yours to keep) to help immerse yourself in the goings-on. Director Kate Weber and the company arranged the seating surrounding a central area (suggesting a circus) where most of the action takes place. Gags and props are exaggerated, and a fight scene becomes like a professional bout with Survil walking the perimeter with a Ring Girl’s sign. The wild goings-on and sharply executed physical comedy almost overshadow the story’s plot. Still, this unique experience is worth the drive down to B-town.

So try one – or both! – of “The 39 Steps.”

Hyperion’s plays Thursday through Saturday at The Switch Theatre (Ji-Eun Lee Music Academy) 10029 126th St., Fishers. Tickets at hyperionplayers.com.

Eclipse’s plays Thursday through Sunday at Waldron Auditorium, 122 S. Walnut St., Bloomington. Tickets at eclipseproductionscompany.com.

Hyperion passes Inspection

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By John Lyle Belden

Hyperion Players just presented “An Inspector Calls,” a thriller and modern-day morality play by J.B. Priestley, for one weekend at the Switch Theatre in Fishers.

We open in 1912, during a dinner at the posh home of industrialist Arthur Birling (Christopher Vojtko), celebrating the engagement of daughter Sheila (Megan Fridenmaker) to Gerald Croft (Vincent Pratt), son of Birling’s business rival. Also present are Arthur’s perfectly upstanding wife Sybil (Jennifer J. Kaufmann) and their drunken disappointment of a son Eric (Logan Browning). The evening is interrupted by a visitor, police Inspector Goole (Josh Elicker), who informs them a young woman had just died by her own hand, then interrogates each of these characters to reveal their individual roles in the woman’s demise. It appears only the dutiful maid Edna (Lea Ellingwood) is spared.

From this simple plot, a complex web of secrets and shameful behavior is revealed. The cast all act appropriately pretentious and aghast at every turn. Though set in England, no one forces a fake British accent, which helps keep the performances natural, but still spoken with proper airs so that this could be envisioned as a family of Gilded Age Americans – discussions of impending knighthood, pounds and shillings, etc., aside.

Director Nicole Amsler added the innovation of numerous shadow puppets to illustrate the story of the deceased, set in the background at various scenes throughout the play. The tactic is effective, adding to the overall narrative like flashes of memory in a well-made film. The shadows also add to the noir atmosphere and feel appropriate to a pre-cinema culture. In this way, the late Eva Smith – a/k/a Daisy Renton, a/k/a the false Mrs. Birling – becomes a major part of the drama without us ever actually seeing her face. The 200 shadow puppets were crafted and controlled by Delaney Amsler, assisted by Ellingwood; Lesie Blackwell was stage manager.

Votko has Arthur epitomize the Englishman striving to ever be the ideal gentleman – in his words, “a hard-headed, practical businessman.” He constantly needs to be in charge, so is perpetually perturbed as Goole doesn’t play along. Kaufmann ensures Sybil is never shaken from her elitist perch, though she is severely tested. Browning plays Eric as the man-child struggling to rise but only finding his parents’ disappointment. It is Croft, given the proper stiff upper lip and grinning noble bearing by Pratt, who appears to be the son Arthur hoped for. So, it is left to Fridenmaker to give us a Sheila with a conscience, despite having been rude and spoiled as befitted her upbringing. She gets an opportunity for personal growth, which can make her the audience proxy – aside from what you see in yourselves in the other, less likable roles.   

As our Inspector, Elicker presents an eccentric archetype that would come to life later in the century thanks to writers like Agatha Christie and is practically stereotypical by the lifetimes of us in the audience. In the proper home of a “former Lord Mayor of Brumley,” this mainly serves to keep the occupants nicely off-balance, adding to the humor of a clash of social mores. As there are themes of oppression by the uncaring towards lower classes, Goole gets a bit preachy, but his words have an effect. After he departs, the play’s stunning end scene reveals a very telling test of human nature.

If you’ll pardon a spoiler (maybe you’ll forget this by the time another company stages the play), after the curtain, we are left with the question: Who exactly was The Inspector? Between us, my partner Wendy has her suspicions (something you’d find in the details).

This production gives us another example of how Hyperion Players is bringing us intriguing and thought-provoking, yet quirky and entertaining shows, worth the jaunt for Indy folks to eastern Hamilton County. Their next scheduled productions, “The Woman in Black,” opening Oct. 24, and “The 39 Steps,” opening next March 20, will also be at The Switch in Fishers. Find details at hyperionplayers.com.

Hyperion hosts good zombie play

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By John Lyle Belden

Local performer Brad Staggs said he took it as a challenge when several years ago his wife said, “There’s no such thing as a good play about zombies.” While the silver screen has stories of these undead of varying quality, and television the acclaimed “Walking Dead” (based on a brilliant comic book), this actually was in the realm of possibility.

In “I Love My Zombie,” which Staggs wrote, directed, and took a role in on June 6-9 at Theater at the Fort in Lawrence, he manages not only an entertaining zombie-centered comic drama, but also a tribute to the golden age of television and thinly-disguised tribute to the bold character of the legendary Lucille Ball.

In the Hyperion Players production, Becky Schlomann plays this parallel-America’s TV star June Burns, who, like Ball in our world, runs the production company that makes the number-one 1950s sitcom, “I Love My Wife,” starring her and her husband, Jimmy Teague (Ron May), who happens to be a zombie.

In the last days of World War II, the Nazis released an experimental gas as they retreated, which the Allied soldiers and civilian aid workers did not feel the effects of for a few years. In varying states of decay, yet fully active, the turned zombies, recognizable by sickly colored skin, were designated Stage One, like Jimmy, physically and mentally intact; Stage Two, like comic Sy Greenblaum (Jerry Robbins), losing body parts that can be simply reattached to regain function; Stage Three, largely mute and slow of mind but physically strong; and Stage Four, the kind you really don’t want to meet.

Carl Cooper (Robert Fimreite), another Stage One, is president of the Zombie Actors Union, which looks out for performers like Jimmy, as well as the Stage Three stagehands (Lauren Lotzow and Natalie George). June and Jimmy’s human costar Madeline Blonstein (Veronique Duprey) has grown weary of working with the undead; she commiserates with production assistant Michael Eastman (Brynn Lee), who is influenced by the letters published in the paper attributed to the mysterious “Mr. Kaplan,” who calls all zombies a dangerous menace that should be removed from regular human society.

Meanwhile, Gary (David Muller), the Director of “I Love My Wife,” apparently lives in his production booth and we only hear his voice.

This story is narrated to us by LAPD Detective Sam Cutty (Staggs), who tells it during a 1972 police seminar, with the help of his groovy young niece Tammy (Sydney Adams). Cutty was there in 1952 when he was called in to investigate a murder involving the aforementioned characters, leading to a bigger and more sinister plot.

I won’t spoil this, because hopefully this play will return at a later date. Staggs crafted an interesting mystery with lots of fun comic elements, featuring creatures who are not necessarily the bad guys, and not nearly as “mindless” as the attitudes of certain humans. The moral codes of the 1950s add to the atmosphere of discrimination as America deals with another easily misunderstood minority. June takes a stand as a voice for decency, rallying our sympathies as well as her castmates.

Sydney Jackson was assistant director. Beth Fike designed the sets. Ash Dykstra did the un-lifelike makeup.

From our perspective, we say “mission accomplished” for Staggs – a good zombie play with good zombies. This also shows Hyperion further establishing itself as another quality local theatre company. It starts its next season in September with “An Inspector Calls” by J.B. Priestley, directed by Nicole Amsler. See HyperionPlayers.com for details.

‘Grand’ look at love and relationships

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By John Lyle Belden

Welcome to Grand Horizons Independent Living Community, conveniently located about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, Pa., or Washington, D.C. In nice apartments with neighbors close at hand a retired couple like Bill and Nancy French, married 50 years, are free to do whatever they want.

Nancy: “I want a divorce.”

Bill: “Okay”

Welcome to “Grand Horizons,” the Broadway comic drama by Bess Wohl presented in its Indiana premiere by The Hyperion Players, directed by Nicole Amsler.

Bill (Chris Otterman) and Nancy (Wendy Brown) prepare for their split as if it were just another household chore, but their sons and daughter-in-law are, to put it mildly, freaking out. Brian (Matt Hartzburg), a high school theatre teacher, is beside himself, wondering if there’s some mystery illness or dementia at play. Older brother Ben (Todd Isaac), a lawyer, is stumped at the illogic of it all, while his very pregnant wife Jess (Morgan Marie French), a couples counselor, tries to employ her skillset to no avail.

There are some deep issues here, including the central couple’s affections outside their marriage – Nancy for now-deceased old flame, Hal, and Bill for new girlfriend, Carla (Cathie Morgan). There is exploration of the nature and meaning of love: Did the Frenches lose it, or ever really have it? And how has it affected their sons, who are each hopeless people-pleasers – Ben with his checkbook, and Brian with his desire to cast every kid in his class whether the roles exist or not.

Brian’s loneliness and confusion comes through in a scene where he brings home a potential one-night stand, Tommy (Austin Uebelhor), who quickly alerts him that neediness is not a turn-on.

As for Ben, he is coming to grips with the actual dysfunction in his upbringing, suddenly afraid of what it could mean as he starts a family of his own. This stress also pushes Jess to the limit.

This examination of relationships and how we feel and communicate blends moments of heartfelt memory and longing with hilarious family-sitcom punchlines. Since older-person roles are usually supporting, it was nice to see Brown and Otterman really shine as the leads. Hartzburg and Isaac portray well two men who haven’t quite emerged from their boyhood insecurities, while Morgan French shows the spark of motherhood that comes with being on the verge of bringing another life into the world, while wondering if she is the only true grownup in the room.

Caroline Frawley assistant directs, and Elianah Atwell is stage manager.

Learn how marriage is like a boa constrictor, that “the defining feature of being an adult is not doing what you want,” and to be careful with the U-Haul. Remaining performances of “Grand Horizons” are Friday through Sunday, March 22-24, at Arts For Lawrence’s Theater at the Fort, 8920 Otis Ave. Get info and tickets at hyperionplayers.com or artsforlawrence.org.