Tracy Letts

ALT: Big issues in small-town meeting

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By Wendy Carson

Small town politics is much more important than it appears. As we see in “The Minutes,” by Tracy Letts, a lot can happen in a single meeting, and missing it could change your whole standing within the community itself.

Such is the plight of Mr. Peel (Josh Ramsey), who missed last week’s City Council meeting to attend to his dying mom. He knows something major occurred from overhearing the others talk but only discovers it resulted in the removal of Mr. Carp (Charles Goad) from the council.

His queries to Mayor Superba (Stephen Roger Kitts II) and clerk Ms. Johnson (Susannah Quinn) get him nowhere. However, Mr. Hanratty (Scot Greenwell) is willing to help him shed a little light on the matter in return for support towards his proposal.

The council is filled with a plethora of quirky characters. Mr. Blake (Ian Cruz) is a paranoid schemer who is overly confident of the success of his bill regardless of its practicality. Mr. Breeding (Raymond Kester) is “The Weathervane” of the town but has no desire to make waves of his own. Ms. Innes (Suzanne Fleenor) has some good points to make but buries them inside a tangle of poetry and nonsense that annoys even the most even-tempered in the room. Mr. Oldfield (Len Mozzi), who served on the council the longest, has a tendency to ramble and forget things. Mr. Assalone (Tristan Ross) is “The Junkyard Dog” of the group and made even more imposing by his brother being Town Sheriff. Finally, Ms. Metz (Paige Scott), while physically present, pops so many pills that we have no idea where her mind actually is.

With the Big Cherry Heritage Festival rapidly approaching and its planning the most important thing that the Council actually does, Mr. Peel finds the unexplained absence of last week’s minutes – as well as where Mr. Carp is – to be of far greater import.

Directed by Chris Saunders for American Lives Theatre, this comic drama shows Letts’ ability to connect with and in a relatable manner reflect the personalities of small-town America. While there is much hilarity within these scenes, there is an equal amount of reality as to the inner workings of city government.

The talent level of the cast is spectacular and under Saunders’ steady hand, none of them overshadow each other and perform as a well-oiled machine.

So, who is the real hero of The Battle of Mackie Creek? What is more important, truth or the status quo? Why is the town named Big Cherry? These questions and much, much more will be answered (mostly) at the Phoenix Theatre Cultural Centre, 705 N. Illinois St., Indianapolis, through Feb. 11. For tickets and information, visit phoenixtheatre.org or americanlivestheatre.org.

‘August’ in June in Westfield

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By John Lyle Belden

It may be cliché, but the phrase “putting the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional” completely fits the Tony and Pulitzer winning tragicomedy “August: Osage County” by Tracy Letts, now on stage for another weekend at the Basile Westfield Playhouse, presented by Main Street Productions, directed by Brent Wooldridge.

Set in in 2007 in rural Oklahoma, where the hills near Tulsa meet the plains, we open with retired poet and professor Beverly Weston (Rob Lawson) hiring Johnna (Bella King) to help care for the house and his wife Violet (Sally Carter), who struggles with mental issues, cancer, and drug addiction. Being not related to anyone else in the play, the young Cheyenne woman will be about the only truly sane and sensible character in the cast.

Soon, Beverly disappears and family members come out of the woodwork (or at least fly in from other states). Strain, secrets, and substance use all take their toll in scenes both hilarious and disturbing – often simultaneously.

Carter gives a tour de force performance, swinging from one extreme to another, to moments of cool rationality, throughout. In turn, Violet’s daughters have their own issues with which they don’t deal well: Barbara (Molly Bellner) divorcing husband Bill (Jeff Peabody) and at wits end with teen daughter Jean (Megan Janning); Ivy (Monya Wolf) chafing to get out from under her mother’s thumb while keeping a devastating secret; and Karen (Caity Withers), who is set to marry Steve (JB Scoble), a guy so sketchy he could only be from Florida. Meanwhile, Violet’s sister Mattie Fay (Julie Dutcher) spreads bitterness that only her saintly patient husband Charlie (Jim LaMonte) can tolerate, saving her sharpest barbs for “loser” adult son Little Charles (Jonathan Rogers). Also on hand is Sheriff Deon Gilbeau (Mike Bauerle), who was Barbara’s prom date in high school. Each of these actors get several moments to shine.

Set design by Ron Roessler gives us a full house to hold all the action, while allowing easy movement, visibility and acoustics (attic scenes were as audible as on stage). Susan Yeaw is stage manager.

Hearts and dishes will break in this skewed portrait of Americana. Performances are Thursday through Sunday, June 15-18, at 230 N. Union St., Westfield. Get info and tickets at westfieldplayhouse.org.  

After TOTS triumph, Asaykwee continues dark path

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By John Lyle Belden

If you missed the recent run of the Tracy Letts drama “Killer Joe” at Theatre on the Square, it’s understandable. Sellouts were common, even with an additional performance added.

Still, you would have missed one heck of a show. The raw impact of the story of a redneck Texas family hiring a hitman to kill one of its members, with the titular character agreeing to take the young woman of the family as a “security deposit,” was enforced by a top-shelf cast – including local stage veterans Dan Scharbrough, Nate Walden, Lisa Marie Smith and Jaddy Ciucci.

But the most triumphant performance was by Ben Asaykwee as Joe. For those who only know his work with darkly comic characters – like the many he developed as founder of Q Artistry and shows like “Cabaret Poe” – his chilling transformation into the no-nonsense Texas hitman bordered on shocking. With surprisingly little effort, he projected menace and put us all on notice that his true range and depth is much greater than many ever suspected.

This weekend, TOTS, 627 Massachusetts Ave., Indianapolis, opened the classic Stephen Sondheim musical, “Passion,” playing weekends through March 26. (See www.tots.org.)

Meanwhile, Asaykwee has left downtown and set his sights on entertaining us with the story of an actual killer.

Apparently unafraid of ghosts – working as he has for the past several years in former Masonic Lodge 666 in the haunted neighborhood of Irvington – Asaykwee, with megatalent Claire Wilcher, present “White City Murder,” a new musical based on the exploits of America’s first known serial killer, H.H. Holmes, performed just blocks away from where Holmes briefly lived and is believed to have killed at least one child, who is said to still haunt the home.

The musical runs March 18-20, March 26 and March 31-April 2 at the lodge, 5515 E. Washington St., Indianapolis. It’s plot concerns the “murder hotel” where dozens of young women disappeared during the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair. The events are recounted in the book “The Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, which tells of Holmes’ many murders to collect on victims’ insurance and the building he had constructed to make the process of killing and disposal more efficient.

If anyone can set such a macabre topic to music in an entertaining fashion, it’s Asaykwee – who has already succeeded with the works of Edgar Alan Poe and writing an opera about the tragic Donner Party. And if anyone can help make such an odd show work, it’s Wilcher, who just helped co-write “Babes in Toyland,” is a comic legend with 3-Dollar Bill and ComedySportz, and gave brilliant performances in musicals including “Cabaret” and “Man of LaMancha.”

Find ticket information at www.qartistry.org, or follow “Qartistry” on Facebook.

(This story also posted on The Word.)