Tuesday, November 11, 1997
A ‘Buried’ drama is exhumed
THEATER Revival of Shepard’s award-winning play fails to fully
convey power of the original
By Sam Toussi
Daily Bruin Contributor
In 1977, Sam Shepard won the Pulitzer Prize for drama for
"Buried Child." Nearly 20 years later, Shepard went back to
"Buried." He wanted to clear some things up and have his good
friend Gary Sinise direct a new production of "Buried Child" on
Broadway.
The original was a huge success and secured a Tony nomination.
It is remarkably relevant to the present time, commenting on the
American family structure and how it has, increasingly over the
years, disintegrated and fallen apart.
To celebrate its 20th anniversary, Theatre Forty in Beverly
Hills has produced its version of Shepard’s classic. Despite the
audacity it takes to perform a piece as darkly humorous and complex
as "Buried Child," the Theatre Forty production does not feel out
of place because the playhouse is located at a high school. The
production is amateurish, akin to a typical teenage staging.
The play revolves around a family in Illinois that has obviously
dissolved over the years. The father, Dodge (William Frankfather)
is on his last legs and the mother, Halie (Mary Gregory) is more
concerned with past glories and flirting with a priest (William
Monaghan) than her own family.
Son Tilden (Rick Lenz) is mildly retarded and son Bradley (Darin
Singleton) is mentally unbalanced, as he takes delight in shaving
his father’s head while he sleeps. But the play revolves around
Vince (Garrett Mathany), who claims he is Tilden’s son. The problem
is none of them remember Vince.
They always say that if you don’t have anything good to say, you
shouldn’t say anything at all, but unfortunately the review of this
play must be done.
First, just to appease those who have a sense of courteousness,
the good:
The set is good. It captures the broken-down nature of Shepard’s
"ideal American family." The staircase seems under construction,
but is in fact falling apart. The electrical wiring is bared to the
audience because the walls have deteriorated.
Also, William Frankfather is excellent as Dodge, the father of
the family everyone should be glad they don’t have. His performance
is akin to a Bob Hope gone completely senile. He’s gruff, snide,
cruel and pathetic while remaining likable the whole way through.
He captures the humor and pain inherent in Dodge’s character and
delivers the climactic speech of the play with all the emotion a
broken old man can muster.
Remarkably, he elevates the quality of performance of each actor
he has a one-on-one scene with. Each actor’s best scene is the one
he had with Frankfather, especially Lenz, who plays Tilden as Jimmy
Stewart would have if he were retarded. Lenz portrays a man broken
by the burden of a family secret with all the pain a sinner can
hope for.
Now on to the bad:
The rest of the cast leaves a great deal to be desired. Gregory
has difficulty speaking her lines at times and misses the humor in
her character’s obliviousness. Gwendolyn Sanford, who plays Vince’s
girlfriend, Shelley, has wonderful moments (Especially with
Frankfather) but she has some amateur stage habits such as shifting
her weight nervously. Monaghan seems lost on stage at times.
It appears that the actors just don’t get the play. Their
characters are muddled and it is almost impossible to discern what
each character wants from each scene.
Mathany’s Vince is the core of the play. He is one of the
reasons Shepard rewrote the play as he clarified Vince’s role. It
is Vince who provides the power of the play with his inability to
reach his roots effectively coupled with the secret the family
keeps locked away.
But Mathany doesn’t show his audience that pain. His emotional
flexibility, or lack thereof, leaves his audience completely in the
dark as to why he does anything he does. His realizations of his
purpose in life seem hollow and insignificant.
Physically, Mathany is just as rigid. He barely moves his arms
throughout the play. Such a criticism shouldn’t really even come up
in a review of a professional repertory play, but just imagine a
performer who keeps his arms at his sides the whole performance.
Better yet, imagine a performer with no arms at all.
In directing this piece, director Flora Plumb fails to guide the
actors towards the heart of the play. "Buried Child" isn’t simply
about a dysfunctional family and the horrible secrets held within
it. It is about the pain and sorrow we feel when we lose touch with
who we are and when we stray from our path and find ourselves lost
in confusion and cyclical hopelessness.
Shepard’s work has deteriorated over recent years much like the
family in "Buried Child." Regardless, Shepard will go down as one
of America’s best playwrights. Saying this, it is a tragedy that
Theatre Forty has failed in bringing one of Shepard’s best works to
life.
THEATER: "Buried Child" is being performed at Theatre Forty at
Beverly Hills High School. Tickets are $15 on Thursday and Sunday
and $20 on Friday and Saturday. For tickets, call 818-789-8499.
Theatre Forty
Theatre Forty in Beverly Hills revives Sam Shepard’s drama
"Buried Child."