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Running time 1:40 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a chance to get to know a fascinating individual through a marvelous performance

Storyline: Dalton Trumbo, one of the more successful screenwriters in Hollywood before and during World War II, refused to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. For his stand he was imprisoned and the studios refused to hire him to write screenplays - the infamous blacklisting. The story of his experience is delivered in the first person using his own words from his voluminous correspondence.

The play is an obvious labor of love by its author, the son of its subject. Christopher Trumbo wrote the piece about five years ago and it has been gathering productions around the country. He takes the negatives of Hollywood and Washington during the infamous blacklisting period as a given. The story of "The Hollywood Ten" who became nearly three hundred before it was all over is explained through minimal facts and dates in order to put his father's story into context. But it is never more than his father's story. For an examination of the entire phenomenon of the "red scare" and America's response to the dangers of the cold war, you have to look elsewhere. For a chance to meet and get to know Dalton Trumbo, you need look no further than Rep Stage.

Getting to know Dalton Trumbo, as enjoyable as that may be, is not the only joy this production has to offer. The other is the opportunity to watch Nigel Reed's performance as Dalton Trumbo. He creates a completely compelling character. His "Trumbo" is urbane, witty, intellectual, acerbic, intelligent, loyal and loving. Reed combines all these aspects in a deeply human portrait that rings true. This reviewer doesn't have any idea whether the portrait is accurate, but Reed's creation is a vital, enjoyable and admirable person whose presence it is a pleasure to be in for an hour and a half. It is all the more impressive for those who have watched Reed work before. This is, after all, the actor who created an Oscar Wilde in The Judas Kiss, King Creon in Antigone, Sir George Crotts in Mrs. Warren's Profession, Norman in The Norman Conquests, the gay art dealer in Ten Unknowns and the besotted poet in The Underpants. Those are six very different characters. Here again, Reed creates a distinct and distinctive persona.

Director Steven Carpenter keeps the focus exactly where it should be, on the character and words of Dalton Trumbo. In order to avoid an overly static hour and a half, he moves Reed and Jonathan Watkins (who plays Trumbo's son) around on a multiple platform set designed by Milagros Ponce de León. She flanks the two-platform/metal staircase center section with two wooden walls that act as screens on which to project images of movie posters, period photographs and news clips of the committee investigations.

Written by Christopher Trumbo. Directed by Steven Carpenter. Design: Milagros Ponce de León (set) Melanie A. Clark (costumes) Andrea "Dre" Moore (properties) Andrew M. Haag, Jr. (lights) Neil McFadden (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Emily Carter Watson (stage manager). Cast: Nigel Reed, Jonathan Watkins.

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Running time 2:10 - one intermission
An earnest look at men and women caught up in the horrors of war 
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Storyline: A mélange of memory blends the Vietnam of Lt. William Calley, who led the troops into the village of My Lai, and the world of the first Gulf War through the efforts of a Vietnamese woman to connect with a soldier from her past, while a Palestinian-American woman tries to find out what happened to her brother who served in the American Army in the Saudi desert.

Written by Naomi Wallace. Directed by Kasi Campbell. Fight coordination by Robb Hunter. Design: Dan Conway (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Adrea "Dre" Moore (properties) Daniel Covey (lights) Chas Marsh (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Emily Carter Watson (stage manager). Cast: Dacyl Acevedo, Tim Getman, Brandon McCoy, Tuyet Thi Pham, Alexander Strain.

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Running time 1:30 - no intermission
A rambling stream of consciousness rendered in a highly theatrical manner
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Storyline: The disjointed thought patterns of a monologist are shared directly with the audience (occasionally requesting a bit of audience participation as well) as if he has something he thinks is important to pass on but can't quite put his finger on it.

Just who is this "Thom Paine"? Author Will Eno gives the audience precious little by way of back story. We don't learn where or how he came upon his obvious love of language, his intriguing store of trivia, his considerable powers of observation or his acerbic world view. Playwright Will Eno took the Edinburgh Fringe Festival's "Fringe First Award" in 2004 for this rambling rumination. It captured the attention of such powers-that-be as the Pulitzer judges who considered it a finalist for their 2005 Prize for Drama. It might better be considered for an award for a challenging exercise for an actor, for its principal strength is the series of shifts in pace, tone and topic which an actor must navigate over a period that is simply too long for the content of the piece.

Timothy Andrés Pabon is the actor in this production and he has both the charm and the craft to make the piece be, as the Army says, all it can be. Under Lee Mikeska Gardner's smooth direction, he emphasizes those snippets that connect the pieces (the interrupted stories, running gags and the highly ponderable pithy remarks) without seeming to hammer them home. "When you have one hour to live, think of me," he says at one point, then "When you have one day to live, think of me," at another, and finally "When you have 30 seconds to live, think of me." This could become a mantra in less subtle hands. He manages to get puns across with a sort of self-effacing manner that lets their humor come through without causing a pause in the narrative. ("Love cankers all" gets an appreciative chuckle.)

With no set design (just a chair and a huge dictionary) but a very active light (and darkness) design by Harold Burgess, Pabon is on his own on stage. He succeeds in capturing the attention of the audience, but he can't hold on to that of all of them as the rambling narrative progresses. Chas Marsh helps, especially in the early going, with a soundscape that seems to provide additional dramatic atmosphere. He provides a dripping water sound that might well have been left over from Matt Rowe's audio effects at Signature Theatre's Kiss of the Spider Woman. However, since the story Pabon begins with involves a boy, some bees and a dog at a pond, the echo on the dripping water seems entirely too much like a constricted interior.

Written by Will Eno. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Design: Harold F. Burgess II (lights) Melanie Clark (costume) Chas Marsh (sound) Stan Barouh (photograph) Emily Carter Watson (stage manager). Cast: Timothy Andrés Pabon.

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Running time 2:35 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a solid production of a marvelous play
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Storyline: Late in the nineteenth century in the south of England, the well-educated Miss Warren discovers for the first time the source of the wealth that has paid for her upbringing and education. Her mother has been a tremendously successful practitioner of the madam's art with a chain of brothels from London to Budapest. Well, she can probably deal with the fact that her mother has a past. But when she learns that it isn't just a past, it is a present, that's going too far!

Director Gus Kaikkonen has his cast take pains to avoid rushing through some of the sparkling material in order to keep from having one great line overlap another or one sharp bit by one performer obscure a telling reaction by another. There is a benefit to this approach - we get to savor each and every bon mot, telling rejoinder and character quirk. But there is a cost, as well. The pace feels slow at times and the rapidity of the repartee is just a tad slow. They may go just a bit too far in the genteel feel but each still gets a number of fine moments and the cumulative effect is of charm and intelligence, just right for Shaw!

While Lisa Bostnar has the title role and does a fine job with both its sincerity and its style, it is Natasha Staley who owns the piece as her daughter, Miss Warren. Shaw gives us a Mrs. Warren who is proud of her success in life and suffers no feelings of guilt for her profession, which is precisely why the play was so shocking in its time. It is a character perfectly in tune with early twenty-first century mores in the English speaking world. Miss Warren, on the other hand, with her shock and disapproval, is still a bit of a throwback to the nineteenth and, as such, a harder role to pull off. Staley does it with a sense of personal pride softened with just a touch of the romantic which never cancels the keen intelligence which is the essence of the character. Matt Jared, as Miss Warren's romantic interest takes a while to flesh out his character, but when he does it becomes one of the stronger performances of the evening.  Both Bill Largess, as the reverend with a past (don't all of Shaw's religious characters have a past?) and Nigel Reed, as an unregenerate baronet, provide the kind of charmingly delightful performances every Shaw play deserves. Michael Stebbins offers sharply effective line readings as well.

In keeping with the solid feel of the entire project, the physical designs of Daniel Ettinger, Kathleen Geldard and Daniel Covey are each substantial, appropriate and effective. The script requires four separate locations - two for each act. Ettinger's solution is a turntable with an exterior facing one way and an interior facing the other. It revolves between scenes and then, during intermission, the structure is altered sufficiently so that, when seen again, it is a different locale entirely. Since the show is mounted in the black box space, the audience is treated to the sight of the stage hands making the transition during intermission. Its rather fascinating. Geldard's costumes are high fashion for England in 1894, just the right touch for the play. Covey conveys basic information such as time of day in his lighting as well as subtly supporting mood as the story goes from giddy and fun to serious and fun. 

Written by George Bernard Shaw. Directed by Gus Kaikkonen. Design: Daniel Ettinger (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Andre "Dre" Moore (properties) Daniel Covey (lights) Ellen Mandel (music and sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Emily Carter Watson (stage manager). Cast: Lisa Bostnar, Matt Jared, Bill Largess, Nigel Reed, Natasha Staley, Michael Stebbins.

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Running Time 2:30 - one intermission
A poignant tale of a family’s redemption
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Storyline: Two sisters separated for 20 years; one a Holocaust survivor and the other who has spent nearly all her life in the United States with her father, are unexpectedly reunited in the New York City of 1946. In a few short days the two sisters and their father take a journey through memory while living in the here-and-now to confront the past, including large scale world events and a particular family’s unexpected actions to finally start to heal and embrace the future. All to try to rid themselves of the poison of catastrophe.

Barbara Lebow’s A Shayna Maidel (1987) ran for 501 performances off-Broadway. It is a play about the darkness of the Holocaust without stick figure Nazis in jack boots. The name Hitler is rarely mentioned. This is a play in which one family’s world that has been torn asunder represents millions of others. It is not a linear play; there are a number of flashbacks that are crucial to the understanding of events for those affected. It is not a bombastic text with long set pieces of loud wailing dialogue to inform and debate. It is one where God is represented as a responsible party, but then seems to slowly fade into the background so that humans can work together to understand what is incomprehensible. Lebow gives audiences a more challenging means to bear witness, one where the script must be performed by accomplished actors who can make gestures speak, who can make silence speak, who can make a list of names seem like a blunt instrument, and where choices made with incomplete information leading to unforeseen consequences are the main force holding the play together. A note: There are a number of Yiddish expressions used throughout the play, but an understanding of the language is not necessary, nor does this make this a play only for some. The actions of the actors are like a subtitle for the words spoken on stage. The words could be any language and from any group or people.

Directed by Margaret (Peg) Denithorne, this is a finely crafted portrayal with rich characterizations. The seemingly old-fashioned woman from the old country is given the opportunity to be more complex than she first appears. She is allowed to be openly portrayed as sexually adventuresome and willing to break barriers for the love of her life, even in the old country where tradition supposedly reigned. The modern woman, living in her own apartment, is at first a submissive mouse to her tyrannical controlling Papa. And the Papa maintains his sanity and hold on his place by cutting off any emotional attachments to the world around him -- at least until a final breakdown. Denithorne has her ensemble use gestures, small and large to marvelous effect to underline the written text.  Under her direction, no one is as first seen, and change in characters is realistically developed. The highly skilled ensemble, which includes Helen Hayes winners and nominees, has one particular standout. Lee Mikeska Gardner is revelatory in her role as the supposed old-fashioned Holocaust survivor. She emanates emotions through body movement, hand gestures and facial animation. With an arched eyebrow and a weathering stare Gardner effortlessly replaces reams and minutes of dialogue. Collen DeLany is the “modern American” sister having left Europe when she was 4 with only fleeting memories of those she left behind, including their deceased mother. Matched against Gardner, one can see DeLany go from dutiful daughter of a controlling father to a more complex woman who, thru her own painful journey, learns of the past, and breaks down in a harrowing scene. Dan Manning, with his baritone voice, is the image of the controlling father in his stiffness and coldness, fearful of emotion, having lost his humanity because of an earlier, too prideful decision that affected his family in unspeakable ways. His unyielding positions finally catch up to him in the final fadeout; not so much with something large and symbolic but with a small flick of a hand. Timothy Andres Pabon provides youthful male energy and sexual tension in the early flashback scenes. Later, he is both memory and reality and a key figure to move the play along.

The technical work is exquisite. James Kronzer has turned The Rep Stage's black box theater into a 1940’s New York City apartment with three rooms, each distinct in their purpose. Chas Marsh’s pre-show music with its European style clarinet-dominated Klezmer music transitions to the sounds of American music played almost casually on the radio, all to provoke memory and longing. Costume Designer Howard Vincent Kurtz has made the differences between the two sisters palpable; the younger New Yorker all in fashionable colorful dresses, perfect makeup and well groomed hair, while the newly arrived other sister begins in drab beiges and looks old beyond her real years, and slowly changes though still showing the affects of what she lived through. Jason Arnold's lights make the flashback scenes all their own by moving from the realistic lighting of the New York apartment, making the darkness visible.

Written by Barbara Lebow. Directed by Margaret (Peg) Denithorne. Cast includes: Collen Delany, Rebecca Eliss, Dan Manning, Lee Mikeska Gardner, Timonthy Andres Pabon, and Susan Rome. Technical staff includes: set designer James Kronzer, costume designer Howard Vincent Kurtz, lighting designer Jason Arnold and sound designer Chas Marsh.

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Running time 1:30 - no intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a great comic concept fully developed in a fabulously fun hour and a half
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Storyline: In early 2004, at the first meeting of a college creative writing course, a middle aged Mrs. Farnsworth makes a presentation from the book she is trying to write, which, while she doesn't want to name names, will be a memoir of her history with a youthful Yale boy who did her wrong in her youth. Her professor, a liberal who is passionately opposed to the re-election of the President, sees in the story a scandal that could change the course of history and he drags one George W. Bush related detail after another from her. Just as he thinks he's pieced it all together, however, Mr. Farnsworth shows up looking for his wife and presents arguments which counter her claims.

Kudos are in order for almost everyone involved in the production. Of course, it all begins with A.R. Gurney's script. He's the one who get credit for both the original idea, which is superbly creative in itself, and for developing it in a structure that dribbles out plot developments in measured doses at just the right points along the way, keeping the class - oops, the audience - wondering what comes next. Steven Carpenter directs the play with clarity and some very nice touches such as the creative use of the two doors which flank the lecture space.

Helen Hedman is fabulously flighty as the title character who may or may not have a great story to write. She nudges right up to the line where the audience might decide her character is off the deep end, but she never crosses over it. Jason Schuchman is prototypically the young, liberal, enthusiastic college lecturer. Believability is the key to each of their performances, and each pulls it off with a sense of style and assurance. Then Mitchell Hébert enters. He carries a big burden, since his character has already been established through the dialogue between Hedman and Schuchman over the first half of the play and everyone in the class (there I go again ... audience) has already concluded he's an evil, horrible person -- and a Bush supporter, at that! Hébert not only has to establish his own flesh-and-blood character, he has to undo all that has gone before, to raise questions as to just what is truth and what is fiction from the fertile mind of his spouse. Watching him accomplish this feat is part of the pleasure of the piece.

Attention to detail is always a mark of a superb production, and there are signs of real thought being given to each aspect here. The costumes for all six cast members speak volumes about them. Hedman's neutral toned outfit, Schuchman's cycler's helmet and back pack, Hébert's precisely tied tie and french cuffs are all details that contribute to the believability factor. A projection of an internet page of coverage of the 2004 election campaign on a pull--down screen indicates the time and the element of political interest even before the action begins. Normally, a clock on a set is a distraction as the audience is reminded of the passing of time and may even begin to watch it to see how much longer they must watch a show that is beginning to loose their interest. Not here, for this story plays out in "real time" as a ninety minute class (the schedule showing the class as "Creative Writing 8:00 - 9:30" is written on the white board) and the clock, which reads 8:00 at the start, adds an element of realism that really helps.

Written by A.R. Gurney. Directed by Steven Carpenter. Design: Jason Arnold (art) Melanie Clark (costumes) Andrea "Dre" Moore (properties) Stan Barouh (photography) Stacey Shade (stage manager). Cast: Grace Anastasiadis, Mitchell Hébert, Helen Hedman, Jason Schuchman, Shelby Sours, Daniel Lee Townsend.

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Running time 2:10 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for a fantastic farcical fugue
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Storyline: In 1722 one of the most important musical positions in Germany became vacant. Seven of the leading organists and composers in all of Germany gathered for auditions for the post - everyone named either Johann or Georg. They competed. They argued. They connived. They plotted. But there was one more Johann in the wings - Johann Sebastian Bach.

Campbell takes to the piece with a sense of delicious relish that permeates the production. In fact, the cast seems to be having somewhat more fun that some in the audience. Perhaps some arrived expecting something akin to Amadeus and it took them a while to accept the elements of farce. (A gentleman in front of me turned and all but glowered at my first explosion of laughter.) It didn't take too many of them too long, however, to get into the spirit of the thing and go along with the farce. There is a good deal of exposition to get through in the early going, but once the comic engine gets into gear and the pace picks up, it is a kick.

Bruce Nelson's performance is a classic of surgically precise mannerisms as the excessively prim and proper but morally deficient candidate, who, his colleagues continually remind him, never even gained admission to the music school. Karl Kippola is somewhat more restrained in a role that combines participation in the competition and narration so the audience can figure out what is going on. Each of the organists are played as broadly comical but none quite so broad or quite so funny as Bill Largess' performance as the dimwitted one who never quite realizes that when his colleagues talk about "The Unbelievably Incredulous Fool" they mean him. Alex Zavistovich is very funny, as well, in a recurring walk-on role in which his failure to speak even one word is funnier each time he passes through in light of the continued comments that he's endowed with a glorious voice. 

This is a first class production as well in its physical presentation. The elegant set seems a bit modern for a play set in the eighteenth century but that simply emphasizes the timelessness of the portrayal of human frailties - ambition, jealousy, pride, foolishness - that are being lampooned. The costumes are just right, both for the time and for the characters, and Chas Marsh's sound design not only brings the baroque style of music into the hall, it captures the sound of wishes taking flight as well.

Written by Itamar Moses. Directed by Kasi Campbell. Fight and movement choreography by Lewis Shaw. Design: Milagros Ponce de León (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Dre Moore (properties) Dan Covey (lights) Stan Barouh (photography) Che Wernsman (stage manager). Cast: Matt Dunphy, Karl Kippola, Bill Largess, David Marks, Bruce Nelson, Alexander Strain, Alex Zavistovich.

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Running time 2:00 with one intermission
Two plays with no straight answers
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Storyline:  Two stories that strangely tie together. In the first act two couples must deal with the prospect of an unfaithful partner. In the second act a single couple takes being unfaithful to a new level.

Pinter was once asked what his work was about. His reply, which he regrets making to this day, was a flippant answer, “The weasel under the cocktail cabinet.” Though he claimed he was joking and never really meant it, critics to this day have applied this to his works. And while there may be no weasel under the cabinet, something is hiding there, and throughout the two plays it lurks as a figure just out of sight. It is a tension, a palpable thing like a wave crest just waiting to break but that never comes to pass. Xerxes Mehta has done an excellent job directing these two shows. While the first, The Collection, may seem slower than most feel comfortable with, it still is an admirable work. It is a tale of two couples, Harry and James, and Bill and Stella, whose lives interact when Stella tells Bill that she had an affair with James while they were away on a business conference. Pinter never answers the question 'did the affair ever really happen?" Truly, that is not the focus of the play. Rather, it is the nature of trust, distrust, love and jealousy and the actions they can drive us to perform.

The second show, The Lover, has been staged previously as either a dramatic or comedic piece.  Fortunately for us, Mehta chose comedic, for it allows us to experience the masterful talent for understated comedic acting that comes from Marni Penning. She is a housewife who, with the blessing of her husband, carries on a romantic affair with another man. As the story unfolds and the truth becomes known, her transformations, and the fears of loss and longing that march across Ms Penning’s face are a delight to watch. The role of her husband, played by Nigel Reed, is also well acted, but suffers the curse of being the strait man in the play, and as such his talents do not receive as much recognition.

The set is simple and while it serves its purpose, like the lighting and costumes, it is mere placeholding for the storytelling. This is a quality performance, and it would have been interesting to see it with a larger budget staging, but nothing is lost in its current form. Not every performance can be so surprising in its presentation, but what a delight it is to show up and be unexpectedly whisked away by a master playwright's work retold in such fine form.

Written by Harold Pinter. Directed by Xerxes Mehta. Design: Elena Zlotescu (set and costumes) Judith Daitsman (lights) Ann Warren (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Stacey Shade (stage manager). Cast: Bill Largess, Bolton Marsh, Timothy Andres Pabon, Marni Penning, Nigel Reed, Peggy Yates.

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Running time 2:15 - one intermission
A musical review using songs of 1890 - 1920 to sketch American history of the time
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Storyline: America's emergence into a world power between the administrations of, roughly, Benjamin Harrison and Woodrow Wilson, but centering clearly on Teddy Roosevelt's first decade of the twentieth century, is sketched through a dozen scenes using nearly fifty of the popular songs of the era by a singing, dancing, acting cast of five.

Spark is a difficult thing to create in theater and it seems that the harder you try the harder it gets. This cast gets right up to the edge of ignition a number of times during the show, but each time the momentum seems to falter and the energy escapes leaving the scene flat. With over a dozen dramatically unconnected scenes, the flow that director Carole Graham Lehan seems to be trying to establish just trips as if there were a speed bump in the road. Sometimes it trips over a visual gaffe (Teddy Roosevelt being semi-stripped and apparently going to war in an undershirt). At others it seems it is a sound (Evan Casey's extra-thick East-European accent while singing George M. Cohan's "The Yankee Doodle Boy").

There are moments that seem to work, though. Early in the first act the group breaks into Harry B. Smith and Karl Hoschna's 1905 song "Electricity" and the energy level seems to rise. Later director Lehan demonstrates the felicity of a choreographer/director with a nifty staging of Edwards and Byran's famous "In My Merry Oldsmobile" - no it wasn't first a singing commercial, it was a hit song. Kate Briante affects the vocal mannerisms Anna Held, the prototypical Ziegfeld Girl with a sense of class, and Shannon Wollman gets the earnestness of Emma Goldman right when she does, as Goldman did, "speechify." Goldman wasn't known for her singing, however, nor, for that matter, her dancing. Felicia Curry struts a mean cakewalk and later sells the Bert Williams classic "Nobody."

Daniel Ettinger designed the inaugural setting for the new Black Box, nicely tying the railing of the theater's upper scaffold into the set itself. With a hint of the face of the Statue of Liberty looking on from the back wall, the singing and dancing takes place on a platform of wooden planking that could be a show boat's dock one minute, the factory floor the next and a political convention's dais a moment later. The feel of the space is nicely manipulated by Lynn Joslin's lights, but the decision to open each act with a stage smoke effect goes awry. Perhaps this was because this is a new space and how it works is just being discovered, but the effect seemed unnecessary in the first place. The cast is accompanied by two pianos at the back of the stage. One assumes the two were played by musical director Brant Challacombe and Assistant Musical Director Aaron Broderick, but it isn't mentioned in the program.

Conceived by Mary Kyte with Mel Marvin and Gary Pearle. Directed and choreographed by Carole Graham Lehan. Musical direction by Brant Challacombe. Design: Daniel Ettinger (set) Denise Umland (costumes) Dre Suchoski (properties) Lynn Joslin (lights) Stan Barouh (photography) Cambra Overend (stage manager). Cast: Kate Briante,  Evan Casey, Felicia Curry, Gary Hiel, Shannon Woollman.

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Running time 2:30 - one intermission
A display of acting skills by two fine practitioners
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Storyline: A big Hollywood movie company comes to a small village in County Kerry on the west coast of Ireland where such classic films as John Wayne’s The Quiet Man and David Lean’s Ryan’s Daughter captured the glorious scenery. Two local lads get jobs as extras in the new movie. Their experiences with the cast, crew and the other extras come to a climax when another villager commits suicide on the next to last day of filming by drowning himself in a lake. It is clear that he intended to drown because he had filled his pockets with stones.

When Marie Jones’ play had its first success it was in a tiny theater in Belfast, Northern Ireland. That success led to a run at the fringe festival in Edinburgh, Scotland which led to a London engagement which led to a Broadway run and then a national tour with Bronson Pinchot and Tim Ruddy which played the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in 2003. With each advance, the play found itself in a larger theatre. On Broadway, it was the 800-seat Golden Theatre and, of course, the Eisenhower has about 1,100. Here at Howard Community College's 250 seat Smith Theatre, it seems better scaled, and Rep Stage gives it a comfortably attractive set with projections to change locales for some of the stories the characters tell.

With Bruce Nelson and Michael Stebbins, Rep Stage regulars know they are in for quite a display of thespian legerdemain. They have watched Nelson enthrall as "Gidger" who had a direct connection to the future in The Violet Hour, the father of the rapidly aging Kimberly in Kimberly Akimbo, a marvelously foppish second rate poet in Arcadia, the stranger of two strange brothers in The Dazzle and dry Teddy in Faith Healer, just to mention roles here at Rep Stage. Stebbins created something like forty characters in his career this far with this company but it was in just one show - that other display of performance proficiency, Fully Committed. (In addition, he is Rep Stage's Artistic Director.)

Watching the production, it is difficult to tell if Director Lee Mikeska Gardner exercised her skills by getting Nelson and Stebbins to fill the evening with displays of  performance prowess, or by keeping them from overdoing it. Whichever, she manages to keep the show focused on the story, such as it is. The production has a handsome feel to it with a movie set structure of a rock fence and hill backed by a screen for the projections.

Written by Marie Jones. Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner. Design: Melanie A. Clark (costumes) Dre Suchoski (properties) Lisa L. Ogonowski (lights) Chas Marsh (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Rebecca L. Trotter (stage manager). Cast: Bruce Nelson, Michael Stebbins.

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Reviewed March 26
Running time 3:05 - one intermission
t Potomac Stages Pick for a fascinating performance in the title role
Winner of the Ushers Favorite Show award for March 2006
Click here to buy the script

Storyline: The prince of Denmark discovers that his uncle has murdered his father, the king, and wed his mother, the queen. The quest for vengeance results in the deaths of guilty and innocent alike.

As fascinating as Miller is to watch all through the play, there are other performances of note. Valerie Leonard's queenly presence as Gertrude is punctuated with little touches that make a performance rich. For example, she begins to show the effects of the fatal potion that does her in in a nicely subtle way without distracting from the climactic sword fight. Lawrence Redmond is smooth and dignified as Polonius. Subtlety marks his work as well as he reacts to his son's lack of care for his coat when, in the famous "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" speech, he gets to the line "the apparel oft proclaims the man."  Daniel Frith, as that son, takes a while to get into the meter of Shakespeare's verse, but he is really frightening when he goes into a rage. Kathleen Coons pulls off the famous mad scene of Ophelia very well, although the changes Campbell and Miller adopt robs her of some of the setup, making it initially questionable whether the "mad" in "mad scene" is anger or insanity.

Only in the development of Claudius does the telling of the tale really falter. At first Nigel Reed comes across as a bureaucratic usurper, not as a monster who could have murdered his brother, the king, usurped his throne, bedded his widow and plotted the death of his son all in the space of two months. Reed does make one scene work very well, however. When Hamlet approaches with hate in his heart and sword in his hand only to find Claudius on his knees in prayer, the intensity is everything it should be. Campbell does an interesting thing with the scene, taking Shakespeare's "up sword" as a cue for a sort of instant replay that makes the moment memorable.

The set is a timeless assembly of black and grey with an open grave center-stage through most of the play. With surgically precise lighting by Dan Covey, especially in the ghostly appearances of the dead King in the first scene, this is visually impressive production. The costumes are just a touch distractingly contemporary. The cigarette Miller is smoking at the start of the play is a filter tip, no less. Later he puts out a but in a Champaign flute (an act that annoys Leonard's Gertrude no end) and sits flicking his bic lighter. Black leather jackets and black jeans are fine but Claudius' brown tweed feels a bit out of step with the swords and daggers, as does the logo on the t-shirt worn by Rosencrantz.

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Kasi Campbell. Fight direction by Paul Dennhardt. Movement coaching by Jenny Male. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Tim J. Jones (properties) Dan Covey (lights) Chas Marsh (original music and sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Che Wernsman and Jennifer Woodham (stage managers). Cast: Grace Anastasiadis, JJ Area, Michael Avolio, Jeff Baker, Steve Beall, Kathleen Coons, Aubrey Deeker, James Denvil, Maboud "E" Ebrahimzadeh, James Flanagan, Daniel Frith, Kevin Howard, Zak Jeffries, Valerie Leonard, Jenny Leopold, Ian Lockhart, Brandon McCoy, Karl Miller, Christopher Niebling, Lawrence Redmond, Nigel Reed, Chrissy Wallace.

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Reviewed February 5
Running time 1:40 - no intermission
A fast paced comedy with one performer handling forty characters
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Storyline: A struggling actors' day-job is handling the flood of calls to the reservation line of a trendy restaurant in New York. On one day as the Christmas holiday approaches, he is alone on the phones and has to deal with the egos of the callers who view admission to the hottest bistro in town as affirmation of their importance, and of the staff who call on him to perform tasks not included in his job description. The phone also puts him in touch with his agent as he hopes for the breakthrough in his career that would let him quit the reservation gig, and with his family who can't understand why he can't commit to flying home for the holiday.

Michael Stebbins returns to Rep Stage, but his face won't be that familiar to loyal audiences of this company for this is his first appearance on the stage. He's stage managed. He's directed. Now he's starred. (And, it must be noted that, in character, he has now also cleaned the bathrooms). He needs the range of experiences, because, as reported as today's Daily News Featured Item, he's to be the company's new Artistic Director and Producer. But for now, as the aspiring actor/reservation clerk named Sam he's a harried, harassed and hassled employee alone in a phone center that should have at least two and probably three co-workers. The phones never stop ringing. The gimmick here is that every time he, Sam, answers the phone, he, Michael Stebbins, has to perform the part of the caller as well. The press release says that this means he has forty characters to bring to life. We lost count, but we can't dispute the claim. Stebbins does each distinctively and, since many of them call back again and again, we get to know their quirks, which are many and varied. But the one-joke nature of the material begins to wear thin way too soon.

While the piece is billed as a solo performance piece and there is only one cast member listed in the program, the show requires an unusual amount of cooperation and coordination with the sound board operator, making it almost a two-performer show. The timing of snippets of dial tones, telephone rings, intercom buzzes can make or break many of the individual vignettes as Stebbins moves from the harried central character to each of the callers with whom he must deal. Danny Collins is credited as the sound operator. The sounds he controls in Aaron Broderick's sound design at times drive the tempo and at times match that of Stebbins. As the run continues that tempo should be even further refined.

Daniel Ettinger has provided a cluttered mess of a set which is precisely what the piece requires. The cubbyhole identified as "downstairs" under the up-scale restaurant establishes the status of the reservations phone clerk. A meal at the restaurant "upstairs" goes for "$100 - $200 per person depending . . . " while the isolated clerk scavenges for a left over pizza among the clutter accumulated by properties designer Jen Hoopes and throws it in the microwave.

Written by Becky Mode. Directed by Susan Kramer. Design: Daniel Ettinger (set) Michael Wood (costumes) Jen Hoopes (properties) Jay Herzog (lights) Aaron Broderick (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Cambra Overend (stage manager). Cast: Michael Stebbins.

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Reviewed October 30
Running time 2:35 - one intermission
t A Potomac Stages Pick for an at-times zany, at-times literate comedy of decisions and consequences
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Storyline: Early in the twentieth century a would-be book publisher, setting up his office while trying to pick his first book, receives a strange machine that spews out papers which turn out to be pages of books from later in the century - some of which detail the impacts on his life and those of people about whom he cares, of the different decisions he might make. (The title of the play is the title of one of the books he is considering publishing, which is itself a quote from a poem by T. S. Elliot written three years after the time of the play. That chronological disconnect would be disturbing if it weren't for the time-mixing nature of the story itself. )

After the pure delight of this author's earlier play, Take Me Out, which had such a fine Potomac Region premiere at Studio Theatre this year, you could be excused for being disappointed by this Potomac Stages premiere of the play that followed it onto Broadway and now into our region. On Broadway, Take Me Out was rewarded with awards galore, a one year run and even a Pulitzer nomination, but this Violet Hour closed after just over a month and was forgotten by awards time. However, while the play suffers by comparison, comparison isn't the only way to approach it and there are delights aplenty here even if they don't come at you as thick and fast as in that other play. Had this been produced first, it would have been seen as a precursor to a breakthrough rather than as a let down, because its profusion of great single lines and its intriguing plot concept would have compensated for the uneven exposition, some lengthy speeches and an unsatisfying resolution.

Nelson has both the task of setting up the concept that the mysterious machine is churning out pages from the future and the opportunity of sharing the contents of those pages with the audience. His reaction to the change in the meaning of the word "gay" between the start and the end of the twentieth century is a riff on surprise, horror and denial that is a joy. However, Nelson's role isn't really at the center of the piece. The starring role is that of the publisher. Ian Lockhart stepped into that role when previously announced Karl Miller had to pull out to participate in a New York-based project. Perhaps that substitution didn't give Lockhart enough time to hone his performance, for at least on opening night, he looked sharp in the part, but seemed to move from one gesture or reaction to another rather abruptly. No such problem, however, with either Deidra Lawan Starnes as a jazz singer who wants her memoirs published or Timothy Andrés Pabon as the other author under consideration, a long time friend of the publisher who has delivered his million-page draft in three trunks. Rounding out the cast is Megan Anderson as a poor little rich girl with her own agenda.

Richard Montgomery has created a large set in the small space of Howard Community College's Theatre Outback, a black box that the company often uses with fine results. The set seems a precise recreation of a somewhat utilitarian space high in one of the towers in New York's Flatiron neighborhood, perhaps in the Flatiron Building itself which would have been getting just a bit seedy given the competition from other, larger and more opulent towers rising in New York at the time of the play which is April 1, 1919. Greenberg may have picked that date as a reference to April Fools Day but the play is no mere prank. When Nelson is on stage, it is a great treat and the rest of the time an intriguing if uneven piece.

Written by Richard Greenberg. Directed by Kasi Campbell. Design: Richard Montgomery (set and properties) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Jenny Male (movement coach) Marianne Meadows (lights) Chas Marsh (music and sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Katherine C. Mielke (stage manager). Cast: Megan Anderson, Ian Lockhart, Bruce R. Nelson, Timothy Andrés Pabon, Deidra LaWan Starnes.

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Reviewed September 24
Running time 2:20 - one intermission
An inventive staging of an episodic comedy featuring three fine performances
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Storyline: Having been released from prison, two down-on-their-luck losers take to the back roads of South Carolina. In a series of encounters with a store clerk, a used car dealer, a homeless man, a randy lady, a slick politician and others, their luck goes from bad to worse as they get the short end of the stick on each transaction.

The episodic nature of the script makes for repetitions of good fun. In fact it suffers from the fact that there are probably two too many repetitions. Director Jackson Phippin compensates for that with inventive use of a turntable stage, a succession of cute set pieces bearing labels such as "Inside De Sto," and a marvelous foot-powered bumper car bearing the license "DEBUIK" to lend additional humor and expedite the scene changes. Phippin, who directed Rep Stage's two-performer Fool for Love two years ago, now handles a cast of three. But here it isn't a two- or three-character play, it is at least an eight character show with two actors playing the title characters and one playing everyone else.

Whenever a part is best described as "everybody else" the actor involved has the opportunity to steal the show. It takes a high sense of ensemble responsibility to refrain from unbalancing a team effort, and Peter Wray meets that responsibility while convincingly demonstrating that he could steal each of his scenes away if he really wanted to. He's a lot of fun to watch, especially as a bumbling store clerk whose malapropisms include such gems as "Guns don't kill people. People kill guns. (A pause of just the right duration.) No, that ain't right."

The two main characters are played with quite a bit of congenial chemistry by Joseph Andrew Mills, III as the more mature, more grounded and more criminally experienced "T-Bone." Timothy Andrés Pabon brings a brightness to the role of the slightly fawning more clueless youngster called "Weasel." Their interaction is sharp and their timing is fine and each has individual moments that delight. Pabon's effort to put on his shirt as if it were a pair of trousers and Mills' reaction to the racism of one of Wray's characters are particularly good.

Written by Jon Klein. Directed by Jackson Phippin. Dialect and violence coaching by Jenny Male. Design: Richard Montgomery (set and properties) Sally Montgomery (costumes) Marianne Meadows (lights) Aaron Broderick (music and sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Benjamin Royer (stage manager). Cast: Joseph Andrew Mills, III, Timothy Andrés Pabon, Peter Wray.

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Reviewed Marcy 6
Running time 2:30
t A Potomac Stages Pick for emotional power
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Storyline: A disturbed student at a struggling private girls prep school destroys the lives of the school's proprietors by making allegations of sexual impropriety.

Hicken, who directed The Bell of Amherst at Rep Stage last season and who has multiple credits at Everyman including Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris as well as Ms. Hellman's Watch on the Rhine, mounts a clean and clear staging of this example of the kind of naturalistic writing so popular in the second third of the twentieth century: strongly plotted, peopled with characters with marked strengths and weaknesses, told in a series of scenes that are both interesting in their own right and carry the story forward in a literal, linear manner building to an emotional climax all the more affecting because the audience has come to care deeply for the people to whom it is happening. Hicken allows it to take its own sweet time building toward that climax, letting it work on its own terms. That is the intelligent way to approach it, allowing the play to cast its spell just as it must have back in 1934, when its themes were so controversial that the Pulitzer Prize selection committee is reported to have refused even to see the show.

Tess Hartman and Stephanie Burden create an onstage partnership, playing the two women who have built this private school for girls, which is effective in portraying their characters' professional and personal relationship as clear, strong and deeply satisfying. Lance Coadie Williams handles his emotionally strong scenes well as Hartman's intended, but tends to mumble a bit through the lighter moments which set up the heavy ones. Paige Hernandez is mesmerizing as the emotionally crippled control freak of a student who spews forth accusations as a tool of manipulation. At one point she says she'll come up with some story to cover her behavior and that she is at her best when she makes it up on the spur of the moment. It is so chillingly effective as a preshadowing of the tragedy to come. Both Barbara Pinolini as Hernandez's  grandmother and Rosemary Knower as one of the teacher's aunt are very good as well.

Modern audiences are used to what has been termed "color blind casting" in which the race of an actor or actress is ignored while his or her talent and skill is considered. This has allowed many talented performers to take on roles that would otherwise be closed to them and has provided audiences the opportunity to see some memorable work. Such casting is pushed too far here, not simply because the time period and locale of the play makes it improbable that the student body and adults would be racially mixed, but because it draws attention away from the theme of the play in a false distraction. This is, after all, a play about societal intolerance. Had the student body of a struggling, newly established preparatory school for young ladies in the 1930s been racially mixed, and had the headmistress of such a school been a white woman engaged to a black man, there would be controversy enough for a two full plays. But that isn't the controversy about which Hellman was writing. By introducing such casting here, director Hicken serves the social and artistic goals of today at the expense of the play's exploration of the social realities of another time, pulling focus away from the play's major reason for being.

Written by Lillian Hellman. Directed by Donald Hicken. Fight choreography by Lewis Shaw. Design: Daniel Ettinger (set) Debra Kim Sivigny (costumes) Liza Davies (properties) Jay A. Herzog (lights) Chas Marsh (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Amanda M. Hall (stage manager). Cast: Hallie Angelella, Marianne Angelella, Stephanie Burden, Lex Davis or Buddy Pease, Lucia Diaz-French, Mikaela Feely-Lehmann, Shalita Grant, Paula Gruskiewicz or Barbara Pinolini, Tess Hartman, Page Hernandez, Sarah Hinderberger, Christina Irby, Erica Jones, Christa Kilduff, Rosemary Knower, Krénee Tolson, Lance Coadie Williams, Dory Zeitler.

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Reviewed January 30
Running time 2:15 - one intermission
General admission seating
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Storyline: The least dysfunctional member of the Levaco family is daughter Kimberly despite a genetic condition that causes her to age a four and a half times the normal rate. She copes with her condition much better than do her pregnant mother, her underemployed father or her homeless aunt with a fresh approach to forgery. Kimberly, and a young man from her high school, seek escape from their wacky world.

Lindsay-Abaire demonstrates a deft touch with a script that could easily veer beyond the wacky into a realm where the bizarre obscures the human -- but it never does. Each of the characters here have deep seated peculiarities, with the exception of the young man from Kimberly's school who simply evidences the normal peculiarities of adolescence. And yet, Lindsay-Abaire manages to raise serious issues of societal expectations, roles and responsibilities and familial relationships within the context of very funny and frequently flippant exchanges overlaying a plot with both intriguing complications and surprising twists.

Hedman gets close to the line of too cute with her sweet-sixteen mannerisms from time to time, but she avoids stepping over it and is quite good at letting the audience understand her relationship first with Bruce Nelson, who, as her father, lands some of Lindsay-Abaire's zingers with uncanny accuracy, then with Sherri Edelen as her self-centered pregnant mother recovering from carpal tunnel surgery, and finally with Kerry Rambow as her homeless aunt who wants her help running a scam. Through it all, however, it is the relationship with her sixteen-year old boy friend, played with absolute believability by James Flanagan, that is the core of the piece. That relationship is seen from start through full blossoming and it is both charming and extremely funny.

Milargros Ponce de Leon provides a superbly functional and nicely whimsical set consisting of three rotating structures lit in part from within on a floor with embedded light panels as well. Portions of the set are blank in order to show off a projected snowfall which works much better than the practically ineffectual snow machine which is supposed to augment the effect. The family's home seems a bit too neat and a touch too prosperous while Kathleen Geldard's costumes stick strictly within the economic resources of the family. Chas Marsh's sound design gives the piece a richer feeling with some subtle touches like the windshield wiper swish in the scenes that take place in a car. 

Written by David Lindsay-Abaire. Directed by Kasi Campbell. Design: Milagros Ponce de Leon (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Dre Suchoski (properties) Alex Cooper (lights) Chas Marsh (music and sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Cary Louise Gillett (stage manager). Cast: Sherri L. Edelen, James Flanagan, Helen Hedman, Bruce R. Nelson, Kerri Rambow. 

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Reviewed September 26
Running time 2:50 - two intermissions
t A Potomac Stages Pick for ensemble acting and atmospheric staging
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Storyline: In the last decades of Tsarist Russia, a young would-be-playwright puts on a show for his family and  guests at a country house by a lake. It stars a neighbor girl with whom he is hopelessly in love. She, on the other hand, is infatuated with his mother’s lover, while the daughter of the family steward, who is actually in love with the would-be-playwright, marries the local schoolmaster out of spite. While all the young people are thus conflicted, their elders are doing no better conducting their lives.

Karl Miller is as attractive and earnest as could be wanted as the young playwright, and he is matched marvelously by the two women who define his life, the lovely Megan Anderson as the neighbor girl and the striking Helen Hedman as his mother. Hedman in particular is spectacular in a way that is entirely consistent with her character who made a life out of an ability to be spectacular on stage and off. Nigel Reed is the writer/lover who is as much of the man in her life as she would permit, and whose sardonic view of life reflects the essence of Chekhov.

In the smaller roles, Campbell has the services of the likes of Bruce Nelson as the school teacher whose life has become so meaningless, Bill Largess as the doctor who has used up all his passion for life and empathy for others, Bill Hamlin as the aging uncle whose estate is the setting of the play, and, as the manager of that estate who hates it when the owners are in residence because that remind him that he doesn't own it himself, an earthy Robert Leembruggen. Nelson's final exit, which goes unnoticed and unacknowledged by the entire company, could be the prototype for Kander and Ebb's "Mr. Cellophane" from Chicago, who went to school one day and, when he came home, his family had moved.

In this instance, these sterling players are using a new "version" by Tom Stoppard in which Stoppard's legendary way with words in the English language seems to facilitate rather than detract from the semi-formality of familiar versions of Chekhov's text. This is most definitely Chekhov's The Seagull, not Stoppard's. Rep Stage's solid reputation for attention to scenic design is upheld in all elements as well. Most notable are Tony Cisek's set of furniture and door units moved about among the trunks of trees on the country estate, Dan Covey's lovely lighting, Chas Marsh's musical selections which progress from light and easy, to dark and complex as the play makes the same transition, and Kathleen Geldard's carefully considered wardrobe which tells so much about each character's self image. The stunning black and rust gown for Hedman in the final act silently screams the essential fault of her character, that she never even thinks that her lavish expenditures on herself are at odds with her parsimony toward her friends, her servants or even her son.

Written by Anton Checkhov, a new version by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Kasi Campbell. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) Tim Jones (properties) Dan Covey (lights) Chas Marsh (sound) Stan Barouh (photography) Che Wernsman (stage manager). Cast: Megan Anderson, Danny Collins, Jeff Consoletti, Bill Hamlin, Helen Hedman, Annie Houston, Bill Largess, Robert Leembruggen, Karl Miller, Bruce Nelson, Nigel Reed, Cheryl Resor.

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Reviewed March 14
Running time 3 hours 10 minutes
t A Potomac Stages Pick for style, wit
and spirited performances

Storyline: The action switches back and forth in time as the events set in motion in a very large English country house in the early nineteenth century affect the fortunes of people in the late twentieth. In the earlier time a tutor instructs the daughter of the mansion's owner while scandal threatens to rock the house. In the present day, the descendants of the family are visited by two authors, one researching the history of the house's famous gardens and the other following up on a theory that the poet Lord Byron had been drawn into scandal and fought a duel as a result which led to his fleeing the country.

Stoppard writes marvelously precise prose for intelligent and/or literate characters. In this play he has both and the words he gives them are a delight. The wit and wordplay works best in the scenes set in the early 1800s as the formality of the language seems more natural and acceptable coming from people living in what is presumed to have been a more formal, status-conscious time. The flippant, partially slang affected tone of the modern characters, especially the younger ones, seems just a little artificial. But whether it is now or then, the conversations are all lively, intellectually stimulating and filled with thoughts or expressions to be savored.

The portion of the cast portraying nineteenth century characters make the most of the verbal opportunities. Karl Miller as the tutor is a pure delight as he talks circles around Bruce Nelson who is marvelous as a foppish second-rate poet, or engages his student in challenging conversation. The student is played with precocious panache by Rana Kay. Their scenes together, as she seeks knowledge regarding as wide a range of subjects as pure mathematics (he's assigned her a project involving Fermat's Theorem) and the meaning of the term "carnal embrace." It is the genius of both Stoppard and of this cast that both discussions are equally comprehensible, interesting and entertaining.

The twentieth century contingent is ably created by Alex Miller as the researcher bent on making a name for himself out of a theory of scandal whether it turns out to be true or not, Shannon Parks as the writer with slightly higher standards and Daniel Frith as the scion of the household whose devotion to scientific integrity is palpable. When Frith's character speaks of the joy of discovery and the thrill of living in an age that knows that it doesn't know all there is to know, he generates an excitement that would be good to find in classrooms in schools and colleges today. That excitement over things intellectual permeates this handsomely mounted production.  It's marvelously done!

Written by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Kasi Campbell. Design: Tony Cisek (set) Kathleen Geldard (costumes) David Cunningham and Andrea Suchoski (properties) Dan Covey (lights) Mark Anduss (video and sound) Stan Barouh (photography)  Che Wernsman (stage manager). Cast: Chris Davenport, James Flanagan, Daniel Frith, Kari L. Ginsburg, Deborah Hazlett, Rana Kay, Karl Miller, Alex Miller, Bruce Nelson, Shannon Parks, Jack E. Vernon.

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Reviewed November 2
Running time 2 hours 25 minutes
t Potomac Stages Pick

Storyline:  Based on what little is known about the lives of two brothers who died in 1947 amid the collection of junk they amassed over a quarter century of reclusive living in their home in a once-fashionable neighborhood of New York, the story of their increasing reclusiveness is seen from the start, with the events that the author imagines may have triggered their withdrawal into a world of detritus, and from the end as they succumb to what one describes as “suicide by things.”

Bruce Nelson plays the stranger of the two strange brothers with an otherworldliness that is compelling precisely because it is so hard to figure out. Is he a savant? Is he borderline autistic? Is he sane? His career as a concert pianist is destroyed by his ever diminishing tempos as, in the words of his more rational brother, “he couldn’t bear to part with the notes.” Nelson captures your imagination from the first moment of the show and keeps it to the end. Bill Largess, on the other hand, builds his characterization of the brother who might have been able to survive in the world had it not been for his sense of duty to the other with slow, sure additions to the portrait that culminates in a heart-touching completion. Starting out with a prim and proper sense of exasperation (who knew Bill Largess could look like a 1908 version of George Will?) he deepens his portrayal with each passing scene until, in a prologue to the second act gorgeously underscored by the music of Chas Marsh, his dilemma overtakes Nelson’s in its capacity to captivate. Together, they are a marvelous team.

There is a third member of the cast, Cheryl Resor, who does good work but who may not necessarily feel slighted if her performance isn’t placed in the same category as those of Nelson and Largess. After all, even the script refers to her character as “a catalyst - reactions happen when you are present.” Her intrusions into the brothers’ world at both ends of the story bring focus to their different disabilities. Director Kasi Campbell uses her as does the author, as a center of gravity around which these two fascinating characters orbit.

The script is the work of Richard Greenberg whose treatise on homosexuality and the national pastime, Take Me Out, won last year’s Tony Award for Best Play. The Dazzle has the strengths of his big hit - literate dialogue, well constructed char