“Anything’s Dream”
If you don’t want to fight the crowds to see the new Harry Potter movie, Muhlenberg College is hosting a play that has fantasy to spare and more than its share of fantastic creatures. To be able to sit through “Anything’s Dream”, however, you will have to have the magical ability to put up with a show that is nearly incomprehensible.
The whole play seems to represent a dream or a combination of dreams, which means that there is no logical progression to the plot. Most of the characters are from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. Here, though, Puck (Stephen Soroka) has aligned with a group of wicked elves to overthrow the kingdom of Oberon (Phil Kimble) and Titania (Madeline Hoak), to begin a reign of chaos.
Adding to the chaos, this world is entered by changeling Nichole (Alison Hinks), a Muhlenberg undergraduate, and her more sensual alter ego (Jamie McKittrick). Nicole, for unexplained reasons, has been turned into a frilled green lizard. She is told that after giving her soul to Puck, she can return home in her true form by going to the middle of the woods and giving a hazelnut to Mad Daddy (Lance J. Bankerd).
Mad Daddy is Richard Dadd, a real-life Victorian painter who spent forty two years of his life in Bedlam for psychotic murders. While there, he painted a work called “The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke”. The latter part of the hour-and-a-half play seems to show what would happen if the painting, which is Mad Daddy’s insane vision, were to come to life.
For the world premiere of his work, playwright Mac Wellman has tried to help the puzzled viewer with the play’s program, which includes a timeline of Richard Dadd and the Victorian Age and paragraphs that explain things like the symbolic meanings of hazelnuts.
However, this is not much of a guide for a play that is difficult to watch, since it lacks a coherent plot, sympathetic characters, or humor. The latter falls flat, particularly with “in” jokes that mix Lehigh Valley references with classical ones.
There are musical interludes, but the songs lack distinction, and the dance numbers begin and end without any connection to the narrative. Fortunately, the twelve or so elves are quite athletic; their portrayals and Liz Covey’s costumes accurately evoke the dark side of the Victorian faery world. A few are also good musicians, contributing solos on woodwinds and trumpet.
There is no lack of imagination in director Beth Schachter’s use of the Trexler Pavilion’s Black Box Theatre. There is no set, but the upper catwalk, staircase, and ladders are well used to keep the characters in motion. And you may find them crouching next to your seat from time to time.
Whether “Anything’s” is a fantastic dream or a nightmare depends on the viewer. About the only thing that you can be sure of here is that this ain’t Harry Potter.
''Anything's Dream,'' 8 p.m. Tuesday through Nov. 23. and 2 p.m. Nov. 24, Muhlenberg College, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre and Dance, Studio Theatre, 24th and Chew streets, Allentown. Tickets: $14. 484-664-3333, request but not purchase tickets at www.muhlenberg.edu/cultural/baker/request.htm.
--Dave Howell, 11/02
(This article first appeared in The Morning Call newspaper.)
The whole play seems to represent a dream or a combination of dreams, which means that there is no logical progression to the plot. Most of the characters are from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. Here, though, Puck (Stephen Soroka) has aligned with a group of wicked elves to overthrow the kingdom of Oberon (Phil Kimble) and Titania (Madeline Hoak), to begin a reign of chaos.
Adding to the chaos, this world is entered by changeling Nichole (Alison Hinks), a Muhlenberg undergraduate, and her more sensual alter ego (Jamie McKittrick). Nicole, for unexplained reasons, has been turned into a frilled green lizard. She is told that after giving her soul to Puck, she can return home in her true form by going to the middle of the woods and giving a hazelnut to Mad Daddy (Lance J. Bankerd).
Mad Daddy is Richard Dadd, a real-life Victorian painter who spent forty two years of his life in Bedlam for psychotic murders. While there, he painted a work called “The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke”. The latter part of the hour-and-a-half play seems to show what would happen if the painting, which is Mad Daddy’s insane vision, were to come to life.
For the world premiere of his work, playwright Mac Wellman has tried to help the puzzled viewer with the play’s program, which includes a timeline of Richard Dadd and the Victorian Age and paragraphs that explain things like the symbolic meanings of hazelnuts.
However, this is not much of a guide for a play that is difficult to watch, since it lacks a coherent plot, sympathetic characters, or humor. The latter falls flat, particularly with “in” jokes that mix Lehigh Valley references with classical ones.
There are musical interludes, but the songs lack distinction, and the dance numbers begin and end without any connection to the narrative. Fortunately, the twelve or so elves are quite athletic; their portrayals and Liz Covey’s costumes accurately evoke the dark side of the Victorian faery world. A few are also good musicians, contributing solos on woodwinds and trumpet.
There is no lack of imagination in director Beth Schachter’s use of the Trexler Pavilion’s Black Box Theatre. There is no set, but the upper catwalk, staircase, and ladders are well used to keep the characters in motion. And you may find them crouching next to your seat from time to time.
Whether “Anything’s” is a fantastic dream or a nightmare depends on the viewer. About the only thing that you can be sure of here is that this ain’t Harry Potter.
''Anything's Dream,'' 8 p.m. Tuesday through Nov. 23. and 2 p.m. Nov. 24, Muhlenberg College, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre and Dance, Studio Theatre, 24th and Chew streets, Allentown. Tickets: $14. 484-664-3333, request but not purchase tickets at www.muhlenberg.edu/cultural/baker/request.htm.
--Dave Howell, 11/02
(This article first appeared in The Morning Call newspaper.)