Harm's Way
Upstream
Theater takes another risk that pays off.
By Deanna Jent
Article
Published Nov 1, 2006
Entertainment Details
Who / What:
Details:
Through November 5. Tickets are $18 ($12 for
students and seniors). Call 314-863-4999 or visit www.upstreamtheat er.org.
Where:
The Forsyth School Theater,
Back in April Upstream Theater presented a play (
Croatian playwright Lydia Scheuermann Hodak, whose work is
translated by Nina H. Antoljak, has written a piece that is often more poem
than drama. In a series of monologues, Marija (Linda Kennedy) takes us on a
journey through her ordinary life, a life that is transformed by the invasion
of the Yugoslav army. Marija is a painter, and she describes her world in vivid
detail. But when rape and death come at the hands of soldiers (some of whom are
villagers she knew as young boys), and when she and her daughter are forced out
of their home, she loses her ability to paint and her will to live. Befriended
by Ksenija (Jane Paradise), another displaced person,
Marija eventually finds a reason to return to life.
Director Philip Boehm's intelligent casting of Kennedy, an
African-American actress, in the role of a Marija, makes her story seem more
universal. Kennedy is certainly Marija, but she also represents other mothers
who have lost children, other women who have been raped, other
survivors from other wars from times past and present. Kennedy is rock solid in
her performance, compelling from first to last. She slips easily back and forth
from Marija into other roles (her grandfather, a drunk
commandant). Her final moments in particular are riveting, as she faces her own
mistakes and summons up the courage to move past them.
As Marija's daughter, Lucija,
Elizabeth Birkenmeier is stunning. A ghostly presence, she glides silently
through the stage space and convincingly portrays a series of complex emotions.
The three actresses sing beautiful songs, and their harmonies are haunting. The
musical landscape is painted by Farshid Soltanshahi, who plays a variety of
instruments that effectively evoke the moods of the play.
Boehm does a masterful job of bringing together word, music,
emotion and architecture. The audience sits in church pews; candles placed
around the venue evoke a sense of holiness. The actors move around the entire
theater space, even appearing in wall recesses and behind screens. With limited
materials, scenic and lighting designer Patrick Huber has created a visual
feast, using projections of artwork by Andrea Musa to
indicate shifts in location, time and emotion, and playing effectively with
shadow and light.
As in his previous production, Boehm explores the fusion of
various art forms and ideas in a variety of ways — some frustrating, some
fascinating. The audience is not allowed into the theater until five minutes
before the show begins, making for an uncomfortable and atypical preshow waiting experience. The unusual stage location
raises intriguing questions about the relationship between art and spirit and
fuses nicely with the faith of the characters. The monologue-driven show, laced
with music and image, is sometimes slow — it's ironic that Hodak has Marija use
words to paint an image of her world instead of literally showing us, as a
picture would be more effective than the wordy descriptions.
Upstream Theater is certainly doing work that is unique in the