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The monologue commands the spotlight for triangle ys
repertory run of Three Viewings and Waiting for Vern
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PHOTO BY RICK ADAMS
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exoric
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Nicholette Reid as Mac in “Thief o f Tears, ” one o f Three Viewings
n actor speaking alone on stage, free
from com petition with another per
form er for the attention o f the audi
ence: In this action- and spectacle-
fueled entertainm ent age, the m ono
logue retains the capability— like no other theat
rical expression— to rend the imaginary veil be
tween actor and audience.
Proving the transcendent power o f a solitary
perform ance, triangle productions! is producing
A
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281.0096
LITAN LIMOUSINE
two plays in repertory that offer various ranges o f
the solo voice on stage. In the one-man show
Waiting fo r Vern, v e te ra n a c to r M ich ael
M endelson delivers a comical piece about an
actor who appears on stage to find that he is
unexpectedly without the assistance o f the other
cast member. Three Viewings combines the ef
forts o f three perform ers in unrelated monologues
set within a M idwestern funeral parlor.
Borrowing the theme o f an anticipated guest
who never shows from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting
fo r Godot, Waiting fo r Vern owes its action to the
elusive character. Playwright James De Vita, how
ever, steers his play from Beckett’s absurdity and
directs it into a comparatively straightforward ac
count o f an actor’s seemingly unrehearsed succes
sion of impressions, blathered in a frenzied effort to
keep the audience entertained. The nervous and
giddy chatter with the audience alternates between
the prosaic and the sincere, with a rather weighty
subtext concerning the gray area that exists be
tween an actor and his or her dramatized persona.
M ichael M endelson offers a convincing per
formance o f a neurotic actor, creating a character
who possesses aplom b commingled with uncer
ta in ty — se e m in g ly in c o n g ru o u s tra its th at
M endelson effortlessly carried off. Mendelson
infused his perform ance with enough intensity to
make the most trite issues o f his character’s over
worked mind seem fraught with significance. In
contrast, some o f the more introspective moments
of the play, particularly a section that portrays the
character’s father, revealed a surprising paucity
o f energy that, despite the sincerity o f the deliv
ery, gave me the feeling that an alternate charac
terization was at work.
As this play is essentially a dialogue with the
reticent audience, the tone o f the performance is
generated by the dynamic established by that
entity. Consequently, Waiting fo r Vern will de
velop and strengthen throughout its run as
Mendelson sharpens his improvisational instincts.
Death is the galvanizing force within the three
monologues that comprise Jeffrey H atcher’s ef
fective Three Viewings. The three portraits cap
ture lives propelled into a heightened self-exam i
nation upon their respective involvement with
ceremonies honoring the dead. The three charac
ters share the basic commonality o f setting, along
with the need to unfold their personal accounts of
their unpredictable tragedies and disappointments.
Eric Hull delivers the opening piece, involving
a funeral director who finds it impossible to muster
nerve to protest his love for one of the parlor
habitués. His emotional paralysis affords him the
privacy to speculate on the romantic inclinations of
his beloved and the development of his own con
vincing discourse on fear and inactivity. Hull’s
rendering of the character’s pathetic fate attacks
the audience with dramatic force enough to leave it
stunned by the end of his piece.
A woman who makes her living as a corpse
robber and has her eyes on the prize that rests on
her dead grandm other’s finger is the subject o f the
scenario presented by the second monologue.
Played with sultry electric veracity by Nicholette
Reid, the character nonetheless has so many trunks
full of emotional baggage, and the plot is given so
many unexpected twists, that we fail to latch onto
a consistent developmental pattern. R eid’stim ing
was impeccable, however, and she mirrored the
image I’ve had in my head concerning the appear
ance o f corpse robbers from the L.A. area.
The final and by far the most exquisite mono
logue was offered by the incomparable Mary Marsh.
This scene was the most facile o f the three, but left
me absolutely transfixed on M arsh’s splendid de
piction of a woman who reflects upon the life of her
recently deceased husband and his unpaid debts.
While not once moving from her perch on a sofa.
Marsh manages a remarkable characterization
through subtle movements and vocal inflections.
Three Viewings is what theater should be: a
good old-fashioned drama about the stories en
twined in the way we live and die.
W aiting for Vern and Three Viewings play
through March 9 at ihe Main Street Theatre,
904 SW Main St. Tickets are $13 from Jelly
Bean, Music Millennium and the triangle box
office, 223-6790, and $14 when charged by
phone from Fastixx, 224-8499.