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THEATER
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Making the invisible visible
Holiday Garland
Toad City Productions takes on Rumi
Christmas at triangle is all Judy, Judy, Judy*
R
B art C hurch
by
umi is hot, and his poetry is being
brought to life through Dec. 20 by Toad
City Productions.
Rumi was a 1 3th century poet who
was married, had children and led a large
religious schixil— and he loved three men so
much that he wrote almost every one of his
12,000 passionate poems to or about them.
Rumi was a Suti— a follower of a special
form of Islamic mysticism— and his work is
experiencing an unprecedented renaissance.
He has been the best-selling poet in the Unit
ed States for several vears. In large portions of
the Middle East, more people can recite
Rumi’s poetry than the Koran. Nearly 750
years after his death, he remains one of the
world’s most influential spiritual leaders.
The current popularity, though, doesn’t
make bringing his work to the stage easy.
Coleman Barks, a poetry professor and modem
Sufi, freed Rumi’s poetry from the arcane
translations that made the work inaccessible to
John McCarthy interprets Rumi through
English readers until this decade.
Dec. 2 0 at Backdoor Theater
The poems are full of metaphor; in order to
embody them as performance, actors have to
Then sometimes the show works beautifully,
deeply understand the many levels of meaning.
as in a piece called “The Mouse and the Frog,”
This is a tall order for community theater,
where the adorable Matthew Combs plays a
where rehearsal time is limited and actors tend
needy mouse in love with a freedom-loving
to be less experienced.
frog, played by Jeff ITeGreef. The actors portray
In the Middle East, people spend their
the sweet tenderness and aching loyalty of two
whole lives memorizing and reciting Rumi’s
male friends/lovers whose desire to he close
poetry by heart. In the United States, his writ
leads them to dire consequences— which
ing has a dedicated following of millions. So
neither regrets. This is the most homo of all
people who love Rumi come to this production | the pieces and one of the sweetest.
with high expectations— as do those hxiking
Most of the stories in the show portray het
for interesting fringe theater.
erosexual situations and traditional gender
“Like a lot of people, I have a hard time
roles— it was 1 3th century Islam, after all—
reading poetry," says gay actor John McCarthy,
but director Lorraine Bahr does mix things up
“hut 1 can really relate to it when it is acted
a bit with a woman playing Moses and anoth
out, when it is brought to life. This show
er woman (Adrienne Flagg) play an elderly
makes powerful poetry accessible."
sheik (Sufi teacher). Flagg produces the show
Sometimes this show delivers on this
and is one of its strongest actors. Michael
promise. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Brickler, who also is a seasoned member of
Toad City, is strong as (another) Moses and as
he eight actors in Rumi use an experimental
a rambunctious camel.
theater technique called Spolin Improvisa
All of the cast members play many different
tion, which relies on the use of almost no
roles, and they change characters in the blink
props and a mime-like pnxzess of working with
of an eye— quite extraordinary in a tiny theater
invisible objects to make them visible to the audi
space with almost no props. One amazing
ence. While the cast is quite accomplished at this
transformation is when DeGreet becomes a
technique, and it is useful and fun for interpreting
psychic cix:k (rixister) and Combs a dog. Their
a highly metaphorical work, sometimes the actors
characterizations are lively and poignant.
don’t seem to understand the deeper meaning of
If you’re Lx iking for a deeply moving rendi-
the words and actions they’re portraying.
T
cWe&ksides
jtov i& b
O ur professionals
EVERY BOOK OF GAY EROTICA
A L W A Y S «! STOCK!
o
T im o t h y K r a u s e
can just picture the incarna
tion o(Ju d y ’s Scary Little
Christmas: Imagine the holi
days at a Tinseltown Darcellc’s
where the nog eggs on every drag
queen’s favorite celluloid charade.
S x in some ruhy-shoed Dorothy
and stagedcxir Mickey scream,
“Let’s put on a show!" And off
they go, digging through cos
tumes and bickering over billing
while resurrecting a plot that’s
not even six feet deep.
OK, not that plot, hut an
equally vapid vehicle to show
case everyone’s well-worn, one-
note parodies.
Onstage at triangle produc
tions! through Dec. 21 Ju dy's
imagines a career comeback by
the esteemed Judy Garland as
host of one of those ubiquitous
holiday specials from television’s
golden age. We’re the studio
audience for a broadcast brim
ming with standard trimmings
from musical numbers, celebrity
guests and off-camera banter.
But when a “mysterious’’
backstage spook is revealed to be
Death itself, a tedious Twilight Zone twist
recounts each star’s demise before sending
them all packing— save Judy, who first must
leam a lesson about the value of her life.
Dram my Award winner Tony James carries
the titular role with unguarded presence an<^
throaty verve. His comic timing is lithe,
anchoring fellow cast members without hold
ing them back. He fondly pokes fun, nudging
us old-schoolers to think maybe now, looking
back, Judy might enjoy laughing at herself, too.
Ensemble members— often gender
cross-cast— dutifully create amusing albeit
waifish satires of glitteringly fey Liberace, brass-
and-boobs Ethel Merman, talk-taxing Richard
I
NUÖM !<W
by
Nixon, melodramatic Joan Crawford and
rough-and-tumble Lillian Heilman.
But what were televised holiday specials
without a puppet, a serviceman and goofy
chorus numbers? Better probably, as would’ve
been Judy’s Grim Reaper had he been fit with
a character other than standard-issue cloak
and scythe (though he on your toes for his
clever feat).
A Christmas Carol this is not, but to some
that’s a gift in itself. JH
continues through
Dec. 21 at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 S . E . Belmont
St. Tickets are $ 1 7 4 2 3 from 5 0 3 -2 3 9 -5 9 1 9 .
J u d y ’ s S c a r y L i t t l e C h r i s t m a s
1 R u m i plays 8 p.m . Friday and Saturday through
tion of the essence of Rumi’s jxK'try, you may
D ec. 20 at Backdoor Theater, 4321 S.E.
not find it here; still, Rumi is very creative,
Hawthorne Bled. Tickets are $10 from
bawdy theater with a spiritual aura. (And tor
503-736-/027, $12 at the door.
$10, this is a hell of a lot better than must
movies playing right now.)
B a r t C h u r c h is a Portland free-lance writer,
Portland community theater is alive and
yoga teacher and HIV frreventum organizer.
well because audiences and actors are willing to
Contact him at hart@stonewallschixtl.org.
take chances on work like this.
jn
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