T H E AT E R
85th SEASON!
The Very Little Theatre
presents in
STAGE LEFT:
The Other Place
by Sharr White
SMELLS LIKE
TEEN SPIRIT
KELLEY YOUNG, TJ LAGROW ON CHAIR,
THOMAS VARGA AND ELAH SEIDEL
IN SPRING AWAKENING
UO’s Spring Awakening is
a sexy, seditious ode to
adolescent angst
A psychological mystery,
directed by Gerald Walters
May 2-4*, 8-11*
*Sunday matinees
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Tickets: $10 General Admission
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Call 541-344-7751 for tix, or go to
www.TheVLT.com
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32
May 1, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
I
s it just me, or is the Eugene theater scene undergoing
something of an ascendance these days? Is there a minor
renaissance of the dramatic arts going on in our midst? Could
it be that, along with the hip, new vitality of our downtown,
pushing out decades of apocalyptic slouch and economic
zombification, this city is also experiencing a similar surge in
creative endeavors and the venues that host them?
The reason for this reverie is the happy glow I’m still experiencing
after attending the April 25 opening night performance of University
Theatre’s fantastic production of Spring Awakening, the 2006 rock
musical based on the controversial 1891 play by German writer
Frank Wedekind. Hats off to UO on this one, and a special nod to
director John Schmor. Schmor, who heads the school’s theater arts
program, reveals an admirable level of artistic courage in bringing
this timeless story of teenage sex and death to the stage.
Schmor is aided and abetted by a talented cast that shows
unflinching passion and professionalism in portraying the ravaged
forms of teenaged vulnerability, from mopey suicides and incest
victims to atheistic punks and coming-out homosexuals. TJ
LaGrow and Kelley Young are riveting as Melchior and Wendla,
the star-crossed lovers whose sexual explorations are tender and
THE MADNESS OF
MEMORY LANE
VLT director Gerald Walters discusses the
challenges of The Other Place
T
he human memory is a most wily creature, a Picasso-like
construction of images and emotions. And if we manipulate our
own memories, to what extent is anything we remember real?
Part psychological study, part fast-paced thriller, The
Other Place is a play that explores the fascinating study of
memory. According to The New York Times, the play is “cunningly
constructed entertainment that discloses its nifty twists at intervals
that keep us intrigued.”
To learn about the process of producing this juicy new play, I
contacted the play’s director, Gerald Walters. For Walters, it’s the
mystery of the play that first drew him in. “I kept wondering,” he
says, “was one of the characters fabricating her past and present in
her mind or was she ill and not thinking clearly? It was a mystery
to me, what was real and what was made up.”
The Other Place has been called a “contemporary psychological
doomed, and Thomas Varga hits just the right note as Moritz, the
play’s Hamlet, a young man haunted by the advent of adult life in
all its contradictory complexity. And these actors are not alone;
each performer hits the mark, creating an ensemble vibe that
crackles with the edgy existential radiance, equal parts agony and
ecstasy, that accompanies the pains of growing up — a sometimes
deadly game.
The real triumph of this production is the music. The songs,
with music by Duncan Sheik and lyrics by Steven Sater, are smart
and catchy (no small feat for a rock musical), and a live band adds
an appropriate sense of urgency to the teenage wasteland on stage.
Despite a few sound glitches having to do with uneven
amplification, the vocal performances were spot-on. “Totally
Fucked,” a rollicking anthem to adolescent double binds, has the
power to bring down the house, and almost did.
Confident, sophisticated and shot through with the angsty,
hyper-sexualized haze of adolescent confusion, UT’s staging of
Spring Awakening is a reminder of how good live theater can be,
even — or especially — when it makes us squirm. — Rick Levin
Spring Awakening runs through May 10 at the UO University Theatre; $14 students, staff,
seniors, $16 general.
thriller,” and so I asked Walters how he manages to balance the
intellectual aspects of the play with the pacing necessary for a
thriller. “I believe you have to treat the play as if it was a thriller,
which means the intellectual aspects of the play have be treated as
the facts that are always presented in a thriller,” he says. “That in
turn means the pace of the play has to move at a steady to
sometimes a breathtaking pace to keep the audience interest
from beginning to end, and their ultimate resolution to the ending.”
Sound like a bit of a workout for an actor? It is. “The actors have
to ride the emotional roller coaster with the audience as the author
unfolds his story in his play,” Walters notes.
The preview performance on May 1 will aptly benefit the
Alzheimer’s Association. Walters says that The Other Place can
help us to better understand and work with those suffering from
Alzheimer’s. “I feel this play allows the viewer to see one of the
ways to cope with the people suffering from this type of behavior,
dementia or Alzheimer’s,” he says.
Walters hopes the audience keeps an open mind “no matter what
information is given to them by the characters.” Expect to be
surprised by how your perception will shift throughout the show. “I
can almost guarantee that after the show ends, there will be a
different opinion between the audience members of what actually
happened,” he warns.
Prepare for a bumpy ride down memory lane. — Anna Grace
The Other Place runs May 2 through May 11 at The Very Little Theatre in Stage Left; $10.