Show #13
Tuesday, Dec 31: 5 pm
Here we go, the final show of my
December trip, New Year's Eve, lucky #13. Or unlucky, perhaps. But
I'm getting ahead of myself.
Prior to getting on the plane, I had
made a mental list of character/actor combinations I wanted to make a
point to see over the course of my seven shows. Over the course of
the first six, I managed to check off nearly all of them (or replace
them with strong alternatives, like Tomislav English's Andy at show
12). In fact, there were only two remaining: Omar Gordon's Fool and
Miranda Mac Letten's Faye. Combine them with James Finnemore's
Doctor, which I had heard nothing about prior to my trip but whom Hannah was raving about after the show on the 27th, and
Sonya Cullingford's Romola, which would allow me to both reprise a
favorite loop at my last show and also finally see the normal end of
her loop (I had only done the 3rd-loop alternate ending with her),
and I had more than enough to occupy my whole night. Of course, this
would require that the casting for the show turn out exactly as I
needed it to, and what are the odds of that?
Not good, as it turned out. Omar was
the Fool, but Sony was playing Faye and Miranda and James weren't on
at all. Unfortunate, but not unexpected - and I certainly wasn't going to let it get me down. There's always plenty to see inside Temple Studios. I started trying to make up alternate plans, but gave up
pretty quickly. I'd just hit the sure thing first and see where I
felt like wandering from there. You know, the usual.
Early on, this show was expected to be
a nice, quiet one – tickets were not really selling. Then
Punchdrunk made a bit of a marketing push and added a free drink
coupon, which worked like gangbusters – the night wound up sold
out, or very, very nearly so. This fact was more than obvious even
if I hadn't checked the website that afternoon to see how they were
selling – the inside queue, after the coat check, was crammed full
of people well before the first lift. Warning bells were going off
in my head, reminding me of all the troubles I had with the crowd at
the final show of my first trip. I could only hope that things would
turn out better.
I was definitely not encouraged,
though, when every single one of us that got off in the basement made
a beeline for the stairwell to get back up to the ground floor. This
was going to be trouble. Fortunately, once we made it to the ground
floor, we all seemed to go our separate ways – and I started to
relax when I found the Fool sitting on a counter, reading a book
about a little golden cat or something along those lines. For the
next few scenes, things were just as I like them – me, a character,
and no more than two or three others. As I watched the Fool clown
around with Andrea (Kirsty Arnold), I started to think that my
paranoia had simply gotten the best of me – the audience would be
just fine.
It didn't last. After we watched Wendy
(Sara Black) retrieve the scissors, we picked up a much larger
audience – and not only that, but a much more aggressive audience
as well. Lots of crowding going on here. I also picked up something
I had managed to avoid throughout all of my other shows – a
nemesis. In this case, she was a tall girl with a grey skirt and red
sweatshirt, who always seemed to be in my way no matter where I
turned. I eventually took to deliberately standing on the opposite side of the
room from her, and I swear, on more than one occasion, she moved
around the room mid-scene to get in front of me.
Slowly, I found myself getting more and
more frustrated with the crowds. There's an old saying – “if you
can't beat 'em, join 'em” - and, without realizing it, I began to
do precisely that. I got closer than I normally would. At times
when I would normally step out of someone's way, I held my ground.
If I got pushed or jostled, I pushed back. I'm not proud of this –
in fact, I'm highly embarrassed – but that's what happened, so
that's what I'm writing.
Eventually, we approached Studio 8
time, and the change in the crowd was palpable. Everyone surged
toward the Fool, who did what he could to confound us. I managed to
stay at or near the front of the crowd for most of the journey toward
Studio 2, but then there was a moment in the hallway, where he
stopped and took a step backward – and stepped right on my foot.
That's how close to him I was, and how much I was in the way. This
was my wake-up call, the moment when I realized everything I wrote in
the last paragraph. Suddenly I know that not only was I allowing the
crowd to ruin my night, but I was actively making the situation
worse. I had to do something about it, and fast.
I immediately pulled away – I stuck
around to see the last few moments of the loop (including the part
where he took my nemesis into the 1:1. . . .cherry on the sundae),
but from afar. Even just that one small step, allowing me to watch
the throngs rush around from outside rather than within, created
enough of a contrast in my mood to show me just how wound up I had
gotten.
As for my impression of Omar's Fool?
Well, he seems much more overtly sinister than Paul Zivkovich's Fool
– his more studio-driven moments, like “We Live in a Dream” and
the way he sends Marshall to his death, feel like an organic part of
his character, whereas with Paul's Fool, those moments feel forced
upon him from outside. Beyond that, I feel like I can't really comment, because I
was so far out of the proper mindset that I wasn't able to really
take it in the way I should have. It's a loop I'm going to have to
see again sometime – that is, if I can bring myself to show my face
(metaphorically, of course) around Omar again after this shameful
display.
Once the Fool was gone, I really had no
idea what I was going to do. All I knew was that it should be
something familiar, so I could feel comfortable hanging back a bit
and reset my perspective. My decision was made almost immediately,
as Alice (Laura Harding) strolled through Studio 2, script in hand.
Granted, this didn't exactly fit my plan, as I hadn't seen a
tremendous amount of Laura's interpretation of the character, and
Alice does do a 1:1 that I've never had – but on the other hand, I
had previously determined that she hated me (see show #8), so all the
pressure was off.
I got to watch her cast Frankie (Owen
Ridley-Demonick) as Bobby, cast Eugene (Jude Monk McGowan) as the
grocer, and, most crucially, saw her do the “that's an arm” scene
with Frankie and Claude (David Essing) just after Bulldog. These
scenes caused me to heavily revise my opinion of her interpretation
of Alice – my previous, limited encounters with her basically
served to demonstrate that she is intimidating as all hell, and that
was pretty much all I got out of it. It felt like an incomplete
version of the character, lacking the humor and even goofiness of
Emily Mytton's performance. After watching those three scenes,
however, I finally got to see that side of her – and Laura handled
the material very well. She's not as funny as Emily, but then, Emily
isn't as scary as her. Laura is absolutely a worthy successor to the
role, and if I'm being completely honest with myself, I might even
prefer her. Maybe.
After “that's an arm,” we were back
to familiar territory, heading to the basement for the initiation.
Although I actually wound up being the first one down the stairs
behind her, I made a point not to follow her into the changing room
(once is enough for that experience, thank you very much). The
initiation went off without a hitch, despite a crowd that tried to
collapse in on the space every time the performers moved to one end
of the room or the other. Afterward, Alice stormed out of the room,
dragging a presumably random white mask with her, and I was left
again with no direction. Who would I follow this time?
There was one obvious answer. A loop I
was comfortably familiar with, featuring a favored performer. One
that took place largely in more open settings, where the audience
wouldn't be as much of a factor, and that would lead me to the one
scene that is guaranteed to put a smile on my face every time, no
matter what (if you've been following my recaps, you probably know
which one I'm talking about – if not, you will soon enough). A
loop that had been on my mind anyway (see the start of this write
up). Feeling a bit foolish for not realizing what I needed to do
sooner, I set off in search of Faye.
By now I know Faye's loop well enough
that I was able to estimate her location fairly accurately, so I went
straight up to the top floor, thinking she would be somewhere in the
midst of her desert dance scene with Dwayne and Miguel. Sure enough,
as soon as I emerged from the stairwell, I saw a large crowd gathered
around the dune, with a conspicuous gap near the left hand side – a
gap I was more than happy to fill. The dance itself had not quite
started -Miguel (Ygal Jerome Tsur) and Dwayne (Oliver Hornsby-Sayer)
were still seated on their crates, and Faye was siphoning off their
booze. Soon she started dancing, though, first with Dwayne,
then, more aggressively, with Miguel. As they turned slow circles,
thrusting their hips into the air while the light dimmed and the drums
grew more furious, Faye cast a pair of very smoky eyes my way.
Smoldering, you might say. It was an electrifying moment, but
something didn't seem quite right. I immediately started wondering
why it happened – somehow, lost in the moment, she could suddenly
see the audience, as many other characters do when they go crazy?
That sort of makes sense, maybe. . . but then, why was everyone else
looking my direction as well? And how come that bright light seems
to be coming from behind me? Come on, I've seen this scene, think.
. . . think. . . .
Oh.
Shit. She wasn't looking at me. She
was looking at Dwayne. He's right behind me, I'm in the way, and
there was a gap in the crowd for a reason.
A quick glance over my shoulder
confirmed the realization, and I literally leapt out of the way just
in time for Dwayne to barrel through the space I had occupied to violently break up the dance. Oops. On the plus side, Oliver is
such a giant that I'm sure everyone could still see his face over the
top of my head, so. . .
Somewhat satisfied with, but
unfulfilled by her revenge on Dwayne, Faye returned to the town, got
even more drunk, and had a sort of angry, sad dancing fit at Dwayne's
caravan. At the conclusion, in a nice touch that I don't remember
seeing before, she actually had one of those audience-acknowledging
moments of madness that I had momentarily thought I witnessed up in
the desert. She took notice of me standing off to the side, walked
over, put her arms around my neck, and asked me if I wanted to dance
with her. Real answer: “Oh, hells yes.” Story-appropriate
answer: “well, your arc is a parade of rejection, so I probably
shouldn't.” I still don't know what the right course of action
was, but I wound up kind of half-assing it, trying to look as
apologetic as possible using only my eyes. After a few moments, she
sadly pulled away, mumbling, “of course not.” Gah, dagger to the
heart. I felt awful (but in a story-appropriate, ultimately pleasing
way!).
Next up was the hoedown, which is not
the guaranteed smile scene that I mentioned, but may be a close
second. I'm certainly glad to have caught it one more time. Then
there was a full circuit through town (made difficult by the crowds,
again, but still manageable), and we were right back in the saloon
again for Walking in the Sand, which is a bit that I've written about
enough times that I don't think there's anything else that I could
possibly say about it. I'll just give a thumbs up and move on. At
that point Harry (James Sobol Kelly, for the last time) showed up,
and we were treated to a pair of scenes on either side of the reset
between him and Faye. And I mean treated – James and Sonya are
among the very best performers the show has to offer, and they have
really magnificent chemistry. It's kind of a shame that
Faye and Harry don't have more scenes together, really. That
post-reset scene with the two of them is so sweet, so affectionate,
kind of funny in a charming sort of way. . . I know I've written
about it before, but I really can't stress enough how effective it is
at making me love these two characters. And since this was James'
last night in the show, it was also the very last time it would ever
be performed by that particular pairing – which I didn't realize at
the time, but which makes me all the more glad that I found myself in
that room at that moment.
Once Harry left, the next portion of
the loop kind of raced by for me, but in a really pleasant, enjoyable
way – not the most exciting events, but I was in a place where I
was happy to be. The crowds were still insanely thick, but not as aggressive as they had been for the Fool, and I wasn't
nearly as bothered by them. In the few cases where the room layout
made them truly unmanageable, I found alternatives, for instance,
watching Faye's audition from behind the stage. This was a
particularly interesting vantage point – the action on stage is
clearly designed to be seen from the front, but it adds an
interesting layer when viewed from behind, as I could see both Faye
and Claude (David Essing, also on his last night) on stage and
Stanford (Sam Booth) watching them at the same time. The moment
where Claude acts as if he's going to crush Faye's head while
clapping actually looks better from behind as well, owing to the
height differential between David and Sonya (or any Claude/Faye combo
I've seen, really). Plus, I got a good look at the dead baby deer, so that was something.
Coming out of the audition, Faye rushed
out into town, and we had to rush to keep up. From off to my left, I
heard a quiet, “run, Brian, run!” Had I been at the show for too
long? After 6.5 shows in a row, do you start to hallucinate? I
almost wish that were true (how cool would show induced
hallucinations be!), but in fact, Ben from the spoiler group had
simply hopped on board the Faye train. I have to say that over the
next few scenes, I was tremendously impressed with his crowd
management skills. Every time we changed location, he seemed able to
quickly get to exactly where he wanted to be, without needing to
struggle, push, or otherwise cause a problem. I like to think I'm
pretty good at that (most of the time), but this was a whole new
level of technique.
Before long, Bulldog came along
(there it is: guaranteed smile!), but, like Walking in the Sand, I don't know that
there's much else I can say about it. Another scene or two after
that, and we had reached the point where I came in – so as Faye
went up to the desert, I headed down. I think that doing a full loop
with Sonya's Faye was probably the best decision I made all night.
It's not a loop that I had ever counted amongst my favorites (until
now), but at the same time, looking back over my other write ups,
it's clearly one that I gravitated toward unconsciously. Plus, Sonya
is one of the most compulsively watchable people in the show, so it
was great to be able to enjoy her work one more time. The Drowned
Man is stuffed to overflowing with incredibly talented performers,
but there are a small handful, such as Sonya, who have such a
magnetic presence that you just can't help watching them when they're
in the room, no matter what else you're trying to focus on (other
examples: Sam Booth, Sophie Bortolussi. . . must be something about "S" names). So – in case it isn't clear, however troubled I was after my
Fool loop, that's how good I felt after Faye. Success!
Leaving Faye, I had only a handful of
scenes left before the end of the show. Not enough time to really
get into something new, so I concluded that the best course of action
would be to spend those final minutes in the company of the man
himself, Sam Booth's iconic Leland Madison Stanford. I headed
downstairs, estimating that he would be either doing the rolling desk
dance or in his dressing room with Romola. The latter turned out to
be the case, or so I have to presume – there were so many people
crowded in there that not only could I not get into the room, I
couldn't even get close enough to see into the room. Undeterred, I
headed back out to the anteroom to watch Alice prepare for the desk
dance. Along the way, I stopped off at the orgy table to figure out
exactly how Marshall and Dolores disappear in the middle of all the
action. It was pretty much what I figured, and not at all hidden, but nice to see for myself.
It wasn't long before Stanford showed
up, entourage in tow, and the rolling desk dance began. Fortunately,
I had staked out a good viewing position before the crowds hit.
Maybe it's the jazz music, but this scene has a really fun, laid-back
vibe that I just love. Somehow, I had managed not to catch it at any
of the prior six shows, so it was nice to sneak it in right before
finishing up. And if Laura hadn't finally sold me on her Alice
earlier in the evening, this would have done it.
Then came the orgy and, I probably
sound like a broken record at this point, but OHMYGODTHECROWD. So
many people, all wanting to get in close. It was so bad that
Stanford was actually deliberately running people over in his
motorized wheelchair because they wouldn't get out of his way (that
part was actually really amusing. I approve). I followed Stanford
out of the room before the orgy reached its climax (no pun intended.
Okay, yes, pun intended). Shockingly, more than a dozen people (vs
maybe 1-3, under normal circumstances) followed us out, a compressed
mob crammed into that tiny hallway, moving at crawling speed. I can't imagine what the people at the back were thinking.
This time, when Lila (Margarita
Zafrilla Olayo) came by, I didn't wait for Stanford's instruction to
follow her into the reel-to-reel room – I zipped right on in after
her. This was working out very nicely – I could end my night with
the full “Lila's Discovery” scene, after my fiasco at the same
scene in show 8. Unfortunately, things didn't work out quite as
intended. When we got inside, we found that someone had taken the
clown doll out of its cabinet and set it up on the desk, taking a
ride around and around on the reel-to-reel. Seriously, audience?
What the hell? I felt bad for Margarita, since this was the last
fill scene of her final show, and it turned out this way. The mood also wasn't helped by a fit of laughter from the hallway outside – not
the bit of sinister chuckling that might occasionally emit from the
Stanford/PA interaction out there, but an obnoxious, ongoing, fratboy
cackling. What a shame.
And then it was over. What a strange
roller-coaster of a night. It started out as a near-disaster, but
wound up turning around pretty completely before stumbling at the
end. Definitely the worst experience I've had with the rest of the
audience out of all thirteen shows, but there were still moments of magic to be found. All in all, I enjoyed it quite a
bit, but it does make for a really disappointing way to end my run. Not
the show I would pick for my final visit to Temple Studios.
. . . . so it's a good thing it isn't!
We'll be on hiatus for another month, then, come early March, it's
back to Temple Studios for another six shows! New actors! New roles
for old actors! (Slightly) Revamped sets! I can't wait.
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