THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, January 7, 1995 TAG: 9501060082
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Profile
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
MARK RUSSELL isn't the only one who knows how to mix politics and comedy. Norfolk thespian Jerry Pope has been at it for decades.
Instead of stand-up, Pope's medium is commedia dell'arte, the Italian Renaissance play form. Commedia's roots run deep, deriving from Greek theater. And wide, because its characters and mannerisms continue to inspire our most up-to-date staged tales, via television sitcoms.
In ``Gilligan's Island,'' for instance, all the characters can be directly linked to stock commedia roles. Gilligan is the comic Harlequin, the captain is the bumbling Il Capitano. Mr. Howell is the distinguished and cunning Pantalone, Mary Ann is the innocent young girl. Ginger's the prostitute.
Commedia ``is very funny, very physical, very bawdy,'' said Pope, who is directing and performing in Carlo Goldoni's 1750 commedia play ``The Liar'' at Norfolk's Generic Theater.
Of course, Pope has added of his own bold, politicized brush strokes to the show.
In the summer, when Pope was handed the script, he began cutting and rewriting. ``And I developed a `frame story.' Just like a picture frame, the story of `The Liar' is set within another story,'' said Pope, who also is a playwright.
The idea is that a traveling Latin American theater company - sometime in the 1970s, perhaps in Nicaragua or El Salvador - is performing the obscure Goldoni play.
As audience members arrive, they will be ushered to their seats by men and women wearing battle fatigues. Pope wants a slightly threatening mood to prevail.
Then the actors will walk in, some in street clothes, others partly costumed. The set will magically unfold, as patrons watch actors don traditional commedia costumes, masks and makeup.
``I wanted to really show the bones of it. This is a very theatrical, artificial piece,'' Pope said. ``I wanted to show the naked theater. I want to pull people back and forth between the supposed reality of the story and the artificiality of it.''
Twenty years ago, when Pope was artistic director of the risk-taking American Theater Company in Tulsa, Okla., his troupe regularly performed commedia dell'arte at Renaissance fairs and other events.
One such play he developed was ``Pantalone: I Am Not a Crook.''
On one level, it was a typically wacky, slapstick commedia play. But the show also addressed the Watergate scandal.
The public reaction? ``People loved it,'' Pope said. ``We passed the hat after the show. We had this wooden treasure box, and we filled it up with the money we made. I felt like that was the most honest money I ever made.
``It really felt essential. Like it was touching the core of what theater is about.''
Pope's version of ``The Liar'' is less pointed in its political aim. It's not so clear if he's lampooning any certain person.
However, when pressured, Pope will admit he almost renamed the show ``Ollie North: The Liar,'' a change vetoed by Generic officials.
``The play is about seduction,'' he said. ``There's the idea of women, especially virgins, as property. There are a lot of messages in this play about lying and trust. To me, seduction is a form of lying. So that's the political tie-in.''
The tale begins with Pantalone's son Lelo del Norte returning after a 20-year absence. He seduces the daughters of a doctor and lies often.
``He's a pathological liar. He gets off on lying. He enjoys the risk,'' Pope said. ``So he digs himself into a deeper and deeper hole and is eventually found out and thoroughly punished.''
Norfolk guitarist Sam Dorsey will add to the funky mix by performing a Latinized version of Talking Heads' ``Creatures of Love.''
And Pope himself will play Pantalone, whose specialty is long, meaningless, pseudo-scientific speeches.
Unlike Pantalone, Pope has no interest in trumpeting his intellect.
``A lot of theater is so cerebral,'' he said. ``It pussyfoots around. Its attempts to be theatrical are so timid. I like commedia because it is blatantly theatrical, acknowledging and using the conventions of the theater.''
His interest in presenting theater with a social or political message dates to his post-college years in Tulsa, where he grew up. Pope, now 46, ran the American Theater Company for 13 years after graduating in 1970 from the University of Tulsa with a fine arts degree.
Since he moved to Norfolk in 1985, Pope has acted and directed for numerous theaters, including the now-defunct Shakespeare-by-the-Sea festival and Omni Dinner Theater. He started a theater department at Broadwater Academy, a private school on the Eastern Shore; was a stage hand and carpenter for Virginia Stage Company; and was Virginia Symphony stage manager.
He is in his second year as theater and production manager at Virginia Wesleyan College.
Two years ago, he and companion Rebecca Williams started Serpent Child Ensemble, aimed at presenting theater with a social conscience.
Their first production - ``Medea's Children,'' produced in February 1993 at the Generic - addressed the subject of child abuse in the classic Greek tale of the murdering mother Medea.
Last summer, Pope worked with Newport News high school students to create a piece about date rape.
``It cuts through a lot of the discussion and gets to an emotional place everyone can relate to,'' he said.
He said the students, who call themselves the Cold Water Players, want to continue to present the show. Pope knows how they feel.
``I worry about the world,'' he said. ``I worry about the world my daughter will inherit. But the thing I do best is my art. I want to use that to attempt to make the world a better place.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/Staff
by CNB