THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503070059
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater review
SOURCE: MONTAGUE GAMMON III
LENGTH: Long : 104 lines
Under the direction of Christopher Hanna, the ODU production of ``The Marriage,'' by Nikolai Gogol, offers a cleverly stylized and funny look at a delightfully weird, comic world filled with artifice and caricature.
Carefully contrived performances are framed by a set of uncommon originality and appeal. Elwood Robinson has constructed furniture, walls, a doorway, portraits, a samovar, religious icons, even a birdcage holding a bird and horse-drawn coach with a whip-wielding driver out of multi-colored, heavy wire.
Everything exists in a skeletal or outlined form, as if in a three dimensional comic strip. In the black background of the Stables Theatre, attention thus focuses on the more solid forms of the actors, who themselves play cartoonishly distorted and simplified characters.
Even in this outlandish arena of satirical overstatement, the stresses of courtship and impending marriage have a familiar shape.
The plot revolves around one Ivan Kuzmitsch Podkoliosin, a bachelor court counselor in 19th Century Russia. He has been dithering for months about arranging his own marriage through a professional matchmaker, and hesitantly becomes one of four suitors for the hand of a merchant's daughter.
His three rivals are a vain retired naval captain and two government functionaries. One of the bureaucrats is a pretentious fop, the other a grossly fat, unkempt drunkard.
The broad acting of David Fay in that latter part made him the crowd pleaser of the bunch. Reeling and rolling about, leering and snarling, he is on the verge of a truly memorable performance, stopped only by a hint of reserve that kept the actor from being completely abandoned to his role.
Jim Pitchford and Greg Leo are the mannered fop and the self-absorbed officer. Each is precise and unique, each finds ways to draw deserved chuckles. Pitchford's performances in vastly differing roles over the past several years reveal him to be an actor of exceptional range. Leo is new to the Stables stage, but clearly a performer deserving of attention.
Podkoliosin is played by another accomplished Stables veteran, Edwin Castillo, with conviction and a nice balance between believability and exaggeration. Jane Ashley Roller plays the simpering intended bride with a clever repertoire of nervous mannerisms, sharing with Castillo a fine sense for detail.
Natasha Bunnell is particularly fun to watch as the brassy matchmaker. Keith Butler is appropriately forceful in the part of Podkoliokin's married friend, while Jay McCord and Megan van der Giessen acquit themselves well in the roles of servants.
Lighting and costume design by Robin Lusk and Konrad Winters, and make up design by Cynthis Murrell, all work with Robinson's set design to create effective images.
This production of ``The Marriage'' is rare in that it is innovative yet remains completely accessible. Nothing in the unique approach renders it hard to understand.
Under the direction of Christopher Hanna, the ODU production of ``The Marriage,'' by Nikolai Gogol, offers a cleverly stylized and funny look at a delightfully weird, comic world filled with artifice and caricature.
Carefully contrived performances are framed by a set of uncommon originality and appeal. Elwood Robinson has constructed furniture, walls, a doorway, portraits, a samovar, religious icons, even a birdcage holding a bird and horse-drawn coach with a whip-wielding driver out of multicolored, heavy wire.
Everything exists in a skeletal or outlined form, as if in a three-dimensional comic strip. In the black background of the Stables Theatre, attention thus focuses on the more solid forms of the actors, who themselves play cartoonishly distorted and simplified characters.
Even in this outlandish arena of satirical overstatement, the stresses of courtship and impending marriage have a familiar shape.
The plot revolves around one Ivan Kuzmitsch Podkoliosin, a bachelor court counselor in 19th Century Russia. He has been dithering for months about arranging his own marriage through a professional matchmaker, and hesitantly becomes one of four suitors for the hand of a merchant's daughter.
His three rivals are a vain retired naval captain and two government functionaries. One of the bureaucrats is a pretentious fop, the other a grossly fat, unkempt drunkard.
The broad acting of David Fay in that latter part made him the crowd pleaser of the bunch. Reeling and rolling about, leering and snarling, he is on the verge of a truly memorable performance, stopped only by a hint of reserve that kept the actor from being completely abandoned to his role.
Jim Pitchford and Greg Leo are the mannered fop and the self-absorbed officer. Each is precise and unique, each finds ways to draw deserved chuckles. Pitchford's performances in vastly differing roles over the past several years reveal him to be an actor of exceptional range. Leo is new to the Stables stage, but clearly a performer deserving of attention.
Podkoliosin is played by another accomplished Stables veteran, Edwin Castillo, with conviction and a nice balance between believability and exaggeration. Jane Ashley Roller plays the simpering intended bride with a clever repertoire of nervous mannerisms, sharing with Castillo a fine sense for detail.
Natasha Bunnell is particularly fun to watch as the brassy matchmaker. Keith Butler is appropriately forceful in the part of Podkoliokin's married friend, while Jay McCord and Megan van der Giessen acquit themselves well in the roles of servants.
Lighting and costume design by Robin Lusk and Konrad Winters, and make up design by Cynthis Murrell, all work with Robinson's set design to create effective images.
This production of ``The Marriage'' is rare in that it is innovative yet remains completely accessible. Nothing in the unique approach renders it hard to understand. by CNB