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A CurtainUp Review
Ashville
By Elyse Sommer
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"I have this story in my head and I spend a lot of time telling it to myself-And sometimes-sometimes-I get this feeling-I get this feeling like-like anything could happen.
— Celia
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Mia Vallet, Tasha Lawrence, Joe Tippett
(Photo credit: Sandra Coudert)
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All but Ashville have been previously staged and reviewed at Curtainup, one by the Atlantic Theater and the other by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. All are lumped under the umbrella title of the Hill Town Plays, the Massachusetts college town that underscores the huge divide between the educated and prosperous and the impoverished working class. Thurber's characters represent the lonely, hard drinking, pot smoking underclass existence in a supposedly class free American town. An underclass that, sad to say, has been growing and exists throughout the country, including less affluent big city neighborhoods.
The effect of being able to visit or revisit all these plays over a six week period does indeed reinforce Thurber's exploration of the lower depths from which only a few are able to rise. And though not staged in one place and one director and design team, each play details the difficulties of this poverty stricken and troubled family background on essentially the same pivotal character at different stages of her life. If Lilly in Stay, Elizabeth in Killers and Other Family and Celia in the now premiering Ashville were named Rachel, like the key character in Scarcity and Where We Were Born, the plays could easily be called The Rachel Plays. Given Thurber's own background, The Lucy Plays might be even more apt.
Like Karen Allen's most recent directing gig, her revival of Extremities for the Berkshire Theatre Group, Ashville, is not an easy fun entertainment, but a tense and dispiriting look at the expanding culture of poverty in America. The characters are not likeable and in this case even Celia (Mia Vallet making an impressive Off-Broadway debut), the girl at the center of each play's story of one girl's hard fought journey from nowhwere to somewhere seems too deeply mired in her situation to make the big leap.
She doesn't smoke, but at just sixteen she's involved herself in a relationship with a 22-year-old construction worker whose protective love masks a deeper need to dominate her. So she's having a sexual relationship that interferes with her high school work, and deals with her uncertainty about getting engaged by having a sexual encounter with Joe (James McMenamin) another member of the circle of losers who make up her world. Add Shelly (Tasha Lawrence) her, mother, a variation of incompetent, destructive mothers, mom's latest boyfriend Harry (Andrew Garman) and things don't look too promising for Celia to really crack the books and enable herself to head for a better life.
It's another woman, 24-year-old Amanda (Aubrey Dollar, the only cast member I've seen and admired in several other Off-Broadway plays) who tries to steer the insecure, confused Celia towards NOT following in her footsteps. Like Celia, Amanda is smart and still remembers her English teacher's acting out Alice in Wonderland well enough to recite a whole chunk of it. But not having gotten away by the mid-twenties is too late in this environment.
Celia's mom is another Thurber mom who is well intentioned and not really stupid — she gets more out of Celia's sophomore reading assignment (Of Mice and Men), but her smarts and wanting the best for Cecilia have long been compromised by her sexual neediness to please men and reliance on liquor. And so, having been deserted by Celia's father, the only possibility for a "safe" good life she sees for her daughter is for her to marry Jake, especially since he often provides her with cash and cigarettes.
It's the Amanda-Celia friendship that brings Celia's watching and experimenting in order to find out who she can really be to a possibly hopeful climax. However, the turn that friendship takes this seems like one too many option explored. The talk about James Joyce's Ulysses in the scene where the four men sit around drinking and drugging, is a nice touch but also seems a bit forced.
Karen Allen keeps the ten scenes moving without annoyingly distracting and too lengthy blackouts. John McDermott's set enables the action to shift back and forth between three, basically identical apartments in a row house, and the outside porch that connects all. The apartments have identical layouts and the furniture though different in each, all looks as if it came from the local Good Will store. It's these shabby belongings that seem to make people like Shelly and Jake rely on the sense of having someone belong to them.
While I saw most of these plays previously (Scarcity being the one I liked best), I think watching all this talk, liquor and drug consumption, sex and occasional violence five times running is mostly advisable for those, like my trusty colleagues Simon Saltzman and Lucy Ann Dunlop who didn't see any of the previous production. Ashville did tie them altogether and beer drinking, sex and occasional violence. (Ashville has a scary episode with a machete).
Just before completing her two week immersion into Thurber's world, Lucy Ann Dunlap interviewed the playwright about this cycle. To read it go here .
You'll find details about the other Hill Town plays after the Asheville Production notes. They include links to the previous reviews, but bear in mind, that not only do they have new actors and directors but Thurber has been reworking them, in some cases, especially Stay, quite extensively. All play through September 28th.
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Ashville a world premiere by Lucy Thurber Directed by Karen Allen Cast: Aubrey Dollar (Amanda), Andrew Garman (Harry), Tasha Lawrence (Shelly), James McMenamin (Joe), Joe Tippett (Jake), Mia Vallet (Celia), George West Carruth (Joey) Set: John McDermott Costumes: Jessica Pabst Lighting: Matt Richards Sound: Bart Fasbender Fights: Unkledave's Fight-House Stage Manager: Megan Schwartz Dickert Running Time: Approx. 95 minutes without intermission Rattlestick Playwrights Theater at Cherry Lane Theatre, Mainstage 38 Commerce Street From 8/21/13; opening 9/05/13 closing 9/28/13. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at 8/15 press performance |
Directed by Caitriona McLaughlin
Cast: Aya Cash, Shane McRae, Samantha Soule, Chris Stack.
John McDermott (Set), Emily Rebholz (Costume), David Zeffren (Lighting), Steve Fontaine (Sound).
What it's about: Trying to escape her painful past, Elizabeth has dedicated herself to finishing her dissertation and building a life with her partner, Claire. Their routine is disrupted by a visit from Elizabeth's brother and her troubled childhood lover, as they threaten to ruin all she's built and pull her back into a cycle of destruction.
Monday at 7PM, Wednesday at 8PM, Thursday at 7PM, Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 2PM and 8PM, Sunday at 5PM Killer and Other Family
Scarcity at Cherry Lane Studio Theatre 38 Commerce Street
Directed by Daniel Talbott
Cast: Didi O’Connell, Natalie Gold, Izzy Hanson-Johnston, Will Pullen, Pamela Shaw, Michael Warner, Gordon Joseph Weiss. Raul Abrego
(Set), Tristan Raines (Costume), Joel Moritz (Lighting), Janie Bullard (Sound)
What it's about: A young Rachel watches her dejected father and mother deal with the day-to-day drudgery of their lives in a small Western Massachusetts town, determined to hold the family together while her older brother Billy looks for an escape. Their lives are interrupted by the comings and goings of equally desperate friends, and a teacher whose own desires disrupt everything in an unexpected way.
Running Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes with one 10 minute intermission.
Our review when it played at the Atlantic Theater
Stay is at the New Ohio Theatre 154 Christopher Street
Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch.
Cast: McCaleb Burnett, Mikaela Feely-Lehmann, Hani Furstenberg, Brian Miskell, Jenny Seastone Stern.
Rachel Hauck (Set), Jessica Pabst (Costume), Burke Brown (Lighting), Leon Rothenberg (Sound).
What it's about: Years of hard work have finally paid off for Rachel, who now holds a coveted professorship and enjoys success as a published author. Her world is turned upside down when her degenerate brother appears on her doorstep and a brilliant but troubled student unleashes chaos in her life. PerformancesL Monday at 7PM, Tuesday at 7PM, Thursday at 7PM, Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 8PM, Sunday at 3PM and 8PM.
Running Time: 80 minutes without intemission.
Our Review of the original production here
Where Were Born at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater 244 Waverly Place
Directed by Jackson Gay
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Daniel Abeles, Betty Gilpin, Nick Winthrop Lawson, MacKenzie Meehan.
John McDermott (Set), Katherine Roth (Costume), Paul Whitaker (Lighting), Broken Chord (Sound).
What it's about: Home after her first semester at a prestigious East Coast college, Lilly is confronted with her working class roots and the ties that bind her to her rural Massachusetts town. Seeking solace in the home of her cousin Tony and his girlfriend Franky, Lilly struggles to bridge the gap between the girl she was and the young woman she is becoming.
Monday at 7PM, Wednesday at 8PM, Thursday at 9PM, Friday at 8PM, Saturday at 8PM, Sunday at 1PM and 7PM.
Running Time: 2 hours with 1 10 minute intermission.
Previous Production Review
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