SSU - the Grapes of Wrath

   Like most countries around the world, America has its fair share of times of poverty. With a large percentage struggling to survive within a failing economy trying to stay true to their origins and their own identity, while another percentage of the population lives off that same economy with no struggle at all. Speaking as a member of a family who has come very close to poverty, I can honestly say I understand what it's like to go through that kind of struggle. American families have struggled the most, in history, during the years of the Great Depression. Not since then have we as a nation struggled through that much poverty to that degree. Though we have come very close from time to time. In the realm of story telling one of the most common time period to tell dramatic survival stories (apart from contemporary zombie apocalyptic survival stories) has been the great depression. One of literature's champions of this time, was author John Steinbeck. He, like most authors of his time, lived through the Depression and injected his experiences into his stories. Whether it be Tortilla Flatts, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, and of course the Grapes of Wrath. Most of these stories have been adapted on stage after their original publication to help bring Steinbeck's experiences for audiences of the struggling lower class to relate to. Salem State University has been presenting the dramatization of Steinbeck's novel, Grapes of Wrath.    
-the Story-
   The story of the dramatized version to Steinbeck's novel follows very closely to the original source material. Grapes of Wrath tells the story of Tom Joad, his old preacher friend Jim Casey, and his family as they make a cross-country trek from Oklahoma, through Route 66, to California in the hope of finding work. Along the way, tragedy is met with the Joad family, loosing more and more relatives either because they couldn't survive or because they parted ways at a particular checkpoint. Once the family reaches California, they begin to realize that the work they're committing to is built up on broken promises. The Joad family moves from Makeshift camp to Makeshift camp due to a variety of different reasons, whether because of corrupt law enforcement officers or because of a lack of resources. During this time, Casey begins forming a labor union and begins to lead a strike against the deputies and the corporate businesses. Casey is killed in a fight during the strike and Tom kills Casey's attacker in retaliation. He leaves the family behind while on the run from the police, as they continue their trek to land where there is more work.      
-Honorable Mentions-
   This was a very stellar cast, all around. Each member of the central cast as well as the ensemble had moments of sadness and humor. It kept a very good balance for the tone of the production. Many of the ensemble members portrayed more than one character as the story progressed, each one with a very different personality. But the four performances that stood out the most, for me, were the most powerful performances. First is Adrian Peguero as Jim Casey. Casey is a former preacher who has lost his faith. His faith in authority is diminished but his faith in people remains in tact. He helps form the labor union and helps lead the strike due to his rebellious attitude towards the corrupted status quo. Peguero gives the character a lot of wisdom and like-ability. Second, Zack Georgian as Tom Joad. In the book as well as this production, Tom might be the central character, however, to me he seems more like the observer. The story of these characters are told through his eyes. The characters and events of the story evolve around him. Georgian did a very good job as Tom. Because Tom was arrested and put in prison for homicide, we know he could snap back into another episode throughout the story, andGeorgian gets that down very well. At times he's funny and love able, other times he can be violent and intimidating. And finally, Ma and Pa Joad, played by Danielle Woods and James Sheridan. These two worked off of each other perfectly. Whenever you saw them on stage together, you believed that this was a loving married couple who were the heads of this vast and dysfunctional family who weren't giving up but continuing to work to survive. These two ARE Ma and Pa Joad, as far as I'm concerned. They ARE the ones in charge.
-What I did like-
      The direction by Professor Peter Sampieri was spot on. One of my favorite additions to this production was adding live folk musicians performing ballads in between scenes. Not only that, but the musicians also used very primitive sound effects. For example, during a thunder storm, a musician would numerously hit a thunder sheet along with the lighting effects. Or when the family was starting off on their journey, their truck wouldn't start at first. So instead of getting pre recorded sound bites, they instead had the musicians use their percussion instruments to simulate the sounds of the engine. The set design turned the entire theatre into the inside of a barn, making it seem like the audience was watching this show be performed within a spacious barn, using whatever materials they have at their disposal to help tell the story.    
-Overall Recommendations-
   This show made me think a lot about what has been going on in the world lately. Even in our own country. People struggling through poverty, unable to trust the people who have the power to keep them employed, and trying to find out what their place in the world is and who they are as people. Not only is Steinbeck's story emotionally powerful to begin with, but the decision to do a production of Steinbeck's story now, of all times, makes seeing this show all the more significant and meaningful. Salem State University's production of Grapes of Wrath goes from Dec 3 - 13. You won't want to miss this kind of show. If you have already seen this show, let me know what you thought of it in the comment box below.

#salemstate #ssutheatre

Huntington Theater Company - A Confederacy of Dunces

In comedies, the humor of the stories is based heavily on the misery of others. Mostly on either the main character or the ensemble that surrounds the main character. And, with that, the misery of said characters comes from physical pain. Hence the beauty of slapstick comedy. However, there has always been exceptions to this theory. The humor doesn't just come from the physical pain of others, but rather the words that are used to insult them with. Comedies like, Blackadder, have relied less on slapstick comedy or even physical comedy for that matter and more on verbal comedy. The humor depends on the dialogue being spoken by an intelligent (yet extremely cynical) individual surrounded by others who are much less intelligent than himself. As I said before, the pain that the characters endure is in the insults thrown their way. One of the most recent of these kinds of comedies, that I have seen, is the Huntington Theatre Company's current production of A Confederacy of Dunces.
-the Story-
Confederacy of Dunces is a stage adaptation of picaresque novel of the same title, by John Kennedy Toole. In 1960s New Orleans, Ignatius J. Reilly a knowledgable idealist lives his life roaming around the streets and mocking the contemporary world for it's modern pop culture and lack of intelligence and creativity. Especially his own widowed mother, Irene, whom he still lives with. One night, after bailing Ignatius out of the police station for disturbing the peace, Irene accidentally backs her car into the side of a building due to Ignatius distracting her by insulting her driving skills, leading to her having to come up with five-hundred-thousand dollars to pay for the damages. Because she has only a small fraction of that amount to her name and Ignatius' name, Ignatius himself is forced to find a job. Throughout the play, Ignatius goes through several different jobs over the course of a few weeks. Each job ending with him getting fired as a result of him leading rebellions against each of his employers. From office clerk at a family own pants factory to pushing a roadside hotdog stand. All while writing love letters to Myrna Minkoff, a young woman he fell in love with during his college years.
During the story, there are three other subplots occurring as well. From Irene slowly learning to stand up for herself to Ignatius and forming a romantic relationship with a man who was arrested for disturbing the peace the same time Ignatius was arrested, to a black janitor of a local strip club being part of the owner's plan to up her business by making her employee perform strip teases with her pet cockatoo, to the inept police officer who is demoted to a bathroom stall guard at the station in multiple disguises as punishment for arresting Ignatius instead of the other man earlier.
-Honorable Mentions-
The story has it's complicated moments (as does any comedy in existence) however, it's still funny as hell. Playwright, Jeffrey Hatcher, really knows how to write very tongue-in-cheek comedy, in a British comedic fashion. A lot of Ignatius' dialogue and jokes are made up of an intellectual dialect, yet I could still understand what he was saying and found the jokes and insults all the funnier. Watching this performance made me feel like I was watching a classic comedy, like Abbott and Castello or the Marx Brothers. It's nice to know that even to this day, playwrights are still creating stories that harken back to that golden age of comedy and drama.
This production used almost no props at all. The cast mime the use of the props they're suppose to use while being backed up by the use of sound effects. The synchronization between the entire cast and the sound effects by Mark Bennett and Charles Coes is absolutely spot on. Very seldom is there a delay between the two.
-What I liked-
The look of this production was very median. What I mean is, the production was half and half. The characters wore full costumes, hair and makeup, however there were absolutely no props and very little set pieces. Like in my previous blog on Wheelock Family Theatre's production of Trumpet of the Swan, Confederacy of Dunces reminded me a lot of the works by Bertolt Brecht. In which, he used minimal sets, props, and costumes thereby allowing the audience to use their imagination to fill in the blanks. With the use of Bennett and Coes' sounds, lights by Scott Zielinski, and projection images by Sven Ortel we, the audience, were able to do just that. I definitely give credit to the show's director, David Esbjornson. His decision to make this production semi minimalistic made it all the more enjoyable for me to watch.
The cast performed perfectly. Like in a Brechtian play, most of the ensemble cast played more than one character. And, at times, it was kind of hard to notice who was playing who. With the constant quick changes and the immediate switching from one character to a completely different character, this proved to be a very strong ensemble to watch perform. And, of course, there are the two main leads; Nick Offerman as Ignatius and Anita Gillette as Irene. It's no surprise that Offerman's performance is beyond hilarious. His subtle and dignified performance matched with his intellectually insulting dialogue made his performance the funniest part of the production. Gillette's performance as Irene was very special. She starts off as an affectionate mother who cares for nothing more than her own son and continuously takes the verbal beating by him despite what she's done for him. And, my god does she take such a beating from him. You become more invested in her and actually want to see her evolve more as a character when she starts breaking out of her own comfort zone; partying with her friends and forming a new romantic relationship after living the life of a single mother for so long. And that's just what the two arch for these two characters are about, the two of them learning to break out of their comfort zones in order to escape the uneventful lives they live.      
-Overall Recommendation-
The combination of both the classic verbal humor and the Brechtian style of story telling, this was a very well-done and very enjoyable show. The humor is very witty and tongue-in-cheek, the performances are fun and memorable, and the work behind the scenes is very impressive. If you are a fan of classic witty comedies, definitely go check it out. The Huntington Theatre Company's A Confederacy of Dunces continues until Sunday, December 13th. For ticket prices and more information, go to http://www.huntingtontheatre.org/season/2015-2016/confederacy-of-dunces/  You won't want to miss it. If you have already seen this show, let me know what you thought in the comment box below.