|
Regional Reviews: St. Louis Mary Shelley Monster Show
With Rachel Tibbetts as a girlish and wise Shelley, we glide through the first half of the 19th century on her creative currents. Fierce parents and quixotic peers (including her own husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley) conspire to make normality a distant dream—and doom and dread become inevitable. Monsters seem to be the norm. And yet it's all so gentle and thoughtful that the work creates hope for lowly perseverance, side-by-side with Shelley's own outrageous speculation. In this Slightly Askew Theatre Ensemble world premiere production, Kelley Weber directs and, in spite of the theater's very poor air-conditioning on a 92 degree opening night, the one-hour play seemed surprisingly sleek and delightful. There are electric fans overhead, but they were left off during that sweltering evening to allow a very fine theatrical fog to permeate the air. That, in turn, helps create magnificent shafts of light, as a hundred or more PowerPoint projections are shot over our heads to the stage in heavenly shafts like sunbeams. And because there's so much attention paid to every aesthetic and to all the imagery (and, in the writing, to the sharp edge of understanding), the play succeeds refreshingly in spite of our own worst summer weather. Based on a concept by Ms. Tibbetts and Ellie Schwetye (to complete the company's "season of the monster"), Mr. Otten's script is rich in detail and full of heart. Perhaps it could be stretched to full-length, but I suspect it would only seem longer. It could hardly be any better. In its current form, it bristles with the mood of the time, along with the challenges and conflicts facing a creative, pre-Victorian woman. All are explored directly and personably. Ms. Schwetye plays a variety of roles, from the monster himself (distorted by back-lighting and posed, puppet-like, behind a scrim) to Shelley's mother (who appears to be speaking from inside her own tombstone to several others, including the author's swaggering husband himself). Each of those cameos are silky-smooth: even the monster in his groaning, as he weighs the meaning of his own life, and of Shelley's. Carl Overly Jr. is—as always—a heartwarming presence (off-stage, here) as portraitist Richard Rothwell, who draws the author out with questions as he paints. A fast, witty montage of projected images at the top of the show suggests all that Frankenstein's monster has become in popular culture. And later images show Shelley and her family, and her notorious clique, through the decades: striving for love and shoving Shelley through all manner of heartbreak. But the certainty of her own talent, and of her own intelligence, prove ready tools in the defiance of a more staid era. Those elements of performance serve to reveal a fierce intellect, gentility, and sentiment without strings. Think about bringing an ice bag, if the heat doesn't break. The otherwise scintillating show runs through August 30, 2014, at The Chapel, 6238 Alexander Dr. (just south of Wydown and Skinker Blvds.), St. Louis 63105. For more information visit www.slightlyoff.org or call (314) 827-5760. Performance Ensemble: Mary: Rachel Tibbetts Production Ensemble Photo: Joey Rumpell/RumZoo Photography
|
