| "Caliban"
by Russell Currie "Faith" by Michael Ching At the Vital Theatre Company Reviewed by David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited The Vital Theatre Company has combined two one-act operas into an evening of theatre which explores both madness and the strength of the human spirit. Russell Currie's "Caliban" takes up where Shakespeare's "Tempest" leaves off with Prospero's man-monster servant Caliban remaining on the island once given to him by his mother Sycorax. Currie's opera deals with existential themes which have relevance beyond the plight of Caliban; namely, solitude and loneliness and the enslavement of the human spirit (and body). Ryan Allen's Caliban is an odd but effective cross between Robinson Crusoe and Don Quixote who alternately crawls across the barren stage and flings himself against the walls of the set. Sometimes wakeful, sometimes dreaming, Caliban mourns the loss of his freedom and curses Prospero for first giving him language then robbing him of his very sanity. He queries, "How much of our madness is the result of past gifts given for selfish reasons?" The performance of September 3 found Allen without his voice. Providing all the speaking and all the singing, David de Jong displays a voice which resonates like the bowed string of a bass or the sonorous thirty-two foot pedal pipe on an organ. Together, these artists (accompanied by music director Jennifer Peterson), give the audience a tortured spirit of a Caliban who longs for wisdom lost and cries to dream again. For Caliban, as for so many others, comfort and release lie not in waking but in the blissful arms of dreams. Perhaps faith on the rebound looks a lot like self-doubt. At least that's the case with Michael Ching's one-act opera "Faith" which deals with the woman by the same name (Elizabeth Wiley) who, with her son Flip (Rufus Read) is rebounding from the loss of husband/father and finds herself under the spell of a Japanese Beetle-eating horticulturist named, aptly, Gardiner (Christopher Haney). Gardiner just wants Faith to have faith in him and his intentions. Faith wants to "trust her heart" despite her doubts that she is ready for a new love relationship. Supported by her friend Betty (Judith Skinner) and guided by her son's youthful trust, Faith finally succumbs to Gardiner's courting and admits she "feels he is someone [she could] love." Eschewing the men who respond to her personals ad (DWF, etc.) for Gardiner, Faith takes the leap of faith and trusts that he won't let her down. Michael Ching's music is hardly melodic and, coupled with a somewhat flawed lyric based on a sci-fi short story, does not always sustain interest in Faith and her courtship. There seem to be few reasons for Faith to want to connect with Gardiner. She's rebounding from a miserable marriage; her friend Betty is unhappy in her marriage; and she admits from the start she "doesn't know what she's looking for!" Is her love for Gardiner genuine, or is she just choosing him as the best of the responses she receives from her personals ad (including a plumber who looks like Fabio and a computer programmer looking to score)? Taken as allegory, "Faith" does ask some interesting questions and posit some challenging solutions. Gardiner's believe that we have to "imagine the future" to see "what the possibilities are" is pure sci-fi credo. And Betty's wonderment that we can understand one another at all and fall in love is surely representative of the millennial angst about human relationships. Much of the singing is pleasant enough and the duets are often delicious; however, the cast has to often struggle hard to bring vitality to the somewhat weighty, unmelodic score. Reviewed on Friday, September 3, 1999 "CALIBAN" By Russell Currie. Directed by Scott C. Embler. Music director, Jennifer Peterson. Stage manager, Martin Miller. Presented by the Vital Theatre Company at 432 West 42nd Street, 3rd floor, between 9th and 10th Avenues. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. through Sunday, September 19. All tickets are $12.00. For reservations, call 212-592-4508. WITH: Ryan Allen (performing the role) and David de Jong (singing the role). "FAITH" By Michael Ching. Creative team and performance details same as above. WITH: Elisa Gonzalez (Supernumerary), Christopher Haney (Gardiner), Rufus Read (Flip), Judith Skinner (Betty), and Elizabeth Wiley (Faith). |