Review by Vincent P. Barras A Fine Example of Acting Trumping a Script Just last weekend, Terrance McNally’s 20th play Mothers and Sons closed after a brief run and some Tony nominations. Though it marked fifty years since he composed his first play, it was a somewhat strident affair that touched numerous gay themes and was only elevated to a level it didn’t deserve by some exquisite acting by Tyne Daly. The same thing happened at Theatre 810 with Jody Powell’s production of Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri. Some good direction from Powell and fine acting by two veterans lifted the schizophrenic material to a level it didn’t deserve, but the fault lies with the script, not the production. Alfieri’s script suffers from sitcom syndrome: its two characters don’t exist in the realm of reality. It begins innocuously enough with an elderly lady Lily Harrison receiving a dance instructor Michael Minetti in her condo in precisely the manner implied by the title Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, but that’s as close to reality as the audience will get. From there, Alfieri subjects his audience to highly improbable situations. Alfieri’s dance instructor is a prickly soul whose demeanor veers into unacceptable behavior that would drive the lady into refusing a second lesson. Why she accepted him back for a second dance lesson defies reason, and any offered excuses stretch credibility. Even more arbitrary is the author’s desire to constantly set up stress in every one of the six dance lessons so that this odd couple can resolve it and become the best of friends. It’s all very tidy, neat, and formulaic, as if each episode were a twenty-minute sitcom of a small miniseries. The author also seems to have a checklist of every possible traumatic tale: need an illness, it’s there; need an exasperating neighbor who complains on cue, got that; need a tragic tale of love lost, got time for that too. It’s shamelessly manipulative to throw in nearly every possible hot topic designed to press buttons. Before one thinks the script is just some hackneyed job unworthy of stage time, it can surprise and beguile. “People start to disappear as you get older,” Lily laments in Act I, and some of the stories told are genuinely moving. The author can occasionally turn a phrase in unexpected ways that leaves the audience laughing out loud, and there are moments of poignancy when Alfieri stops slamming his shrill notes. When Lily (Mary Gail Lamonte DeVillier) sits quietly on the sofa with Michael (Milton G. Resweber), they look more natural than anything else in the script and it makes one wish the rest of the play had been made of such moments. The humorous bits are truly funny, sometimes in a forced manner, but overall they are still amusing. Speaking of great talent on stage, pairing these two actors on stage was a blessing. Despite the worst contrivances by the author to shamelessly pull at heartstrings, DeVillier and Resweber display sincere affection and rapport. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Resweber is a dance instructor in real life. My only quibble is that the character of Michael has such hurtful things to say without true motivation for those things except as obstacles for the pair to overcome. It is to Resweber’s considerable credit that he still makes the character likable. And DeVillier is just too sweet a lady to say some of the tactless, upsetting things she utters. It’s when she’s frail and defenseless that the audience rallies to her side, and there, DeVillier is in her element. The warm set, awash in vibrant colors and some strikingly effective lighting by Joseph Diaz, certainly keeps the spirits up as the characters bicker back and forth. Each scene ends with a nice dance scene, though sometimes the dancing goes on too long once the lights are down, noticeable only by the background lighting from the balcony. Though Powell has taken the route of having the actors themselves handle the scene changes, it does delay the scenes and slow the momentum of the play, but thankfully the music choices are first rate and upbeat enough to make the passing of time pleasant. Ms. Powell had some particularly nice touches in her set: a painting of a lone, white, wooden beach chair, and across the room is a matching lamp whose base is also a white, wooden beach chair. (Disclaimer: I donated the rolltop desk being used on the set.) The costumes work perfectly for the script, and the dancing is also quite good. The play will perform a matinee on June 29th (3:00 pm) and will also run Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the July 4th weekend at Theatre 810 on Jefferson Street. Please take a moment to enjoy this production, if only for the experience of watching two pros—three if you count Ms. Powell—work their magic to make a script seem better than it is. Even if one doesn’t buy the script’s machinations, the actors make you believe that it might, just might, turn out this way.
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 14:10:59 +0000
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