Thursday, November 08, 2007

A drought indeed...

Knowing my love of the theatre, Jeremy took me on a nice date tonight to a play at Anniston's amateur theatre, JSU/McClellan Theatre. We went to see a production of The Rainmaker, by Richard Nash.


Unfortunately, the depicted drought extended beyond the story into the acting, writing, and directing.

Here is a description of the play from Wikipedia:

Set in a drought-ridden rural town in the West in Depression era America, the play tells the story of a pivotal hot summer day in the life of spinsterish Lizzie Curry. Lizzie keeps house for her father and two brothers on the family cattle ranch. She has just returned from a trip to visit family cousins, which was undertaken with the failed expectation that she would find a husband. As their farm languishes under the devastating drought, Lizzie's family worries about her marriage prospects more than about their dying cattle. The arrival of a charming con man named Starbuck promising to bring rain in exchange for $100 sets off a series of events which enable Lizzie to see herself in a new light.
Trust me, this description makes the play sound more interesting than it was, if you can believe that. The characters were not believable, and no one character makes a transition worthy of note. The story was stale, and the dialouge was not much better.

The play originally ran for less than one year in 1956. It was revived on Broadway in 1999, again for less than a year, even with Woody Harrelson starring in it.


Anniston's production featured a bumbling cast, from Community Actors' Studio Theatre, or CAST, with one shining exception: 17-year-old Caleb Clark was fantastic in his role as the hilarious doofus brother, who comes to like himself, despite his arrogant brother's constant ribbing. The high school senior certainly brightened an otherwise unwatchable performance.

I'll withhold the names of the rest of the cast to spare feelings, in case any of them has a google alert set to their names. The actor playing the father often seemed lost, and fumbled his lines. The main actress, Lizzie, bobbled between melodrama and complete staleness.

But the worst performer was the lead actor, who was ridiculously dramatic, but not dramatic enough to be called campy or funny. He made soap opera actors look like they could win Academy Awards in their sleep.

Obviously, the play must have orignially had some merit to have made it to Broadway twice. If it did, its value was completely lost in Anniston, for which I have to fault the director. If she couldn't see the dryness of the performances, there is something wrong. Maybe she was counting on Caleb to save the play. But, despite his abilities, saving The Rainmaker was far beyond his grasp.

You may think I am judging this performance too harshly. After all, you say, it is just amateur theatre. Well, if I may quote a horrible line from the play, "I say bunk to that. That's bunk." (Yes, that really was straight from the script!!)

I have seen some amazing local theatre performances. The best example I can give is the Raleigh Little Theatre, where I saw an amazing performance of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I have also seen great performances of Shakespeare in Jupiter, Fla., and even wonderful musicals at the high school level: Broughton High School's Brigadoon and Millbrook High School's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Good actors can be found in every community. Just ask Caleb Clark.

It is up to the director to know where to find them, and how to use them. Better luck next time, CAST.

5 comments:

Barb said...

WOW! I'm sorry it sucked so bad. I have to say, I miss my theatre buddy. They had a production of Mama Mia! here I would have loved to see with you. Miss you much ~ YM

I, Robot said...

Couple of typos:

s/dialouge/dialogue/
s/orignially/originally/

Other than that, decent review. But you should know that Edward Albee said "If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic."

;-)

Ginky said...

I love live performances, be they from your Mom or in the theater. In this case I must refer to a really old movie with Burt Lancaster, it wasn't LIVE theater but it was good. Just a thought, your Mom and I will perform in our own special way soon, hmmm! Mysteries, mysteries........Love, Aunt Charlotte

Anonymous said...

I'm a member of CAST- and let me tell you- THIS MADE MY DAY! Most of us knew how horrid that show was- BUT the director AND the actress known as 'Lizzie' pushed for the show to be done- and what they want they get. Please don't let this be your only experience with us though- we just finished a run of STEEL MAGNOLIAS which was very well performed. You need to look for shows that not only involve Caleb but Sumer Buckner, Jeremy Reaves, Heather Garlick, Lolly Payne and a host of others. I promise you that we do indeed have talent, they just fail to show case it :)

Anonymous said...

I am also a member of CAST, and I somewhat agree. I know Caleb very, VERY well, and he is a tremendous performer. If you were impressed by his acting, you should hear him sing. The boy has amazing talent and is doing everything he can to develop and pursue his passion. However, I think it is also good to note that the actor who played the father had never been in a production before. Also, even though the lead actress may not have done her best, she is a wonderful performer who has bailed CAST out of numerous difficulties, including taking over the lead role of a play the night before the play opened when the original actress had to have emergency surgery. Also, if you missed STEEL MAGNOLIAS, you really missed out. It was amazing and had an awesome cast. I definitely think you should give CAST another chance, and while you're looking for certain people, also look for Debby Tyson, Debby Mathews, Glenn Davenport, and Jennie Wall.