2008 Woodie Awards
JHUT's Bus Stop pleases with Midwest charm
Issue date: 5/1/08
And that isn't quite everybody. Carl has two other passengers: a loudmouthed young rodeo star named Bo Decker (freshman Adam Reiffen) and his taciturn companion Virge (Peabody senior Iain Roush). When we first meet him, Bo is set on taking Cherie as his wife - regardless of what she wants - and hauling her back to his ranch in Montana.
It would have been possible for Denithorne to make their romantic misadventures the crux of the show and use everyone else for color or human interest. Yet even actors who disappear for substantial stretches, such as Zheng and Clark, deliver commanding performances. At the same time, a central conflict like Bo and Cherie's keeps the sprawling ensemble feel of this version of Bus Stop from degenerating into disorder.
As last fall's enjoyable production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night demonstrated, the Merrick Barn's stage is most effective when most is stripped down. Matilda Spelvin's set design is convincing enough - something like a poor man's Johnny Rockets. Too much bric-a-brac would have crowded actors like Reiffen, whose performance depends upon a grandiose and furious body language. As his foil, Virge spends a lot of time sitting quaintly in a corner, though Roush also supplies a few cogent moments of humor and melancholy.
The demographic cross-section setup that Inge's play employs might be familiar from Arthur Miller's 1955 one-act "A Memory of Two Mondays" - or, for a more modern reference, reality TV. Inge's incompatible strangers fill their own small space with plenty of mayhem but are never fully dislikable or - at least in a handful of cases - totally irredeemable.
Before the second act draws to a close, Scamman transforms Dr. Lyman from an out-of-place know-it-all into a besotted disaster. He's lamentable enough on his own, but the care that he receives from Elma - whom Daly plays as surprisingly intelligent, unflaggingly sweet and appropriately awkward - makes him seem tragically helpless.
It would have been possible for Denithorne to make their romantic misadventures the crux of the show and use everyone else for color or human interest. Yet even actors who disappear for substantial stretches, such as Zheng and Clark, deliver commanding performances. At the same time, a central conflict like Bo and Cherie's keeps the sprawling ensemble feel of this version of Bus Stop from degenerating into disorder.
As last fall's enjoyable production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night demonstrated, the Merrick Barn's stage is most effective when most is stripped down. Matilda Spelvin's set design is convincing enough - something like a poor man's Johnny Rockets. Too much bric-a-brac would have crowded actors like Reiffen, whose performance depends upon a grandiose and furious body language. As his foil, Virge spends a lot of time sitting quaintly in a corner, though Roush also supplies a few cogent moments of humor and melancholy.
The demographic cross-section setup that Inge's play employs might be familiar from Arthur Miller's 1955 one-act "A Memory of Two Mondays" - or, for a more modern reference, reality TV. Inge's incompatible strangers fill their own small space with plenty of mayhem but are never fully dislikable or - at least in a handful of cases - totally irredeemable.
Before the second act draws to a close, Scamman transforms Dr. Lyman from an out-of-place know-it-all into a besotted disaster. He's lamentable enough on his own, but the care that he receives from Elma - whom Daly plays as surprisingly intelligent, unflaggingly sweet and appropriately awkward - makes him seem tragically helpless.
Be the first to comment on this story