CREEDE – A funny thing happened on the way to Creede last week. The sky was clear, Wolf Creek Pass was open, and the roads were free of traffic. Best of all, Creede Repertory Theatre is up and running – its 48th season.
Recovering from a summer even Mark Twain wouldn’t satirize, CRT has withstood rumors of evacuation. For the record, the town never had to evacuate, and the company canceled only one show because of smoke from the forest fires south and west of the village. Right now, it’s easy to get tickets, and motel rooms are plentiful.
Highlighting the season is the evergreen Stephen Sondheim musical “A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” A bright, cartoon-style stage presents three Roman houses, two alleyways and a backdrop of high aqueducts.
Based on a comedy by Roman playwright Plautus, the musical centers on the wily servant Pseudolus (played energetically by Logan Ernstthal). He yearns for freedom while Hero and Philia, two young lovers (Aram Monisoff and Rebecca Hurd), yearn for each other.
The musical unfolds as satire, one tuneful number at a time, with audience asides, a fabulous chase and more dances than the coliseum has arches. Every character – slave or soldier, parent or child, courtesan or procurer – is lampooned. As Senex, the beleaguered father, the inimitable John Arp sputters about and gets a laugh every time he looks at the audience.
The largely Equity cast delivers on its opening promise: “Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight.”
The same smart, self-knowing theatricalism pervades “Around the World in 80 Days.” Yes, it is the story of Phileas Fogg from the gargantuan Jules Verne novel, here adapted by the playwright/actor Mark Brown. Conceived in a style that has been dubbed minimalism, the work, staged by Director Charlie Oates, resembles two other new plays that also began on Broadway and have traveled to regional theaters: “The 39 Steps” and “Peter and the Starcatcher.”
Like those works, Brown has streamlined a complex story by delivering a large cast of characters into the hands of a few actors, here five in all. One plays Fogg (the handsome and punctilious Dustin Bronson); the other four illuminate 39 characters. An open stage with a simple moveable platform serves the action. Sound and lighting effects are crucial, but minimalist theater essentially relies on sparkling actors and an audience with imagination.
Brown’s version of “80 Days” moves quickly from the opening wager that propels Fogg around the globe. Beginning and ending in 1872 at a British men’s club, the CRT journey has a high wind at its back. In addition to Bronson as Fogg, Arp, Patrick DuLaney, Graham Ward and Caitlin Wise ably, convincingly and hilariously perform all the other roles.
In contrast to the high jinks of “Forum” and “80 Days,” CRT has programmed a brilliantly written drama by Steven Levenson. “The Language of Trees” opened on Broadway in 2008 to strong reviews. It tells the contemporary story of a small family whose husband/father goes off to war in Iraq – as a translator, not a soldier. That distinction is important and reverberates throughout the work.
Levenson’s storytelling is pared down to essentials with short, compressed scenes that encourage the audience to fill in rather than sit through talky exposition. Imaginative flights of language, flashbacks and brief dream sequences blossom inside an essentially realistic drama. Grounded in realism, the work illuminates as only live theater can the difficulties of a family torn apart by war.
CRT has assembled a remarkable cast and crew. Director Michael Perlman and his creative team have clarified the different locations with the simplest of means, and the blend of realism and magic realism is seamless.
CRT will add two more productions to the summer schedule as planned: Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew” will open July 26, and a Shakespeare spinoff, “Land of the Dead,” will open Aug. 16, with continuing productions of “Boomtown” and “Pants on Fire.”
jreynolds@durangoherald.com. Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic.
If you go
Creede Repertory Theatre presents “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” through Aug. 24; “Around the world in 80 Days,” through Sept. 21; and “The Language of Trees,” through Aug. 7. Performances are at 124 North Main St., Creede. Tickets range from $10 to $33. For the full schedule and information call (719) 658-2540 or visit www.creederep.org.
