While waiting for the government to shut down this past Monday night, I got to head down to the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh venue for a staged reading of a play called Rutherford and Son. No, I never heard of it either. I'll confess that the main reason I wanted to go to this reading was because it was directed by Tom Story, one of my favorite local actors. I might have mentioned him a time or twelve.
I met up with one of my Shakespeare Reader friends, and we huddled in the frosty theater, down close but not too close. Front row is great for a Clay Aiken concert, but nowhere else do we want to be looking up the performers' noses or getting rained on by saliva-soaked soliloquies. Anyway, we sat and waited for the reading.
And waited. And waited. Well, Tom did a great job introducing all the actors, but then he brought out a scholarly prologue, which whipped us into a torpor. The scholar was clearly thrilled to be on stage, but preceded her speech with speeches describing what would be in the speech. She needed an editor.
I will say something of the actor's behavior during this sequence, though I didn't witness it myself: one of the actors on stage, behind the scholar's back, apparently was doing a bit of eye-rolling and watch-checking. Another audience member mentioned it during the intermission, declaring that behavior a "hoot." I would have found it rude, had I seen it.
If you're on a lecture panel with someone else, who is giving the speech of a lifetime (or several), there has to be a polite way of encouraging them to wrap things up for the sake of those who've come for the main event on a weeknight.
So anyway, we had the historical and cultural analysis of the play but no plot summary unless you were able to squint through the four dense paragraphs in the four-page program. I did not. But I did read a Wikipedia version of the story, which called to mind the relationships of the Child Trumps to the Donald, as seen during Celebrity Apprentice. Those kids clearly know where their bread is buttered; while the Rutherford sons and daughters also were aware of the patriarchal power wielded by the elder Rutherford, most of them survived by fleeing.
I really enjoyed hearing the stripped-down version of the play. I was surprised by how much acting the actors actually did, given that they only had five hours to rehearse. My friend said that it was like a radio play. (I will confess here, also, that the preliminary academic torpor, combined with the soothing effects of a nice stuffed flounder and a bright sauvignon, made it impossible to fully enjoy the first half. After intermission, with a drink and a pee, we're on to Act Three.... Twooo and a Half, my attention had been revived.)
So, squinting at the back of the program, I see:
Works for the ReDiscovery Series are chosen by Artistic Director Michael Kahn and presented by members of the artistic staff. Guest artists join actors from the Shakespeare Theatre Comapny and the Washington theatrical community to investigate these great but lesser-known plays of world literature.The actors participating were:
Robert Hogan (Rutherford)
Fred Arsenault (John)
Gretchen Hall (Mary)
Eric Martin Brown (Richard)
Colleen Delany (Janet)
Catherine Flye (Aunt Anne)
Chris Genebach (Martin)
Jennifer Mendenhall (Mrs. Henderson, a fleeting but powerful presence)
There are three more TBD readings scheduled this season, so I hope to see them, too.
Love, hosaa
watching art get made
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