Review: Reverb (Redtwist Theatre)

  
  
Reverb 

Written by Leslye Headland
Directed by Jonathan Berry 
at Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr (map)
thru June 23  |  tickets: $25-$30   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
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Troubled souls make for mesmerizing mediation on anger’s destructive power

Redtwist Theatre presents

Reverb

Review by Clint May 

This is the second play in seven months I’ve seen devoted to an exploration of Wrath in a larger cycle devoted to the Seven Deadly Sins. Like the story of Apollo and Marsyas, artists of all kinds seem compelled to revisit sinners more than saints in a meta-commentary on the nature of art itself as requiring tragedy for greatness. This is one-seventh of the young playwright Leslye Headland’s own contribution to stories on that theme. In Redtwist’s Reverb, the past echoes into the present and back again in a feedback loop from which two star-crossed lovers seemingly cannot escape. Though it lacks some clarity and gets a bit heavy handed (literally at times), Reverb is rescued by two extraordinary performances that turn wrathful wraiths into beings of a more pathetic persuasion.

Named for the mode of music, Dorian (Peter Oyloe) at first appears to be just another young run-of-the-mill hipster band member. His ex-girlfriend June (Mary Williamson) meets him at a café to set the events in motion with some Earth-shattering news: his long estranged father is dying. June is shacked up with Dorian’s best friend now because feelings she has in his presence are ‘simple,’ not the complex unfathomables an enigma like Dorian elicits. Although she at first appears to be a typically sassy, pragmatic Southern girl who fell for a bad boy but soon learned her lesson, it becomes clear that these two are actually dark matter stars destined to pull each other into a cosmic collision. Everyone around them is also pulled in by their gravity. Sister Lydia (Brittany Burch)—named for the other musical mode ‘lydian’—arrives to try for a father/son reconciliation, but this only pushes the now clearly disturbed Dorian further into a spiral of shame and resentment. While Lydia has found Jesus to help forgive the sins of the father, Dorian has had no such luck finding a way out of his destructive anger towards the paterfamilias. His self abuse soon enough turns violently upon June, who seems to both invite and revel in the knowledge that she is a vessel for his angst thanks to her own abusive past. She wonders why he can’t just be ‘sweet,’ but in her heart of hearts must wonder why she can’t want him to be sweet. When the first inklings of a new a level of fame appear in the distance, the critical mass on Dorian’s fragile psyche reaches a crescendo.

Peripheral characters exist for the audience as they do for Dorian and June—cardboard cut-outs in a solipsistic universe where they’re the star. As one will point out, he’ll never love anyone as much as he loves something he made himself. In fact, there may be a few too many characters in Headland’s script, who exist just to deliver a piece of insight. Hank (Nick Vidal) exists just to posit on the theory of why people are drawn to Dorian. Ivy (Ashley Neal) seems to walk in from another, more gaudy play to deliver the central allegorical crux of the entirety—the story the first troubled rock star and his ill-fated consort, “Orpheus and Eurydice”. Haunting though the correlation may be, that it was delivered by such an out-of-place character is a scene of jarring self-awareness. Poor Chris Chmelik as drummer Shane has but one early scene to shine and is never seen again, which lead me to wonder if he was just there to make the band realistically large enough.

Despite these quibbles, the central duo are an abyss from which it’s hard to look away. Peter Oyloe channels a little of that mesmerizingly tortured Hank Williams he brought us so wonderfully in 2012 with an extra large dash of disturbing for good measure. Realistically conveying OCD and SIV (Self-Inflicted Violence) and engaging in acts of sadomasochism that are oddly pitiful (dare I say sympathetic?). Despite their horror, he has a sick sort of chemistry with his counterpart. Like many operatic lovers (i.e. Bonnie and Clyde), they frequently imagine that others surely must envy their connection, however bizarre or violent it may be. Williamson strikes a chilling balance for a woman who is both acutely aware of and yet unable to change the path she is set on. As the mouse-turned-mighty Lydia, Burch turns in a performance of heartbreaking tenderness.

Though the story of the rise to fame and the troubles it brings is an old one and the supposed dark comedy elements are only distracting, it’s Oyloe and Williamson that make this show worth a visit. Perhaps all great art comes from tragedy, and we the relatively well-adjusted onlookers are secretly, sadistically glad of their sacrifice in deference to our cultural enrichment. More than just a reflection on wrath, Reverb is a meditation on that shameful aspect of a culture that gladly allows a few sad souls to plumb deeper depths of despair to let us vicariously experience their bruises but come out unscathed.

Rating: ★★★

Reverb continues through June 23 at Redtwist Theatre, 1044 W. Bryn Mawr (map), with performances Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays 3pm.  Tickets are $25-$30, and are available by phone (773-728-7529) or online through BuzzOnStage.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at Redtwist.org.  (Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission)

Photos by Jan Ellen Graves

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artists

cast

Brittany Burch (Lydia), Chris Chmelik (Shane), Ashley Neal (Ivy), Peter Oyloe (Dorian), Nick Vidal (Hank), Mary Williamson (June)

behind the scenes

Jonathan Berry (director), Will Crouse (asst. director), Allison Queen (stage manager), Olivia Baker, Elizabeth Penrose (asst. stage managers), Sarah Burnham (production manager), Frank Sjodin (tech director), Joe Schermoly (set design), Brandon Wardell (lighting design), Christopher Kriz (sound design), Peter Oyloe, Christopher Kriz, (original music), Emily McConnell (costume design), Jeff Shields (prop designer), Ryan Bourque (fight designer), Mary Reynard (vocal coach), Kevin McDonald (dramaturg), Garvin Jellison (master electrician), Alan Weusthoff (set assistant), Peter Oyloe (graphic designer), Charles Bonilla (box office manager), E. Malcolm Martinez (box office associate), Johnny Garcia (associate producer), Jan Ellen Graves (co-producer, marketing, photos), Michael Colucci (co-producer)

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