Review: How to Make a Rainbow (On The Spot Theatre)

By Chicagotheaterbeat @chitheaterbeat

  
  
How to Make a Rainbow

Written and Directed by Mike Brayndick
at Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln (map)
thru Aug 13  |  tickets: $10-$20   |  more info
  
Check for half-price tickets 
  
  
   Read entire review
  

  

  

Too much is not more

     

  

On The Spot Theatre Company presents

  

How to Make a Rainbow

Review by Patrick Dyer

Tackling a person’s entire life into a concise dramatic story is a daunting task. The narrative has to be flowing without being too episodic, there can’t be too many characters, and the purpose of telling such a story must be clear if audiences are going to be invested. It can be even harder with a real-life person because you’d have to know which facts of that person’s life should be included or not. Unfortunately, that is not the case in On the Spot Theatre’s latest production, How to Make a Rainbow. Here, we learn that too much is not more.

The play details the life and artistic trials of real-life Joseph Cornell (Matthew Stroh), a self-taught artist born and raised in New York. We see his relationships with a variety of people over the years, including his brother suffering from cerebral palsy (Erik Martin), his overbearing mother (Katie Sherman), a young coffee shop waitress (Emma Brayndick), and even Salvador Dali (Mark Dodge). And all during that, we see him develop his own artistic style based on his childhood and fantasies which he called “white magic,” seen as an opposition to the darkness of the Surrealist movement after the First World War. Cornell’s fantasies of many abstract entities like a Medici princess and a French tightrope walker come to life in front of him as he struggles to maintain the balance between his life and his art.

The problem with this piece is obvious from the start:  there’s too much going on, and almost none of it is allowed to settle in. Scenes go by so quickly in a very cinematic style that it’s difficult for audiences to know – much less care – about what they’re seeing onstage. Mike Brayndick’s script appears to be taken mostly from Cornell’s personal letters and diary entries, but what works on the page doesn’t always translate well to the stage. Certain poetic passages that are fine as written prose just come off as meandering and pretentious when performed in front of a live audience. Add to that an already episodic storyline lacking in focus and an overly long second act, and what results is a potentially interesting but mostly confusing and messy character study.

To make matters worse, the cast as a whole seems to be on autopilot throughout the evening (at least in the performance I saw). They go from one scene to the next without much in dynamics or even energy. Stroh can’t decide on an accent, and constantly plays Cornell as a tortured artist without much variety or humanity (though, to be fair, Brayndick’s script doesn’t offer him many chances). The rest of the cast play multiple roles, but are unable to effectively differentiate between each character. Dodge is too large for such a small playing space, as he over-projects and over-acts. Sherman looks uninterested in what she’s doing for almost the entire show. Martin captures the physical aspects of Robert Cornell’s cerebral palsy well, but he’s a bit dull in his other roles. Emma Brayndick has her energized moments, but like the others she struggles to make each of her other characters different from the others. Casey Brayndick is unfortunately not experienced enough to handle multiple roles in a more adult show as she struggles to project and annunciate many of her lines.

While it has the potential to be a more interesting character study, especially if it involved more of Cornell’s family, How to Make a Rainbow suffers from trying to squeeze in too many details about Cornell’s life and fantasies without ever getting to the heart of his material or even his relationships with others. Life is a collection of moments whether they be exciting, dramatic, funny, boring, or tragic, but capturing the essence of it is what makes a piece like this work. And sadly, How to Make a Rainbow is not up to the task.

  

Rating: ★½

  

  

How to Make a Rainbow continues through August 13th at Greenhouse Theater, 2257 N. Lincoln (map), performing Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm, Sundays 2:30pm. Tickets are $10-$20, and are available by phone (773-404-7336) or online through GreenhouseTheater.org (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More info at OnTheSpotTheatreCompany.weebly.com.  (Running time: 2 hours, includes an intermission)

     

artists

cast

Matthew Stroh (Joseph Cornell), Mark Dodge (Joseph Two, others), Katie Sherman (Mother, others), Erik Martin (Robert Cornell, others), Emma Brayndick (Betty Cornell, others), Casey Brayndick (Helen Cornell, others)

behind the scenes

Mike Brayndick (director, playwright), J.R. Pierce (stage manager), Angela Guest (assistant stage manager, props), Nick Rastenis (set design), Pat Henderson (lighting design), Gaspard Le Dem (sound design, original music), Taniel Kilajian (video, projections), Deana Zehren (costumes), Saren Nofs-Snyder (voice and dialect coach), Steven Hill (technical director, build master), Elayne LeTraunik (marketing), Alex Farrington (stage combat and movement)

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