Intimate setting brings Williams’ plays to life

Sunday, July 21, 1996

Substantive characters enhanced by solid performances from
castBy Michelle Nguyen

Summer Bruin Contributor

With only 10 feet between the audience and the actors, there’s
no room for indifference.

In "Four By Tennessee," a performance of four of Tennessee
Williams’ renowned one-act plays, you are forcibly drawn into the
world of his characters.

The play is set in the Fountain Theatre’s "Lab" theatre which
used to be a dressing room. The room, which is 25 feet by 15 feet
of dark wood, seats 21 people in plush red velvet seats. As cozy as
your living room, it sets the stage for the rare and delicious
intimacy of the play.

This is only the second time the Fountain Theatre has used the
"Lab" for a production.

Even though it might have been the first time for many of the
actors to perform in this "Lab," this was no lab experiment ­
the actors perfected their roles with the ease of those who are
accustomed to intimacy between the stage and the audience.

The first one-act, "Lord Byron’s Love Letter," is a touching
story of two old maids whose lives revolve around their possession
of an extraordinary love letter from Lord Byron.

Moray Koontz plays the younger spinster whose reflections on
Lord Byron’s love letter are as wistful and memorable as those a
young girl has for her very first ball gown.

The way these two women cling onto the letter with every utmost
effort is moving. It is amazing that such a short play could pull
the sympathies of the audience into the lives of these two
women.

"The Strangest Kind of Romance," follows and is even more
gripping, because it gives a deeper development of the
characters.

The distinction between audience and actor is lost further in
this play ­ to the point where the audience is literally
smelling the apple that is eaten and tasting the bittersweet
sourness that these characters have towards life.

Doug Chambers plays the Italian "little man" whose loneliness is
eased by the adoption of the lingering cat in his hotel. He claims
that he is a "ghost of a man" to Bella, the landlady; but he is
more real and human to the audience than a ghost could ever be.

Bella (Casey Kramer), the brash and forward landlady, seems to
rub people the wrong way with her piercing hyena-like laugh. But
she grows on you like all of Tennessee Williams’ peculiar
characters once you see how much human grit she possesses.

Kramer plays out the role of the brandy-sipping, hard-talking
landlady beautifully, showing us that her hyena-like laugh is a
cover-up of something deeper. Her substance is seen in the hollows
of her melancholy song about the Danube river and the desperate way
she strums her guitar.

Bella’s father-in-law (Henry Lide) may be thought of as a
ranting old man whose breath smells of alcohol. But he compels us
to listen to every word he has to say until we want to sit and talk
with him about days of old.

The characters in "The Strangest Kind of Romance" grab the
audience with their touching past and then lose that pensive hold
the next minute when they make you burst out laughing with their
wonderful quirkiness.

"A Perfect Analysis Given By a Parrot," on the other hand, is an
uphill roller coaster of laughs. Sharon Madden and Koontz appear as
Bessie and Flora, two members of a ladies’ auxiliary who end up at
a cheesy, deserted bar shooting the breeze and drinking beer.

Bessie and Flora are a riot as the two man-hungry best friends,
and they know it. Bessie talks loudly of Flora’s bad hairdo and how
"no one’s got any pride where men are concerned."

Flora talks equally loudly of Bessie’s weight problem and her
own pathetic life regarding men. They powder their noses
synchronously, chomp on their popcorn with baring teeth and drink
their beer in fishbowl cups.

It is all very typical but they are great fun; they liven up the
deadbeat bar the second they come storming in with their painted
eyelashes and rolling banter.

The fourth one-act, "I Can’t Imagine Tomorrow" was not done this
night because one of the actors was unable to perform.

An actor must pull off his role perfectly in order to convince
the audience of the uniqueness and humanness that are so inherent
in Tennessee Williams’ characters. This is especially true when the
audience is practically sitting in the laps of the actors in this
small theatre.

But the actors were polished, solid and very, very real which
was amplified by the in-your-face setting. This made for a
performance where the credibility and vibrancy of the characters
was crystal clear. They drew the audience in until there was no
distance left between them.

Stage: "Four By Tennessee" is playing at The Fountain Theatre
through July 28. Tickets $15. For more info, call: (213)
663-1525.

Moray Koontz and Sharon Madden in Tennessee Williams’ "A Perfect
Analysis Given by a Parrot."

Bella (Casey Kramer), … seems to rub people the wrong way with
her piercing hyena-like laugh. But she grows on you like all of
Tennessee Williams’ peculiar characters.