Review: Company delivers “˜Credeaux Canvas’ with thoughtful maturity

These days, the first thing that strikes you as you wander into
the tiny Little Victory Theater in North Hollywood is how authentic
and confident John Williams’ set design for the venue’s
current production, Keith Bunin’s “The Credeaux
Canvas,” truly feels.

Williams’ realistic recreation of a cluttered, tiny East
Village apartment, right down to the bad carpeting and mismatched
chairs, serves as the backdrop for a story of three struggling,
20-something artists (or artistic wannabes) who embark on an
ill-fated money-making scheme. But the set also serves as an
excellent example of the overall quality of the production, from
the acting to director Paul Nicolai Stein’s careful staging.
On the whole, this inaugural play for the newly founded vs. Theatre
Company is resoundingly strong, and much like its set, it is imbued
with an authenticity belying the relative youthfulness of the
players involved.

Although Bunin’s intelligent and nuanced play is
essentially a crime caper with a classic love triangle, the issues
he explores are what make “The Credeaux Canvas” such an
exceptional piece of theater.

The main topic Bunin seems to be preoccupied with is talent.
Jamie (Matt Skaja) is an art school reject, his girlfriend Amelia
(Kimberly-Rose) a struggling singer, and his roommate Winston
(Johnny Clark) a semi-talented painter who still hasn’t
managed to achieve greatness. So when Jamie suggests that they all
collaborate on a scheme to relieve a wealthy socialite of some of
her money, this relatively talentless bunch decides that making a
little scratch might be worth a few moral transgressions,
especially when Jamie paints the widow (Marilyn McIntyre) as the
worst kind of well-moneyed, tasteless art snob.

But there is very little in “The Credeaux Canvas”
that goes according to Jamie’s plan, and the conflict that
results from its failures will lead to some life-altering changes
for the three young characters. Not everyone, it seems, is meant to
lead the life of an artist.

Though Stein errs occasionally by inserting a few bars of a
swelling, overly emotional score to emphasize scenes that play as
emotional on their own, his direction is steady handed for the most
part. Skaja is able to let his characters intense melancholy simmer
and occasionally boil over. Kimberly-Rose exudes a startling mix of
confidence and vulnerability that lends itself well to
Amelia’s arc through the play. And Clark maintains a subtle
performance when he could easily have tread into caricature.
“The Credeaux Canvas” is a thoughtful, mature
production from vs. Theatre Company.

-Sommer Mathis