The Prenzie Players' Caesar, the company's truncated title for William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, has a playfulness about it, as director Tracy Skaggs reduces the Roman leader, played here by John Turner, to the role of celebrity. This consequently provides moments of humor and fun where there might otherwise be none, the highlight of which is J.C. Luxton's Antony grabbing patrons from out of the audience and stating "Caesar grants your wish - rise," before using his cell phone to snap pictures of the attendees with Caesar.
It's unfortunate that William Marbury's angry, domineering King Creon and Analisa Percuoco's defiant, strong-willed Antigone don't share more stage time in Scott Community College's production of Crossing Acheron: The Tragedy of Antigone. The actors share a similar energy in their performances, creating a palpable tension as the king condemns Antigone to be buried alive for, against his decree, twice attempting to bury her slain brother. Marbury and Percuoco are equally gifted at gleaning emotional meaning out of director/author Laura Winton's Greek-tragedy adaptation and delivering their words with conviction, and their performances and chemistry are so captivating that they left me hoping the two will appear in a future production that involves more interaction between them.
Scott Community College's heart-tugging production of playwright Bernard Pomerance's The Elephant Man is truly touching, with much of the credit for Thursday's emotion going to James Thames' portrayal of the titular character. While director Steve Flanigin does not use makeup to make Thames look like the real Joseph Merrick - who lived during the late 19th Century and who, for still-unknown reason, was deformed with what looked like gargantuan warts on his head, shoulder, torso, legs, and right arm - Thames manages to successfully depict physical abnormality by way of constantly holding his mouth to the right side of his face, even while speaking. Through the course of Merrick's existence from sideshow freak to hospital resident to friend of high-society England, it's Thames' unassuming nature and gentle speech, as filtered through his deformed face, that make his Merrick so heartbreaking and pitiable.
Scott Community College's Blue Sky Merchants is an interesting idea that doesn't reach its potential, mainly due to its absence of subtlety. Local playwright and actor John R. Turner's play about a man (simply named Deskman, and played by Turner) who listens to, and then green-lights or rejects, ideas for television shows could be a poignant commentary on modern society's tastes in entertainment. Yet while Turner has a laudable knack for dialogue, Thursday's production left me with too-little question as to his intended message, mainly because his Deskman character clearly states the author's intent, rather than allowing the audience to decipher it.
I've seen three or four first-rate portrayals of Shakespeare's Othello over the years, and I always marvel at how both the character and the performer seem to literally grow in stature through the course of the play.
Here's one for fellow fans of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy: You know how badly we wanted to see The Two Towers after The Fellowship of the Ring? That's how badly I want to see the Prenzie Players' King Henry the Fourth after Saturday night's production of King Richard the Second.Subscribe & Listen to Reader Podcasts
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