Theater Review: Medea | Resident Ensemble Players

By Steve Lanahan
Theater reviewer Steve Lanahan was born, raised, and lives in north Wilmington. He is a nerd, mead enthusiast, and servant to his cats.

The Resident Ensemble Players (REP) brings the ancient Greek tragedy Medea to the stage at the Roselle Center for the Arts. First produced in 431 B.C.E., this play asks important questions that remain relevant, even in this modern day. What is the role of a woman in society? How far is too far? Are the Fates truly so cruel?

Medea’s (Elizabeth Heflin) nurse (Kathleen Pirkl Tague) opens the performance with the tale of how they came to be in the kingdom of Corinth. She tells of how Jason (Stephen Pelinski) came to Medea’s home of Colchis, how she fell madly in love with him, and her terrible acts on his behalf. They were wed, she bore him two children, and they made a life together in Corinth. Now Jason has betrayed her and intends to marry Princess Creusa, daughter of King Creon (Hassan El-Amin). The nurse does not hold back her anger at Jason or her fear of what Medea will do.

This betrayal leaves Medea heartbroken, ashamed, and furious, and she vows revenge. Her despair and rage are so great that King Creon, fearing for his life as well as his daughter’s, banishes her from his kingdom. She begs him for a single day to prepare for her travels, pointing out that her sons (Nicholas Farrel and James Muzzi), Jason’s sons, would suffer. The king relents and grants her a single day.

Medea only needs one day to plan and take her revenge. Though she struggles with what she feels she must do, Jason helps by coming to chastise her for ruining his plan to give her and their children a better life by marrying this young princess. He feels his betrayal of their marriage is justified by his goals. She names him an oath breaker, and he counters that she got the better end of this deal. After all, he brought her from her barbarian home to civilization, and now she speaks to kings and gods.

In the end, Medea’s revenge takes everything from Jason, even his children. All throughout this chilling tale, the Chorus speaks in despairing tones, taking on the voices of the women of Corinth. They speak in disjointed patterns, sometimes from the sides of the stage, other times on the stage, and later among the crowd. They never hesitate to add context for their reactions nor show horror at what is happening.

Elizabeth Heflin's stunning performance as Medea embodies the range of her suffering. Despair, rage, and grief are plain and raw. Every time Medea steps on to the stage, there is a feeling of dread, because the tragic end is coming. Heflin ensures that none can look away from the wrath of Medea's revenge.

Kathleen Pirkl Tague, as Medea's nurse, sets the tone for the play and leaves dread hanging in her wake. The first to take the stage, her anger at Jason's actions is palpable, eclipsed only by her fear at what Medea might do. In the final lines, she leaves no question that what is to come will be spoken of in horror for all the ages. The performance is powerful, a fitting opening and final note that leaves no choice but to stare this tragedy head on and think about it for days to come.

The simple stage setting focuses attention on Medea’s suffering, King Creon’s fear, and Jason’s unrepentant pride. Theatrical fog hangs about the stage, giving everything a gloomy edge, a feeling intensified by the haunting music. Strobe lights are used in concert with the soundscape to highlight thunder and Medea’s escape.

This tragedy has withstood the test of time, and the REP’s excellent adaption shows that it will continue to endure. The ending is not a happy one, but it is cathartic. The questions this play will raise will continue to haunt us through the ages.

Medea will run Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm, with an additional show on Sundays at 2pm, until April 30. The run time is approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. The Roselle Center for the Arts is located at 110 Orchard Road, Newark, DE 19716. Visit the REP's website or call the box office at 302.831.2204 for details.

DDOA Announces Finalists for Poetry Out Loud State Competition

The content of this post comes from a press release provided by the Delaware Division of the Arts...

Following a three-year hiatus, Delaware’s Poetry Out Loud State Finals returns for the first in-person competition since 2020. The recitation contest will be hosted at the Smyrna Opera House on Thursday, March 2, 2023, at 7:00pm. Twelve student finalists will compete for the opportunity to represent Delaware and advance to the National Finals in Washington, DC from May 8-10, 2023. The event is free to the public and seating is limited.

At their school, students selected and recited works from an anthology of more than 1,200 poems. Their teachers or facilitators ran their school’s local Poetry Out Loud competition that then selected a winner to be moved on to the state finals.

“Congratulations to the twelve talented and creative high school students who have been selected as semi-finalists in the 2023 Delaware Poetry Out Loud competition,” says Division Director Jessica Ball. “Your hard work and passion for the arts is truly inspiring. Keep up the great work and we can’t wait to see where your passion for the arts takes you in the future.”

The 2023 Delaware State semi-finalists are:

• Bekah Booth, Delaware Valley Classical School
• Maiss Hussein, Hodgson Vo-Tech High School
• Emily Roth, MOT High School
• Aiden Morris, Mount Sophia Academy
• Lale Ergen, Newark Charter High School
• Julia Nowaczyk, Padua Academy
• Hunter Brown, Red Lion Christian Academy
• Abigail Ehemann, Saint Mark’s High School
• Kaylee Rathbone, Sanford School
• Joelle Caternor, Smyrna High School
• Morgan Burnett, Sussex Central High School
• Ololade Olubowale, Tatnall School

Poetry Out Loud — presented in partnership with the Delaware Division of the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and Poetry Foundation — is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country. Since the program began in 2005, more than 4.1 million students across the country have participated in Poetry Out Loud.

The Delaware state champion will receive $200 and will advance to the national finals where $50,000 in awards and school/organizational stipends will be distributed. The representing school or organization of the state champion will receive $500 for the purchase of poetry materials. The first runner-up in each state will receive $100, with $200 for their school or organization. 

Theatre Review: The Year of Magical Thinking | City Theater Company

By Mike Logothetis

Theater reviewer Mike Logothetis grew up in North Wilmington, performing in school and local theater productions. He lives in Newark, but you can find him wherever the arts are good.

City Theater Company (CTC) returns to the stage in 2023 with the one-woman autobiographical The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.  The play is based on her bestselling memoir of the same name and stars Mary Catherine Kelley in the titular role.  The production takes place in the cozy Wings Black Box at The Delaware Contemporary (TDC) on the Wilmington Riverfront.

Mary Catherine Kelley stars in The Year of Magical Thinking at CTC.
Photo by Jim Coarse/Moonloop Photography.

Adapted by the author for Broadway in 2007, the award-winning play is a riveting and heartfelt elegy that expands on the book, which won the National Book Award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The work explores Didion’s grief following the deaths of her husband John Gregory Dunne and daughter Quintana Roo.

In what amounts to an extended soliloquy, Didion recounts her journey of loss, perseverance, and hope by using her signature wit to draw an intimate portrait of the resilience of the human heart.  Kelley is moving as Didion…taking the audience with her as she flutters between recounting good times and lamenting the present without her loved ones.  It’s not an easy line to walk, but Kelley deftly brings you inside Didion and her family.  The lack of stage microphones heightens the intimacy as we hear every quiver in Kelley’s voice and each bold statement of resilience.

The production is directed by CTC Artistic Director Kerry Kristine McElrone, who has opted for simplicity and straightforwardness in her guidance of the action.  Kelley isn’t asked to more than be human and share Didion’s complex thoughts on death and dying.  That’s no small task, but by getting down to basics, the message becomes more powerful.

Kudos to set designer Rick Neidig and lighting man Stuart Thomas for keeping things simple and effective, like McElrone with her direction.

The play starts with death and ends with death, but there is joy interwoven in Didion’s words.  “I love you more than one more day” is a sort of mantra recalling the special bond between lost husband and daughter.  These aren’t distant figures, but spirits you feel are in the theater with you.  Kelley was powerful when describing how she would brush “Q-Roo’s” hair and repeatedly brought up her daughter’s ever-changing locks.

Back in 2007, the New York Times called The Year of Magical Thinking “a report back from an emotional abyss, yet for all its intensity, it isn’t grim or overwrought.  It’s rigorously self-scrutinizing, dryly self-mocking, fairly stunned-somehow both unsentimental and consumed with love.”

So what exactly is “magical thinking,” according to Didion?  The play mentions anthropological ties to mysticism, but from the stage action it seems to be more of a modern optimistic reality.  The script takes on a better pace at the first inkling that Didion truly recognizes a death in her immediate family – stepping out of initial denial.  She continues to revisit better times and sometimes felt her loved ones were still with her, but as the dialog progresses, the audience realizes that Didion has come to a sort of acceptance.  It’s a powerful journey that is navigated with aplomb by CTC.

Winner of the 2005 National Book Award for Nonfiction, The Year of Magical Thinking is one of many celebrated books by Joan Didion.  She was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, which awarded her its 2005 Gold Medal in nonfiction.  She also received the 1996 Edward MacDowell Medal, the 1999 Columbia Journalism Award, and the 2002 George Polk Book Award.

CTC’s mission is to create a body of work that takes risks and breaks barriers — just as TDC’s is to take risks and push boundaries.  Both institutions are invested in promoting the work of local and emerging artists, advancing opportunity and growth by and for the community, and welcoming all those looking to experience art.

City Theater Company is supported, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The Divisions promotes Delaware arts events on DelawareScene.com.

The Year of Magical Thinking will run Friday and Saturday nights through February 18.  Curtain is at 8:00pm and run time is approximately 100 minutes without an intermission.  City Theater Company’s home is at The Delaware Contemporary located at 200 South Madison, Wilmington, DE 19801.  Tickets ($30-45) can be purchased at the box office or online.  Special ticket pricing is available for military personnel and students.  

Please call the box office at (302)220-8285 or email info@city-theater.org for details.

Theatre Review: One Man, Two Guvnors | Delaware Theatre Company

By Mike Logothetis
Theater reviewer Mike Logothetis grew up in North Wilmington, performing in school and local theater productions. He lives in Newark, but you can find him wherever the arts are good.

If you’re searching for an energetic jolt of live entertainment, look no further than the Delaware Theatre Company (DTC) and its production of the hilarious One Man, Two Guvnors. It’s a romp wrapped in a musical farce. And, if you’re lucky (or unlucky?), you may end up on stage as part of the action.

DTC's production of One Man, Two Guvnors.
Photo by Matt Urban/NüPOINT Marketing

One Man, Two Guvnors is an English adaptation of Servant of Two Masters, a 1743 commedia dell’arte work by Italian Carlo Goldoni. In 2011, English playwright Richard Bean replaced the Italian period setting of the original with 1963 Brighton, added original music by Grant Olding, and created a worldwide hit. The play was the launch vehicle for James Corden in America. In June 2012, Corden won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play.

In this DTC production, the lead role of Francis Henshall is played skillfully by DJ Gleason. The easily confused Henshall makes his own life complicated by taking on more than his simple mind can handle. Gleason masterfully dances between scripted lines and improvisation while his character tries to please all parties involved in his current predicament. An argument that Henshall has with himself — which somehow turns violent — is a highlight of the show.

In a nutshell, the always-peckish Henshall becomes separately and concurrently employed by two men: gangster Roscoe Crabbe (Karen Peakes) and Stanley Stubbers (Jake Blouch), an upper-class buffoon. Henshall tries to keep his “guvnors” apart to avoid each of them learning that he is also working for someone else. 

Muddling events, Roscoe is really twin sister Rachel Crabbe in disguise. Roscoe had been killed by Rachel’s boyfriend…who is none other than Stanley. Complicating things further is local mobster Charlie the Duck (John Bellomo stood in for Peter DeLaurier on Opening Night) who has arranged an engagement between his daughter Pauline (Renee McFillin) and Roscoe. But Pauline only has eyes for actor Alan (Dave Johnson), the son of her father’s attorney (Bruce Graham). Amongst the chaos, Henshall has his romantic eye on Charlie’s bookkeeper Dolly (Kelly McCaughan). With Henshall in the middle, the chaotic swirl of characters keeps missing each other’s actions and antics. Thankfully, the audience sees it all.

The snappy writing by Bean modernizes the classic farce and upgrades much of the humor for today’s audiences. Between the cleverly terrible metaphors, there is substance to the script, however wacky the plot may be. For instance, the virginal Pauline so often misses the point that she is described as “unsoiled by education.” The second act’s deep discussion of debilitating and deadly diseases has more alliteration than this sentence…and is hysterical.

But, as in any farce, stage timing and physical comedy must shine. They do. Trembling octogenarian waiter Alfie (Brian McCann) steals a riotous lunch scene through physical humor alone. Feminist Dolly is overtly sexual and playful when being seduced. Alan’s passion for acting is so deep that he often prompts the audience to recognize his entrances before speaking or changes his spot mid-line to gain better light. The air of misguided entitlement around Stanley’s every movement is palpable.

Kudos to Colin McIlvaine for his inventive scenic design. His wonderful inside and outside sets allow for the wacky physical comedy to shine while keeping the world grounded in period reality.

Live music by Nero Catalano (Emmett Drueding stood in on Opening Night) and Andrew Nelson added a party atmosphere inside the theater. Scene changes meant live ditties with plot points mixed in with the song lyrics — not to mention guest musicians from the cast. Get ready for an energetic kazoo solo!

The cast regularly breaks the fourth wall with an infectious sense of wink-wink mischief. The audience seems to be intimately involved in the capers on stage, with the actors in on the joke. It’s as if everybody in the theater wants to squeeze one more laugh out of a gag. It’s all very, very funny.

One Man, Two Guvnors is the last show for outgoing Artistic Director Bud Martin. 

The performance schedule of One Man, Two Guvnors is: Wednesdays (2 p.m.), Thursdays (7 p.m.), Fridays (8 p.m.), Saturdays (2 & 8 p.m.), and Sundays (2 p.m.) through February 19. Tickets start at $29 while discounts are available for students, groups, and military members/veterans. The show is roughly two-and-a-half hours long with one 15-minute intermission. 

 There will be pre-show Viewpoints on Wednesdays at 1:15 p.m. during the run plus talkbacks after Thursday performances. Call (302)594-1100 or visit DelawareTheatre.org to purchase tickets or for performance information. Delaware Theatre Company is located at 200 Water Street in Wilmington.