Snoop's Theatre Thoughts

R+J: The Telephone Play, or Don’t Drink the Milk
Directed by Lucy Cashion
ERA
April 22, 2015

Rachel Tibbetts
Photo by Katrin Hackenberg
ERA

ERA is still a fairly new theatre company, having made their debut this time last year with the provocative Shakespearean reinvention Make Hamlet. After a delightful experiment venturing into the world of Craigslist in their last production, ERA is returning to Shakespeare for another intriguingly offbeat idea. R + J, The Telephone Play, Or Don’t Drink the Milk is an exercise in invention that could easily come across as gimmicky or shallow, but thanks to director Lucy Cashion and her cast and crew, this play is neither of those things. In fact it’s a fascinating, provocative production that provides both laughs and food for thought.

The concept of R + J is novel, to say the least. The last scene of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was recorded on audio and then sent to the first of six playwrights (camila le-bert, Otso Huopaniemi, Zhu Yi, John Douglas Weidner, Samara Weiss, and James Ryan Caldwell), who in turn would write a play based on what they heard, whereupon an audio recording of each new play was sent to the next playwright on the list. The result is a series of plays with a decreasing cast list with the transitions staged in “musical chairs” style and the “retired” cast members lined up in chairs along the walls draped in lacy shrouds. The plays themselves range in style from absurdist comedy to teen angst comedy to riveting drama.

The six person cast consists of (in order of elimination) Carl Overly, Jr., Mollie Amburgey, Cara Barresi, Will Bonfiglio, Mitch Eagles, and Rachel Tibbetts. All six get a chance to shine, from Overly’s half-singing, half-reciting monologue in le-bert’s absurdist family romance comedy “Rosaline Called”, all the way to Tibbetts’ outstanding solo dramatic turn in Caldwell’s “Two Character Play” as an impulsive modern-day Juliet reading her teenage diary on the eve of her wedding. It’s a strong ensemble, with Eagles frequently cast in the “Romeo” role and succeeding with charm, Bonfiglio getting a variety of roles from a chance to croon in “Rosaline Called” to a confrontational game show host in Yi’s “The Offended Audience” to a cocky high-school “bad boy” in Weidner’s “Number 4”. Barresi and Aburgey also impress in supporting roles in “Rosaline Called” and Huopaniemi’s deconstruction of theatrical conventions, “Still Standing”.  The ensemble chemistry is essential in a piece like this, and all six members work together well.

The stylistic conventions here are striking. It’s something of a minimalist staging, using the space at the Chapel to its utmost potential. With scenic and sound design by director Cashion, with impressive lighting by Erik Kuhn and colorful costumes by Meredith LaBounty, this production is as memorable visually as it is dramatically. The walls are adorned with posters announcing the titles of the plays, as well as calendars and an old-fashioned red wall phone that’s hung too high on the wall to easily reach, which becomes an ingenious convention in several of the plays, most notably in “The Offended Audience”, where it gets to be the conduit for a call from God. There’s also a ubiquitous milk bottle, which is emptied gradually through the course of the evening as several cast members take turns drinking from it.

There is so much going on in this play, from the somewhat jarring opening in which the original scene is recited while the actors roam around their staging stretching and warming up their voices, to the riveting last play in which Tibbetts takes center stage. In between, there’s a lot of outrageous comedy, challenging concepts, and stylistic experimentation. It’s an unusual play, but for ERA, “unusual” is usual, and they do it well. There is so much in this play that’s difficult to describe, in fact. You just have to see it, and I highly recommend that you do.

Mitch Eagles, Carl Overly Jr., Cara Barresi, Mollie Amburgey, Rachel Tibbetts Photo by Katrin Hackenberg ERA