Reviewed
by Will Stackman
With
a title inspired by a paragraph in chapter 42 of 1999 Nobel Prize winner
Gunther Grass' fable "The Tin Drum" and some creative differences
during its development, the American Repertory Theatre recently premiered Amanda
Palmer's
"The Onion Cellar" in their flexible space at Zero Arrow St. This
time this large black box space is set up as a cabaret with tables and a bar
along the side serving beer and wine at the usual prices. A large circular
array of lights hangs over stage set against one side wall. Opposite the stage
the wall above the audience is covered with memorabilia. Designer Christine
Jones created
this environment before the project was fully developed, and much of the setup
can be stored for use in future projects. An "Onion Peeling Movie"
credited to Peter Sand wasn't used in the show, so far.
The
conceit is that "Shmuh's Onion Cellar" is an establishment where
patrons chop onions for themselves to release tears they've been holding back.
Several interlocking family tales, created with the help of a cast made up from
ART veterans and Institute students, are revealed between songs written by
Palmer and musical numbers written and performed by Palmer and her partner,
drummer and guitarist, Brian Viglione. The musicians play themselves with younger doubles, Claire
Elizabeth Davies
and Brian Farish,
from the ensemble. Costumes for the show, including the waitstaff were done by Clint
Ramos. The punk
posing of the piece seems at times quaint.
Both
Karen MacDonald
and Thomas Derrah,
longtime ART company members, appear in dual roles. MacDonald is the Mother of
the Girl in Blue, who died in a car crash after her prom. She has an affecting
monologue concerning her daughter's collection of tears, Derrah is a probable
Lunatic in a gray suit bound in wide white tape with a phone handset taped to
his head, perhaps a Father who failed to listen, but not the Girl's father
who's played by ART senior actor Jeremy Geidt. The pair also play the Louvers,
a childless older couple from Wisconsin who've driven their RV to Cambridge to
visit their nephew who attends Harvard. Geidt spends most of the show quietly
drinking himself into oblivion on a raised platform upstage right. Company
clown, Remo Airaldi is the MC for the cabaret, who tells of his childhood and mimes to
an aria sung by Caruso near the end of the show. All four experienced actors
add theatrical weight to the occasion, but still don't manage to bring it all
together
The
program doesn't identify individual roles, but two students, probably Neil
P. Stewart and Merritt
Janson appear as
both Onion Boy and Mute Girl, two peculiar lovers, as well as the Girl in the
Bear Suit and her friend, the latter both tend bar. Kristen Frazier is the daughter in the blue
dress, perennially pleading for her father to pick up the phone. The show was
directed by Marcus Stern, Associate Director at the ART, who teaches at Harvard, the
Institute, and Harvard Extension, who was ultimately charged with deciding its
final shape. The cast developed much of the dialogue during the rehearsal
process. A show like this might benefit from longer development, plus
established communication between the various collaborators.
The
90 minute melange is somewhere between a club concert, a theatrical collage,
and an incipient rock album. The Dresden Dolls are regularly billed as
"Brechtian Punk Cabaret", and their often loud alternative rock sound
can definitely alienate members of the audience from each other. The management
has earplugs available on request. Sound designer David Remedios balances the miked cast and the
rock equipment as best he can. Palmer's "Onion Cellar" performed at
the opening sets out her premise, but the piece which best catches their
essence is "Coin Operated Boy". Her lyrics when audible show flashes
of wit. Viglione gets an impressive drum solo late in the show which lasts a bit
too long. Of the various routines in the collage, MacDonald and Derrah's
"Louvers" are the audience favorites. The show's theme of love and
loss, which is of course universal, is only obliquely explored and hardly
revelatory. Of the ART's two shows adapted from other mediums currently playing
at the ART ("Wings of Desire" closed Sunday, Dec. 17th), the
earnestness of "The Onion Cellar" seems preferable however.