Phaedra

A Shotgun Gamers presentation of the play in 2 functions by Adam Bock. Directed by Rose Riordan. Set, Nina Ball lighting/forecasts, Lucas Krech costumes, Valera Coble props, Chelsea Pegram stage manager/seem, Hannah Birch Carl. Opened up Sept. 24, 2011, examined Sept. 29. Running time: 100 MIN.Paulie Patrick Alparone Antonio Keith Burkland Catherine Catherine Castellanos Taylor Cindy Im Olibia Trish MulhollandProbably probably the most conventional play Adam Bock has opened within the San Francisco Bay Area before or since his proceed to NY City, "Phaedra" spells its source noisy and obvious within the title. But what's on stage is really a noticeably contemporary spin that diverges substantially in the blueprints supplied by Euripedes, Racine yet others. Rose Riordan's Shotgun production provides a compelling work that may still stand fleshing out at the moment, Bock boosts more issues than he truly explores, making for a night that's tersely including but does not cash emotional resonance because of the eventual extremity of functions committed. It's certainly far in the vibrantly absurdist constructs this playwright established themself ("Five Plane tickets," "The Thugs," "The Typographer's Dream"), or perhaps the compressed semi-realism of "The Shaker Chair." Here things are as straight readable because the stylish beige decor of Nina Ball's classy two-floor suburban home interior: Initially we grasp it is a stage looking for people role-playing (and/or fighting) some stilted, inorganic perception of fortunate propriety. Climbing down the steps from sleeping rooms to livingroom just like a California-moderne Bette Davis circa 1972 is Catherine (Catherine Castellanos), who controls everything of the sterile environ even while she appears strangled because of it. The love has lengthy gone from her marriage to conservative judge Antonio (Keith Burkland), a pompous windbag offering some semblance of busy everyday existence is gabby British housekeeper Olibia (Trish Mulholland, directing Hermione Gingold). However the dead air within this domestic mausoleum is stirred by prodigal boy Paulie (Patrick Alparone), a troubled youth on probation from the alcohol and drugs detox program. He's going to start anew this time around but father is condescendingly doubtful, Catherine imperially disapproving. (Olibia aside, Paulie's sole ally is really a jaded recovery buddy performed with terrific comic disdain by Cindy Im.) Why his stepmom has been so hostile is revealed right before intermission, when she constitutes a late-evening confession certain to screw together with his mind and produce disaster upon all. Frequently cast in raucous working-class parts, Castellanos gives her central figure a glacial, analyzed elegance that's its gilded cage. Yet vivid as she and also the other gamers are, we do not quite purchase the grotesque passion Catherine hides for Paulie, or its catastrophic effects, weight loss than tragic contrivance. This "Phaedra" may portend that key thought at greater leisure, develop Paulie's new character further, and expand upon the political commentary implicit in Antonio's boorish arbiter of "justice." The show does not feel rushed (oddly, the one thing that actually works least in Riordan's assured staging really are a couple of mannered "slo-mo" movement passages), however it plays a tad thinner of computer should. Design contributions are astute, with particularly evocative input from Lucas Krech's subtle lighting and forecasts. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com