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The big burn
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“Burn This” plays through April 15 at Fells Point Corner Theater.
BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Back when I was in college, every coed and a few “with-it” professors were agog over a movie called “The Big Chill.” A defining film for the ’80s, it told the story of how a bunch of free-loving friends gather on the occasion of a dear one’s demise.
Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This,” now playing at the Fells Point Corner Theater, was written at that same time, as Reaganomics trickled down and AIDS began to mean something other than “to help.” And like its chilly counterpart, “Burn This” involves friends gathering, bonding and loving freely as a dear one, Robbie, dies.
As Oscar Wilde observed, art may imitate life. It does so in this case as Wilson, who had lived in an apartment with four others, including a dancer, sets his play in an apartment with four characters, one of whom, Anna (Rebecca Ellis) is a modern dancer.
The lightning rod of the play is Jimmy (Phil Gallagher), Robbie’s older brother, whose love of VSOP — Very Special Old Pale, a brandy — has earned him the nickname Pale.
Pale is a tortured Jersey-boy-cum-mob-connected-restaurateur who spouts profanity-laced wisdom, composes “tone poems” in the shower and gets lucky the first night he meets Anna. He channels Kathleen Turner’s character from another ’80s movie, “Body Heat,” as his body temperature is a steady “110 degrees.”
Pale literally burns, and it’s a fire that engulfs Anna, who is quick to forget Burton (Mike Nichols), her sci-fi script-writing boyfriend, who admits, “I never lost anything before.”
But has he lost Anna? Tony Viglione plays Larry, the quintessential ’80s comic relief gay man who eventually plays Cupid, bringing Pale and Anna back together.
Pale and Anna do end up in each other’s arms, but it’s not a happy ending. Their relationship is built on physical need and mutual grief over Robbie’s death. Will these star-crossed lovers stay together or crash and burn like some one-hit band? In typical ’80s movie style, we are left without closure — for such is life.
IF YOU GO
Lanford Wilson’s “Burn This”
» Venue: The Fells Point Corner Theater, 251 S. Ann St., Baltimore
» When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through April 15
» Tickets: $15, $12 for seniors and students
» More info: 410-276-7837, www.fpct.org
Comments from Examiner Readers
8:22 PM MST on Wed., Aug. 13, 2008 re: "Performer gets risqué in new act"
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re: "Theater: Hillbarn closes season with Elton John’s ‘Aida’"
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6:07 PM MST on Fri., Apr. 18, 2008
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8:00 PM MST on Thu., Apr. 17, 2008
re: "Review: 'High School Musical' sticks to the status quo"
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10:40 AM MST on Sat., Oct. 6, 2007
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12:15 PM MST on Sun., Sep. 9, 2007
re: "A ‘Macbeth’ in the Macbuff"
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5:18 AM MST on Sat., Sep. 8, 2007
re: "A ‘Macbeth’ in the Macbuff"
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2:23 PM MST on Mon., Aug. 20, 2007
re: "A ‘Macbeth’ in the Macbuff"
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11:14 PM MST on Fri., Jul. 6, 2007
re: "A ‘Macbeth’ in the Macbuff"
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9:27 PM MST on Fri., Jul. 6, 2007
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9:09 PM MST on Fri., Jul. 6, 2007
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6:47 PM MST on Wed., Jun. 20, 2007
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2:03 PM MST on Wed., Jun. 13, 2007
re: "A trifle of a ‘Tempest’"
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10:45 AM MST on Wed., May. 30, 2007
re: "A harrowing choice at Theater J"
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9:33 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 23, 2007
re: "Shakespeare’s bloodiest"
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9:27 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 23, 2007
re: "Shaking up Shakespeare"
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9:23 PM MST on Mon., Apr. 23, 2007
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Bessica said:
The government should get out of marriage entirely. Straight or gay, we need good family law to protect children, we need contracts for interdependent relationships. Marriage is an important institution. Rename the legal part something else for EVERYONE. Many GLBT on the site **bisexualmingle c o m** want the same-sex marriage.
3 agree | 3 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I thought it was a great production and both Alexa Ortega and Adam Barry were absolutely fantastic.
17 agree | 11 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
The Government Inspector: Quite poorly done. Actors unprepared. Line delivery mishaps. Overpriced. Prop failure at the end. It reminded me of sequels such as Oceans v11 - v13, where a group of well known actors use their names to draw a crowd and sell tickets. Uk. The result is a mediocre performance, in part because of too many cooks -- and some of these cooks, e.g. Geoff Hoyle are really good. Hopefully this review will save someone else the time and money.
17 agree | 12 disagree
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Parkside Poulegene said:
Re: High School Musical I just took my daughter Sharmuta to this show and we had to leave early! When we got home I took away all her "High School Musical" CD's and tee-shirts. If she even mentions the show again she's grounded for a month, and that goes for her other mother too. This show is really racist, homophobic and pro-Zionist and pro-Bush-Terror. There's too many white people in it. This show needs to be shut down and outlawed.
13 agree | 13 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Thank you for the first honest review that I have read on this production. The length of Act two was tortuous to sit through.
386 agree | 333 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I bet the scene where Macbeth and Macduff are branishing their CLAYMORES is a hoot!
301 agree | 315 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Playing naked? Not really - the main character's body is covered by fur! As the reader before wrote the actor playing Macbeth is extremely hairy. It is quite strange to see how hairy a mans body can be... His body hair was the most impressing thing of the whole play.
325 agree | 294 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Bloody, Bold, Resolute, and Naked - AND HAIRY!!! I read an article that all actors were not allowed to shave any body hair three months before the play started to look "naturally". So it is impressive how hairy the actor playing Macbeth is - he has a furry chest and even a quite hairy back and bushy pubic hairs. It is very unusual today to see such a hairy actor fully nude, because normally an actor shaves at least his back hairs doing a nude scene on stage or in a movie... So big compliments to Daniel Eichner for presenting us his great furry body fully nude!
354 agree | 309 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Good review... one of the few critics able to articulate some of the problems with this show. I left at intermission and the lighting was troublesome. sometimes I wonder what the other critics are thinking --- if you are still curious fgo on Saturday afternoons when the tickets are "pay what you can."
389 agree | 347 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Munch claims "there is no denying" that the nudity in WSC's "Macbeth" "does little to enhance or elevate Shakespeare’s Scottish play." Well, the critics at www.PotomacStages.com and www.DCTheatreScene.com have taken the opposite view. Potomac Stages, in fact, wrote: "in no uncertain terms that this is a quality production that presents "the Scottish play" in a new and very effective light (or is that a new and very effective darkness?)." DC Theatre Scene wrote: "The actors’ nudity provides an extra dimension to their presentations...By being physically naked, these actors become emotionally naked as well. This production of Macbeth is a great gift to those who have the will to receive it. We are unlikely to see anything like it in the foreseeable future." So it seems the only thing there is no denying is that Munch doesn't speak for everyone.
406 agree | 315 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Tonight's performance of "Macbeth" started at 8:05 pm and was done precisely at 10:30. I'm not the best at math, but that seems like under 2 and half hours...not over 3 hours, which the critic claims the play to be.
392 agree | 357 disagree
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JaimeK said:
Shame Fat Pig wasn't given an actual review on the acting. There were some pretty phenomenal performances. Especially Erin Riley as Helen and Courtney Ryan as Jeannie. Very VERY good show.
518 agree | 406 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Closes in 4 days
450 agree | 401 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why review it a few days before it closes and not mention its closing in the review?
442 agree | 431 disagree
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EdnBetty said:
We just returned from Titus Andronicus, the play that Kenneth Tynan called "the worst play Marlowe ever wrote". We expected gore and got it! Tsoutsouvas was also great, but Valerie Leonard was vamping it over the top. And that voice set my teeth on edge!
746 agree | 481 disagree
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Reader said:
Yes, "She Stoops to Comedy" at Woolly Mammoth is a treat!
546 agree | 465 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Oh, we just a-DORed this show!
573 agree | 458 disagree
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