There’s something profound about watching a master doing what he or she does best, the sheer skill and grace on display a thing of beauty that transcends such considerations as medium or genre. And if you can get two such masters to work their magic at the same time, a wise person will leap at the opportunity to matter what the circumstances.
Plan-B Theatre’s “Wallace,” which opened last night and runs through March 14, is like watching a renowned jazz and bluegrass musician take the stage at the same time. The play features intertwined one-person plays about Wallace Thurman (an author at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance) and Wallace Stegner (known as the dean of Western writers). Each features the man himself telling the story of his life, and though the two men share the stage they are both in their own little world (photo by Rick Pollock).
The music they make, though, is exquisite. Carlton Blueford (and writer Jenifer Nii) brings Thurman to life with the vibrancy of a dancing star, relating his hopes and passions with the smooth, firey rhythm of a jazz or blues song. For just a minute, I could almost see the light of his dreams reflected back in my eyes, and when he fell Blueford made by heart break for him.
It is a certain kind of agony that sears the soul of an average man, yearning. Who sees, you know? What might be, if he were just that little bit more.
Richard Scharine (and writer Debora Threedy) keep Stegner close to the blood and bone of the land and people that made him. Scharine gives him both the rough warmth of a favorite grandfather and a hot, raw anger against the father Stegner seemed to have shaped his life in opposition of. More than once I heard the echo of my own life in Stegner’s words, and when he found spring again in Mary’s love I was as happy as if I’d found my own peace. Oh Mary. The spiritual need for the body. Sounds like a sophism or a paradox, or a parallelogram, or something. But-when I dream of your breasts I see your eyes above them, and your eyes are always full of something I want.
Note: There’s exactly one seat for the entire run of the show left, and the performance it’s in just went on sale this morning. If you want it, buy it NOW.
Comments