Directed by Morgana Shaw

CAST:

Stephanie Hall
Beau McDermott
Chad Bozarth
Mary Tiner
Burl Proctor
Julie T. Penkava
Jackie L. Kemp
Michael B. Moore
Mike Bishop

*REVIEWED 01/21/10 PERFORMANCE

Reviewed by Richard Goulde
Associate Theatre Critic for John Garcia's THE COLUMN

__________________________THE MOUSETRAP_________________________

Reviewed by Richard Goulde
Associate Theatre Critic for John Garcia's THE COLUMN

"The Mousetrap" is a classic whodunit radio play penned by Agatha Christie. It
was successful enough that she expanded the radio version into a short story,
which then grew into a stage production. And what a production it's been! It
opened in London in 1952 and has run continuously ever since.

Like many Christie mysteries, the play produces a cast of characters that are
largely "unpleasant or odd," as one of the characters states. They all fester
with their own secrets.

Giles and Mollie Ralston (Beau McDermott and Stephanie Hall) are a young couple
who don't know each other as well as they think. They've just recently opened a
guest house in a rural area outside of London, and they welcome their first
guests just as a blizzard takes hold of the countryside. The guests arrive just
in time to find themselves trapped.

An unexpected and unwelcome guest arrives last: Detective Sergeant Trotter
(Michael B. Moore), who skis through the blizzard to Monkswell Manor because he
knows more than one guest has a secret connection to a recent murder. Indeed,
when one of the guests is killed, everyone is left wondering: who did it, and
who will be next?

Suspenseful, tightly woven, a masterful unfolding of nuanced motivations and
characterizations that render each character both suspect and sympathetic? True
perhaps of Christie's original story, but not of this performance. Instead, the
story ends up buried beneath aspects of the performance that draw attention to
themselves when they shouldn't. There is so much promise here that goes entirely
unfulfilled.

If I had to put my finger on the one thing that really throws everything else
off, it's the failure of the cast to work as an ensemble.

Let me explain. Most of the characters are either, as stated,
"unpleasant or odd." Their unpleasantness and/or oddities are crucial to the
plot, and both qualities must be communicated to the audience. But the cast here
far overshoots and portrays eccentricities as histrionics and hyperbole. The
actors are so heavily focused on the process of creating these highly stylized
characters that they inadvertently erect invisible barriers between each other
and end up acting on wildly different levels, ranging from low-key to way
over-the-top to every spot in between.

The actors are too invested in themselves, in the execution of their fake
accents and peculiar mannerisms. So when they interact with one another, the
exchanges feels practiced, rehearsed and forced, not at all a natural and
organic unfolding of several colorful personalities meeting under tense
circumstances.

Which is deadly in a play where nuance and subtlety are so important to creating
ambiguity and suspense.

This problem is intimately related to another: a lack of effective
foreshadowing. Yes, it's a twist ending intended to take the audience by
surprise, so I'm not looking for a premature reveal. But think about The Sixth
Sense, or even Murder on the Orient Express. Now there are a couple of
jaw-dropping twists, but when you look back over the story, the reaction is,
"Wow, I didn't see that coming, but now that I'm looking, it makes perfect
sense."

Here, the reaction to the revelation is, "What?" Then: "Whatever."

When the killer's identity is revealed, the actor just shifts into a different
character altogether, which is not necessarily a problem, but the performance
has left the audience no way to connect the dots between the actor's first
portrayal and the second. That's fatal to believability, and I mourn that loss
more than any of the dead characters. A character shift can only be forgivable
if the shift is adequately foreshadowed, and if the shift doesn't take a sharp
turn into caricature and overacting.

Unfortunately, those qualities rule this performance. I haven't previously seen
a play that Morgana Shaw has directed, but I have seen her perform with great
skill, which leaves me perplexed and startled by her direction. In the playbill,
she describes the play as one that "could lend itself to being either very
boring or very `campy.'" The implication being, with the help of the cast and
production staff, she manages to avoid either extreme, but I can't agree. She
seems to have lost control of her cast.

It might have helped if they allowed themselves to stray from the source
material in one respect: the accents. They are all so careful about their
accents that it distracts both the audience and them. It doesn't help that none
of them actually speak with the same accent.
Perhaps if they allowed themselves to adapt the play just enough to speak with
American accents, they could have freed some attention for the other characters,
to enable more organic and believable exchanges.

Disjointed use of music, like the accents, also distracts from the performance.
Music can have a surprisingly intense effect in strumming an audience's
emotional reactions, but it should never draw attention to itself. That subtle
discordant rhythm should prickle the viewer without the viewer realizing that's
what happening.

Not so here. Most of the scenes unfold without musical accompaniment, and then a
soundtrack will suddenly blare. So loudly that every single time it happened, I
found myself mentally jumping. That's not good for keeping attention on the
performance or for building tension. Worse, the music was consistently poorly
timed. The moment the music launched just didn't quite fit the moment on stage.

I should note one possible explanation. There was another performance going on
in the same building, with a lot of music. During a couple of the quiet scenes,
we could hear the music from the other show bleeding over. Possibly the music
here was timed, and kept at a volume, to obscure moments when the other music
would have turned really distracting.

On the bright side, my many unsympathetic comments notwithstanding, I can
identify at least two major points that work really well with this performance.
First, the story is brilliant.

There's a reason this play has been so successful in its lifetime, and why
Agatha Christie is so popular a writer. And if a couple of moments in the plot
seem hackneyed or clichéd, bear in mind, Christie originated many of the
elements of the whodunit genre that have turned into convention.

Each and every character brings to the table their own unique, colorful
peculiarities. They're fascinating to watch, and it's a brain-bender to sift
through the hints and relationships as the audience tries to work out for
itself: who's the next murder victim going to be, and who's the murderer?

The great reveal isn't that dramatic in this particular performance, but just
looking at the raw story, it is a really good surprise. Yes, true, there are one
or two oh-so-convenient coincidences, but on the whole, Christie does an
excellent job of throwing red herrings at the audience that stand the test that
many mysteries fail: the red herrings make sense. They're not a way for the
author to fake out the audience; rather, they emerge systematically from the
backgrounds and inter-relationships of these characters.
On paper, this is a fine mystery.

Second, the set design is fantastic. The performance takes place in the Great
Hall of Monkswell Manor, and the spacious stage (located in a cozy, intimate
space at the Granville Arts Center) is appointed in warm colors and rich
textures that delight the eyes and invite the audience directly into the room.
That set offers velvety seating arrayed in front of a warm and flickering
fireplace, with textured walls behind, and space enough left over for intimate
exchanges in shadowed corners. A large picture window looks out into a
three-dimensional courtyard, where the cold light shines like a deep winter day
and renders the fireplace even more alluring. The courtyard gives the stage a
feeling of depth that's rare in live theater. Meanwhile, with several entrances
and exits, the cast can move freely and easily across the full scope of the
stage, which keeps the motion and energy well-balanced.

Set designer Clare Floyd DeVries and stage manager Nolan McDermott really shine
here. Major kudos.

I also want to add that, while I've been pretty hard on the cast in my review,
each actor brings energy, enthusiasm and a deeply felt understanding of the
characters to the stage. They're just wildly overshooting. They have the basic,
critical elements in hand.
If they could just correct the emphasis, withdraw their attention from
unimportant elements, and instead imbue their interactions with realism and a
natural vibe, Mrs. Shaw's comments from the Playbill would be correct. This
could be a powerhouse cast for this kind of play.

But, those are big "ifs."

Mary Tiner (who plays Mrs. Boyle) and Burl Proctor (Major Metcalf) offer the
strongest performances. While Tiner does skirt the edge of histrionic and
melodramatic, for the most part she manages to keep it from going over to convey
instead a character who is simply deeply felt. Meanwhile, Proctor's performance
has the single most natural feel of anyone onstage. His low-key delivery was a
relief in the face of so many characters who come across like cartoons. Chad
Bozarth as Christopher Wren and Jackie L. Kemp as Mr. Paravicini in particular
could benefit from turning it down a notch.

But still, all the other actors show promise in their roles. For example, at one
point in the second act, the Ralstons confront each other over discovered
secrets. This is the closest Hall and McDermott come to really engaging each
other and, by extension, the audience. It doesn't quite hit it, no, but it
reveals the promise that underlies their performances.

Perhaps in future showings, the cast members will better find their footing, and
that promise will be fulfilled.

Reviewed by Richard Goulde
Associate Theatre Critic for John Garcia's THE COLUMN

__________________________________________________________________

THE MOUSETRAP By Agatha Christie
Garland Civic Theatre
Through February 13, 2010

Performances will be Thursday though Sunday at the Granville
Arts Center, 300 North Fifth Street in downtown Garland.

Call the Arts Center Box Office at 972-205-2790 for tixs.
Tixs are $20 on Friday & Saturday evenings &$18 on Thursday
evenings & Saturday or Sunday matinees. There are discounts
available for those who are over 59 and under 19. Students
over 19, KERA members, & DART riders also can get a discount.
There is a service charge added to each ticket.

Visit www.garlandcivictheatre.org or call 972-485-8884 for
additional information.