Three two-handers this week: a couple of elderly widowers looking back on their lifelong friendship; a Gothic spoof with two actors playing all the roles; an ancient epic retold in a collaboration between a storyteller and a musician. Let's begin with that last one.
Gilgamesh is the granddaddy of all the hero epics. One of the world's oldest literary creations, it's considered the ur-epic, its hero the progenitor of the likes of Hercules and Achilles, Siegfried and Beowulf. The epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, preserved on fragmentary clay tablets, relates the exploits of the man-god Gilgamesh, king of Uruk (now Iraq). It depicts superhuman labors, earth-shaking battles, bloodthirsty monsters, spiritual quests and divine intervention, encompassing themes of friendship and sacrifice, grief and redemption. There's even a flood story, predating the Book of Genesis.
This week a new words-and-music version of the poem has its world premiere at UMass. The text is adapted and performed by Margaret Wolfson, an actor who specializes in story-theater performances of myths, legends and fairy tales in collaboration with musicians and visual artists. The celebrated Palestinian-born oud and violin virtuoso Simon Shaheen has composed original music for the piece, and he'll perform it with his Arabic-classical-jazz-Latin fusion ensemble Qantara.
Ranjanaa Devi, director of the Asian Arts and Culture Program at the UMass Fine Arts Center, worked on developing the work with Shaheen and Wolfson. She says she was drawn to the material because of "the destruction and looting of the museum in Baghdad in this 'war on terrorism' we are waging. As a result, some of the world's most ancient antiquities have been stolen or destroyed. I wanted to bring attention to that event by staging something that would make our audience think about Iraq in a historical setting.
The Myth of Gilgamesh: Friday, Nov. 14, Bowker Auditorium, UMass-Amherst, (413) 545-2511, fineartscenter.com.
Jerry and Ed
Jerry and Ed is the sequel to Steve Henderson's one-man geriatric comedy Jerry Atric. In both plays, the title character makes a joke of his joke of a name: "The older I get, the funnier it is."
Early in this one, now playing at the Majestic Theater, Jerry gives us a capsule version of his relationship with his pal Ed, and of his own character too. "Did you ever have a friend who always seemed to get you into trouble? Well, so did Ed."
Jerry is an operator, a scheme-spinner and troublemaker, always looking for a good time and an outrageous angle, but never maliciously. In an opening monologue that's almost a stand-up routine ("I'm so old I can hide my own Easter eggs") he tells us that when he moved into the Golden Garden Acres retirement community he declared himself Minister of Fun. He organizes mixers and dances, flirts with the old ladies and, only half jokingly, offers to arrange a strip bingo night.
Ed is a go-along, get-along kind of guy, often embarrassed by, and just as often for, his friend. But there's no denying Jerry makes Ed's life interesting. As Ed puts it, "For Jerry, life is a runaway train loaded with explosives—and horse manure."
We see in flashbacks that the two have been inseparable since high school, when they awkwardly double-dated the girls they would later marry, and especially since Ed saved Jerry's life in the trenches in WWII by taking a bullet for him. He keeps a limp as souvenir. The twin arcs of the piece are Jerry's desire to repay Ed for his heroism, and Ed's slow decline in the grip of Alzheimer's. The flashbacks to the past intersect with Ed's progressive loss of present-day memories.
Steve Henderson wrote the part of Jerry for himself, and he knows the guy inside out. He's a brilliant clown, but Jerry isn't just a joker, and Henderson, as playwright and actor, gives him depth and texture. The high point in Dick Volker's nicely understated performance comes in a long, moving monologue about his wife's slow surrender to cancer. Director Jack Neary, a master of madcap farce, milks the guys' escapades for maximum laughs without elbowing aside the poignant moments. Like the characters' lives, Jerry and Ed is a screwball adventure with a tender heart.
Jerry and Ed: through Nov. 30, Majestic Theater, West Springfield, (413) 747-7797, majestictheater.com.
Irma Vep
The Mystery of Irma Vep is Charles Ludlam's homage to Gothic horror and B-movie monsters. It takes its cue from Daphne DuMaurier's spooky romance Rebecca—a new bride oppressed by the lingering memory of the dead wife and the resentment of the faithful housekeeper—and loads it with every conceivable theme in the genre, including ancient curses, foggy moors, overheated passions, werewolves, vampires and a mummy, topped up with smutty gags and literary in-jokes.
Irma Vep is a parody with a gimmick—six characters, half of them female, written to be played by two male actors. This invites broad caricature-izations and makes for a succession of fast costume changes. The production now playing in Ashfield turns the gimmick around and gives the roles to two women. It's a nice twist, and the two performers are able comics, but women in pants just can't compete with guys in frocks.
The four main characters are all connected to Mandacrest, the ancestral seat of the Hillcrest dynasty, whose members "have been descending for centuries." Jeannine Haas plays Lord Edgar, an upper-class twit in tweeds and spats, as well as the mansion's high-strung spinster housekeeper, both of them still mourning the deceased Lady Irma. Kelsey Flynn is Edgar's new wife Enid, a simpering flower, and weird, lame, lecherous Nicodemus the swineherd.
Both women display comic panache, deliciously terrible British accents, and considerable ingenuity when dealing with sticking doors and late entrances. Director Van Farrier's production is fairly impromptu, mounted with minimal rehearsal and makeshift scenery in an upstairs room of Ashfield's Congregational Church. Much of the play's fun depends on a crackling pace and lightning-fast costume changes. On opening night last week, neither was up to speed, and the performers seemed to still be finding their way into their roles as well as their multiple costumes.
The Mystery of Irma Vep: through Nov. 16, First Congregational Church, Ashfield, (413) 268-3850, paulinelive.com.
Note: In last week's StageStruck column, the title of the Hartford Stage production Resurrection was incorrectly named in several places. Apologies for the confusion."
