Hansel and Gretel Bluegrass extended thru March 26

For those who have not cultivated an appreciation for the theatrical craft and are unaware of the merits and delights to be derived from the stage, there are certain theaters in Los Angeles that I always try to persuade them to attend.  Theaters whose productions can sometimes allow the novice to experience the wonders illuminated from the stuff of magic and imagination which makes for theatre at its best and in which the world will be molded anew for them, and they for the world.

These are:

Holiday-2016-24th Street Theatre

24th Street Theatre 2016 Artful Holidays

The Actor’s Gang

Rogue Machine Theatre

the Echo Theater Company

Antaeus Theatre Company

The Fountain Theatre

the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble

Coeurage Theatre Company

Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre Group

and the 24th Street Theatre.

Each group has its own strength and forte which could be summed up in single terms: Boldness for The Actor’s Gang, Feral for Zombie Joe’s, Elegance for the Antaeus and for the 24th Street Theatre – Poetic.

Their past production, Walking the Tightrope, Man Covets Bird, were restatements of magic realism, not merely spoke in the language of poetry, but presented in a visually poetic way as well.

Hansel-Gretel-Bradley Whitford-Radio Announcer

Bradley Whitford (Photo by Tina Langill – Courtesy of 24th Street Theatre)

Hansel and Gretel Bluegrass, while not as singular a work as the two aforementioned, is still in that vein.

By focusing his retelling of the story on the siblings, playwright Bryan Davidson has returned to the core of the ancient fairy tale, which was once known as Little Brother and Little Sister.

Bruno Bettelheim in his classic study of Fairy Tales (The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales) argues that one of the motivations behind their narratives was to assist children in achieving a “higher humanity” by displaying the pitfalls of our obsessions and the shallowness of senses.

Davidson does this nicely in his tale by imposing on each of his siblings obsessions that has touch most of us.

Abandoned in the forest by a father who can no longer care for them, Hansel (Caleb Foote) is driven by the last instruction from his dad, which is to keep his little sister safe. All the while Gretel (Angela Giarratana) remains in denial over their mother’s recent death.

As fairy tales try to show us, it’s our obsessions that blind us to what’s authentic in life and true about ourselves, and the unreal realities that they cling to keep Hansel and Gretel in constant conflict as they try to survive in the wildness about them.

“What are you good for?” they each demand of the other.

Set in the hill country of Eastern Kentucky during the Great Depression, the trap is not a gingerbread house, but one with a well stocked pantry.

Sarah Zinsser is a blind recluse with a hint of Polyphemus and a shade of the Seventh Seal who is less interested in eating Gretel’s flesh than consuming the music in her soul.

Serving as our Brother Grimm via projected video segments is Bradley Whitford, of West Wing renown, as a hooch guzzling back county radio host.

Blind Recluse-Hansel-Gretel

Angela Giarratana, Sarah Zinsser, Caleb Foote
(Photo by Cooper Bates – Courtesy of 24th Street Theatre)

The cast of the show works well together and are almost enough to hide the thinness of the show itself, which feels less substantial than what this company usually delivers on.

For one thing with the title Hansel & Gretel Bluegrass, one is lead to expect that music will have a solid presence in the show.  Like Whitford, the music, performed by The Get Down Boys, is also presented via video clips, but is less than memorable.

Matthew G. Hill (video design), who impressed us with his work on past productions like Walking the Tightrope, shows us the skill of his craft here, but not the force of his art. And too, his take on the foreboding wilderness that has engulfed the brother and his sister seems mild when compared to that of Lorenzo Mattotti in his illustrated collaboration, of the same tale, with author Neil Gaiman.

Director Debbie Devine, who also helmed Walking the Tightrope one of the most memorable shows of recent years, has done solid work here. Still the project feels less than it should and leaves the audience, while entertained by what there was, expecting more.

Not to say this production is without merit, for it is certainly not.  One can see a good deal of thought went into it; the problem is one doesn’t sense that ‘thought” was blended along with a good deal of passion.

Alas, due to their past productions, the 24th Street Theatre has set the bar very high for themselves.


The world premiere of Hansel & Gretel Bluegrass

Runs Saturday and Sundays and has been extended through March 26

(NOTE: the theatre is dark  Dec. 18, 25; Jan. 1, 8, 10; and Feb. 5)

Written by Bryan Davidson

Directed by Debbie Devine

Featuring the music of The Get Down Boys

Cast:

Bradley Whitford as the narrator (on video),

Caleb Foote as Hansel

Angela Giarratana as Gretel

Sarah Zinsser as the Mountain Woman

For Tickets and Additional Information Phone:

(213) 745-6516 or  go to  www.24thstreet.org

Written by

An award-winning L.A. playwright and rabble-rouser of note who has hoisted glasses with Orson Welles, been arrested on three continents and once beat up Charlie Manson. His first play, "Among the Vipers" was a semi-finalist in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition and was featured in the Carnegie-Mellon Showcase of New Plays. It was produced at the NPT Theater in Ashland, Oregon and Los Angeles’ celebrated Odyssey Ensemble Theatre. His following play, “The Little Boy Who Loved Monsters” was produced at The Hollywood Actors Theater, where he earned praise from the Los Angeles Times for his “…inordinately creative writing.” The play went on to numerous other productions including Berlin’s The Black Theatre under the direction of Rainer Fassbinder who wrote in his program notes of Kearney, “He is a skilled playwright, but more importantly he is a dangerous one.” Ernest Kearney has worked as literary manager or as dramaturge for among others The Hudson Theater Guild, Nova Diem and the Odyssey Ensemble Theatre, where he still serves on the play selection committee. He has been the recipient of two Dramalogue Awards and a finalist or semi-finalist, three times, in the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition. His work has been performed by Michael Dunn, Sandra Tsing Loh, Jack Colvin and Billy Bob Thornton, and to date, either as playwright or director, he has upwards of a hundred and thirty productions under his belt, including a few at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater as puppeteer. Kearney remains focused on his writing, as well as living happily ever after with his lovely wife Marlene. His stage reviews and social essays can be found at TheTVolution.com and workingauthor.com. Follow him on Facebook.

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