CONNECTING THE DOTS

20. June 2010 by admin.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

F. J. Hartland

Phase 3 Productions has carved a niche for itself by exposing Pittsburgh to plays unseen (and often unheard of) here before.

And with their current production of Lion in the Streets by Judith Thompson, Phase 3 continues that trend.

Directed by Melissa Hill Grande, the play is a perfect “black box” vehicle, told with a few cubes and a rack of costumes for the six member cast to play nearly 30 characters.  Various settings are represented by having a cast member write the location in chalk on the back blackboard-like wall.

Lion in the Streets tells the story of a young girl who has been brutally murdered.  Or does it?

Act One has a La Ronde-type format with one character from each scene moving into the next scene.  In Act Two the technique tends to fall apart.  At times the only thing that seems to be holding the vignettes together is a sheet which becomes a variety of props: a bed sheet, a towel, a shawl, a veil, a research report, etc.

The six member cast (Eric James Davidson, Kathleen Hagerty, Allison Scarlet Jaye, Adam Pribila, Sheridan Singleton and Jocelyn Snyder) all have memorable moments—but it is Pribila who shines.  Whether playing an elderly priest, a young boy or a sadistic actor, he achieves the most distinct (and complete) characterizations.

Singleton as the murdered girl Isobel often becomes shrill.  That combined with the less-than-ideal acoustic at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, she becomes unintelligible.

While some of the individual scenes are compelling, the play goes on too long.  And while I enjoy a play that prompts questions, Lion in the Streets begs the wrong kind of questions.  For example, sometimes the characters can’t see the ghost of the dead girl Isobel, other times some can—why?  How much time actually transpires during the course of the play?  What do these vignettes have to do with the girl’s murder?  Is the girl going through some kind of personal purgatory?  The list continues…sorry, but I have no answers.

With Lion in the Streets Phase 3 has created some very interesting dots.  They just haven’t connected them yet.

Lion in the Streets continues at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre through June 27.

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