All’s Fair in Love and Theatre
By: Lindsey Brown
Directed by: Erik Knapp
Produced by: Rover Dramawerks
Running Time: Approximately 2.5 hours with one 15 minute intermission
Accessible Seating: Available
Hearing Devices: Not available
Sensory Friendly Showing: Not available
ASL Showing: Not Available
Sound Level: Comfortable
Audio/Visuals to Prepare For: Some mild on/off flicker of lights
All theatre participants and enthusiasts realize there are conspiracies, rivalries, and fragile egos present in the process of producing a play. Add the stress and tension of a theatrical competition, and decorum and fair play fly out the window. Combine feuding actors, time restraints, divorcing crew members, and a producer determined to shackle the production with barriers and obstacles and fine print contracts ... The audience for Rover Dramawerks production of All’s Fair in Love and Theatre soon discover the show must go on. Oh, but will it?
Award-winning playwright Lindsey Brown travelled all the way from her residence in New Zealand to see her world premiere production on the stage of Rover Dramawerks. She saw a wonderful exhibition of her work. In a casual question and answer session after the opening performance she revealed her work took her back to her experiences and memories to discover that when we laugh, we are most open to learn.
The plot concerns determined director Leah Harris as portrayed by Danielle Elliott, trying to realize her one final big opportunity. With an inexperienced and nervous team liaison coordinator Ted Thomas embodied by Aidan Fenton, a conniving production manager Charles Stroll in the sneering form of Ken Schwartz and two bickering bitter experienced rival actresses Evelyn Drake and Val Winters, Suzy Dotson and Sara Jones, bouncing insults and catty comments all over the stage. What could possibly complicate the staging of a play within 48 hours? Oh yes, the leading man not showing up, and the playwright Elias Mathews, a smarmy arrogant condescending Marshal Dann, is involved in a bitter divorce from assistant Hailey Cooper, who is always ready to break out the bubbly. Lily McCullough conveys the energetic put-upon Hailey with all the pathos and resignation of an isolated wife who comes in second to her husband’s work. Then there is ingenue Juliet Jones who has sworn off anymore ‘show-mances’ with actors - actress Natalie Laboda exudes a frustration in restraint, but golly Ted is sooooo good looking, and he has big hands.
Director Erik Knapp has crafted a well staged production utilizing the acting area with different levels and unique choices of sitting, standing, leaning, and laying down. The brief vignettes, signifying time quickly passing, builds and builds to the deadline for the performance of a play for the competition that could make or break the director, the playwright and the actors. His creative use of minimal set pieces simplifies the staging and places the focus to the actors and the lines of the script.
This play has many funny laugh out loud lines and clever awkward situations. Challenges that would shackle the future of the production occur, only to be addressed by the constantly put-upon Leah. She serves as both referee and ringmaster of this cast of experienced actors and an untried, insecure, Ted always responding to his headset, as she conveys the combined anguish and frustration involved - once even collapsing to her knees to shout “FUDGE!” But the lights go out and the scene ends while her words are just forming the expletive. The audience is right there with her.
The uncomplicated lighting of the play by Kenneth Hall keeps things straight forward on the rehearsal area as the actors iron out wrinkles and layers of the plot. The timing of scene ending lines coincides with the timing of black out vignettes nicely.
All’s Fair in Love and Theatre, as produced by Rover Dramawerks, is an inside look at the machinations and complications of the decisions and stress of mounting a theatrical production. Yes, drama, pathos and ridiculousness are involved. All this grizzled director/actor/playwright suggests is you make a trip to Plano to see this show. It runs through March 28th.
It is just what the doctor ordered.
DR
L-R: Suzy Dotson, Natalie Laboda, and Sara Jones
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