Theater Review - From the Author Of

From the Author Of

Written by Chisa Hutchinson

Directed by Jade King Carroll

Where:  Thompson Theatre at the Roselle Center for the Arts

(University of Delaware, Newark, DE)

When: Sunday, November 12, 2017, 2pm

Photo by the REP

The University of Delaware's Resident Ensemble Players have had three prior plays written specifically for them and frankly none of them have really resonated with me.  This is a big reason why my expectations were quite low upon hearing of a newly-written play taking one of six slots of the REP's 2017-18 season.  Color me surprised, then, to find playwright Chisa Hutchinson's From the Author Of an amusing ninety-five minute diversion that takes full advantage of the REP's ensemble, showcasing them to great effect.

Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction writer Meredith Renner (REP member Elizabeth Heflin) has just completed her latest book for which she spent six months living on the streets as a homeless person to try and best understand the plight of the underprivileged in America.  Meredith's tome has been met with harsh skepticism by the leading New York Times book review critic causing many to wonder if Meredith was simply aiming for a giant publicity stunt rather than a genuine attempt at helping to end the homelessness epidemic.  Attempting to better her name, Meredith's team -- including her agent Dax (REP's Hassan El-Amin), personal assistant Samara (Celestine Rae), and newly hired PR guy Angelo (REP's Michael Gotch) -- formulate a plan for Meredith to invite a homeless person to live in her swanky New York City loft.  After much bellyaching, Meredith obliges and invites the brash, sexually charged Linda (REP's Kathleen Pirkl Tague) into her residence and sees her put-together, "normal" life turned upside down.

Part of the excitement of a repertory company is watching the same ensemble play a variety of roles, seeing the similarities and differences they bring to various performances.  Chisa Hutchinson studied what the REP's members do best and then created a funny cast of characters for them to embrace.  Elizabeth Heflin fully embodies the egotistical, sometimes highfalutin Meredith -- a woman who might seem cold or unappealing in lesser hands, but becomes relatable thanks to Heflin.  Similarly, Kathleen Pirkl Tague always manages to make kooky, crazy characters that should be over-the-top seem oddly believable and that's the case here with the caricature that is Linda whose first appearance a little over a third of the way though jolts the production with some much needed vigor.

The play itself plays a bit like a sitcom, filled with short scenes that sometimes end on a kicker of a comedic note.  Many of the characters border on the stereotypical, but Hutchinson and director Jade King Carroll reel in the actors just enough that no one ever feels too one-note.  The set -- a luxurious, monotone NYC loft created by Brittany Vasta -- is surrounded by a rotating outer circle that adds dimension (as well as a neat technical aspect I'm not sure we've seen utilized by the REP yet).  These little things add dimension to what could've been a rote night at the theater and elevate it to a little something more.

From the Author Of isn't a perfect piece -- the resolution feels a bit too pat and, in turn, a bit unsatisfactory; some of the jokes particularly at the beginning as we were getting to know the individualized voices of the characters fall a bit flat; any deeper morality the play is trying to convey didn't land at all for me -- but it's an enjoyable night at the theater.  With a little bit of sexualized raunch and some great performances particularly from Elizabeth Heflin and Kathleen Pirkl Tague, From the Author Of is by far the best original play performed thus far by the REP.

Movie Review - Eye in the Sky

Eye in the Sky (2016)

Starring Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Barkhad Abdi, Aisha Takow, and Alan Rickman

Directed by Gavin Hood

***This film is currently streaming via Amazon Prime***

In this day and age, the concept of war has shifted from the wide-scale, massive WWII-era attacks against an enemy's large army to a more intimate form of battle where individual terrorists may be targeted in a one-on-one-type tête-a-tête.  This smaller scale level of attack is being even further amplified by the usage of drones -- an eye in the sky that permits us to see things in a more secretive manner.  This new wartime assistant is the subject of director Gavin Hood's Eye in the Sky, a movie that despite being ninety percent talkative exposition somehow manages to create a surprising amount of tension.

British Army colonel Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) has received the news that a British woman-turned-Islamic terrorist along with her husband are meeting several high ranking leaders of a terrorist group at a safehouse in Kenya.  Desperate to catch the traitor, Katherine and the British Army team up with the Americans to utilize drones in order to confirm the woman's presence so they can try and take her out.  However, morality comes into play when it's discovered that bombing the Kenyan safehouse would also harm innocent civilians including a young girl (Aisha Takow) who is selling bread outside the home.

The uniqueness of Eye in the Sky comes from the morality play that's depicted in the film.  Can we kill innocent civilians in order to take out known terrorists?  This conundrum plays out for almost the entirety of Eye in the Sky and the talkative pros and cons yield a surprisingly tense experience.  All of the characters -- Mirren as the Army colonel, Alan Rickman as a British Defense Ministry higher-up, Aaron Paul as a conflicted American soldier having difficulty coming to grips with the notion of possibly killing an innocent child, Barkhad Abdi as an undercover British operative who is onsite in Kenya -- never interact with one another onscreen at the same time.  They're all in different locations across the world and thus are only interacting via phone or video chat and yet, with much kudos to director Gavin Hood, their interactions feel believable and shockingly tense.

I must admit that I didn't expect a whole lot from Eye in the Sky, but I found that it more than delivered on creating an exciting environment, showing us an insider look at an aspect of modern-day warfare with which the public may be unfamiliar.

The RyMickey Rating:  B