The warning of “do not look back” has been heralded throughout history, but in no story has the moral ever been more prevalent than the tragic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The enchanting lyre player Orpheus charms the underworld into allowing his deceased bride Eurydice to follow him back up to the land of the living under the condition that he not look back to see that she is behind him until they reach the top. Of course, at the last possible moment, he falters, and loses her forever.
Orpheus Descending, one of Tennessee Williams’ earlier, lesser-known plays, is a retelling of this classical Greek myth, set in Williams’ trademark version of the underworld…the deep South. However, the latest revival of Orpheus, playing at Los Angeles’ Theatre/Theater through Feb. 21 reminds us all why this play remains one of Tennessee Williams’ less popular works.
The story revolves around a reformed, but still obscenely handsome guitar-playing drifter named Valentine Xavier (played by the star of TV’s Queer as Folk Gale Harold), who arrives in a small town grocery and soon-to-be confectionary store looking for an honest pay for an honest day’s work. Much to the delight and dismay of the surrounding small town folk, Valentine and the shop owner Lady Torrance, a married woman with a dying husband and a tragic past, begin an affair.
What follows is three hours (and you feel every second of them) of overwrought, over-done Tennessee Williams’ extended metaphors uttered in overly-thick, almost undecipherable Southern accents by befuddled actors in what turns out to be an overwhelmingly underwhelming night of theatre. Fortunately for the cast, director Lou Pepe, and the rest of the crew, the priMary Fault lies with the play itself. Described by Williams’ as the work that was the emotional bridge between is early years and his present state of existence as a playwright, it was a rickety bridge to say the least. And his contemporary critics all agreed, which begs the question as to why Pepe and Frantic Redhead Productions thought it prudent to revive this show in the first place? The characters are rather flat and undynamic, random relationships and past indiscretions are just thrown in without any prior foreshadowing or establishing of relevance, and without giving too much away, the final reveal or “twist” if you will, does not elicit “oh my!”, but rather “oh brother…” as audiences leave scratching their heads and wondering who they can appeal to for the past three hours of their life back.
That’s not to say that the show is not without merit. Given the limitations of the material they have to work with, the cast and creative team certainly make a valiant effort of it. Gale Harold is every bit the quintessential Tennessee Williams leading man. Angel-faced and brooding, sweet and smoldering, he is the real heat source in the sweltering Southern setting. Unfortunately the leading lady Denise Crosby as Lady Torrance appears rather mismatched next to Harold. Played out as a May-December romance, the couple comes off looking more like a gigolo and a matron, and the chemistry between them is only lukewarm, which translates to arctic in Tennessee Williams’ humidified world. Blood, sweat, and tears that should all come to a volatile boiling point, tend to just coagulate in distinct, messy puddles onstage as they actors slosh through them hour after hour after hour.
The supporting cast is a mixed bag. Veteran stage and screen actor Geoffrey Wade is perfectly gruesome and menacing as Lady’s ailing, yet remarkably sinister husband. A villain played with both precision and the right amount of reckless evil. Whereas the other antagonist of the show, a scandalous waif pursuing Valentine (played by Claudia Mason) comes off as merely pesky or perhaps downright irritating. Listed in the program as a “covergirl-turned-actress”, Mason’s self-imposed title presents itself as a sort of warning or apology to the audience. Beware: Model tries acting. And sadly, it’s a factor audiences should justly be warned about. As the women of the town, actresses Sheila Shaw and Francesca Casale give perhaps the most adept performances of the show. Poignant and funny, they remind us of why character actresses are so crucial to a show and adept at what they do. Their counterpart Kelly Ebsary, however, doesn’t just chew the scenery, she downright devours it.
