Charm School

For those of us familiar with a play it can be hard to see a director's different take when he/she interprets King Lear as a polemic about cell phone texting. That is what directors do though and finding something new in a play is a magical thing.

So I'm trying to accept Paul Pierce's take on Charm School as a new way to see the play. The way the play was promoted and, to a lesser extent, the way it was presented made it out to be about being more sensitive to others. The problem is, anyone who knows the playwrights, Lee and Larson, knows that was the last thing on their minds. Their whole body of work is about skewering other people's sensibilities and that's just their plays. Oh the stories I could tell!

Charm School is a play about an older worker, Ray, who tells an off color story and is accused of making the workplace unfriendly. He is completely confused by the reaction of the company which is sympathetic but sends him to diversity training. The premier production at Horizon with Lee and Larson in the main roles was more about how the world changed around Ray and the company and how they were having trouble coping with it. This, I imagine, came out of their own experience since the politically correct world we live in now is anathema to them. It's hard to imagine their Southern Theater Conspiracy company putting on the "Blood Orgy Trilogy" now.

I have to admit that I was dubious about Raymond Campbell as Ray since I've thought of his acting as one dimensional. I'm pleased to say that he was right on in his interpretation. As one patron who has seen most of Campbell's work said, "Who knew he could act!" I did expect a strong performance from Jens Rasmussen as Joe, Ray's boss and he delivered as good or better a performance than Larry Larson. Of the rest of the cast, Michael Stiggers as Rob, one of the diversity trainers, delivered both a powerful and sensitive performance that really added to the play and to the role. He clearly has set the standard for this role in the future.

The play was produced in Foley Hall and the stage ran the length of the hall with seating on both sides. This is a new arrangement for Foley and generally worked well although folks at the ends had trouble hearing when the actors were at the other end. The workmanship on the set was as shoddy and cheap as I've seen since high school. Cheap plywood wasn't nailed down. Astro turf presumably served as grass. Boards were cut unevenly. I was tempted to think there was something the director was trying to tell us with the run down condition but this was supposed to be a luxury hotel on a lake in Washington.

The Springer is to be congratulated for taking on a fairly edgy and new play and I hope it gained an audience here. Presenting it as a call to sensitivity probably helped.