Tag Archives: Will Lyman

Don’t Wait To See These Plays By Samuel Beckett

Theater Reviews, , , , ,

Beckett In Brief

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

Sorenson Center For The Arts

Babson College, Wellesley, MA

Through May 7th

 

Directed by James Seymour

Reviewed by Bobby Franklin

Will Lyman (Krapp)Photo Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

Samuel Beckett’s works are not easy to understand, but don’t let that stop you from seeing it. While they are filled with ambiguity it is fun trying to figure out what the meaning is behind them, or if there is any at all. I have been enjoying Beckett’s plays and novels since I was young and yet I am just beginning to crack the meaning, or what I interpret as the meaning, of some of them. You may wonder how I could possibly enjoy work that is not clear to me. Well, that is the fun in it. While it is difficult it is also fascinating, as well as funny, heartbreaking, soul-searching, and intriguing.

The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in collaboration with Babson Arts is currently presenting three of Becket’s short plays, Rough For Radio II, The Old Tune, and Krapp’s Last Tape at the Sorenson Center for the Arts in Wellesley. If you have never seen a Samuel Beckett play this is a great opportunity to be introduced to his work.

Ashley Risteen (Stenographer) and Will Lyman (Animator)Photo Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

With a cast led by Will Lyman (Animator, Gorman, and Krapp), and including Ken Baltin (Fox and Cream), and Ashley Risteen (Stenographer) you couldn’t ask for better talent to present this work. Combine this with the fine direction of James Seymour, and having it set in a very intimate theatre, there are only four rows of seats, and you are in for a special evening of theatre.

Rough For Radio II, which all takes place in silhouette behind a screen is about an artists struggle to dig into his creative spirit. The piece is a conversation between Animator and Stenographer with the voice of Fox that rises up from time to time. It is the most difficult of the three plays to understand but oh so interesting to watch.

Will Lyman (Gorman) and Ken Baltin (Cream)Photo Credit: Evgenia Eliseeva

The Old Tune and Krapp’s Last Tape deal with memories and dealing with getting old, lookingback, and regrets. Will Lyman and Ken Baltin are superb as two old friends who sit at what could be a bus stop and talk about old times. Their memories conflict at times, but memories are very often different from what actually happened. There is something very familiar that comes across when listening to these two.

Krapp’s Last Tape is both disturbing and funny. In typical Beckett fashion there is a bit of slapstick involved. The old banana peel is still good for a laugh. Will Lyman, as Krapp, goes it alone in this piece. Well, not quite alone, he also the voice himself (Krapp) to whom he is listening on tape that he made years before. It is interesting hearing the younger Krapp talking about his regrets and the futility of life yet filled with the energy to push forward in contrast the the older Krapp who is still feeling that same futility but is now tired and appears to have not much hope but is not short on regrets as he makes a new tape. Is it his last tape or just the last one up to that time?

Don’t be afraid of seeing this work. I would advise you not to overthink it. Sit and just let it play out in front of you. Better yet, bring some friends along as you will really enjoy discussing it afterwards. You will be surprised by how much you start to uncover as you talk about it.

Take a shot at Beckett In Brief, you will find it interesting and fun.

So, I have now written a review about three of Samuel Beckett’s plays and I am not even sure I know what the heck I have been talking about. I do know that it was a terrific evening of theatre. I don’t recommend everything I see, as my goal with this column is to get people interested in attending theatre who may have never gone, or who haven’t gone in some time. While this may seem like an unlikely work to recommend for a first time theatre goer I feel comfortable in urging my readers to go. Take a shot at Beckett In Brief, you will find it interesting and fun.

Commonwealth Shakespeare, 781.239.5880

www.commshakes.org

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company Presents BECKETT IN BRIEF: Rough for Radio II • The Old Tune Krapp’s Last Tape

Theatre Announcements, , , , , ,

Directed by James Seymour
April 27 – May 7
Carling-Sorenson Center at Babson College, Wellesley, MA

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Founding Artistic Director Steven Maler, presents BECKETT IN BRIEF – Rough for Radio II • The Old Tune • Krapp’s Last Tape, directed by James Seymour, featuring Will Lyman, Ken Baltin and Ashley Risteen. The production, presented by BabsonARTS, begins performances on April 27 and runs through May 6 at the Carling-Sorenson Center at Babson College, 19 Babson College Drive, Wellesley, MA.

Performance dates: April 27, 28, 29, May 3, 4, 5, 6 at 7:30PM; April 30, May 6 and 7 at 3:00PM

Among Samuel Beckett’s most autobiographical works, Rough for Radio II, The Old Tune, and Krapp’s Last Tape explore universal questions of creativity, memory, aging, sex, friendship, and the proximity of death. These plays from his mid-career are traditionally viewed as individual statements, but the three provide a wealth of impressions when placed in conversation with one another, giving us a better understanding of the legendary playwright’s intellect, passion, and temperament.

Ken Baltin (Cream/Fox)’s credits in the Boston area include Death of a Salesman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Lost in Yonkers, Laughter on the 23rd Floor (Lyric Stage); Kite Runner, Eurydice, Waiting for Godot, American Buffalo (New Repertory); Deported-a dream play, King of the Jews, Permanent Whole Life (Boston Playwrights); Operation Epsilon (Nora Theatre); Copenhagen, A Screenwriter’s Daughter (Vineyard Playhouse); Oleanna (Merrimack Repertory) Brooklyn Boy (SpeakEasy); Last Night of Ballyhoo, I Ought to be in Pictures, Yom Kippur in Da Nang (Jewish Theatre of New England). He teaches acting and directs at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Will Lyman

Will Lyman (Krapp/Gorman) was recently seen as Junius Brutus Booth in CSC’s production of Our American Hamlet at The Carling- Sorenson Center at Babson College, is well known to Boston audiences for his work with CSC, of which he is a founding Board Member (King Lear, Prospero, Claudius, Brutus); Israeli Stage (Oh God, Ulysses on Bottles); the Huntington Theatre (All My Sons, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Dead End); New Rep (Long Day’s Journey into Night, Exits and Entrances, Clean House, Ice Breaker); SpeakEasy Stage Company (The Dying Gaul); Wheelock Family Theatre (To Kill a Mockingbird); Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (The Wrestling Patient in collaboration with SpeakEasy Stage Company, King of the Jews, A Girl’s War); and The Nora Theatre Company (Equus, Operation Epsilon). He is a multiple recipient of the Norton and IRNE Awards and was honored with the Howard Keel Award for service to the Screen Actors Guild. He was given 2013’s Norton Award for Sustained Excellence and 2015’s NETC Award. Television credits include “Crossbow,” “Threat Matrix,” and “Commander in Chief.” Movies for television include Meltdown, Our Fathers, Three Sovereigns for Sarah, and George Washington; he appeared in the films A Perfect Murder, The Siege, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Mystic River, Little Children (narrator), What Doesn’t Kill You. Mr. Lyman has been the narrator of the PBS public affairs program “Frontline” since its second season and has appeared as himself on The Simpsons.

Ashley Risteen (Stenographer) was last seen by Boston audiences in Gloucester Stage Co.’s Man in Snow, which moved on to a run at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre in Manhattan this past November. Her previous Boston credits include Speakeasy Stage Co.’s Appropriate,  Zeitgeist Stage Co.’s Neighborhood Watch, Big Meal, Cakewalk, and Hub Theatre Co.’s 6 Hotels. A native of the North Shore, she has been active in the Newburyport theatre community for many years, notably in the Firehouse Center’s The 39 Steps, and the Actor’s Studio’s Speed-The-Plow.

James Seymour (Director) has appeared in leading roles on Broadway (I Love My Wife), Off-Broadway (Small Craft Warnings, Moonchildren), on television (“Kate and Allie”) and at major regional theatres, including The Long Wharf Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, and Portland Stage. Directed productions include All the Way Home at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Road at The Marymount Manhattan Theatre, I Love My Wife at Detroit’s Birmingham Theatre, The Bacchae at UNC-Chapel Hill, and over twenty-five productions for The Island Theatre at the University of Guam. He has also taught Theatre, English Composition, Film, and Literature at Marymount Manhattan College, Queens College, CUNY, The Colorado College, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His play Two Lovers (A Taotaomona Tale and I Domino) was produced in Guam. Currently a lecturer in English and Film at the University of Maine, Jim was raised in New Jersey and spent most of his life in New York City, after receiving his BFA from Boston University’s College of Fine Arts and Ph.D. from the Graduate Center at The City University of New York.

www.commshakes.org  781.239.5660

Review: Our American Hamlet

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The Booth Family:
Tragedians On And Off
The Stage

Our American Hamlet
The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company

Reviewed by Bobby Franklin

The world premiere of Our American Hamlet now playing at the Sorenson Center for the Arts at Babson College in Wellesley is a fascinating and intriguing look at a family that would have been remembered more for producing two of the greatest Shakespearean actors of the 19th Century, had it not been for actions of John Wilkes Booth who gained infamy by assassinating Abraham Lincoln. His words “Sic semper tyrannis”, shouted on the stage at Ford’s Theater that  April night would become one of the most remembered lines in theatre history. It would also cast a shadow over the Booth name, one that had survived scandals but nothing compared to this horrible deed. It is against this backdrop the play unfolds, and it is an interesting one.

Our American Hamlet is an evening of wonderful theatre and should not be missed.

In Jake Broder’s play we get to see all of the Booths in their greatness, their near madness, and their rivalries. It is a complicated story that Mr. Broder makes easy to follow by using the character of Adam Badeau, which he plays, as the narrator and as a friend of Edwin’s. He is very effective in keeping everything in perspective.

Jake Broder
Photo Credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

The play opens with Mr. Broder taking the stage next to a ghost light. He sets the action with a speech that is reminiscent of the opening scene of Henry V. We then see Edwin Booth as he is preparing back stage for his first performance since his brother’s infamous deed. Much of the play takes place backstage as the action moves to the past and the family history is told.

Jacob Fishel and Will Lyman
Photo Credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

The Booth story is both fascinating and intriguing, one of great success and much pain. Junius Brutus Booth, the family patriarch, is a man with a love for his liquor who appears to be bordering at times on madness. He is played by Will Lyman who takes the role to the edge without allowing it to slip into caricature. Mr. Lyman, who is one of Boston’s great actors, lives up to his reputation in this role.

Jacob Fishel
Photo Credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

As I watched Jacob Fishel in the role of Edwin Booth I was thinking what a challenge it must be to portray a man who is considered to be one of the greatest actors of all time. Mr. Fishel does not appear to be at all intimidated by this and is a joy to watch. The back and forth between Edwin and Junius is sprinkled with lines from Hamlet that are never overplayed and always appropriate to the action. Edwin spent years dealing with his father’s mood changes and alcoholism as well as verbal abuse. He also spent this time observing his father and learning the craft of acting. When the opportunity arose he was ready. Mr. Fishel and Mr. Lyman are at times intense in their roles opposite each other, an intensity that drives the action.

Joe Fria
Photo Credit: Nile Hawver/Nile Scott Shots

Joe Frias brings us a John Wilkes who has much youthful confidence but is lacking in the talent his brother and father possess. Mr. Frias does a fine job in showing the bitterness that develops as John becomes frustrated and then made to feel inadequate by Edwin who not only overshadows him on the stage but also has a penchant for making him feel inferior. How much all of this played into the madness that drove him to assassinate the president is something we will never know.

Brother June (Kelby Akin), sister Asia (Lucy Davenport), and mother Mary Ann Holmes (Maureen Keiller) are the rest of the family. June owns a theatre in California, Asia marries the owner of a theatre not for love but because it will help advance Edwin’s career, and Mary encourages John in his desires to make a career on the stage while at the same time throwing guilt onto Edwin.

The voices of the actors in this production are like music.

Steven Maler has done a fine job directing this original piece of theatre. It is interesting to have scenes where we, the audience, get to sit backstage looking out at a theater while the actors perform scenes from Shakespeare and watch from behind as they take their bows or have their breakdowns. There is even a bit of Our American Cousin performed. The final scene is a wonderful piece of theatre that overlaps the Hamlets and the Booths. It is very interesting to see.

Our American Hamlet is an evening of wonderful theatre and should not be missed.  You will enjoy, learn much, and leave asking many what if questions. The voices of the actors in this production are like music. They are clear and resonant. A joy to hear.

Putting on a new play is a risk for any theatre company and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company is to be commended for staging this work. I highly recommend Our American Hamlet, you will not be disappointed.

Our American Hamlet
By Jake Border
Directed by Steven Maler
Through April 2nd at the Sorenson Center for the Arts
Babson College, Wellesley, MA
781.239.5660
www.commshakes.org

A note: Wellesley is not on another planet. The Sorenson Theater is very easy to find using GPS. There is plenty of free parking, and the theater is very comfortable with plenty of leg room. The Commonwealth Shakespeare has partnered with Babson College and is now able to stage productions all year long in addition to their free Shakespeare on the Common every summer.