Home  Entertainment Reviews Review: The Curious Savage by John Patrick (Feb. 25)
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Review: The Curious Savage by John Patrick (Feb. 25) |
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Written by Barry Gaines
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last updated Wednesday, February 27, 2008, at 09:48:06
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Writing in “The Albuquerque Tribune,” which we will all miss, Ollie Reed Jr. said John Patrick’s “The Curious Savage” “sounds like a hybrid of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ and ‘Harvey.’” He was on target. “The Curious Savage” is playing at Auxiliary Dog Theatre under the direction of Eli Browning.
This is my first visit to Aux Dog. Upon entering the lobby, I encountered art-for-sale on the walls and an accomplished clarinet quartet playing incidental music. The stage is cozy and the seats comfortable. The eleven-member cast includes some local favorite as well as newcomers. The play selection, however, doomed the enterprise despite the efforts of cast and crew. “The Curious Savage” premiered on Broadway in 1950 and played for three weeks, thirty-one performances. In the half century since, the play has become popular with community theaters and high schools. It tells the story of Ethel P. Savage, a wealthy but unconventional woman who has been behaving strangely since the death of her husband. She has traveled, taken up acting, and used the family fortune to finance “people with dreams.” Her three stepchildren, Titus the crooked senator, Samuel the incompetent judge, and Lily Belle the serial divorcée, are concerned at her spending and have her committed to The Cloisters, a private sanitarium. There Mrs. Savage meets the endearing assortment of inmates who seem saner than the Savage children. Mrs. Savage converted the family fortune into $10 million worth of negotiable bonds (and in 1950 that was real money!). The younger Savages attempt to find and confiscate the money while their stepmother misleads and humiliates them with the help of her fellow patients. Veteran Ninette S. Mordaunt has a good time playing Mrs. Savage as the kindly and wise oddball. Lori Stewart is pleasantly contemptible as Lily Belle while Joel Miller and Jon Clements play the despicable brothers. Laurie Lister has experience playing Nurse Ratched, so Nurse Wilhelmina is easy for her. Among the wounded but lovable eccentrics in the asylum, I enjoyed Jiji Hise as Florence, who has replaced her dead child with a doll, and Bree Anderson as Fairy, trapped forever in an insecure childhood. The play’s pace is sluggish and the message saccharine, but I’m not giving up on Auxiliary Dog. If You Go WHAT: “The Curious Savage” by John Patrick WHEN: Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. through WHERE: Auxiliary Dog Theatre, 3011 Monte Vista NE HOW MUCH: $10. Call 254-7716 for ticket information
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About Reviewers D.S. Crafts (Website) Composer Daniel Steven Crafts came to New Mexico from San Francisco where he had hosted a classical music radio program on KPFA. His first commission from opera star Jerry Hadley, "The Song & the Slogan" based on texts by Carl Sandburg, was made into a TV program for the PBS network and aired nationally in 2004 and won an Emmy for Best Music. His latest opera La Llorona is a collaboration with novelist Rudolfo Anaya based on his play "The Season of La Llorona." Mr. Crafts is currently working on another commission from Jerry Hadley for a piece about the American Southwest which includes texts by Rudolfo Anaya and V.B. Price. Two CDs of his music, Contemporaries (short, satirical keyboard works) and ARIAS (excerpts from his various operas) have been released on the BACAT label in San Francisco.
David Steinberg David Steinberg has covered state government, the courts, city and county government in Santa Fe for the Albuquerque Journal. He's been an arts writer for the past 20 years, and serves as the book editor, for the Journal. Over the years, he's also acted in plays, sung in choruses and played trumpet.
Jennifer Noyer Jennifer Noyer has been writing dance reviews for the Albuquerque Journal for 17 years, as well as contributing articles for Dance Magazine and other art journals. She trained in dance with Hanya Holm in New York City and Colorado Springs, and studied several dance techniques at the graduate level at the University of Michigan. After teaching dance at Wayne State University she entered and completed a Masters Degree in Humanities there. In New Mexico Ms. Noyer has taught, directed, and choreographed contemporary dance for several years. Her writing on dance includes a monograph accompanying the video of choreographer Bill Evens’ ballet “The Legacy.” An overview of Evans’s world wide career, it was written and published during his tenure at the University of New Mexico. Ms. Noyer’s studies in the humanities, and her studio dance work influence her approach to dance as an integrative art form in the United States.
Barry Gaines Barry Gaines has taught Shakespeare in the University of New Mexico English Department for over twenty-five years and has received two outstanding teaching awards. He has written theater reviews for the Journal since 2000. He has attended theater all over the world including Shakespeare productions in Russia, South Africa, Denmark, and Poland. He has also served as literary advisor for two professional theater companies and written performance reviews for Shakespeare Quarterly. Gaines has taken two years of acting with Paul Ford and appeared in small parts in three plays at the Albuquerque Little Theater. He believes that he is probably a better reviewer than actor.
Joanne Sheehy Hoover Joanne Sheehy Hoover, music critic emeritus of the Albuquerque Journal, has written for NPR, PBS, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Symphony, among others. She has also been a music lecturer for the Smithsonian Associates and a music critic and arts writer for The Washington Post. She was director of the Levine School of Music, one of the country’s largest community music schools, in Washington, D. C. 1980-1993. She and her husband moved to Corrales, New Mexico in July 1993. Also a poet, her fifth collection, “Einstein in New Mexico,” was published in 2002.
Marissa Greenberg Marissa Greenberg is a member of the faculty of the University of New Mexico English Department, where she teaches Shakespeare and early English literature. A prior guest reviewer for the Albuquerque Journal, Greenberg will be reviewing theater while Barry Gaines is out of town. She also composed and edited the program notes for last year’s Albuquerque Shakespeare Festival and has written performance reviews for Shakespeare Bulletin. A graduate of Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, Greenberg has been performing and studying drama for most of her life. She is thrilled to have this opportunity to review for the Journal.
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