BEDFELLOWS

OCTOBER 26 - NOVEMBER 24, 1996
The Skylight Theater
1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz

a world premiere by Herman Daniel Farrell III	directed by Chris Fields
with Peter Birkenhead, K. Callan, Bryan Clark, Paul Collins, Richard Gant, Carole Goldman, Brent Jennings, Rosie Malek-Yonan, Hector Mercado, Andy Milder, Steve O'Connor, Alexandra Powers, & Victor Raider-Wexler
set design Emanuel Treeson	light design Emanuel Treeson
costume design Donna May	sound design Rob Deemer

Alexandra Powers, Peter Birkenhead, Brent Jennings


Bryan Clark, Steve O'Connor



**Pick of the Week**
Nov. 8-14, 1996

It's been more than a hundred years since Charles Dudley Warner penned that shopworn phrase about politics and the strange sleeping partners it engenders. Just how strange is illustrated by Daniel Farrell's charged city-hall drama, with its mix of earthiness and humor. Set in contemporary New York, the play tracks the behind the scenes manipulation and sordid dealings that take place among Manhattan's Democratic leaders and political animals, who have assembled at a cavernous school auditorium for a mini-convention to pick a candidate for Congress--following a incumbent's untimely death. Judicial appointments, patronage, endorsements, and an array of desperate coaltions become the chips in this ugly, high stakes game....Inevitably, the fashionable gallery of -isms which define our PC milieu emerges as issues of the pols' cynical discourses...Director Chris Fields gets well disciplined performances from his 13-member cast via his deceptively simple but effective staging, but the pivot is the play's gritty premise.

-Lovell Estell III

 


**CRITIC'S PICK**
Nov 14-20, 1996

Bedfellows as in "politics makes strange..." is a sobering but entertaining inside look at the men who provide the fuel that stokes the engine of big-city politics. Diagrammed in all its ugly detail in Herman Daniel Farrell III's play, it makes a gritty primer in Lord Acton's observation that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In Farrell's blaring commentary on the forces that shape our government, morality has little to do with it. The evil that men (and women) do to each other in the name of service to the community, the deception, and backstabbing, are flagrantly exposed in this blunt examination of realpolitik at work. The prize at stake here--a seat in Congress to replace a suddenly dead incumbent--is simply too important to leave to chance, fate, or the whim of the people.

Powerful deal-maker Dan Kelley (a charismatic Richard Gant), his own agenda firmly in place, stands ready to oplay out his controlling hand, laying down the race card, the sex card, the ethics card, the greed card, pitting both ends against the middle in the interest of personal power, not good government. Cynical press hack Jack Meadows (Paul Collins in a fine performance) is as ugly as the politicians, as he leads green intern Peter Levine (Karl Wiedergott), for the moment still a dewy idealist, through the jungle of city politics.

Under the taut and well-paced direction of Chris Fields, Bryan Clark, Brent Jennings, Victor Raider-Wexler, Rosie Malek-Yonan, Peggy Schoditsch, and a superb Carol Goldman help make up the grand ensemble that brings a political convention's backstage to life.

-Madeleine Shaner

 


Friday, November 15, 1996

If the presidential debates, the tons of mudslinging junk mail, and the hours of TV commercials haven't turned you off to politics, or if you relish the sliminess of a well-oiled politician like a 10-year-old appreciates icky green gobs of who-knows-what, then venture into Herman Daniel Farrell III's world of New York politics. Here, power plays make strange Bedfellows.

Pondering who the real politicos are, Farrell has created a play of sly revelations that is given a skillful, seamless interpretation at the Skylight Theatre.

Vying for a congressional seat vacant because of the incumbent's recent demise, politicians play musical beds to the tune of shaky alliances and vacillating loyalites. The mini-convention is only hinted at offstage and the back-room deals with behind-the-scenes players are Farrell's focal point.

The deceased congressman's wife (Peggy Schoditsch)--who hides an intriguing secret--a Latino (Hector Mercado) and an African American (Brent Jennings) all compete for the support of the local leaders: Dan Kelley (Richard Gant) and Jimmy McCarthy (Bryan Clark). Meanwhile, a veteran reporter (understudy Karl Wiedergott) and his young intern Peter Levine attempt to discover or create "the truth".

Chris Fields directs with a light hand and his talented cast gives layered, intelligent performances as basically good people caught up in a high-stakes game.

-Jana J. Monji

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