JUNE 17 - JULY 16, 2000
Powerhouse Theatre
3116 2nd Street, Santa Monica

a world premiere by Bernardo Solano	directed by Chris Fields
with Nancy Bell, Monique Edwards, Tim Fox, Daisy McCrackin Jf Pryor, Jamie Redmond, Cliff Weissman, & Jeff Williams
set design Juliana Haubrich	light design Kuo Lung Kai
costume design Itsaso Petrikorena	sound design Drew Dalzell
fight direction Randy Kovitz	stage manager Erica Mikelson
produced by Phil Harrison

Jeff Williams, Tim Fox, Cliff Weissman


Cliff Weissman, Monique Edwards


Jeff Williams, Daisy McCrackin


June 30- July 6, 2000

A poignant portrait of human decay and rebirth, Bernardo Solano's collage, realized through Chris Field's keen direction, examines a year in the lives of seven disparate personalities. Though heavy-handed at times, Solano captures beautifully and with subtle poetry his character' inexorable struggles toward bitter self-realization. Some scenes, though, enter the realm of diatribe. However, at times of such self-conscious profundity, Fields' atmospheric staging keeps crucial details in focus. The play's insouciant attention to character fascinates--a white-trash wife (Nancy Bell) practices to be a presenter on the Home Shopping Network; a black police office (Jeff Williams) represses deep-seated yearnings to pummel racists; a weather-woman with a God complex (Monique Edwards) faces the fatalism of success. The seven separate stories are intertwined by the gruesome murder of a little girl, an event actively publicized in the media, which tangentially touches each character. Juliana von Haubrich's chilling set, augmented by Kuo Lung Kai's lights and Drew Dalzell's sound, accents a remarkably provocative production.

-Luis Reyes

 


July 23, 2000

Wildlife, a new drama from the Echo Theater Company at the Powerhouse Theatre begins amid appropriate raucous ambience. Eerie lighting effects and blaring snatches of radio broadcasts welcome us to playwright Bernardo Solano's vision of our fractured, meaningless, contemporary world...The characters include a cynical girl junkie (Daisy McCrackin) with a hidden caring heart; her boyfriend, a conflict-ridden black cop (Jeff Williams) obsessed with the dismembered little girl he found in a suitcase; the orderly accountant (Cliff Weissman) wound dangerously tight; a beer-guzzling, drawling lowlife (Tim Fox) and his deferential, abused wife (Nancy Bell); a racist youth (Jf Pryor); and a perky TV weathercaster (Monique Edwards). Familiar stereotypes, all--which creates a heightened imperative for some novel plotting...The recurring use of radio station hopping in Chris Fields' tight, trendy staging is an all-too-apt crisscrossing narrative technique reminiscent of a Robert Altman film.

-Philip Brandes

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