Thespian Thoughts – The Vortex – Theatre Review by Sandro Monetti
THE VORTEX: “compelling, powerful, explosive”
Theatre Review by SANDRO MONETTI
Playwright Noel Coward was more than just witty one liners, eccentric songs and elegant party scenes – as this fine production of one of his infrequently performed plays proves.
Not since Hamlet first explored his issues with his mother has there been a more compelling family feud played out on stage.
The storyline sees flamboyant Nicky Lancaster introducing his fiancée to his glamorous socialite mother only for the two women to take an instant dislike to each other. Nicky is masking some inner torment which later bursts out when he is horrified to learn that his mother, Florence, has been having extra marital affairs with much younger men.
In the flashy role of Nicky, Craig Robert Young enters the stage with the explosive power of a hand grenade but then slows it down with some equally effective nuanced work as his character’s pain, addiction and other secrets emerge.
Shannon Holt is simply superb as Florence, a woman holding onto her youth as desperately as a drowning person clinging to a lifebelt.
These two dominate the action and attention so much that they overwhelm the other five characters in the play, and the rest largely drift into the background.
But director Gene Franklin Smith does a good job keeping the focus on the most powerful part of the story and makes a clever choice updating Coward’s s original 1920’s setting to the swinging Sixties. But such is the timeless nature of the situations and characters, it could just as easily have been set today.
THE VORTEX
By Noel Coward
Directed by Gene Franklin Smith
At Malibu Playhouse, 29243 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, CA 90265
Fridays and Saturdays at pm, Sundays at 3pm until May 18th, 2014
Tickets are $30 Fri & Sat, $34 Sunday matinees and are available
at Malibu Playhouseor by phoning 323 960 7711.
CAST
Craig Robert Young, Shannon Holt, Cameron Mitchell Jr, Victoria Hoffman, Daniel Jiminez, Sky LaFontaine, Will Carney
Producer – Claudia Zahn
Stage Manager – Ricky Irwin
Scenic Design – Erin Walley
Lighting Design – Derrick McDaniel
Costume Design – Brian Primeaux
Sound Design – Greg Chun
Hair and Make Up Design – Christina Culinski & Dale Johnson
Graphics & Logo Design – Ben Stanley
Choreography – Christina Covarrubias
Publicity – Sandra Kuker & Anita J Lee
THE VORTEX
By Noel Coward
Directed by Gene Franklin Smith
Photographs by Brian McCarthy
For Tickets and Information: Plays 411
Thespian Thoughts is a theatre review article on Actors Entertainment, a channel on the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production.
