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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me

The reviews are in! "Someone Who'll Watch Over Me"...."showcases clever directing by Carnessa Ottelin and the well-cast, dynamic trio of performers..." Megan Stein, The Independent.

http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A287865

Justice Theater Project’s Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me
Men in the cellar

18 FEB 2009 •  by Megan Stein
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me
Justice Theater Project @ St. Mary’s School
Through March 1

Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me is the most famous of Irish playwright Frank McGuinness’ oeuvre, and the Justice Theater Project’s production showcases clever directing by Carnessa Ottelin and the well-cast, dynamic trio of performers as an American doctor, an Irish journalist and an English professor, all held hostage for obscure reasons in Beirut.

Amid the unbearable circumstance of captivity in a derelict basement, with the men chained to a wall, the play achieves sanity and dignity for each man via their humanity toward each other. At the same time, however, McGuinness’ script explores the meaning of nationalism, physical and moral strength and the value of being alive. Using humor, outbursts, mania and transitions appropriately rapid and nonsensical in this situation of ineluctable misfortune—much to the credit of Ottelin—the play is filled with both tender, joyful moments and deep sadness.

Not long into Act I, Edward, an Irishman (a boisterous David Henderson, who occasionally channels Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow), and the American Adam (a role intensified by Byron Jennings’ concentration) are joined by Michael, the Englishman (played by the delightfully believable Ryan Brock). Initially, Michael is wholly naïve about the gravity of the situation, but the two veterans teach their new cellmate the rules of the ad hoc society they have created inside their cell. From there, the three men embark together through jokes, arguing, challenges, reveals and games—including a re-enactment of Virginia Wade’s 1977 Wimbledon victory and a flying tour over Europe á la Chitty Chitty Bang Bang—to transform their situation.

The play’s fluidity is occasionally interrupted by clumsy moments—on the part of the actors, the stage direction, or both—that deflate the drama. Still, by the final curtain, the audience has fallen in love with these men. As Ella Fitzgerald finally delivers the eponymous Gershwin song, the house is ready and willing to accept the unironic poetry of the moment and to fully appreciate the song’s lament.
The Justice Theater Project Review

FROM THE TRIANGLE THEATER REVIEW:

BYRON JENNINGS, DAVID HENDERSON, AND RYAN BROCK RELISH
THEIR MEATY ROLES IN “SOMEONE WHO’LL WATCH OVER ME”

      The Justice Theater Project of Raleigh’s charismatic cast for Irish dramatist and screenwriter Frank McGuinness’ harrowing hostage drama, SOMEONE WHO’LL WATCH OVER ME, includes three of the Triangle’s very finest actors, playing an American, an Irishman, and an Englishman, all kidnapped by Islamic Jihad in Lebanon and held captive in ankle chains in an ominous basement room. Byron Jennings is terrific as Adam the U.S. physician whose constant calisthenics help him handle his fear, David Henderson gives a great gritty performance as Edward the irreverent journalist from Dublin, and Ryan Brock adds a pithy portrait of Michael the mild-mannered English professor who is totally bewildered by his kidnapping and the thought that his captors could, at any moment and for no reason at all, take him out and beat the bejesus out of him and shoot him dead.

      Director Carnessa Ottelin artfully orchestrates the action of this claustrophobic play, leavened by a surprising amount of mordant humor, so that the fears and hopes of Adam, Edward, and Michael are always palpable. The three men are in a really scary place, hanging onto their sanity by their fingernails; and Ottelin keeps the atmosphere edgy, so that the embarrassingly small audience that attended last Sunday afternoon’s performance in Pittman Auditorium at St. Mary’s School could feel the tension rise, on the raked stage and in the auditorium, until the horrible plight of the three hostages—and the remarkable resilience of their spirits—affected the whole cloud of witnesses to this must-see drama.

      SOMEONE WHO’LL WATCH OVER ME is a riveting suspense story; it grabs its audience by the throats, jars them out of their complacency that THIS could never happen to them, and sends them home shaken. Don’t miss it.

      SECOND OPINION: Feb. 18th Durham, NC INDEPENDENT WEEKLY review by Megan Stein: http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid:287865.

      The Justice Theater Project presents SOMEONE WHO’LL WATCH OVER ME Friday-Saturday, Feb. 20-21 and 27-28, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 122 and March 1, at 3 p.m. in Pittman Auditorium at St. Mary’s School, 900 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, North Carolina 27603. $15 ($12 students and seniors), except $10 a ticket for groups of 10 or more. 919/264-7089, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), or click here. NOTE: There will be preshow discussion at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 21st, facilitated by Walt Caison, Ph.D., of North Carolina Stop Torture Now (http://www.ncstoptorturenow.org/) and Psychologists for Social Responsibility (http://psysr.org/) and at 7:30 p.m. on Feb 27th, facilitated by Amnesty International member and former detainee Marshall Hardy. THE SHOW: http://jtpsomeone.homestead.com/. THE JUSTICE THEATER PROJECT: http://justicetheaterproject.org/. PITTMAN AUDITORIUM: http://www.saint-marys.edu/pages/sitepage.cfm?page=54718. INTERNET BROADWAY DATABASE: http://www.ibdb.com/show.php?ID=8160.

FROM THE NEWS AND OBSERVER:

Tale of three captives
By Roy C. Dicks - Correspondent
Published: Thu, Feb. 19, 2009 08:33AMModified Thu, Feb. 19, 2009 08:37AM

RALEIGH—How would we react if held hostage for years? How do we reconcile differences in other people’s backgrounds and ideologies?

These are the basic questions asked by Frank McGuinness in his 1992 play, “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me.” Based on true stories of long-held hostages, the script is a natural for the Justice Theater Project, a company whose mission is advocacy for the oppressed and disenfranchised.

The play is set in a dirty, windowless room in Beirut, where Adam, an altruistic American doctor, and Edward, a rowdy Irish journalist, are being held by unseen captors.

Chained at the leg with only the Bible and the Quran as company, they have no contact with the outside world. Their deprivation and boredom bring out constant bickering but also create a supportive bond in which fond memories of home and families are shared.

That bond is disrupted when a third hostage appears. It doesn’t help that Michael is an effete English teacher, exposing him to taunts for his convictions and beliefs. Edward is especially combative, rehashing long-entrenched Irish-English conflicts.

As the months pass, the three adjust to their differences, keeping each from breaking under pressure. To buoy their spirits, they indulge in fantasies, consuming imaginary drinks, speaking out letters to loved ones, and inventing movies about their plight. When one of them is suddenly taken away, the remaining two redouble their efforts to keep up hope and sanity.

McGuinness isn’t concerned with any particular political situation, but instead demonstrates how such horrifying confinement affects human interaction. The script is a series of vignettes, variations on a theme rather than linked parts of a storyline.

These segments, sometimes wildly humorous, sometimes grippingly poignant, hover in the realm of existential and absurd theater rather than strict realism. This puts the onus on the performers to keep up interest during the play’s two hours.

Three experienced actors valiantly try to knit the fragments. David Henderson’s Edward is a boisterous bully hiding a tender heart, the raucous characterization enhanced by a lilting Irish accent. Ryan Brock’s mild-mannered demeanor gives Michael quiet warmth and amusing wit, and he skillfully portrays Michael’s emotional recollections of his dead wife. Adam has the least range as written, but Byron Jennings gives him a shining spirit and sympathetic vulnerability.

Director Carnessa Ottelin keeps the actors physically active and the pacing dynamic, choosing to emphasize the disparate parts, some segments veering towards vaudeville. This maximizes the acting opportunities but defuses some of the audience’s emotional investment.

Despite some not inappropriate tedium, the production entertains and enlightens, showcasing three fine talents.

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