|
|
||
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|||
 |
Review by Paul Nelson |
 |
IN AN all too brief career, James Dean managed to star in and grace three
major movies. His performance in his last film, Giant, to my mind,
proved that he was being totally manipulated, his raw and chrysalid talent
was incapable of presenting an elderly man.
He was more a matinee idol rather than an actor, and I have to admit his persona
outstripped anyone on the screen in his day with the exception of Marlon Brando.
However, he became a legend because he died driving a Porsche at presumably
an unacceptable speed, this at a point in his career that would have either
proved him as an actor, or relegated him to an upstart.
As with Rudolph Valentino, who all too young died of appendicitis, a legend
was born.
At the Wimbledon Studio, there is a production of the play Come
Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, a play which deals with
a James Dean fan club and their meeting 20 years after the dreadful news of
his death.
It is one of those plays where everyone examines themselves and comes to a
conclusion as to why they are all meeting there and what appalling changes
have happened to them and gives them an opportunity to explain their development
and why.
The fascinating thing about the play is that some of the characters are played
by doubles as they were 20 years ago, and are again reincarnated as they now
are. One, indeed, has had a sex change.
Well doesn't that happen in every small community?
I can't remember the number of people who went through a sex change in my
small town in Yorkshire.
The ploy does, however, cleverly push the play along. Nevertheless, a ploy,
I maintain, which pushes the play just that bit over the edge.
For me, the play doesn't work, though I can understand why director Gary Diomandes
chose it for this year's offering from St Mary's University of Minnesota School
of The Arts Department of Theatre Arts.
It is, if you do not know the play, a brilliant observation of small town
America which places a blindingly white light on the greater issues of what
makes America what we, sad foreigners, think America is. It tears one apart.
I wonder if Americans consider the play in that light?
It also searingly throws a spotlight on dreams and fantasies. How many of
us can actually bravely face what we wanted to believe as true when we were
young in the harsh light of our present existence? Did we really only dream
it or did we actually wake up in the arms of our cinematic ideal?
These questions are superbly and eloquently presented.
In probably the most fascinating set I have ever seen at the Studio Theatre
in Wimbledon, Dr Diomandes has surpassed himself.
I have long sung his praises but his work on this play, a work he admits in
a programme note is close to his heart, must rank as the apotheosis of his
career so far, though I have to say I tremble as to what he will present us
with next year.
Can
I dare to hope he will return next year in a more light-hearted vein, and
kill us once again with his pronounced panache and with something more akin
to a musical comedy?
This is not to deny that in a serious vein he can make us grimace and suffer
almost at his will, but he himself is a jolly character and I personally believe
the world needs more of that.
5 and Dime is a definite 'must see'.
Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean by Ed Graczyk. Directed
by Dr. Gary Diomandes, Lighting Design Matt "Trippy" Scherbring,
Scenic Design Sarah Walavich, Costume Design Michelle Floersch-Clow, Sound
Alison Murray WITH: Andrietta Scales (Juanita), Mary Schumacher (Mona), Kate
Schuster (Mona then), Rara Reinke (Sissy), Melissa Fye (Sissy then), Peter
Jones (Joe), Anna Shields Joanne), Sarah Fisher (Stella May), Anna Mukencshnabl
(Edna Louise), Jim Clark (Radio Announcer), understudy - Sarah Marek., Presented
by Saint Mary's University of Minnesota School of the Arts, Department of
Theatre Arts, and Wimbledon Studio Theatre at the Studio Theatre, The Broadway,
Wimbledon, London SW19.
RELATED STORIES: Click here for a
review of St Mary's University of Minnesota's 2001 production of SubUrbia
RELATED LINKS: Click here
for the St Mary's University of Minnesota website...
