Actor’s Bridge expertly delivers dark camp noir with Sam Shepard’s Simpatico

It is then a good thing indeed that the capabilities of Actor’s Bridge Ensemble are up to the challenge. True to their name, this production is nothing short of an marvelous example of ensemble theatre at its apex. Directors Dusty Shaffer and Vali Forrester have gone to great lengths to marry everything from the surrealist inspired set design to the at-times elaborate lighting in a deft alchemy with the ever unfolding tension and entirely unsympathetic cast of characters that transforms Shepard’s comedy-noir offering into a clever high parody of itself that doesn’t fail to please.

 

Bill Feehely and Ross Bolen lead the cast as Vinnie and Carter respectively; two old associates who have a dark and twisted history from way back in the day when both were just young men trying to make a buck in the world of horseracing. Since then, Carter has gone on to become a successful big man in the business and Vinnie has been exiled to the far corners of nowhere where he is taken care of by Carter in a manner that keeps him quiet and out of the way. The show opens with Vinnie having unceremoniously summoned Carter from his home in Kentucky to fly cross country to deal with his former associate’s sudden but as yet unspoken need.

 

Feehely and Ross milk the tension implicit in their lines for all its worth in summoning up this dynamic duo of dysfunction. Their rapid fire chemistry doesn’t miss a beat and is so engaging that even when a somewhat nervous Freehely stutters over a few lines on opening night it seems almost natural to his character Vinnie as he stews in his potent brew of alcohol, deception and vindictive plotting. While all of the cast members pull their collective weight in delivering their parts with emphasis on highlighting the worst parts of the character in what comes off as a kind of dark camp noir, Freehely and Ross do so with an effort almost prodigious in its magnitude.

 

At first glance of her speaking in a hackneyed British accent and pretentiously reading Byron, Alice Raver as the would be derby queen Cecelia is nothing short of annoying and off-putting, which in this case is a great compliment. There is nothing really likable about the tourist mentality of Cecelia who idly dreams of attending the Kentucky Derby one day and is willing to do whatever it takes to make that dream a reality. Raver does and exemplary job of making you hate Cecelia with every fiber of your being. Even though I already knew her fate at script’s end, I kept finding myself hoping that someone would just pull out a gun and shoot her.

 

Ken Jackson’s portrayal of Sims is perhaps the most difficult. While Jackson is onstage for the entire performance, he exists raised away from the rest of the mélange on a dais that overlooks the rest of the action—fitting as he is the character who ties all the other together in a tight tangle of one-upsmanship and devious plotting. Jackson is at once provincial and charming as well as scary and creepy at turns…and when the light suddenly goes orange and he laughs his deep southern laugh a chill runs across your back as you can almost see the fire pits of hell licking away behind him.

 

CJ Tucker as Carter’s wife Rosie is almost wasted at first as she delivers the part well, but her performance as she first enters is so “cool as a cucumber”  that compared to the overwrought emoting of all the other characters she almost comes off as a tad boring. Luckily, this is not to last as Vinnie comes barreling back into her life while leaving Carter in the tender embrace of Cecelia. Once Tucker ups the ante to match that of her fellow cast members, she truly shines as the quintessential blonde bombshell requisite all noir stories.  Jessika Malone as the nanny Kelly seems somewhat out-of-place as she totes around the adorable Chihuahua Georgia but even this strange juxtaposition of normalcy amidst a tangle of coiled secrets adds to the overall effect for which the directors seemed to be aiming.

 

Framing and highlighting the rock-solid performances are the magnificent set and lighting design by Paul Gattrell and Richard Davis respectively. Drawing on surrealist imagery as applied to stagecraft, the designers transform what could easily be any other black box theatre presentation into a journey through the dark world of Noir presented in Technicolor. That is to say that every nuance of the staging and lighting seems a happy accident of controlled: A pile of shoes here and an immaculate arrangement of empty alcohol bottles indicates a messy room, free hanging blinds denote windows complete with the requisite blinking light outside,  a wall of industrial strength cleaning solutions in brightly colored bottles imply cleanliness, high end designer furniture impossibly wrapped in layers of plastic giving the impression of perfect preservation—all clearly labeled at random for your identification purposes while yellow caution tape litters every scene on the stage calling the viewer’s attention to the matter at hand no matter how nice things may seem at points. All of these elements along with the excellent space Actor’s Bridge has to work with at Belmont’s Black Box Theatre work together to form a noir inspired spectacle that is second to none and is completely unlike anything else you are likely to see presented on stages in and around Nashville.

Actor’s Bridge Ensemble will be presenting three more
performances of “Simpatico” at Belmont’s Black Box Theatre on Thursday and Friday, May 22-23 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 24 at 2:30 p.m.Tickets are $15.

For more info: www.actorsbridge.org or 341-0300