Nearly naked theatre goes soft with 'Marvin's Room'
By CHRIS PAGE
GET OUT
Nearly Naked Theatre’s reputation for producing edgy, irreverent, thought-provoking plays — with as much flesh-bearing as its name implies — has earned the company scads of buzz in recent seasons.
So what’s Nearly Naked doing opening its latest season with Scott McPherson’s “Marvin’s Room,” a fatal-illness-brings-the-family-together drama more suited for the Lifetime television network than the alternative theater stage?
It’s certainly a wry tweak of the expected for Nearly Naked. But according to artistic director Damon Dering, the company’s motivations were more sincere. Busy preparing for a one-man drag show (“Koko!”) in Los Angeles, Dering ceded the opening show slot to Ron May, artistic director of another downtown Phoenix alternative theater, Stray Cat. May, more interested in challenging emotions than minds, presented Dering with the option to do “Marvin’s Room,” half expecting the Nearly Naked honcho to laugh it off.
Only he didn’t. Dering took a look at the rising fortunes of Nearly Naked (private donations up higher than anticipated, increased publicity) and figured a more audience-friendly piece — a play entirely comfortable for a community theater — might be just the thing for his expanding audience base.
Which is fine — if only May’s “Marvin’s Room” wasn’t lacking on so many levels.
CHARACTER FLAWS
Against its principal characters, McPherson’s play holds up a philosophical cue card to the audience, asking, “Is this a squandered life?”
There’s Bessie, a middle-aged woman who’s chosen to live her life taking care of her long-ailing father, only to be diagnosed with leukemia.
There’s Bessie’s estranged sister, Lee (played by Trish Galindo), who left home seeking something more, only to end up a hard-luck loser with a disaffected teenage son she can’t control.
And there’s the teen son, Hank (Adrian Villalpando), locked away in an institution after setting fire to his mother’s house, aching for a father figure with a neon-bright obviousness.
As the characters come together in all the conventional ways — family bonding, coming to terms with death, nothing new here even if the first act features some sharp writing — May’s production never chooses an angle on which to focus, and never really answers the questions raised, resulting in a messy, uncertain drama.
Not helping matters is Lori Winzeler, as Bessie, acting with a stiff, self-conscious unnaturalness that undercuts what nuance is there to be plumbed in her character. Thankfully, Galindo and Villalpando take rather stock characters (the trailer-trash hoochie and frustrated young punk) and infuse them with a compensating depth. Galindo’s nervous, fidgeting flourishes are spot-on.
Ancillary characters in “Marvin’s Room” are a similar kind of mixed bag: Heather Harper and Kenny Brodie play medical types with strangely kooky fringes to uncertain end. Meanwhile, Barbara McGrath turns in a darling, heartwarming performance as an eccentric and decrepit aunt.
IS THIS ALTERNATIVE?
The largely uninspired production plays on Alicia Turvin’s equally uninspired set — a utilitarian triptych of mismatched furniture, bad wallpaper and low-budget vibes. This comes as a shock, since Turvin usually does solid work for May over at Stray Cat, and Nearly Naked is known for putting together shoestring set delights.
It all adds up to a production that squanders its potential, a left-curve choice for an alternative theater company that ends up not really saying much alternative, nothing really unique, nothing illuminating. So what’s the point?
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