Execution of Justice (1985)

EXECUTION OF JUSTICE
by Emily Mann
directed by Elaine Vaan Hogue

Dan White … Ian Geers
Mary Ann White … Hayley Sherwood
Cop … Nick Carter
Sister Boom Boom … Ben Martin

Chorus of Uncalled Witnesses
Jim Denman, White’s Jailer … James Marin
Young Mother … Sonia Decker
Milk’s Friend … Stuart Meyers
Gwenn Craig, VP of
the Harvey Milk Democratic Club … Amber Williams
Joseph Freitas, Jr., D.A. … Edmun Donovan
Mourner … Edmund Donovan
Moscone’s Friend … Jesse Garlick

Trial Characters
The Court … Jahna Ferron-Smith
Court Clerk … Sonia Decker
Douglas Schmidt, Defense Attorney … Kate Hamilton
Thomas F. Norman, Prosecuting Attorney … Matt Lytle
Joanna Lu … Ellen Tamaki
Prospective Jurors … Charlotte Thomas, James Marin
Juror #3; Foreman … Harrison Brian

Witnesses for the People
Coroner Stephens … Jon Taylor
Rudy Nothenberg, Deputy Mayor … Jesse Garlick
Barbara Taylor, Reporter … Shelby Hightower
Officer Byrne, Department of Records … Amber Williams
William Melia, Civil Engineer … James Marin
Cyr Copertini, Secretary to the Mayor … Charlotte Thomas
Carl Henry Carlson, Aide to Harvey Milk … Edmund Donovan
Richard Pabich, Asst. to Harvey Milk … Ben Martin
Frank Falzon, Chief Homicide Inspector … Mason Sand
Edward Erdelatz … Nick Carter

Witnesses for the Defense
Denis Apcar, Aide to White … Sonia Decker
Fire Chief Sherratt … Harrison Brian
Fireman Frediani … John Scala
Police Officer Sullivan … Nick Carter
City Supervisor Lee Dolson … James Marin

Psychiatrists
Dr. Jones … Jesse Garlick
Dr. Solomon … Shelby Hightower
Dr. Blinder … Jon Taylor
Dr. Lunde … Harrison Brian
Dr. Delman … Mason Sand

In Rebuttal for the People
Carol Ruth Silver, City Supervisor … Shelby Hightower
Dr. Levy, Psychiatrist … Harrison Brian

People of San Francisco, Cameramen,
Mourners, Rioters, Riot Police … The Ensemble

TIME: 1978-1983
PLACE: San Francisco

Emily Mann’s EXECUTION OF JUSTICE is a courtroom recreation of the Dan White murder trial. In 1978, Mr. White shot and killed San Francisco mayor George Moscone and gay city supervisor Harvey Milk; swayed by the infamous “Twinkie defense”, the jury let Mr. White off with a verdict of manslaughter, resulting in gay riots (all this, and Anita Bryant, too). After serving five of his seven-year sentence, Mr. White committed suicide in 1985. Ms. Mann has fashioned her docudrama from court transcripts, interviews and reportage – there are too many sound bites posing as characters, whizzing in and out, but EXECUTION OF JUSTICE is a fascinating, thinking man’s entertainment; it played for only twelve performances on Broadway in 1986 but has found success in regional theatres.

And now Boston University’s Theatre Department has revived EXECUTION OF JUSTICE in a fresh, abrasive production, brought to life by Elaine Vaan Hogue’s urgent direction and a remarkable, even moving, student ensemble (nowadays, college theatres are the main place to view large-cast productions). EXECUTION OF JUSTICE calls for tabloid-acting and declamation, perfect for these still-green artists (though some lack the requisite lungpower); the centerpiece is Ian Geer’s Dan White, a Lost Boy in a strapping physique (possibly more accurate than Josh Brolin’s reptilian performance in the film MILK) – Matt Lytle plays prosecuting attorney Thomas F. Norman as a man who’s been to the rodeo all too often yet can still wax eloquent when the situation demands it (courtroom lawyers are actors, after all), and Mason Sand is convincingly scruffy as Frank Falzon, Chief Homicide Inspector (in Shakespeare, Mr. Sand would be Iago and Cassius rather than Othello and Brutus); Jahna Ferron-Smith listens quite nicely as the Judge. My only quibble is Ms. Vaan Hogue casting an actress as defense attorney Douglas Schmidt (yet the character is still addressed as “Mr.”) – this may have been to provide some gender-balance, acting-wise, but would Ms. Vaan Hogue object to Marcia Clark becoming “Marshall” Clark should a docudrama about the O. J. Simpson murder trial ever surface?

The production is staged somewhat in the round, with a section of the audience sitting onstage and with actors moving freely about the auditorium. Inevitably, the irritation of arena theatre soon seeps in: the actors must turn this way and that, making certain that everyone gets a fair share of them, yet how can one completely empathize with an actor who involves you, then turns his back on you? ‘Tis a problem that may never be solved …

“Execution of Justice” (17-24 February 2012)
BOSTON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS – SCHOOL OF THEATRE
Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont Street, BOSTON, MA
Tickets: (617) 933-8600
website: http://www.bu.edu/cfa

Monster (2002)

MONSTER
by Neal Bell, based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
directed by Jim Petosa

Victor Frankenstein … Michael Kaye
The Creature … John Zdrojeski
Elizabeth … Britian Seibert
Walton; Clerval … Tim Spears
Father; Forster … Stephen Elrod
Mother; Justine … Cloteal L. Horne
Cat; William … Jake McLean

Time: The early 1800s.
Somewhere in the Arctic Ocean and Europe.

Neal Bell’s MONSTER is not so much an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s FRANKENSTEIN (1818) than an overheated fantasia on it. Though Ms. Shelley led a somewhat tempestuous life, she might have been shocked to see her heroine dripping her first menstrual blood before her beloved, to hear her creature bellow, “Why did he give me a cock?”, and to realize that she was not really writing about God versus Science but, rather, a dark male-male love story which ends with creator and creation expiring together in a fiery embrace. This may all sound new and daring, but it really isn’t: the Living Theatre and other avant-garde troupes were spinning plays’ subtexts into text in the 1960s and 70s – the difference being that those troupes had good and angry reasons for their deconstructions whereas MONSTER gives the impression that Mr. Bell read FRANKENSTEIN, didn’t care for it, and rewrote it to his own liking.

The Boston Center for American Performance’s production brought back memories of my own student-actor days when the New York experimental scene had begun to seep into colleges: forty years ago, my theatre department did an improvisational production of BAAL in its multi-level-in-the-round environmental theatre – this may not have been Bertolt Brecht’s BAAL but, at the time, who cared: it offered bared breasts, homoeroticism, and “real” things like one actor spitting in another actor’s face – it was an evening of DANGEROUS theatre. Every young adult needs some DANGEROUS theatre in his or her life, at least once, so BCAP’s MONSTER may well prove dangerous enough to BU students (happily, there were quite a few in the audience); under Jim Petosa’s direction, the student cast gropes and clutches to the nth degree whereas only the Creature should do most of the groping, being the primal force that he is (to the actors’ credit, they interact without fear or embarrassment). Mr. Petosa has failed to orchestrate his actors’ declamation, especially that of Michael Kaye (Frankenstein) and John Zdrojeski (the Creature) who square off several times and shred their vocal chords, though Mr. Zdrojeski makes some impressive sounds and twitches when coming to life and when mortally stabbed. Adrienne Carlile has correctly garbed her cast, period-wise, but her womanly costumes are cancelled out by her actresses who play their roles as anything but womanly (is it such a debasement, nowadays, for an actress to play a period role as sweet, docile, charming, feminine, with a voice “ever soft and low, an excellent thing in a woman”? must all female characters in corsets now be trotted out as suffragettes or valkyries?)

Still, I was impressed with these seven young artists – their training and potential held my interest. I hope some, if not all, of them choose to stay in the Boston area upon graduation. “My dear, my dear, it is not so dreadful here …”

“Monster” (9-25 February 2012)
BOSTON CENTER FOR AMERICAN PERFORMANCE
Boston University Theatre, Lane-Comley Studio 210
264 Huntington Avenue, BOSTON, MA
Tickets: (617) 933-8600
website: http://www.bu.edu/cfa