American Buffalo in Marysville
American Buffalo, now playing at Red Curtain Foundation for the Arts in Marysville starts out with an Uta Hagen exercise, basically. Scott B. Randall plays Donny Dubrow, the owner of a junk store. Before the house lights even fade down, Donny comes on stage and begins doing what he might do on any typical morning. He has his coffee cup in hand. He straightens up this. He looks at that. He takes a small trash can out into the alleyway and empties it. He goes out the front door to get the morning newspaper. It's engrossing to watch all the things he does and guess or conclude why he does them. It's a perfect exercise and a sign that the show is going to be well acted. It is.
I feel like a show starts the moment you enter the space. So I like it when a production shares that idea and begins directing my experience right away, like this one did. Before Donny enters, if you have arrived in your seat early enough, you have been listening to some classic 1970s rock and pop music while looking at the shabby store and its cast-off contents. They want you to take it all in so much that the back of the program has a picture of the set and challenges you to find all of the "interesting and eclectic collectibles" listed below. By the time Donny does enter, you feel like you know the place well.
Pretty soon, Bobby (Trey McGee) and Walter "Teach" Cole (Michael G. McFadden) show up. You find out about their small hopes, ongoing grudges and petty betrayals. Something extraordinary is planned. It seems like something, maybe good or maybe bad, might really happen. But in the end, it's maybe just a series of actions from an ordinary day.
Photo by me of the set.
Note: minor grammatical edits were made on 01/30/19.
Thank you. It's wonderful to trip across a audience's unedited impression after they have seen, absorbed and moved on. It was my intention that the 'total' experience tread a line between immersive environmental . . . and traditional representational melodrama - presented in an honest natural way - but with a tip of the hat to theater of the absurd. Whew - that was easier to write than direct. I think that both you and I do agree - ultimately, it was the actors who did the heavy lifting. But it's the production in totality . . . set, props, costume, music, lights, script, direction and acting that should leave an audience wanting more at curtain . . . wanting to see if an ongoing series of actions, one ordinary day after another, continues.
ReplyDeleteOK. . . Spoiler Alert ---> In my mind this day is far from ordinary . . . in that I DID envision it as an ordinary day for these 3 - but destined to rinse repeat rinse repeat rinse repeat . . . Let's say like a Groundhog's Day acted out in some sort of minor corner of purgatory. A day so extraordinary in it's ordinary-ness that anything extraordinary seems normal. Until on THIS day - the one YOU witnessed - they discover some sort of redemption. Did each? - in their own way - find it? Do they escape? You tell me.
If I had written more last night, I would have for sure said it was as near as you can get to an immersive experience without ever having to leave your seat.
DeleteDo they escape? I don't know. I'd have to see it again, maybe. But I don't recall seeing anyone have enough self-awareness to see themselves in a time loop. Oh, there was plenty of canniness about situations and scenarios but not much self-examination. After Teach beats Bobby, it's like it's something that befell them all, not anything that anyone is responsible for. I think they like the rhythm and familiarity of it.
WARNING -- SPOILER ALERT . . . Well - there is the very real possibility that none of them are 'aware' of anything other than the present moment - the one they find themselves in - and will have to repeat -- in this particular case . . . nine times {only three more shows left :- ) } Without ever being aware of any 'loop'.
DeleteI can speak for the director who instructed the actors . . . never see the absurdity - but only concern "yourself" with what you want -- need -- how to get - and the obstacle to be overcome. Acting 101 right? But when approaching 'theater of the absurd' I think it is super important to never examine the 'present' moment too closely. (Listen and react was another mantra the director drilled into the rehearsal process) Things just happen.
However - let's regard this idea of the "loop" -- my personal intent was that it IS a re-occuring hellish purgatory . . . and each character must find a redeeming moment that liberates them. Or we (they) come back and play it all out yet again. For Teach that moment is found when he picks up the baseball bat to smash the cash register. In any other loop he follows through with that impulse, smashes the register to smithereens and that will sets everything in motion again.
But he doesn't and THAT effects what transpires after . . .
For Bobby - his different defining moment is 'telling the truth' in the end - lying is something that doesn't quite feel 'right' to him and blurting out "I missed him" is his key out of this locked room.
For Donny - it's telling Walter that he isn't mad at him after the tornado hits - he has this moment of infinite compassion - something that Bob has been trying to teach him all along (unconditional love). It's this lesson of finding compassion that plays out through the rest of the unfolding ending scene.
Furthermore - all three character have this 'satori moment' at the same time - and because they are able to finally sync up - then they are able to finally disappear into the light - Which . . . is why the last thing you see in the play is the light above the shop entrance - fading to black as Bob and Don walk away.
Take a listen to Traffic's "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" (it is the curtain call music) - so much of what I was trying to do as a director was influenced by that song and the lyrics contained within. The set design - and that song - was really where the entire process began for me.
Of course I don't expect anyone to get all the above -- I really want it to operate on a very subconscious level - but in reading what you wrote after seeing the play - it struck me that you had an awareness without really knowing what your awareness was -- and that, my friend, was EXACTLY what I wanted the average audience member's experience to be. You obviously entered into their world and lived each moment with them fully -- and isn't that why we go to the theater ? To experience being human vicariously.
I was surprised that Walter did not follow through with smashing the cash register. It did seem like a discontinuity. It seemed like he was not even sure why he stopped and if he knew he wasn't going to say. You're right. I knew that was a shift but I did't know that I knew it. It did operate on that unconscious level. And I see now that it did change the trajectory of everything that came after. It gave space for Donny's compassion and Bob's moment. The, "I missed him" line had so many layers to it. On the surface it was Bob's lack of self-worth (this is just how life goes for people like me and us) but at the same time it was a moment of grace and humanity that really stood out.
DeleteI just listened to Low Spark and pulled up the lyrics. I have always liked that song but the lyrics I will have to unlock a bit. Thanks for the assignment! Then they all leave together while that's playing ...
It's funny what my mention of loops elicited. I'm an actor and my most recent show was called Ghost Party, in which I and all of the other actors played ghosts. It was an immersive, interactive show. Each of us ghosts had unfinished business and it was the task of the audience to discover what it was and free us from replaying the same scene over and over. It's such a compelling idea that we all have to help each other break out.
Thanks for responding. This is what I had intended to happen: to spark (ha!) discussion.
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