End Days

Critiqued by Holly Bartges

Unfortunately, Deb Loufer’s new play, End Days has its end days coming all too soon at Curious Theatre Company.

Curious Theatre’s End Days.

Hysterical, over exaggerated off-the-wall-characters provides Director Christopher Leo and his crackling cast a golden opportunity to stretch their comedic wings in feathered flight.

When the house lights fade, and stage lights gleam, an outrageous poorly adapted Elvis Presley strums a guitar mooning over Rachael. Noise erupts back stage, and blackout. Now all is quiet. A man collapsed at a table with arms outstretched doesn’t move until a screeching Sylvia flaunts her Being into the room praising God. Her praise would wake the dead much less Arthur at the table who barely has enough strength to prop himself up. In pajamas, face void of any expression. It would take far too much energy. Eyes vacant, and something about Arthur grabs as much attention as does Sylvia’s extraordinary Praise God jubilance. Another man follows Sylvia into the room with long hair and beard and long robe. Laying books on a table, Sylvia smiles pretentiously at him saying “Thank you, Jesus”.

A once-upon-a-time atheist, Sylvia discovered a comfortable safety net in ultra conservative Christianity conjuring up a would-be Jesus to serve as her valet. Both take note of the fact Arthur hasn’t showered in three weeks. Since 9/11, Arthur gave way to living in a Funk while Sylvia indulges in her make believe world of the Rapture coming anytime when Jesus will take all the real believers into his heavenly arms to a Heavenly Home.

Sylvia’s make believe world, as do most make believe worlds, flaunts poked holes. The Jesus she conjured up to serve as her personal servant with his namby pamby continence and subservient expression hardly matches the Jesus she expects to carry her Home into Butterfly Happiness and Dragonfly Dreams.

Rhonda Brown as Sylvia is simply Magnificent with a capitol M. Her timing, inflections, expressions and comedic physicality are annoyingly delightful, frivolous, fun, and outrageously monumental. This play deserves a longer run just to showcase Brown rollicking at the top of her game.

In juxtaposition to Brown’s performance, Marcus Waterman equals Sylvia with a limped bent. Amazing how someone can appear so lifeless on stage, while maintaining a life thread sparking subtle nuances. Waterman’s expertise allows the subtleness to take center stage.

Behind the long hair, beard, and long robe is none other than David Russell who wondrously shadow boxes with Sylvia’s make believe Jesus. Russell takes a sharp turn in wheel chair and glasses as Stephen Hawking,

Goth daughter, Rachel tangles her mind trying desperately to sort out science and religion in smoked knots from rebellious pot. Hawking appears to her with encouraging words and pithy comments.

Russell does an exquisite job balancing the opposite performances. Not too long ago I saw Hawking on a late night TV program. Russell’s cock of the head and expression forced a double take with an uncanny impersonation of Hawking.

In leathers, black make-up, Laura Jo Trexler is charmingly delightful as the rebellious Rachael. The look she projects can frequently be seen on the streets of Denver. Heavy make up, black lips, blackened eyes flaunting a devil may care bullish attitude. Under her growls and stinging words, Trexler manages to reveal a hint of an honest searching curious person who will indeed survive the rebellious years.

Her life, however, for the moment becomes overbearingly complicated by a schoolmate who has fallen hopelessly in love with her. Nelson, the would be Elvis Presley, dressed in a very blue Pressley type outfit has so many stars in his puppy dog eyes he can see nothing, do nothing but pine after Rachael, following her, watching her, searching every nook and cranny for an excuse to see her, be with her, talk to her. Sean Mellott takes Nelson for a hysterical, unsettling, over-the-top optimistic penetrating ride. Little wonder Rachel breaks out in a screaming rash.

Of course, the kids at school tease Nelson, setting himself up as a prime target. Irritating as he is to Rachael, her humanity comes through when the boys at school go overboard. She stands up for him. At first, it’s the hurt puppy syndrome, and yet in this moment, Rachael begins to see a different side to Nelson, beginning to reveal her own depth. He has a mind that whirls with scientific knowledge, eager to share, nudging Rachael’s thinking through her smoked potted brain.

Nelson reveals another hurtle to jump. His Bar Mitzvah only weeks away, and he has so much to learn. His squeakiness knocks gently on a long ago memory of Arthur’s Jewish history. He can teach Nelson what he needs to know, correcting his inflection, putting spirit into foreign words.

Nelson brings Arthur to life, and Arthur floods Nelson with a sense of worth and accomplishment. One might think this has something to do with the Jewish Faith, but it has far more to do with one human celebrating another human. Nelson needs help. Arthur realizes he has something to give. The affect would be the same if Nelson were studying for a life and death Math exam and Arthur had been a once-upon-a-time Math Professor. The bottom line is Arthur comes alive because he realizes he has something of value to give to Nelson, and Nelson, in turn, has something of value to give to Arthur. When a human being connects with another, magic happens.

Transformation becomes the essence of Act II. Waterman paces Arthur’s transformation with dignity and respect. Mellott’s transformation allows Nelson’s thinking brain to go into action. The two of them bring to life Trexler’s curious, searching, warm Rachael.

Sylvia doesn’t need Jesus, especially the personal assistant slave Jesus she designed. What she aches for, and needs is human connection, love, compassion, and understanding. Because of her over pushed anxiety, Sylvia decides the Rapture will come on Wednesday. In her hot-spotted emotional state, even Sylvia realizes they all must go together, and if they don’t all go together, she’s not sure she really wants to go. She doesn’t want to be separated from Arthur or Rachael, much less Nelson. What if the Rapture doesn’t come on Wednesday? "What if" questions rattle her electrified brain. Arthur, Rachael and Nelson emerge from their self-employed stupor to play with her, pacify her, and work with her. Their giving to her unleashes a life force flowing freely within them.

With a lesser cast, the transformations might be too quick, too obvious, and too unreal. With this sterling cast, the expertise shading the characterizations creates believability.

script itself could be tightened. Too many short scenes and heavy hitting blackouts become annoyingly intrusive. Granted, the Pressley music chosen during the blackouts fits the mood perfectly. In this case, however, less is more. The quiet scene at the very beginning with Arthur slumped at the table goes on a tad too long. The audience gets the idea quickly. Arthur is zapped emotionally, physically, mentally of all energy. Sylvia could bring her “Praise God” boiling over enthusiasm into the fray several seconds earlier. This scene doesn’t need to be hammered into the audience. The scene speaks for itself.

Nick Kargel’s scenic design lends itself well to the needs of the family, with the platform feeding into the family at times, and other times observing a sense of separation. Shannon McKinney’s lighting design pokes into the “insideness” of the characters’ isolation and connection.

End Days frolics with strong laughability, and colored outside-the- lines characters, wanting to concern itself with Faith. What it does is speak vividly to human connection: what happens when it dries up around the edges; what happens when it strikes a resonating chord. Tightening some lines, shading a few blackouts with light, could turn the script into a memorable piece. Leo and his scrumptious cast turns End Days into a memorable moment.