33 Variations at PTP

Closing This Weekend: "33 Variations" at Prospect Theatre Project

I have been very remiss in my failure to attempt to attend local theatre. I guess, after years of being involved in one way or another, it was the old burnout thing. In fact, it wasn't just local stage productions, I've also missed  many professional shows that I should have seen over the years. I do regret my failure to attend because I was part of the theatrical community for a very long time.

So here we are in 2017, and in the past few weeks I have seen two outstanding local productions that made me regret my conscious decision to avoid the local stage scene for many years. The two shows are outstanding examples of live local performance produced with expertise and dedication to the craft, and they are well worth the effort of taking a couple of hours to watch and enjoy.

Here are some comments regarding one of the two shows. The second will follow later this week.

"33 Variations" by Moisés Kaufman

The last show that I saw produced by PTP was "To Kill a Mockingbird" at the Gallo Center. This is the first time I've been to the company's acting space on K Street in Modesto - it will not be the last. Their comfortable black box theatre, formerly a printshop (and perhaps other businesses as well), is an ideal space for the plays they produce. 

Within the confines of the open stage, there are several acting levels that make the action of Moisés Kaufman's play seem to easily segue from place to place, whether in the present or in the early 19th Century. The play itself is a lesson in parallels in time and space and how, as director Jack Souza says, the journey between illness and death can influence the decisions we make and the urgency that controls those decisions. 

This is a brilliant play brilliantly executed by an amazingly subtle and talented cast. The audience is easily absorbed into the story and feels strong empathy for the suffering of both Dr. Katherine Brandt, whose ALS diagnosis makes her abrasive and determined to focus on her quest, and her underappreciated daughter, Clara, who can't seem to settle on anything that pleases her mother. Katherine continually diminishes her daughter's needs and desires only recognizing the truth of her accomplishments at the end. Both roles are played with such clarity and conviction by Jenni Abbott as Katherine and Roni Espinoza as Clara that we see the reality in their relationship. Andrew Brown does bring Nurse Mike, Clara's admirer and Katherine's nurse, to life with a sense of energetic humor, while Karen Olsen's Dr. Gertie Ladenberger, a research assistant for Katherine's Beethoven quest, slowly, evolves into the friend that Katherine needs.

The past is well represented as we learn of the reason for Katherine's obsession with Beethoven's 33 Variations on a waltz by Anton Diabelli. Souza plays Beethoven with an air of confident frustration about almost everything that transpires around him. Carl Bengston's Anton Schindler, Beethoven's confidant and protector, is delightful in conveying a protective, yet knowing approach to the high maintenance composer. Perhaps the most comic and light-hearted of the performers is Michael Hewitt as Diabelli, the publisher whose trifle of a waltz is the source of the 33 Variations. Hewitt is truly a delight.

So what we have here is a play that take on the issues of illness and death; two obsessive characters that transcend time; and the discovery that, though the journey will inevitably lead to a foregone conclusion, in our efforts to find answers, we don't always take the fastest and clearest route. So, this is life.

Remaining performances of "33 Variations" are Thursday, Sept. 28, through Sunday, Oct. 1. As the opening of the 2017-2018 season, it makes one look forward to the remaining productions which include "Enemy of the People," "Beer for Breakfast," "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," "Clybourne Park" and "Master Class." If you don't know the titles or the plays, you will after you attend PTP's productions. Buy your tickets now.