The Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company
The Bang and the Clatter's new venue at 210 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, Ohio.
Production Dates: April 18 - May 10, 2008
REVIEWS
by Bob Abelman
‘This is How it Goes’ Sets Standard for the New BNC
Amidst the noise and the clutter of a gutted Euclid Avenue is the brand new Cleveland home of The Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company.
It is so new that, on opening night, the sweet scent of wet paint and saw dust filled the refurbished lobby of what used to be the antiquated Cole Shoe Store building just east of Public Square. The lighting board was still in bubble-wrap just an hour before show time. The front office and backstage were in a state of disarray long after the audience was seated.
Disarray is normal for the BNC. In fact, renegade co-founders Sean Derry and Sean McConaha thrive in an environment of controlled chaos and their productions feed off of that crazy energy. Their five year old Akron-based facility has earned the reputation of offering avant-garde, in-your-face experiences. Audiences come expecting to be challenged and are ready to encounter a different brand of theater.
The inaugural production at the downtown Cleveland property, Neil LaBute’s dramedy “This is How it Goes,” is carrying that brand north and it meets all expectations. With director Fred Sternfeld at the helm, this show is not only intriguing and thought-provoking; it is marvelously staged and has set the artistic standard for future BNC productions.
LaBute creates layered, textured pieces of work, complete with complex characters who are not what they seem and a storyline loaded with candor and bait-and-switch devices intended to distract, defuse and confuse. On the surface, “This is How it Goes” is about race relations and a love triangle. We soon discover that it is about deception and divisiveness. We are told by the playwright, through a central character who directly addresses the audience throughout the production, that he is a most unreliable narrator and not completely sure what recollections in this play are fact or fiction. The audience is never certain which is which.
Sternfeld is best known for taking moments that are intricate on paper and transforming them into vibrant and accessible scenes on stage. He nicely handles all that LaBute’s script throws at him, all the while keeping the audience from seeing what is coming around the next corner. This is largely achieved by taking full advantage of a BNC facility that places the audience on three sides of the performance space and within touching distance of the actors. His characters are in constant motion and, coupled with their phasing in and out of fact and fiction, manage to keep the audience functionally disoriented.
Doug Kusak plays Man, an ex-lawyer and struggling playwright who returns to the town in which he grew up as an outcast. Kusak has created a thoroughly likable, charming and sympathetic character, which is essential in order for one layer of the storyline to implode to reveal the next layer. Thanks to Kusak’s keen performance, the moment you think you have this fellow and this play figured out, you're wrong.
Man encounters high school classmates Belinda, a former love-interest, and Cody, a former star athlete and present-day businessman. Both entered their interracial marriage for all the wrong reasons--the desperation to fit in and the need to stand out-- and are now living with the consequences. Leighann Niles DeLorenzo is marvelous as Belinda, a damaged, vulnerable but still vivacious young woman who is stuck in a dissolving marriage. Michael May’s Cody is a brooding, intense, wonderfully portrayed counterpart to Kusak’s Man. There is not a moment in this play when these characters fail to be authentic, engaging and interesting.
The Bang and the Clatter is a welcome addition to the Cleveland theater landscape. It could not have opened on a better note. “This is How it Goes” is a smart, tenacious, and cleverly staged production that is not to be missed.
“This is How it Goes” continues through May 10 in downtown Cleveland.
by Fran Heller, contributing writer
Bang and Clatter debuts in Cleveland with hard-hitting play
Racism is
here to stay.
That is the polarizing message in Neil LaBute’s hard-hitting 2005
drama “This Is How It Goes” at The Bang and the Clatter Theatre
Company through May 10. Ably directed by Fred Sternfeld, the play marks
the inaugural production of the Akron-based theater in downtown Cleveland.
It’s an impressive debut.
A takeoff
on the romantic triangle, the story depicts the evolving relationship
between an unhappily married interracial couple, Belinda and Cody, and
an old friend called Man who resurfaces in their lives. The unnamed Man,
(think Everyman or perhaps Mankind) also serves as the narrator, who manipulates
events in the play (and by extension, the audience) from shifting perspectives.
The story is told from Man’s point of view.
In “This Is How It Goes,” LaBute holds up a mirror to society,
and it’s not a pretty picture. As the playwright stated in a 2005
printed interview with Back Stage, “the audience may not be obviously
racist, but when something happens …” it triggers the latent
racism in all of us (my words added). The play’s title derives from
an Aimee Mann recording.
A lapsed Mormon, LaBute does not shy away from provocative subjects that take audiences out of their comfort zone. The controversial playwright is equally unsparing about blacks’ attitudes toward whites and vice-versa.
The action begins with a chance meeting between Belinda and Man at a Sears outlet store. The two haven’t seen each other since high school when Man, then a chubby nerd, had a crush on the popular cheerleader. Now ex-lawyer-turned-playwright, Man has just returned to his hometown after a 12-year hiatus.
Man soon learns that Belinda is married to Cody Phipps, the former high-school track star and the school’s only black. Sensing that something is wrong with the marriage, Man begins to make his move on Belinda.
Like layers
of an onion, the play peels away at the unhappy mixed marriage to reveal
just how prejudiced we all are underneath the skin. Taking his cue from
Harold Pinter, to whom his play is dedicated, the naturalistic dialogue
is both funny and savage.
A playwright of ideas, LaBute readily tweaks his characters and what happens
to them to prove his point; in this instance, how racism affects all of
us, whether we admit it or not. It’s a game in which everyone plays
the race card to get what he or she wants.
As drama, the play feels somewhat contrived. The characters seem more symbolic than real; they represent different points of view, rather than coming across as fully fleshed human beings.
The race issue is always in your face, turning much of the dialogue into a polemic on the subject. The unspoken confrontation between Cody and a Waitress (Rachel D. Zake) who willfully ignores him underscores the tense nature of black-white relationships.
Under Sternfeld’s
watchful direction, the three characters interact with each other like
two male predators toying with their female victim. Whether conversing
or silent, they continually communicate with their eyes and body language.
Note, for example, Cody’s seething anger, Belinda’s visible
fear and discomfort, and Man’s dissembling nature as he recounts
a baldly racist incident on a plane. The action never lags in the two-hour,
one-act play.
The cast is first-rate. Michael May triumphs as the hostile Cody, a successful
black man in a white-bread town. Alternately abusive and defensive, Cody
remains paranoid about color. He elicits an equal amount of sympathy and
repugnance as someone who uses his race as both protective armor and deadly
weapon.
Doug Kusak is outstanding as Man, a charming jokester, which makes his blatant racism even more menacing. Man’s final monologue, using the chilling “N” word, made me shudder.
The waiflike Leighann Niles DeLorenzo is perfect as the needy Belinda, a “trophy wife” and unwitting pawn between a husband who no longer loves her and Man, who still does. Belinda’s monologue about why she married Cody is heartbreaking.
Sean Derry’s
speckled black-and-white minimalist set makes its obvious point. All scene
and costume changes take place in full view, reminding the audience that
this is a play in which everything is controlled, including what you see
and hear. For the jogging scene, the stagehand first sprays Cody with
water to simulate sweat. It’s ingenious.
The intimate three-quarter-in-the-round space serves the production extremely
well.
As the newest theatrical kid on the block, The Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company begins its Cleveland residency with a loud and triumphant blast.
by Christine Howey
Considering the perilous financial state of some local theaters, it is surprising when a new theater opens up. Happily, The Bang and the Clatter Theatre Company, which has been producing a string of thoroughly involving productions in Akron for the past couple of years, has now launched a companion theater in downtown Cleveland.
The first play at this new venue, This Is How It Goes by Neil LaBute, is a perfect choice. It embodies many of the strengths and a couple of the weaknesses of this company, which is committed to producing plays never before seen in Ohio. Thanks to three winning performances and adept direction from Fred Sternfeld, this inaugural effort is well worth seeing.
LaBute is fond of confronting uncomfortable truths, and he does so again in this piece, which is structured around a romantic triangle involving an interracial married couple and a male friend, referenced pretentiously as "Man." All three attended high school together 10 years earlier, and the play seeks to use their interrelations to address race, prejudice, and the scummy underside of the male psyche (a favorite LaBute topic).
This production wrings plenty of tension from the conversations among these three, as Belinda (a smart and compelling Leighann Niles DeLorenzo) confesses her shallow reasons for marrying and bearing children by African American athlete-turned-businessman Cody: "I got a thrill walking through Wal-Mart with my two brown children in tow." But Cody, portrayed by Michael May in a well-modulated performance, has become distant and perhaps abusive.
Uncertainty arises from the playwright's device of establishing the Man as an admittedly undependable narrator and (could it be?) a closet racist. This "maybe-maybe not" conceit becomes tiresome — even in the capable hands of Doug Kusak, who gives Man a friendly, accessible demeanor.
It all leads up to a slimy scheme, cooked up by the guys, that feels artificial and out of character. But there are enough sparks lit along the way to maintain interest, if not total credibility.
The Times Newspaper
by Roy Berko
(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)
THE TIMES
NEWSPAPERS - Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News
Times--Olmsted-Fairview Times
COOLCLEVELAND.COM
Bang & Clatter: new venue opens with well produced play
The Bang
and Clatter Theatre Company, which moved into its new home in Cleveland,
chose to produce a Neil LaBute play as its premiere piece. LaBute and
BNC have a lot in common. They are both entities that do not fade away
from the “in your face” kind of theatre.
BNC, was founded by two modern day Don Quixotes…Sean Derry and Sean
McConaha, who in 2005 “dreamed the impossible dream.” They
started a theatre with $4000 in Akron! Sound like a sure highway ride
to road kill? In spite of the odds, the unconventional dynamic duo envisioned
a venue for the production of “innovative, challenging works of
exceptional quality and imagination with a particular emphasis on modern
American plays never have been seen in Ohio.” And, have they succeeded!
The plays have generally been impressive, gaining many critical bravos.
(Including almost a dozen Times Tribute Outstanding Theatre Awards last
year alone.)
The many Cuyahoga County residents, along with a few Akronites, who have trekked out to the Rubber City to attend BNC shows is impressive. Last year their production season operated on about a quarter of a million dollars. They sold over 500 season tickets and charge only $15 per ticket. And, if you can’t afford that, you pay what you can.
Their new Cleveland home is the old Cole’s Shoe Store, next to the vacant May Company building on Euclid. MRN Ltd, the developers of the East 4th Street walking street, downtown’s new entertainment mecca, with such restaurants as Lola’s and Saigon and entertainment venues, including The House of Blues and Pickwick and Frolic, had such faith in the Seans, that they have given them the space rent-free for five years. Real estate developer Cliff Hershman, the George Gund Foundation and the City of Cleveland also are strongly backing the project.
Their opening show, ‘THIS IS HOW IT GOES,’ is a typical BNC script selection. The Sean’s, who are fans of LaBute, produced an amazing production of ‘FAT PIG’ last season.
LaBute is noted for his realistic language, edgy topics and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. It is impossible to be an impassive viewer of his plays. He sweeps you in, often with his vivid language, his clear character developments, with his blatant use of words (the “N” word has great prominence in this script), and always with his subject matter.
‘THIS IS HOW IT GOES,’ on the surface, is a play about a love triangle between a white male and an interracial couple. The seed for the plot evolved from a damning letter LaBute received after directing the film, ‘NURSE BETTY,’ in which there is a kiss between a white woman and a black man. Yes, racial hated is alive and well in this country, in spite of all the strides that have been made to eradicate it.
The play confronts race, morality, and American ethos through the use of humor, drama, intrigue, and a clever plot twist. Using the theatrical device of alienation, in which the audience is constantly made aware they are in a theatre, LaBute includes multi-locations with all set changes being made in clear view, and a narrator who not only guides the journey but steps into the action, playing one of the lead characters. He does this because, as he states, “Theater only needs someone to stand up and say: ‘Listen to this.’”
The play is set in a small Midwestern town. Cody, who is African American, was once the star of the high school track team. He has become a successful businessman. His white wife Belinda, a former cheerleader, stays at home with the baby. When a high school acquaintance returns to town and rents the room over their garage, he upsets the delicate balance of their relationship, raising questions about who they want to be, who they are, and what made them that way.
From the audience’s standpoint, the question becomes, “Which of the tales we are watching is real, truthful, authentic?” Who is fooling who? Is it only the characters who are playing with each other, or is LaBute playing with us, the viewers?
BNC’s production, under the adept direction of Fred Sternfeld, is on track. Though a long sit at a little over two hours with no intermission, the pacing is appropriate and there is little time for the mind to wander.
The cast is excellent. Doug Kusak, who has a wonderful way of playing with words and the mobile face to amaze and amuse, is tremendous as Man, the high school acquaintance. The role was played by Ben Stiller in the New York production, and it is difficult to believe that he was any better than Kusak.
Michael May, who was outstanding in Dobama’s production of ‘TAKE ME OUT,’ again hits a homer as Cody, a man driven by early-life demons.
Leighann Niles DeLorenzo, though she sometimes seems to lose concentration, is believable as Belinda.
Rachel Zake moves the set pieces and highlights Cody’s insecurities as the Waitress.
Capsule judgment:
Walking into the Cole Shoe Store, where I had my very first job as a high
schooler, and seeing it transformed into an attractive and
functioning theatre space, was a surreal experience.
Seeing a quality production of the show by the BNC family was not surreal. Clevelanders should open their arms and pocketbooks wide to welcome Bang and Clatter to the area. Good luck Seans!!!!!
‘THIS IS HOW IT GOES’ runs through May 10 at The Bang and Clatter Theatre, 210 Euclid Avenue. For tickets call 330-606-5317. Go early, eat dinner at one of the E. 4th Street restaurants or stay down after the show and hit one of the bars, comedy shows or entertainment features. The next Cleveland production is ‘BLACKBIRD’ by Adam Rapp on May 23.
The Akron
home of BNC at 140 E. Market Street is still in operation. ‘CAGELOVE’
by Christopher Denham opens on April 25.