Word: claflin
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...Woman assume new personas in the second and more interesting of the two plays, A Theological Position. The work opens in media res, after Man has brought the pregnant Woman to Priest (Richard Claflin). Apparently, Man is questioning the puzzling genesis of their unborn child. He wants help and advice from the Priest--some allusion is made to the possible demonism of Woman, but we do not discover the details until later. Playwright Coover's attitude toward the church is clear as the Priest voices his self-righteous rigidity. He says of the pregnancy, "Even if it should occur...
...would have worked out, I'm sure, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids. But Ophelia falls in love as soon as she sets eyes on Lee Shersoot (John Claflin), and Belle realizes that she won't be born if her ancestor marries Sir Cumference because the locket she inherited says Ophelia's husband had the initials "L.S." (You in the reading public probably already figured out that L.S. stands for Lee Shersoot, but it takes the characters a lot longer...
...production highlights are the costumes and backdrops. Craig Sonnenberg let his imagination go wild with the costumes for both eras. The Claflin brothers, for instance, sport powder-blue polyester pants suits with collars that reach the shoulders and mustard-yellow hip-hugging bell-bottoms with hideous shirts open to the waste. All the '70s outfits are finished off with perfectly garish accessories and amazingly high and ugly platform shoes (including an incredible pair of ruby platform sandals for Belle-turned-Dorothy...
DESPITE Frayn's basically witty dialogue and the realistic two-story Brent summer home designed by director John Claflin, most of Act I drags. Act III, due to no fault of the actors, is also a let-down. Act II, however, fraught with fast-paced action and funny mime sequences, is definitely the most entertaining part of the show...
Timing is key in Act II. The setting is backstage during a performance, and while all the actors are running around backstage (the set from Act I having been turned around), the audience hears and glimpses the actors on the other side of the backdrop performing Nothing On. Director Claflin deserves praise for his masterly staging and for the fact that the actors are able to execute his plan perfectly. Much of this act is funny because characters enter at inopportune moments and misinterpret the action they see; without exactly timed entrances and exits, this act would not work. Despite...