100 Saints you should know
Once again, the Elephant Theatre Company does not disappoint. 100 Saints You Should Know is anextremely provocative and intense play. It is a West Coast Premiere; writer Kate Fodor and director Lindsay Allbaugh show us a bunch of misfits struggling to change and find themselves as better beings. Father Matthew, well performed by Brendan Farrell, has lost faith in his church, his God, and his calling. Reciting lines from St. John of the Cross’s “Dark Night of the Soul” that sound like love poetry, he withdraws more and more from those poor souls pestering him seeking comfort and direction. Sometimes we wonder what these people see in Father Matthew. A little more charisma in Mr. Farrell’s performance might have helped.
Father Matthew’s mother, quite admirably played by Pamela Roylance, fails to offer any assistance to her son who has been sent home by the church to think about his transgressions (he was found in possession of pictures of nude men). Cheryl Huggins is excellent as the rectory cleaning lady/struggling single parent, Theresa. Theresa is a woman without adequate education or resources and unable to control her defiant teenage daughter who is always acting out. She shows up on Father Matthew’s doorstep seeking spiritual guidance, leaving her daughter to wreak havoc outside. Kate Huffman admirably plays the daughter, Abby, a teenager barely grasping the difference between right and wrong, finally forced to face her own callousness and cruelty as she manipulates friendless Garrett (Marco Nagger). Mr. Nagger’s performance as the adolescent male seeking sexual identity and companionship is superb—gawky, uncoordinated, and clueless, yet still ignites our sympathy and compassion.
By the end of the play, each character has gone through a change and has grown…all but Father Matthew. I was disappointed in the last moment of the play. One of the Church’s innumerable formula prayers, a Service for the Dead, is recited. That prayer need not have been offered up in the same withdrawn monotone as most of the other lines spoken by Father Matthew. It could have been screamed, disjointed, broken up and put back together again. We might have glimpsed the inner anguish, despair, and ultimate yearnings of this pivotal character. He, too, could have come to a greater understanding of his predicament. If this prayer had been delivered in a more imaginative and meaningful manner, we would have understood more clearly that 100 Saints is about growth; it is about searching and change; “A surge of the heart; a cry for understanding and love.”
Still, the performances and the play are well worthwhile and I do indeed recommend it.
Elephant Theatre
6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.
8 pm Fridays and Saturdays, 7 pm Sundays.
Ends 7/16/2011.
(877) 369-9112
www.elephanttheatrecompany.com