California International Theatre Festival
The second California International Theatre Festival is only a memory now, having run for one weekend August 20th to the 23rd; but the 2009 edition represents a rethinking, retooling and an essentially purifying restructuring designed to bring top-notch world artists to Calabasas and beyond. The first edition staged in Ventura and produced in conjunction with the Rubicon Theatre Company proved to be overly ambitious. Much slimmed down, the festival – with Linda Purl as Festival Director, M. Edgar Rosenblum as Executive Director and Joe Peracchio as Festival Producer – now has a chance to grow organically and bring its audience along with it.
Although the four-day festival was chock-full of activities, I could view only three performances, which follow. Thursday’s opener featured a return engagement by Conor Lovett and Judy Hegarty Lovett of Gare St. Lazare Players, Ireland. Their story theatre rendition of Moby Dick – Ishmael’s Tale, adapted from the novel by Herman Melville, presented a challenge for many Hollywood oriented patrons for the symbol-rich narrative was long on description with a minimum of activity in the exquisite Carlson Family Theatre at Viewpoint School in Calabasas. The cutting, directed by Judy Lovett utilizing only a table on a bare stage, managed to string together significant episodes of the epic novel and Conor Lovett’s depiction of Ishmael proved as expert as it was subtle.
On Friday, a celebrity crowd spent an intimate evening at the City of Calabasas’ cosy outdoor amphitheatre reminiscing with Sir Donald Sinden of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the U.K. Sir Donald connected his acting tradition as far back as David Garrett in the 18th century and on to Henry Irving (late 19th century) who had mentored some of the greats of English Stage, from whom Sir Donald learned his craft. The centerpiece of his string of anecdotes concerned Marilyn Monroe, who in the late fifties co-starred with Laurence Olivier in “The Prince and the Show Girl” at Pinewood Studios where he was working on another film. Since the Method was considered antithetical to the British acting style then, as a joke Sir Sinden posted a notice outside of his dressing room: “Nazak Method: Inaudibility Guaranteed”; Nazak being the anagram of the iconic Actors Studio director Elia Kazan’s name. The next very audible sound he heard coming through his door were giggles and peals of laughter. Marilyn, who was part of the Actors Studio, had gotten his joke.
The Ofer Amram Company of Tel Aviv, Israel presented A Tale of a Lonely Man at the end of the long weekend with performances on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. Amram is a self-styled puppeteer that places the emphasis of his creation on the life-size puppet family he, portraying the signature lonely man, conjures as a manifestation of his fantasies. Created in a post-modern, Formalist-style blend of movement and spectacle, the story spins out with the help of an enigmatic puppet master Oleg Rodovilski and dancer/performer Renana Raz as a real-life woman who comes into his life. Augmented by provocative and almost oppressive original music, Amram’s tale unfolds as he builds a life, first with his female puppet and then a child-puppet.
The life-like qualities of the puppets are a marvel in themselves. And Amram’s storytelling has a clarity that takes us on a journey into a lonely mind. Use of masks animates the characters, and highlights the difference from the living man to the fantastical one. The centerpiece of the performance involves a realistic sex pas de deux between the living man and the female puppet that is both beautiful and horrifying. The entire scenario is unintentionally sexist, building as it does a family life that centers upon the benevolence of man the creator. What’s more, the woman who tries to bring comfort into the lonely man’s life is treated summarily by him. She endeavors to join in his obsession, engaging in a ménage á trois only to be rejected, thus leading to the final climax when she viciously destroys her puppet rival.
In a talk-back session after the show, Amram seemed genuinely surprised that many in the audience remarked about the abusive nature of the lonely man’s behavior and inherent violence of the piece as whole. For me the play’s construction and the audience’s reaction spoke worlds about the difference in cultural norms between two countries and reinforced the viability of an international festival bringing together artists from every part of our world.