The Boston Globe - 20.09.2019

G2 The Boston Globe FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

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the play’s over-familiarity and Miller’s
propensity for windy excess — a battle
that, alas, ultimately ends in no better
than a draw.
In theory (there’s that word again),
Bedlam is the perfect troupe for the
task of revitalizing the much-per-
formed “Crucible.’’ One of this adven-
turous, New York-based theater com-
pany’s specialties is devising muscular,
stripped-down approaches, virtually
devoid of scenery or costumes, to ca-
nonical works. In the past few years,
Bedlam has delivered a fresh electric

u‘‘THECRUCIBLE’’
Continued from Page G1

charge to everything from Shaw’s

“Pygmalion’’ and “Saint Joan’’ to

Shakespeare’s “Hamlet’’ and “Twelfth

Night’’ to Austen’s “Sense and Sensibil-

ity.’’

But I found “The Crucible,’’ helmed

by Bedlam artistic director Eric Tuck-

er, to be the least captivating of the nu-

merous productions the company has

staged in Cambridge or Boston — and

not just because the larger-than-usual

cast of 13 means Bedlam cannot show-

case the versatility it has displayed in

other productions, when actors have

slipped in and out of multiple roles

with chameleonic dexterity.

Yes, there are moments when Tuck-

er and his cast (a blend of Boston- and

New York-based performers) do con-

jure the frenzy of mass hysteria as ac-

cusations and counter-accusations of

witchcraft fly in Salem over the spring

and summer of 1692, leading to multi-

ple hangings, betrayals and “confes-

sions’’ by accused trying to save their

own skins, and ruined lives. Yes, the

particular brand of jolting energy we

associate with Bedlam does periodical-

ly enliven the production, delivering

bursts of illumination that endow Mill-

er’s 1953 play with a present-day im-

mediacy as “The Crucible’’ dramatizes

the destructive impact on a communi-

ty when religious belief is taken to par-

anoid extremes.

But there are protracted periods

when this “Crucible’’ drags, and the

sorts of devices that felt innovative in

earlier Bedlam productions here regis-

ter more as gimmicks: humming,

whistling, sudden stops and starts by

the cast in unison, a scene that tran-

spires in the dark with actors wielding

flashlights. Most ill-conceived is the

production’s opening scene, which dis-

tances the audience all too literally.

It transpires in a Salem bedroom

where the inexplicably frozen immo-

bility of a minister’s young daughter

has triggered fears that she is under a

witch’s spell, not long after she and

other village girls have been seen danc-

ing naked in a forest. Those fears soon

escalate into panic that the devil is at

work, cementing the resolve of reli-

gious authorities to Make Salem Great

Again by rooting out the witches in

their midst, however spurious and

even ludicrous the “evidence’’ of witch-

craft is. Tucker has chosen to stage the

opening scene in a diorama alcove at

the very rear of the playing space at

Central Square Theater, which creates

the odd effect of events unfolding in a

dollhouse.

This conceit mercifully does not

last long, as the staging transitions in-

Continuedonnextpage

I

n “Rosencrantz & Guilden-
stern Are Dead,” playwright
Tom Stoppard approaches
“Hamlet” through an Abbott
and Costello lens, says Peter
DuBois, whose Huntington Theatre
production begins performances Fri-
day.
“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at
first seem clownish,” says DuBois,
“because they are constantly con-
fused about who and where they are.
They are trapped in a world in which
they have no control and don’t really
have any idea what they are supposed
to be doing.”
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
minor characters in Shakespeare’s
tragic story of “Hamlet,” onetime
schoolmates of the Danish prince, en-
listed by his uncle Claudius to find
out what’s troubling the young man.
The friends witness “The Murder of
Gonzago,” the play Hamlet hopes will
“catch the conscience of the king,” but
become more confused when they
seem to appear as characters in that
drama. Later, they naively agree to
carry a letter for Claudius, not know-
ing it contains Hamlet’s death sen-
tence, which Hamlet switches with
one for the duo instead.
Stoppard layers in comments on
Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot,”
and nods to Harold Pinter, existen-
tialism, and philosophers Socrates,
Plato, and David Hume, while blur-
ring the lines between what’s real and
what’s imaginary, all driven by slap-
stick comedy.
“It’s terrifyingly funny,” says
DuBois, the Huntington’s artistic di-
rector.
Jeremy Webb, who plays Guilden-
stern, says the challenge is learning
lines while also feeling like someone
who is suffering from memory loss.
“We actually try hard to play into
that,” he says. “A famous British ac-
tress said she tries to convince herself
she’s forgotten her next line, so that
what comes out feels spontaneous
and natural. But it’s risky. You have to
have enormous trust in your scene
partner.”
Just when the audience thinks
they have a handle on these charac-
ters, with one seeming to be a bit
slower to react than the other, the ta-
bles are turned, and one is suddenly
speaking in the other’s voice.
Alex Hurt, who plays Rosencrantz,
says when he first talked to DuBois
about the role, DuBois explained that
it was like an actor’s nightmare —
that feeling that you don’t know
what’s coming next.
Although they only met at the first
reading of the play a few weeks ago,

Hurt (the son of actor William Hurt)

and Webb say they think about the

characters nearly 24 hours a day. The

two are housed in the same apart-

ment building, and they often go up

to the roof to run lines and try out

physical comedy possibilities.

“Alex will send me a link to an Ab-

bott and Costello routine, and then I

send him one from Monty Python,”

says Webb.

Even during a conversation at a

lunch break, the duo pitch ideas to

DuBois.

“Hey, can we juggle?” says Webb.

“I know how to juggle,” says Hurt.

“Do you know how to pass?” says

Webb.

“I can learn,” says Hurt.

DuBois is open to trying it.

“I like a rehearsal room with a lit-

tle chaos,” DuBois says. “There are so

many minds working on the charac-

ters and these scenes. When we are

all contributing, we come up with the

best bits.”

Of course, he says, it helps that he

has surrounded Hurt and Webb with

a cast of mostly Boston actors, each of

whom brings their own versatility

and comic style into the room. The

ensemble includes Ken Cheeseman,

Laura Latreille, Will LeBow, Melinda

Lopez, Dale Place, Omar Robinson,

among others.

“We’re starting with clean come-

dy,” says Webb. “And then we build on

the terrible, truthful circumstances

these two friends find themselves in,

described in Stoppard’s elevated and

challenging text.”

“When we get it right,” says Hurt,

“it’s the feeling of catching a wave.

When I can pick up right as he’s fin-

ishing his thought, it just flows.”

CompanybearsDerrah’sname

Thomas Derrah, the beloved Bos-

ton actor, director, and educator who

died in 2017, is remembered as much

for his generosity as a teacher as he is

for his breathtaking performances. To

honor his legacy, his husband, John

Kuntz, is launching The Derrah The-

atre Lab.

“Tommy was so gifted,” says

Kuntz. “I want to turn missing him

into a positive thing that honors him

and his spirit by producing the kind

of theater he liked to make.”

The company’s inaugural perfor-

mance will be a staged reading of

“Pru Payne,” at Boston Playwrights

Theatre Oct. 28. A new play by Steven

Drukman, it will feature Karen Mac-

Donald in the title role, along with

Will LeBow, Maurice Emmanuel Par-

ent, Greg Maraio, and Kuntz. The sto-

ry focuses on an art critic who is suf-

fering from dementia while she tries

to reconnect with her son and consid-

er what her legacy should be.

“Tommy would enjoy this play be-

cause it’s so theatrical,” says Kuntz.

“By that I mean it’s the kind of script

that only works on the stage.”

Kuntz will serve as artistic direc-

tor, and his friend Maraio will be as-

sociate artistic director. While the

new company is still in its infancy,

Kuntz says he is already planning an

educational component to honor Der-

rah’s approach to nurturing the next

generation of theater artists.

InConcord,backto‘Nature’

If you’ve ever wanted to walk in

the footsteps of Ralph Waldo Emer-

son, a play now being staged at the

Old Manse in Concord offers that op-

portunity. The touring production of

“Nature” is being presented by Tiger-

Lion Arts on the grounds where Em-

erson and Henry David Thoreau

wrote some of their most celebrated

works. It also had a run there in 2017.

The 90-minute “walking play,” which

is performed outdoors, was created

and is performed by Tyson Forbes, a

direct descendant of Emerson. The

play is described as an exploration of

“humankind’s relationship to nature

through the eyes of two of America’s

greatest environmental voices and

friends,” Emerson (Forbes) and Tho-

reau (Jason Rojas). It runs through

Sept. 29. For more information, go to

http://www.thetrustees.org.

Terry Byrne can be reached at

[email protected].

C

eramicists are part scien-

tists, attuned to firing

temperatures and the

chemical makeup of clays

and glazes. In “Devitri-

fied,” at Harvard Ceramics Program’s

Gallery 224, Colby Charpentier takes

experimental ceramics a step further.

He builds vessels exclusively with

glaze.

Charpentier, who just moved to

Michigan to pursue his master’s de-

gree at Cranbrook Academy of Art,

was an artist in residence at the ceram-

ics program this year. The exhibition

traces his trajectory as he tested hy-

potheses, and the work feels explorato-

ry rather than fully realized. Still, he’s

found his way into a juicy idea and aes-

thetic.

Clay and glass, both made of silica,

are at opposite ends of a spectrum.

Glaze falls toward the glassy end.

That’s why many ceramics have a

sheen. “Devitrify” means to remove an

object’s glassy qualities. Charpentier

mixes his material out of glaze pow-

ders and plays with their chemistry to

alter the temperature at which they

melt, and it changes everything.

To add a conceptual twist, he mim-

ics the increment-by-increment 3-D

printing process by hand, squeezing

pebbles of glaze from a bottle, firing

each piece layer by layer. Clay pebbles

would likely not fuse, but glaze ones

do. They’re not glassy, but opaque, sol-

id little things in white, blue, and yel-

low. They look like candy. Occasionally,

Charpentier veers from the pebble

formtochunksortinyplanks.

You can see the artist’s confidence

and daring grow as the bright, poppy

vessels become increasingly complex,

from the three cylindrical forms in the

“Material Stack” series to the architec-

tural “Double Stacked Arched Vessel,”

which he ornaments with red rubber-

coated steel staples and crowns. To

others, he applies a cracking frosting

of glaze. In the ambitious “Patch-

worked Platter,” he adheres pebbled

shards with gummy gray-blue mortar.

Ceramics don’t look like this. Push-

ing a material beyond expectations

changes more than appearance,

though. The meanings we take from it

are also new. Here, what’s usually on

the surface transmutes into the very

substance of an object. If Charpentier

pushes his experiment further, he

could make his material a metaphor

for our social-media age.

Cate McQuaid can be reached at

[email protected]. Follow her

on Twitter @cmcq.

DEVITRIFIED: Colby Charpentier 2018-19

Artist in Residence

At Gallery 224, Ceramics Program,

Office for the Arts at Harvard

University, 224 Western Ave.,

through Sept. 27. 617-495-8680,

https://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/ceramic

s/gallery224/colbycharpentier

More than a glaze

Ceramicist builds vessels from a material

normally reserved for the final coat

GALLERIES| CATE MCQUAID

PHOTOS BY DARRAH BOWDEN FOR THE CERAMICS PROGRAM, OFFICE FOR THE ARTS AT HARVARD

Colby Charpentier builds ceramic vessels exclusively using glaze.

PHOTOS BY DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

This ‘Crucible’ conjures

too few electric moments

STAGE REVIEW

THECRUCIBLE

Play by Arthur Miller. Directed by

Eric Tucker. Presented by Nora

Theatre Company in association

with Bedlam. At Central Square

Theater, Cambridge, through

Oct. 20. Tickets begin at $25,

617-576-9278 ext. 1,

http://www.centralsquaretheater.org

Alex Hurt (left)

and Jeremy

Webb in a

rehearsal at

Huntington

Avenue Theatre.

‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’

marries Shakespeare to slapstick

ROSENCRANTZ&GUILDENSTERN

AREDEAD

Presented by the Huntington

Theatre Company. At the

Huntington Avenue Theatre,

Sept. 20-Oct. 20. Tickets $20-

$135, 617-933-8600,

http://www.huntingtontheatre.org

STAGES| TERRY BYRNE

“Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are

Dead” director Peter DuBois.