CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings
| |
CurtainUp The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
Annotated Listings |
|
A CurtainUp Review
The Price Of Thomas Scott
By Elyse Sommer
What do I mean about Baker being well-served by her Mint "come-back"? Let me count the ways. The company's producing artistic director Jonathan Bank, who's at the helm of The Price of Thomas Scott, has been true to the play's content and the style of theater during the days when Harley Granville Barker was in charge of London's Royal Court Theatre —visits to which inspired Baker, a 30-year-old typist with neither theater going or playwriting experience, to try her own hand at dramatizing the working class life that was her milieu).Here's the scenario: The setting is the office and sitting room in back of Thomas Scott's (Donald Corren) drapery business and the living quarters occupied by him, his wife Ellen (Tracy Sallows), book smart teen--aged son Leonard (Nick LaMedica) and daughter Annie (Emma Greer) who's the company's gifted hat finisher. It's a big place, but the economy has not been kind to drapery businesses like this (shades of Amazon's effect on so many city retailers). consequetly Annie and Leonard's secret dreams — Hers of going to Paris to train as a fashionable hat designer, and his to take advantage of a scholarship and more interesting career opportunity than working for dad. The reason that the young people's dreams are secret is that their father rules the roost and according to his strictly religious view of modernity, especially fun activities like dancing and theater, as sinful. Having herself grown up in this sort of intensely religious working class home, Elizabeth Baker was well equipped to imbue her drama with authenticity. The story she concocted focused on a central character whose deeply held religious beliefs are challenged by a compromising opportunity. It's Thomas Scott's opposition to dancing and theater that lead to the main plot complications. The price of the title refers is empting enough to tempt even Scott to grab the chance to free himself and his family from struggling to stay afloat — and his attitudes and actions affect not just his wife and children, but the other characters we meet. Those characters are mostly friends and neighbors and fellow church members like Tewkesbury (Jay Russell), Annie's friend May Rufford (Ayana Workman) and her dad (Mark Kenneth Smaltz). Since the family's living quarters are large, Mrs. Scott has also helped their diminishing finances by taking in boarders which also brings on an existing and potential new boarder — Johnny Tite (Andrew Fallaize) who's in love with Annie, and his decidedly modern and keen on dancing friend Harley Peters (Josh Goulding). While the actors all fit their parts well, the men fare best, especially Donald Corren as the titular main character and Mitch Greenbberg as Wicksteed, Scott's old schoolmate who now represents the company offering to buy the Scott property for a hard to resist price. It's this offer of course that creates the plot arc. You see, contrary to what Scott thinks, Wicksteed is no longer in the clothing business, but wants to use the draper's property to run the dances that are quite the rage around London. I'll leave it to you to find out for yourself whether Thomas Scott will pay the price that would mean a brighter future for his family. But rest assured that everyone will have a different response when Annie wonders what the world would say about her father. Based on this first introduction to Elizabeth Baker's work, I'll wait until the rest of the Mint's "Meet Miss Baker" season to decide if I share their belief that she warrants the coverage given to Irish playwright Teresa Deevey. One thing never in question with anything the Mint does is that they offer wonderfully informative, must-read programs which, along with other enrichment material, are also presented superbly (See the Mintwebsite). |
Search CurtainUp in the box below PRODUCTION NOTES The Price Of Thomas Scott by Elizabeth Baker Directed by Jonathan Bank Cast: Donald Corren (Thomas Scott), Andrew Fallaize (Johnny Tate), Emma Geer (Annie Scott), Josh Goulding (Hartley Peters), Mitch Greenberg (Wicksteen), Nick LaMedica (Leonard Scott), Jay Russell (Tewkesbury), Tracy Sallows (Ellen Scott), Mark Kenneth Smaltz (George Rufford), Ayana Workman (May Rufford), and Arielle Yoder (Lucy Griffin) Scenic design by Vicki R. Davis Costume design by Hunter Kaczorowski Lighting design by Christian DeAngelis Sound design by Jane Shaw Prop design by Chris Fields Choreography by Tracy Bersley Dialects & Dramaturgy by Amy Stoller Stage Manager: Kristi Hess Running Time: 90 Minutes no intermission Mint Theater at Theater row 420 W 42nd Street From 1/24/19; opening 2/20/19; closing 3/23/19. Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 7:30pm with matinees Saturday & Sunday at 2pm. No performance on Tuesday February 5th, with Special Added Matinees at 2pm on February 6th, 13th and March 20th. Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at February 13th press preview REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted at http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter |
