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Monday, October 20, 2008
Human Race’s “Ears on a Beatle” well worth a look
Ryan Wesley Gilreath (L) and TIm Lile in “Ears on a Beatle.”
DAYTON — Mark St. Germain’s play “Ears on a Beatle” seems in line with the usual liberal groove when it begins: those who challenge the system positive, brave and exciting, while those who muddle along trying to preserve the status quo by any means possible are disturbing bumblers.
The play without intermission is about two FBI agents. “We always win,” no matter which party is in power, one tells the other as they stalk former Beatle John Lennon in 1971 because of his anti-war views. They’re trying to get enough dirt on him to get his visa revoked. The cause is serious to them, but comically melodramatic from a current point of view.
The amusing, thought-provoking and open-minded 90-minute production by The Human Race Theatre achieves a complete evolution by the time it ends. Directed with detail and a satisfying big picture by Alan Souza, it’s played by Tim Lile and Ryan Wesley Gilreath on an ingenious set by Dan Gray that proves equally transformative. Eleven drawers high and more than 20 wide, it harbors park benches, office desks, pay phones and other equipment. John Rensel’s lighting is another effective element.
Lennon, the focus to begin with, is never seen but always present — whether in projected image, or in recordings. The agents are all but obsessed with him. He turns out to be completely human.
Stereotypes at the start, the agents gradually become complex individuals who reverse earlier perceptions. The play is really about them.
Daniel McClure (Gilreath) progresses from young and sympathetic enough to infiltrate Lennon’s camp to an FBI man through and through less than 10 years later. Howard Ballantine, seemingly a veteran, by-the-books company man, proves to have his own radical side. A high point of the production is Lile’s passionate delivery of an extended near-soliloquy that reveals Ballantine’s intricate nature.
“Ears on a Beatle” will continue through Nov. 2 in the Eichelberger Loft Series at 126 N. Main St. Tickets are $37-$40. Call (937) 228-3630 or (888) 228-3630 or www.ticketcenterstage.com.
Gilreath (L) and Lyle as agents McClure and Ballantine in “Ears on a Beatle.”
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My ears are tired! But I’m not complaining (too much)
DAYTON — This past weekend, Oct. 17-19, may well have been the busiest this fall for fine-music patrons.
Vanguard Concerts welcomed award-winning violinist Mayuko Kamio, supported by top-tier accompanist Rohan De Silva, in a recital at the Dayton Art Institute on Friday, while Cityfolk launched its 2008-09 Celtic Series with “An Irish Homecoming” at Victoria Theatre that same evening.
Saturday then presented the dilemma of choosing between the opening-night festivities of Dayton Opera’s new production of Puccini’s “Turandot” at the Schuster Center and the opening recital of the Soirees Musicales International Piano Series, which promised an all-Chopin program by San Diego-based Aleck Karis. What’s more, Cityfolk was hosting a performance of gypsy jazz guitar virtuosity by the John Jorgenson Quintet at Canal Street Tavern.
Then on Sunday, the Bach Society of Dayton pulled out all the stops for a late afternoon organ-centric program at Kettering Seventh-day Adventist Church, followed in the evening by a recital by world-class pianist Robert DeGaetano in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church in Yellow Springs.
Needless to say, difficult choices had to be made Friday and Saturday, but the Sunday schedule left enough room to attend both of the day’s offerings — if you ate dinner on the run, that is.
Both of Sunday’s programs felt worthy of attendance, and neither disappointed. But both also seemed to suffer the effects of too much of a good thing.
Perhaps the weariness of a full weekend clouded my perceptions, but the Bach Society seemed to try to do too much, while DeGaetano tried to squeeze a large concert hall sound into a small sanctuary setting. The first felt too long, while the second felt, well, too loud — at least to these overloaded ears.
The length of the Bach Society concert wasn’t just an issue of time, however, because the singers also seemed to flag during the second half of the program, their endurance pushed to the limit.
Nevertheless, the member-run amateur group achieved some remarkable heights, particularly in the opening Kyrie and the closing Agnus Dei of the Josef Gabriel Rheinberger’s Mass in E-flat Major.
The return to town of Peter Ciaschini, former concertmaster of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, to play Rheinberger’s Suite for Violin and Organ was another highlight.
The DeGaetano recital in Yellow Springs, presented by the Adams Foundation of New York in collaboration with the local Yellow Springs Community Council, was big from beginning to end.
The exhaustive — and exhausting — program ranged from a late Beethoven piano sonata, to four variegated Chopin works, to Rachmaninov’s “Variations on a Theme of Corelli,” to a Minimalistic composition by the soloist, to a pair of French Impressionist works by Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy.
DeGaetano, an extraordinary artist with a driving, assertive approach, never flagged.
The effect was not unlike being knocked over by an ocean wave of musical ideas.
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