by Joey Guerra
Entertainment Editor
Stages' newest production, the funny and poignant Dog Opera, leaves you with two lessons: Love can really suck, and friends, the true ones, will be with you forever.
Despite some scattershot moments within the text, Constance Congdon's play is definitely clear on those two points, skillfully weaving the humor into a story that is really a look at how people, gay or straight, young or old, black or white, deal with major setbacks and successes in their lives.
The story is similar in content to Theatre LaB's ultimately superior Poor Super Man, which found the perfect balance of humor and pathos in its compelling story. While Dog Opera fumbles around a bit in the beginning, it leads to a rewarding payoff in the end.
Ultimately carrying the production to success is a talented ensemble of actors, beginning with Jeffrey Gimble and Holli Golden. Friends for more than 20 years, Peter (Gimble) and Madeline (Golden) are united by many things: dissatisfaction with their bodies, wry senses of humor and an ongoing search for Mr. Right.
Director Rob Bundy opens the play with a pleasant scene where the two are relaxing on a beach as gorgeous men in Speedos cruise by. While the entire scene really amounts to Golden and Gimble on two lawn chairs propped on a multi-tier, red stage, their enthusiasm makes you really believe a slew of suntanned gods are drifting casually in front of them as they take in the view.
The play stumbles in the beginning, incoherently veering between scenes and characters as some sort of introduction. Some of the jokes fall flat as well, but soon, Dog Opera picks up considerable speed.
We meet a variety of characters, initially on distant planes but united by common situations. The use of a few actors to take on many parts is jarring at first, but it becomes a commentary on how similar seemingly disparate people really are.
Robin Burke takes on the role of boyfriend to both Peter and Madeline, none too surprising since they both seem to go for the same kind of guy. He is a date who loves to clean Peter's house in only his underwear in one scene, and a football-watching oaf who spells trouble for Madeline in the next. It is a credit to Burke, whose dramatic talent was unforeseen in productions like The Swan or Ten Percent Revue, that he slips in and out of characters with grace, style and ease.
Through the course of the play, Peter and Madeline attend memorials for friends who have died of AIDS, unfortunate markers for other events in their lives together. An Indian scripture read by the lover of one deceased friend is touching, but the appearance of an actual Arapahoe (William Hardy, noble but much more appealing as Peter's Greek pick-up, Stavros) at the end of the scene and thereafter at key moments is a bit too obvious and comes off hokey. The relevance of death and afterlife is apparent; it doesn't need to be continually mentioned in such a literal form.
Still, some of Bundy's touches are simply brilliant, like a pay phone that descends from upstage at just the right moment, and one of the play's most hilarious sequences, where Bernice (Connie Cooper), Madeline's lonely mother, falls on the bathroom floor. Using a backdrop decorated as a bathroom with Bernice standing against it is truly a comic gem, and Cooper's performance (along with her takes as a drag queen, a lesbian, a horny housewife and a dirty old man) is dead-on perfect. Her range of emotions within the characters shows an amazing understanding and depth of the characters she is portraying.
There are many great touches in Dog Opera. Madeline's visit to her mother after the bathroom incident is hilarious and borders on whimsical farce. The puppet shows Madeline puts on to describe her dating life are also charming, complete with music.
There are dramatic turns to the play, which are skillfully handled amidst all the laughs. Most notable is Adrian Cardell Porter as Jackie, a "whore," as he likes to call himself, whose tragic, 17-year-old voice is poignant and poetic as he hustles on the street. While Jackie's character never really gels with the rest of the play, Porter's performance is undeniably affecting.
When real tragedy hits Peter and Madeline, both players rise to the occasion with searing reactions. Gimble is a pool of despair and emotion, while Golden's mix of desperation and anger culminates in the evening's finest performance.
Dog Opera's staging is spare, but Bundy uses lighting and direction to evoke places with ease. His handling of the comedy and drama is commendable, and makes for a timely and touching tale of two friends.
Dog Opera plays at 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 5 p.m. Sundays through April 27 at Stages Repertory Theatre, 3201 Allen Parkway. Tickets are $15 - $18, with student discounts available. Call 52-STAGE for more information.