Home > ATLarts
‘Lying in State’ at Georgia Ensemble
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. Grade: C-
When Dorothy Parker was told that President Calvin Coolidge had ascended to that big Oval Office in the sky, the legendary wit responded with her usual flair: “How can they tell?”
The idea that many a public servant has an indiscernible pulse beat is the premise of David C. Hyer’s “Lying in State,” the relentlessly vapid political satire that opens the 16th season of Georgia Ensemble Theatre in Roswell.
Election-weary Americans may be in the mood for a zany send-up of the lies and cover-ups that mask the hypocrisy of the political system. But “Lying in State” — which describes a bungled attempt to bury the truth about a state senator’s not-so-heroic death — may not be what they had in mind.
Blame it on the “purple squirrel,” the potent cocktail that causes so much of the mayhem and madness behind this funeral-parlor romp. But don’t blame it on the actors, who work hard to overcome the shortcomings of the dreadful writing. With dead politico Ed safely tucked away in his coffin — or is he? —the looming question is who will fill the Senate vacancy.
Campaign manager Herb (William S. Murphey) wants Ed’s ex-wife Edna (Tess Malis Kincaid) to step up to the plate. The governor (James Baskin) wants his own nerdy son Wally (Edwin Link) to take over. But as it turns out, Ed seems to have willed his legacy to his exotic-dancer girlfriend, Buttons (Cara Mantella), who thinks the “Senate seat” is a piece of furniture. Things get even more scrambled with the arrival of a pill-popping widow from an adjacent viewing room (Kathleen Wattis) and Ed’s staggeringly drunk brother (Michael Strauss).
As directed by Peter Hardy, the ensemble plays the nonsense to the hilt. Looking like a cross between Gypsy Rose Lee and Audrey Hepburn, Mantella’s Buttons is an irresistibly comic bombshell. She virtually walks away with the show.
Wattis — making one of her signature turns as a heavily sedated, acid-tongued harbinger of truth — is spot on. And Kincaid’s Edna — who has remade herself from an overweight stutterer into a figure of elegance — is refreshingly underplayed.
Too bad that “Lying in State” runs so wretchedly out of control. As Hyer attempts to dress up his wafer-thin political observations with increasing layers of silliness, the play becomes absurdly convoluted and pointless. Like a crowded ballot, the Atlanta theater season has plenty of choices. “Lying in State” looks like its first big loser.
The 411: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Also, 4 p.m. Sept. 13. Through Sept. 21. $23-$33. Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Roswell Cultural Arts Center, 950 Forrest St., Roswell. 770-641-1260, get.org.
Bottom line: This lame-o political farce won’t get our vote.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Theater
Decatur Book Fest: Moppin’ it all up
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The third annual Decatur Book Festival has come and gone, and it was pretty darn swell. The organizers say they got 70,000 people over the three days, up from 60,000 last year, and that estimate is based in part on the Decatur police.
Several people I talked to thought that the crowds were down a bit this year from last. So did more people or fewer attend? I don’t know, and really, what matters is if the festival can keep going and keep bringing authors both great and fun to Decatur in September.
Meanwhile, at the AJC tent on Ponce de Leon, we had laptops set up for people to stop by and blog about their top 5 favorite novels of all time. I hung out and schmoozed on Saturday afternoon and had a blast meeting a broad range of people. Thanks to everyone who stopped by.
We got a final count from the more than 400 people who listed their Top 5 novels. Here is the Top 10 in total votes.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee
Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
“Gone With the Wind,” Margaret Mitchell
“The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
“Pride and Prejudice,” Jane Austen
The Bible
“The Lord of the Rings,” J.R.R. Tolkein
“The Great Gatsby,” F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Jane Eyre,” Charlotte Bronte
“The Catcher in the Rye,” J.D. Salinger
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
What if you made love to your spouse every night for a year?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Charla Muller and her husband Brad had what she describes as a solid marriage with two kids. But they felt that having sex had fallen further and further down the to-do list.
So they did two rather crazy things. First, they vowed to have sex once every single day for the next year. Second, she wrote a book about it: “365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy.” On her website she describes the book as “G-rated” and “very modest.”
Wow. I’m giving them huge props for the sheer audacity of both projects.
A.J. Jacobs, who wrote “The Year of Living Biblically,” doffed his hat in respect, calling her “the Lou Gehrig of postmarital sex. Or maybe the Louise Gehrig.”
Muller will be at Wordsmiths Books at 7:30 tonight to talk about “365 Nights.” But right here right now, I’m interested in your thoughts on the idea.
Do you think this could work in your relationship? What do you think would happen if you tried it? Extra points for humorous or heartfelt responses. but please try to keep it G-rated, like Muller’s book.
Permalink | Comments (62) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Billy Collins kicks off Decatur Book Festival
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Bill Starr, head of the Georgia Center for the Book, stood outside Agnes Scott College’s Presser Hall Friday night and looked out on a long line of people waiting to get inside, as if behind a velvert rope at a trendy nightclub.
“Isn’t it amazing,” he said, ” to have 1,000 people show up and waiting in line to hear a poet?”
It was, but the poet was former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, who gave the third annual Decatur Book Festival’s keynote address Friday and had the audience laughing along as if they were at The Punch Line instead of a poetry reading. After hearing that Robert Frost had read in Presser Hall, Collins noted, “Compared to Frost, my poems are like a dorm room after a long, bad weekend.”
Collins was droll and disarming, and perhaps more reminiscent of comedian Steve Wright than of Frost, tossing off self-deprecating humor. He read “The Revenant,” in which a dead dog’s spirit comes back to tell his master he hated him while alive and fantasized about biting him:
“I admit the sight of the leash
would excite me
but only because it meant I was about
to smell things you had never touched.”
In the easy flow of “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July,” he states he has never been fishing, period.
After a barely peceptible bow to strong applause, Collins took questions from the audience. Asked how he was selected to be poet laureate in 2001, he joked that in his mind, the Librarian of Congress asked five other, better poets first, but they all declined, and he just kept going down the list until he got to someone who accepted.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Decatur Book Fest: The Big Read for “Gatsby”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Amidst all the hoopla of the AJC Decatur Book Festival, don’t overlook the Margaret Mitchell House’s tent on Ponce de Leon near Starbucks. They will be launching their “Big Read” program to get the community to read and discuss “The Great Gatsby.”
The Mitchell House’s Big Read is more ambitious than a lot of other cities’, says director Julie Bookman, thanks in part to a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. As the project unfolds through next year, high schools will be brought into the mix (it’s required reading for high school juniors, and for once the curriculum pitches a book at the right age group).
“Gatsby” is one of those unassailable icons of literature. I’ve read it 5 or 6 times, and I love it. And yet I can’t help but wish maybe the Big Read had tackled something a little more challenging. I know, make it too challenging and people won’t want to read it.
Still, I’d like some input. What book do you think would be a good canididate for a project like this?
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Books
Latest comments
I was there all day on Saturday and Sunday, plus Friday afternoon for the writers conference, and every event I went to, save for the very last one on Sunday afternoon, was completely packed! Sunday was definitely a little less crowded than Saturday, but... read the full comment by Maria | Comment on Decatur Book Fest: Moppin' it all up Read Decatur Book Fest: Moppin' it all up
Very nice site!... read the full comment by John1952 | Comment on All aboard for 'Avenue Q' Read All aboard for 'Avenue Q'
It didn’t seem like there were quite as many people this year… but the venues filled up more than they did last year. My only criticisms are that the venues filled up too fast and that there was no music outside… the music helped... read the full comment by margaret | Comment on Decatur Book Fest: Moppin' it all up Read Decatur Book Fest: Moppin' it all up
I give up On marriage? Probably for the best, given your attitude.... read the full comment by KJ | Comment on What if you made love to your spouse every night for a year? Read What if you made love to your spouse every night for a year?