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At the Alliance: ‘The Fourth Wall’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “The Fourth Wall.� Through Nov. 21.
The strangest things have been happening to poor Peggy. There was the man who approached her in the grocery story with a “concealed weapon� and a cryptic note. Then the alarming phone call from, well, “it was either a man with a high voice or a woman who smokes at least a pack a day.�
Oddly enough, all the messages insist that Peggy change the design of her suburban New York living room, whose furniture she’s rearranged to face a blank wall. Hence the title and all-purpose metaphor of the A.R. Gurney comedy “The Fourth Wall,â€? which the Alliance Theatre has staged as a statement on the just-finished presidential election.
Peggy, you see, dreams of going to Washington to tell President Bush that he must “learn how to get along with people who are different,� that he must “work patiently with other nations to create a new world free of crazy terrorists and so-called patriots!�
Make the connection? (We didn’t think so.)
Pssssst! The terrorist threats on Peggy’s very own homeland security are coming from Bush’s minions! That woman with the strange voice was no less than First Mama Barbara Bush!
Such is the nonsensical logic of Gurney’s newly revised play, which opened Wednesday night to a group of understandably confused Alliance patrons.
As staged here, “The Fourth Wall� is a wretchedly self-indulgent theatrical in-joke about a quartet of characters who mix political commentary and personal connections through the guise of drama. Trapped inside a play of their own invention, they must break down that invisible wall to seek social change, love and what ultimately feels like a trip through the looking glass. Whoosh!
Perplexed by his wife's interior design, Roger (Craig Wroe) summons old friend Julia (Linda Kimbrough) to help decipher it. Observing that the magnificently proportioned living room (design by Michael S. Philippi) feels just like a stage set, they transform themselves into stock characters who burst into song at the drop of a canape. Soon, theater professor Floyd (Jeffrey Kuhn) is summoned to analyze the scene, and the riffs on the thespian arts begin to spew — Wilde and Shaw with a dash of Cole Porter and a dollop of Jane Martin.
“The Fourth Wall� is supposed to be a delightful and disposable cocktail, but Gurney tries too hard to lace it with political punch, and director Susan V. Booth and her cast are so busy playing up the overripe egos and outsize gestures of their characters that they fail to find the thin emotional ripples inside this cloying confection.
Courtenay Collins makes an almost believable Peggy, the empty-nester who’s trying to find some meaning in her “self-congratulatory, over-decorated world.� Peggy’s the Jesse Jackson of white suburban housewives; when she breaks through that wall, she wants a rainbow coalition: Asians, Latinos, Muslims, gays and lesbians.
“What, for example, if there were a decent number of African-Americans out there?�she says.
If Kimbrough and Wroe’s performances are overwrought, Kuhn's is muzzle worthy. Like the community-theater director in “Waiting for Guffman,� Floyd is a caricature of the drama queen — a melange of scarves, neck ties, tweed jackets and whirling physicality. That might be funny, but Kuhn’s characterization is so shrill that it frays the nerves.
You could forgive the partisan agenda of “The Fourth Wall� if it made you laugh.
But the ensemble can’t seem to find a way into or out of this intentionally ridiculous and recondite satire. For a play about an invisible wall, it’s very gunked up. The actors even wear microphones, which only underscores how loud and insufferable their characters are.
Gurney’s satire reads better than it plays here. This production is not as clever as it thinks it is. It asks much of the audience and gives little in return. A lost opportunity.
THE VERDICT: Political nonsense.
8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Through Nov. 21. $25-$45. Alliance Theatre, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-5000, www.alliancetheatre.org.
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By Mona
November 5, 2004 11:03 AM | Link to this
It’s a shame that such a fine theater as the Alliance regularly turns out dreck, shallow, unfunny stuff.
I’ve heard wonderful things about Color Purple, but I’ve stopped going to see shows there because 1) I’ve never seen anything there that I enjoyed and 2) I don’t recognize anyone’s names in the cast lists.
If they used local actors maybe the shows’ quality would improve. At least local people who follow theater would be more interested in attending.
By Chuck in College Park
November 15, 2004 10:51 AM | Link to this
I must agree with Wendell Brock when he says, “But the ensemble can’t seem to find a way into or out of this intentionally ridiculous and recondite satire.” The reason the “actors” could not find their way into, or out of this play was because there was no play. There was nothing in “The Fourth Wall” as presented on 6 November 2004 at the Alliance that brought things together, including the explanation of “The Fourth Wall”. The actors’ dialogue even tells you they are groping for a plot, and they groped through out the entire performance. I am positive that the one person that I heard laugh one time was planted in the audience. Good thing there was no intermission during this 90 minute “performance”. As the holder of two season tickets for several years, I feel the the Alliance should return my $90 ($45 per ticket), and give me an apology for trying to pawn off this performance of “The Fourth Wall” as some form of entertainment. P.S. I would also like the Alliance to reimburse me for the $8 parking fee.