Theater Review: TheatreWorks’ ‘The Hairy Ape’ is innovative, electric
As the first TheatreWorks production since founder Murray Ross’ death in January, “The Hairy Ape” proves to be a profound tribute to Murray and the company’s dedication to theater – specifically, classic plays and the people who wrote them.
It runs through Feb. 26.
The Eugene O’Neill work is handled respectfully – and without a trace of preciousness – by director Scott RC Levy, the Fine Arts Center producing artistic director who Ross brought in when his health was failing. The innovative vision and committed performances during the first preview not only invigorate the 1922 expressionist play, but electrify it.
Yank (Dylan Mosley, laudably explosive throughout) is a coal pusher in the belly of a transatlantic ocean liner. Others in his crew complain of the conditions – the oppressive heat, the coal dust, the shameful pay – but Yank revels in his indispensable place in this world.
“Always beefin’, dat’s you! Say, dis is a cinch! Dis was made for me! It’s my meat, get me!”
With the inspiration of choreographer Mary Ripper Baker, costume designer Stephanie Bradley and lighting designer Jennifer Reiser (all absolutely central to the success of this production), Levy conjures the stokehole with a stark magic – beautiful and brutal, dirty and strangely pure. (Russell Parkman’s minimalist set works particularly well early in the 95-minute production.)
Bored millionairess Mildred (Anna Faye Hunter, who could’ve used some amplification) decides to invade their dominion on a voyeuristic lark. Wearing a white flapper dress, she appears as a ghost to Yank, until she dresses him down as a “filthy beast.”
Unhinged by her revulsion, Yank goes on a tear – first for revenge and then, to retrieve his sense of purpose, belonging and superiority over the upper classes.
That said, “The Hairy Ape” is not as realistic as, say, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which also explores masculinity and class.
O’Neill created Yank and others as modern archetypes – the hairy ape, the callous independent woman, the socialist rabble-rouser (Jordan Matthews, who masters the brogue and the man), the mournful old Irishman (the always terrific Michael Augenstein). The playwright winds them up like tin toys and lets them do their thing.
That powerful dynamic is fueled here by Levy’s precise blocking and painterly vision. I’ll never forget some passages, especially the tableaus, which are full of meaning, as well as extraordinary beauty.
Mosley embodies Yank’s physicality with a muscle-car frame and a flurry of authentic movement and unconscious gestures that build surprising dimension, even likability, as the play progresses. Yank’s patois is challenging (“Yuh ain’t got no noive, get me?”), but Mosley handles it well, if not always like it’s second nature. (The cast masterly delivers their characters and the patchwork of dialects.) It’s not O’Neill without hefty monologues, and Mosley attacks them athletically. More variation of pacing and emphasis would make it easier to keep up with.
Levy’s musical selections are brilliant early on: compositions of chimes, whistles or drumbeats that echo the mechanized nature of Yank’s existence. After that, tunes like Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” (before the flapper’s scene with her aunt) and “He’s in the Jailhouse Now” (before Yank wakes up in jail) were too on the nose to do justice to Levy’s abstract rendering.
And the pacing suggests we’ve reached the end a scene too early, robbing the finale of some of its punch.
I still think about “The Hairy Ape.” The play is potent, and this production gives it room to run without trying to make it something it isn’t. I think Murray Ross would really have liked that.
Dylan Mosley in the title role of Yank in “The Hairy Ape,” at TheatreWorks in Colorado Springs through Feb. 26.
Tracy Mobley-Matinez Saturday December 13, 2014. Photo by Jeff Kearney
Anna Faye Hunter as Mildred in “The Hairy Ape,” at TheatreWorks in Colorado Springs through Feb. 26.
Dylan Mosley in the title role of Yank in “The Hairy Ape,” at TheatreWorks in Colorado Springs through Feb. 26.
Anna Faye Hunter as Mildred in “The Hairy Ape,” at TheatreWorks in Colorado Springs through Feb. 26.
Tracy Mobley-Matinez Saturday December 13, 2014. Photo by Jeff Kearney