4 Stars for David Ives' adaptation of Pierre Corneille's classical French comedy THE LIAR at Vanderbilt University Opens 4/6 (Nashville)

David Ives' adaptation of Pierre Corneille's classical French comedy THE LIAR immediately goes on my short list of the most brilliant writing I have ever enjoyed.

I was already a huge fan of Corneille and his contemporaries, Moliere and Racine. These fellows wrote amazing plays entirely in verse and what they did with language is a lesson in what language can do. Now this American playwright has come along brought the joys of this style of writing - and theatre - to new heights. No wonder he won an award for it.

The credit for getting me hooked goes to Director Terryl Hallquist and the extraordinary cast she has put together for the production at Vanderbilt which opened tonight (Friday, April 6. 2012). These outstanding young actors absolutely nail every challenge that the play has to offer in this frothy romp of fops and high spirited gals and the script proves an ideal vehicle for actors in this age bracket- and it's all VERY FUNNY. In fact, this crew would probably rock on Broadway just as they are.

Plays of this era are usually chosen to allow students to study a particular style of acting. In this case, the style - as well as the character and plot devices - come out of the Italian Comedia Del' Arte, to which Corneille et al gave a French twist, capturing with great art the posturings and strut of the French aristocracy in the age of Louis XIV. Ives has infused the original with the narcotics of now and Hallquist and her crew have found perfection in this balance of classical and contemporary semiotics. Physically the troupe adheres to the dynamics of gesture and grace, but there delivery is right out of TWO AND A HALF men. It's the perfect play for your couch potato friends with an addiction to sit com. But witty as Oscar Wilde and as quirky as Mel Brooks.

Since these productions are all about training actors, they really deserve the attention here.

Duncan Hall looks a lot like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. He plays Dorante, the charming liar of the title and Mr. Hall has SOME serious sociopath mojo going on. As Cliton, the mandatory valet and sidekick, Aaron Moscow is an adept foil to his partner and there is very nice teamwork between them.

The same can be said of the two young ladies who portray the amorous interests. Jessica Owens is delightfully vivacious as Clarice, while Hannah Viroslav is more restrained and classical in her interpretation as Lucrece.

Samantha Riley turns in a most laudable performance as twins; in fact, until I looked at my program, I thought she was two different actresses. The distinction between her two characters is well crafted.

Arian Flores is goofy but dashing as the bewildered Alcippe who gets caught in the middle of Dorantes fabrications. His sidekick/second, Philiste, is nicely turned out by Matt Brennan.

Rounding out the cast is Will Bonfiglio as Dorante's amiable but gullible father, family friendly Geronte.

The cast looks spectacular in Alexandra Sargent Capps enchanting costumes, which are also extremely amusing. Like other elements of this production, they celebrate the meeting of the eras and dance magically on Amanda Sweger's three tiered patisserie of a set. In fact, one reason to catch university productions such as this one is that young designers and the faculty who mentor them enjoy a level of artistic opportunity that they will, unfortunately, rarely find in the "real world" - either because of budgetary limitations or other barriers that seem to be a fact of life.

THE LIAR has no sensible moral or social message - it's all about the magnificence of language and what we can do with it when we want to tickle the mind. So avail yourself of this carnival of words, get over to Vanderbilt and take in this butterfly of a show. I would particularly recommend this experience to high school aged students of theatre and acting - you'll learn as much about both here as you would putting in a semester at the Yale Drama School.

Mostly, be prepared to laugh: academically speaking, THE LIAR is a hoot.

Please click the post's title to visit Vanderbilt University's Theatre home page.

Come to Nashville and Go to the Theatre.

Jaz Dorsey
AAPEX Dramaturg
The Nashville Dramaturgy Project

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR at Vanderbilt U (Nashville)

Preview by Jaz Dorsey

Lesbians, sociopaths and malignant morality dominate the stage, and femininity is betrayed, in Jon Hallquist's production of THE CHILDREN'S HOUR at Vanderbilt.

Lilian Hellman is my favorite playwright of her generation - Jewish and Southern, from New Orleans, she shoots from the hip and, while she personifies independence, her life long affair with Dashiell Hammet is one of the great love stories of the existential age. THE CHILDREN'S HOUR is a play about women that no man could ever have written, a play about lesbianism that premiered in 1934, when it was actually illegal in New York to deal with the subject of homosexuality in the theatre, Lilian Hellman was an early harbinger of edginess on the American Stage.

The script has some challenges for the contemporary actor. For one thing, even though the language is basically contemporary, it's also bizarrely archaic - it's something about the sentence structure. And it's a "drama" in the pure sense of the word as it was understood in the days of O'Neill, Williams and Miller. It can make you uncomfortable, but it's the kind of discomfort that comes with a scandal and scandal can be very addictive.

My mentor, who was a set designer, taught me this - to have great theatre you need great actors with a great script in the right costumes, and the first thing I want to commend here is the costumes. The identical girls school uniforms are kind of creepy in a Wednesday Adams-esque way and the rest of the characters all looked like they got up and dressed themselves on the morning in question.

The next thing my mentor taught me was that you need physical things onstage that speak to the world of the play. Hallquist's version, set "in the round" involves some lovely furniture pieces which bring a kind of Gothic feel to the evening. There are also old timey radios which are meant to be the source of the unusual soundtrack and, as these radios are spotlighted at the end of scenes, there presence adds to the mystery of the voices that haunt the people in this place. The female vocal version of I CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU comes off like something you might have heard in a 50s lesbian bar, had there been such a thing.

The first act belongs to Madeline Mooney, who is truly off her meds as Mary Tilford. Mooney finesses every wicked turn in Mary's machinations and manipulations. Carly Schwartz pipes in with equal fervor as Mary's minion Rosalie and the scene where Mary blackmails Rosalie in front of everyone else may well just be one of my favorite theatre moments of all time.

As Martha Dobie, Madeline Fansler has some very Meryl Streep qualities. Her performance is the one that tears your heart out.

In the heterosexual corner of the love triangle, Nicole Williams and Nathan Rose are nicely matched as a pair of lovers caught up in a long term betrothal that just won't seem to culminate in a wedding before it's too late.

Because of her youth and loveliness, it took me a moment to adjust to Charlotte Otremba as the grandmother, but she grew on me. Sarah Corapi as Agatha (Grandmother's housekeeper) is kinda scary.

Beau Bassewitz has a sharp turn as a licentious grocery boy and Laura Winston is over the top as Mrs. Lily Mortar, teacher of elocution.

To the young actresses who flush out the student populations of the girls school, I would say that you make lovely 5th graders.

To learn more about the Vanderbilt University theatre program, please click the post's title.

AAPEX's GOD BLESS THE CHILD opens 2/16 at Vanderbilt U (Nashville)

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Madam C.J. Walker image courtesy of

A'Lelia Bundles/Walker Family/madamcjwalker.com

Dr. Lewis V. Baldwin's MLK Vanderbilt U Lectures 1/26 & 2/2, 9, 16 (Nashville)

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