These plays had a short run earlier in October, but I enjoyed them and want to let folks know about them so you can catch them the next time they come around or the next time you get a chance to see something by these playwrights or certainly the next time you get a chance to see a PPA Alumni Theatre Company production.
Called A Chilling Night of One Acts, the two were sort of an anticipation of Halloween soon to come.
Obviously from the title, e.k. doolin’s “Waiting for Hecate” is delightfully stuffed with references to things theatrical and otherwise. Unlike that other Waiting, this one has three characters, not just two. They are women, not men. They do not appear to be tramps.
We know more about Hecate than about Godot. She was one of the Olympian goddesses, variously associated with crossroads, entrance-ways, night, light, magic, protection from witchcraft, the Moon, knowledge of herbs and poisonous plants, graves, ghosts, necromancy, and sorcery. Shakespeare found her useful in the more limited form of his day, discarding the positive aspects, as the object of worship of the witches in Macbeth and similar references in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Lear. I suspect that this is the Hecate that the play’s women are waiting for, in part because one of the women is named “Malkie” and one “Paddy,” which somewhat echo two of Macbeth’s witches, “Graymalkin” and “Paddock,” and they all obey Hecate.
For the third woman, Harper, I have found no Shakespearean relevance, but, at least in the Alumni production, she seems the smartest of the three and is surrounded by books and is reading one of them, Macbeth. Paddy’s intellectual interests take a while to develop as she is concentrating initially on chewing gum and on annoying Harper’s attempts to read by popping the gum as loudly as possible. Malkie, patting her hair and hairpieces around her, wants to have a cat. Wants to be a cat. Maybe she becomes one by the end. If these three waiting for Hecate are also witches, she seems to be the most likely to be one. Or at least a witch’s cat. But very gentle and sleeping a lot.
As Malkie sleeps, Paddy insists on talking, and Harper puts her book down. They are interesting to listen to as they discuss witches, good witches and bad witches and demons and the Piasa Bird and Mark Twain. And as they talk, Paddy more than holds her own in the conversation, growing more knowledgeable, it would seem, even more intelligent. They are almost as good as Vladimir and Estragon at keeping themselves, and us, entertained, thanks to the cleverness of their two playwrights, e.k. doolin and Samuel Beckett.
Did Hecate reward their waiting? Maybe, maybe not. Who’s to say?
Director Rachel Tibbetts guided the actors, Summer Baer as Malkie, Autumn Hales as Harper, and Katie Leemon as Paddy, perched on large plinth-like boxes, to their rich performances, with costumes designed by Liz Henning and lighting by Technical Director Michael Musgrave-Perkins.
The second one-act, “The Privilege of Being Second,” by Eric Satterfield & David Nonemaker, must be discussed with care because of the great risk of spoilers.
The play is set in a city (or country) that has passed a law that families may have only one son. If they have a second, that child must be yielded to the government, to what fate is not clear. As the tension builds, that fate might be death, and perhaps also the death of the parents. Camille and John Winter have a second son. He is now of high-school age, but he has never left the house. If this strains credulity, trust the playwrights and the actors to help you suspend your disbelief for the length of the play, though you may be asking questions later.
LaWanda Jackson and Eric Satterfield played the parents, very loving parents, carefully providing an education for Alexander Huber’s Reese and a comfortable and fulfilling life. While envious of his older brother Wyatt, played with some brotherly care and concern by Andre Eslamian, Reese is less resentful than one might expect. Satterfield doubles – sort of – as Lt. Elliot Graham of the local police, come to check up on the rumors that a second son has been spotted at the Winter residence. This reinforces the need for Reese to be doubly careful of what he does.
Coincidentally, Albion Theatre just opened Mindgame, another play mined with spoilers that turns everything upside down at the end. It, too, makes for fascinating theatre and, afterwards, for pleasure in picking out the holes you now see in its logic.
Satterfield directed, as well as wrote and acted in, “The Privilege of Being Second,” carefully guiding the actors and us around the holes. Summer Baer was the Stage Manager, Liz Henning again the Costume Designer, and Michael Musgrave-Perkins again the Lighting Designer and Technical Director. Ryan Lawson-Maeske was the Fight Choreographer and Rachel Tibbetts the Intimacy Coordinator.
I always appreciate companies finding room for a couple of good one-acts.
—Bob Wilcox
