Return to AARO 95-96
"Duel Pardoning" is a taut psychological drama that hits hard, hits fast, and throws a few curves in the process. It is solid and impressive theatre.
The Edge Project is a resident group of playwrights at various levels of learning their craft, working with a base of performers also involved in an acting workshop. Their offerings have always been hit or miss, with several solid performances and a few duds mixed in.
Brenda Edwards, a nine-year veteran of both the acting and writing sides of the project, is one of their long-time standards, and opened their season with a play that indicates the progression of her learning through her years with the group. While there are a few moments where this original script drags, overall, this psychological prison drama is a solid and entertaining mind game which has the benefit not just of a great script, but awesome direction, interwoven performances and a great visual use of the small blackbox space.
Jere Luisi has directed the three impressive actors to use their double-edged dialogue like weapons. He has blocked them through the spartan and foreboding jail cell set in a choreographed dance of strike and retreat. With the use of a painted line on a floor seperating a desk and chair from a stool, surrounded on all sides by one-way mirrors, industrial doors and aluminum bars, Mr. Luisi has created an arena where the two contestants, a clinical psychologist and her subject, a convicted murderer, poke and probe at each other, feeling each other out for weaknesses. Balancing this bizarre dance is the relationship between the genius/murderer and his friend, a slimy and base jailmate.
As Linda, the relentless psychologist, Michelle Konevich gives a spectacular performance. She has the rare quality of establishing her character as much through her silences and reactions as through her sharpened questions and responses. Raymond Shurtz does very well as Don, her brilliant societal outcast patient. Their dialogue together is often delivered with the staccatto accuracy of a tommy gun. There were some moments where Shurtz faltered in his physicallizations and second act dialogue, but never enough to irrevocably break the fluid pacing the two had developed. Tonny Trapasso's Cain, Don's fellow jailbird, gives a calibanian performance that is at once disgusting and intriguing. The script is full of points and counterpoints, and is constructed very meticulously, allowing the actors to shine.
Messrs. Shurtz', Trapasso's and Luisi's set and lighting design added even more levels to the production, though some of the color choices may have been a bit too arty and others too obvious. Considering the facilities available, though, this is a very minor quibble.
The script ran into a small bit of trouble at the conclusion, where more time may have been taken after the twists had been revealed, but the emotional height that Ms. Edwards had brought the script to almost compensated for that extended finish. As polished as this script was, there were still a few minutes of dialogue that could have been pared and still retained the momentum and tension of the piece. Also, there are two specific literary allusions integral to the plot that could give the audience trouble if they are not familiar with them. Considering the drama that this script generates, though, these few hitches are more than compensated for by the oneupmanship these three characters take part in.
Despite the show being a general downer, there is so much interesting happening on so many different levels that make this show a must-see before it disappears again.
Production Details:
The Edge Project
Playwright's Workshop Theatre, Phoenix
279-5151
March 15th -April 14th, 1996
Return to AARO 95-96