The Zeitgeist Stage Company really hit one out of the park on their last production of the season, Beau Willimon’s Farragut North.  I have enjoyed each production that Zeitgeist has offered this season, but the impeccable acting, riveting story, and thoughtful use of staging put this show in a class all of it’s own.  I cannot begin to express how exciting and professional this production was.

Farragut North is a full speed chase.  Brilliant and young Stephen is on the fast track to political stardom; he is a gifted press secretary with panache and fortitude and he’ll stop at nothing to win the presidential race for his client.  When the opposing side approaches him the night before an extremely important caucus and offers him a job, it leads to a downward spiral he never could have anticipated.  The play runs like the best episode of the West Wing.  Full of huge characters and even bigger stakes, the audience is taken on a breathless journey into the cut-throat climate of Washington D.C. during an election.

This production can boast the best uses of the small BCA black-box theatre for the season.  The set was streamlined, tasteful, and inventive.  I especially liked the simple light changes used to wash the white glass wall units, they created a whole new feel for each scene without sloppily changing furniture or set pieces.  Daniel Jentzen should be proud of how effective his light design was.

Victor Shopov played the lead with poise and natural instincts; his portrayal of Stephen was absolutely spot on.  He had impeccable chemistry, whether it was with the tenacious and willful Molly (played with sophistication by Caitlyn Conley), the quirky and confident Ida (Dakota Shepard) or Stephen’s no-nonsense boss, Paul (Peter Brown).  I was not disappointed as I watched him go from top dog to in the dog house because he played each moment with the utmost realism.  Joining Shopov, Conley held her own as the young intern whose romantic exploits fanned the political fire of the piece.  She had a very natural stage presence and was hard to look away from, even when she was in pantomime.  Shepard played Ida, the hard-hitting reporter whose pleasant demeanor hides a real nose for rooting out a story.  She was great.  Her pacing really helped to pull the cast through some difficult and cerebral dialog sections and she didn’t trip over a single word.  I also enjoyed the stand out performance of Brown as Paul Zara.  The confrontation between Brown and Shopov was so electric that the whole audience was on the edge of its seat waiting for the next verbal blow. “Loyalty,” he spat, as if the very word was a bullet, “without it you’re nothing. In politics it’s the only currency that matters.”  That line echoed perfectly in the efforts of Zach Winton in his role as Ben Fowles.  The only character that exhibited true loyalty throughout the show, you see him rise through the ranks, ultimately taking Stephen’s place.  Winton was completely believable as the passionate and assured young speechwriter.  The cast as a whole (Bill Salem and Andres Rey Solorzano rounded them out, each nailing their characters) worked together seamlessly and had a united energy that was infectious.  They were able, as a unit, to move the story as effortlessly as if we were watching a well-cut feature film.   I was really delighted.

The Zeitgeist Stage Company has really left their mark on the Boston Theatre scene.   As their 10^th anniversary season approaches, I can say with confidence that they have carved out a very special niche in the south end, and their presence cannot be ignored.  The caliber of actors and their thoughtful and progressive eye on play selection leaves them in a very good place to take on a new decade of sharing their works with the community.  I commend them on a job well done this season and look forward to what 2010-11 has to offer.

Farragut_North_10 (L to R):  Victor Shopov, Dakota Shepard, Peter Brown, & Zach Winston in Zeitgeist Stage’s production of Farragut North.

Photo:  Richard Hall/Silverline Images

The Zeitgeist Stage Company has yet again transformed the intimate BCA Black Box into a unique playing space for their winter production, Alan Ayckbourn’s Private Fears in Public Places.  Part apartment, part office, part hotel bar, the thrust-style space is fully explored by the actors, hiding and highlighting different interactions for different areas in the audience.  It only heightened the sense of mystery we felt as the character’s stories and relationships unfold around us.

Private Fears in Public Places is a brief slice of life that follows six lonely souls as they strive to make connections with the world around them- not realizing how interconnected they already are.  Running throughout their stories is a vein of darkness that may keep them from achieving their dreams. Not your typical love and loss story, the show isn’t always clear about who we should believe.  Does sullen Dan, on the verge of serious alcoholism, drink from fear of failure or to escape from a loveless relationship?  Does sweet and innocent Charlotte plot sexual games with her friends and coworkers to keep her entertained or is she reaching out in desperation for help from a crushing addiction?  Is soft-spoken, mild mannered Ambrose hiding a life of homosexuality from his ailing father or merely focusing his attention on his work to hide his fear of losing him?  No real answers are ever given in this one act play, set up in short vignettes, giving the audience bursts of story that take us right to the edge of comprehension before swinging us right back into the blurred confusion of their solitary and tragic lives.

Zeitgeist’s cast of six include company regulars, Michael Steven Costello, Christine Power, Bill Salem, Becca A. Lewis, and Robert Bonotto, and introduced newcomer Shelley Brown.  Bonotto’s pained and nervous depiction of Stewart was excellent, as was Brown’s heartbreaking portrayal of a lonely spinster looking for love in the personal ads. They were both at home on the stage and had an eerily comfortable family dynamic.  I enjoyed Power and Costello’s chemistry as Dan and Nicola, as well as the fun and funny bar scene that Brown and Costello shared.  Salem’s sensitive treatment of Ambrose was a fresh breath after the heavy and intense scenes surrounding him.  The knockout performance of the night came from Lewis in her interpretation of Charlotte.  Besides her spot-on British accent (the hands down best in the cast), her stage presence was spectacular.  You could not help but look at her even when she was not the focus of the scene.  While I credit the playwright with giving her the most provocative character, I credit Lewis for her nuance.  The performers were, overall, solid and committed, and I enjoyed them as a unit as well as individually.

I’m not quite sure, though, if I enjoyed the production as a whole.  Ayckbourn’s script leaves a lot of questions unanswered and doesn’t lay the foundation for the audience to fill in the answers on their own.  Director David J. Miller chose to include the use of British accents for the whole cast (the show was originally produced in the UK) but the cast could only pull this off with varying degrees of expertise, which continuously pulled me out of the story.  Though it was technically sound and the actors and actresses gave clean and thoughtful performances, it lacked the wow factor that I have come to expect from Zeitgeist productions. Overall a solid, but not spectacular, production.

Bill Salem and Michael Steven Costello Photo by Richard Hall/Silverline Images

It’s a time-honored tradition for the All American Male.  Grab a few buddies, a trusty canine, a few beers, a bag of beef jerky, and head out into the woods for a guys only retreat.  Craig Wright’s Lady is a peek into one such excursion- where childhood friends Kenny, Dyson and Graham, along with Kenny’s dog, Lady, head out into the Illinois forest to bond- only one of them doesn’t make it out alive.

This surprising One Act play takes the audience on a trip that has a lot at stake, and hopes we will hang on for the ride- I did.  The dense, cerebral, material (more than half of the show is a heated political argument) was well matched with a touch of comedy and a dash of good, old-fashioned, fight choreography.

What starts off as the frame-work for a manly good time quickly takes a turn to the dark side when we see how much baggage the characters have brought with them, far more than could fit in their little backpacks.  Kenny’s wife is dying and his method of coping is stealing her medical marijuana for his own use, Dyson’s son is about to enlist, and Dyson blames buddy Graham for his son’s sudden patriotic fervor.  Graham is a local politician, one who is slowly blurring party lines in the wake of September 11^th.  Though Kenny and Dyson were key players on Graham’s original campaign, they suddenly stop seeing eye-to-eye when Graham goes on record as supporting George W. Bush in his war, a man that Dyson calls “the stupidest man on the planet”.  Tempers flare as the scene plays out into the night.

The Zeitgeist Stage Company put together a great cast to take this trip into the woods with.  Michael Steven Costello as Kenny was goofy and lighthearted.  He gave Kenny a wonderful innocence and loyalty, almost as if he were playing the dog character himself.  When his dog is mistakenly shot in the second act (sorry to let the cat-out-of-the-bag, so to speak) I had tears not just in my eyes, but full out streaming down my cheeks.  Call me an animal lover, but his reaction was real; his emotion was palpable.  In my opinion he had the hardest character of all, having the inability to hide behind fighting and anger to touch the audience.  He was very good.  Craig Houk was an absolute powerhouse as Dyson.  Full of anger, tension, and entitlement, he shot through every scene and every intention with clarity and machismo.  He was the epitome of “butch”.  Brett Marks joined the players in the second scene as Graham and I found him to be the perfect balance between Houk and Costello.  He was regal, powerful and gentle, delivering his lines boldly but with perfect justification. He seems to be a bit younger than the other two actors but you couldn’t tell at all.  He certainly rose to the occasion.   Houk and Marks deliver a breath-taking fight scene, literally, I was holding my breath the whole time the two men wrestled on the ground in front of me.  There is no question that fight choreography by Meron Langsner completed the reality of this “world” for me- and it was exceptionally executed.  The intimate play space was lit charmingly by Jeffery Weed and the set was woodsy and inviting.  I loved the touch of realism added when Kenny starts digging a whole and doesn’t have to pantomime it.  David Miller’s design was thorough and I appreciated it.

Lady was my first opportunity to review a Zeitgeist production, and I am a fan.  The whole group was professional and friendly, and though they are a fringe company, offered nothing but a completely professional experience, from design to correspondence.  I look forward to having the opportunity to view their upcoming season, Private Fears in Public Spaces by Alan Ayckbourn (Tony Award winning writer from 2009!) is next on the docket.

Dyson confronts Graham.