Tobacco Road

Fool for Love

Dark Dark House

Pat's Picks

When dem Cotton Balls Get Rotten…. 

THE SHOW: Tobacco Road, a 1933 dramatization (adapted by Jack Kirkland) of the 1932 novel by Erskine Caldwell. The Broadway production ran for eight years (3182 performances). It was revived on Broadway twice in the next two years, bringing its total early run to nearly a decade (1933-1943).

The 1941 film, with its comic tone and changes to the original plotline, was directed by John Ford and advertised as the picture “brought to you by the men who gave you ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’” The play was shocking when it premiered; no one thought that, during the Great Depression, audiences would want to watch the plight of the poor. But it proved intriguing and long-lasting, and remains the second longest-running drama in Broadway history. Times have changed (or have they?); the piece has rarely been revived in the past 50 years.

 

 

10-8-08 

When you first walk into the theatre you see a chess work type platform and a transparent chair.  Video footage covers the walls of the stage.  Bash is now playing at Ion Theatre. 

There are three different little plays within this piece.  The first is the story of a businessman who finds out that he might loose his job, so takes out his feelings on one of his children.  The second told the relationship between a teacher and a student.  The third was about a couple and the secrets kept about their rather evil lives.  

Actors Brian Mackey (left) and Rachael VanWormer (right) worked through difficult subject matter always changing drastically with the different people they each played.  Two of the shows were long soliloquies, but the third was combined between the two actors interjecting and jumping into the story, which was the most effective.

The checkerboard set was designed by Glenn Paris giving the show an interrogation like feel with lights designed by Claudio Raygoza.  The video streaming was superb, first lighting up the character in a circle, which would gradually grow larger on the person when first introduced.  The video would change to the different settings described by the stories, designed by Claudio Raygoza.  Glenn Paris also designed the costumes and Claudio Raygoza designed the sound. 

Directed by Glenn Paris, the show was well done, except for the subject matter.  All the stories were just downer, the first two were just unbearable to watch, and the third, about beating up a gay person was horrid.  But then there is an existential debate we get into.  Should theatre not be recommended if you couldn’t stand to sit in the seat?  Or, should theatre tell this story because the audience is forced to sit still and watch and there is a message to reveal?  Whatever the case, Bash certainly caught my attention.  It really made me think about the problems in the stories and to try to figure out if I loved or hated this piece.  But ultimately it made me do what it was set out for, to think.  Thinking about the show, Ion may have chosen this piece to bring the ideas and suffering to the forefront of our thoughts, to understand a problem that is happening.  Now this idea of enlightenment works with the third play, but the first two are just terrible situations and horrid retellings.  Maybe we have to be enlightened on these problems, but I am just not sure if there a single thing we as a civilization could do to prevent these events from occurring that we have not already tried.  I was so frustrated sitting there, watching all three shows, but that may have been the point. 

Concluding, I won’t tell you that I liked or hated the show.  It just made me think.  The piece is one large Socratic question; so if you feel up to that challenge, go.  Otherwise, don’t bother.  Playing in Rep with Bash is another Ion Production, In A Dark Dark House.  To find out more information you can go to iontheatre.com or call (619) 374-6894.

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