By Pat Craig
02/03/10
Contra Costa Times
If you have any knowledge of acting and how it's done,
you find yourself at first mesmerized by the sheer craft of Shannon
Koob's bravura solo performance in Pamela Gien's The Syringa Tree.
The slender woman in a flowing blue dress (by costume
designer Elizabeth Eisloeffel) turns the intimate tale of South Africa,
under the apartheid of the early '60s to the first democratic elections
in 1994, into an athletic ballet where she dances and rapidly inhabits
28 different characters, sometimes changing in mid-sentence.
To up the ante, Koob plays characters that are both
black and white, speak a variety of dialects and languages and range
in age from very young to extremely old. The play runs an hour and 40
minutes, Koob is on stage the entire time, and there's not a drink of
water in sight.
The story is a meandering reminiscence, told mainly
from the perspective of Elizabeth Grace, first as an energetic 6-year-old
and finally as a grown woman with a baby of her own. Her circle of friends
includes the black servants in her home, particularly Salamina, who
is charged with looking after her, and Moliseng, Salamina's young daughter.
There is also the family next door, headed by The Dominee,
a minister who is the father of another friend, Loeska. The Dominee
(the Afrikaans' word for minister) spends a lot of his non-praying time
looking out to make sure everyone is obeying the laws of apartheid,
and is eager to tell the authorities of any infractions.
The evil and violent specter of apartheid is ever present
and close to the surface — even little children are aware of it in Elizabeth's
world. But the horrors of the outside world play only a menacing counterpoint
to the story at hand — the love, friendship and troubles of people living
in close proximity under not the greatest of conditions.
Director Michael Evan Haney has the story unfold at
a gentle pace, even though Koob is working like a sprinter to convey
all the characters. What Koob does, however, is create realistic characterizations
of even the smallest role, with a facial expressions, body posture or
even a way of walking.
Narelle Sissons' set for The Syringa Tree
is a simple affair that establishes various playing areas rather than
specific furnishing and constructions. The back wall of the set appears
to be large panels of rusting metal and an enormous rock pile in one
corner that represent, rather than portray, the neighborhood. The only
real set piece is a large wooden swing suspended from the ceiling on
a pair of sturdy ropes.
Many of the effects are created with lighting (designed
by James Sale) and sound (by Chuck Hatcher).
The arrival of The Syringa Tree Tuesday night
was another addition to a remarkably rich collection of theater offerings
by area companies: Center Rep already has another winner with A
Number, also at the Lesher Center. Diablo Actor's Ensemble has
a mighty production of Educating Rita in its small theater
down Locust Street from the Lesher Center, and The Willows Theatre is
producing the musical drama, Brimstone, in its Martinez cabaret
space, the Campbell Theatre on Ward Street.
By Leeanne Jones
02/03/10
www.diablomag.com
Diablo’s can’t-miss events of the coming
week:
Center REP presents The Syringa Tree; Pleasanton’s Truffles,
Tidbits, and Wine Tasting; Girls Night Out at Blackhawk Plaza; Smuin
Ballet’s Fly Me to the Moon; and the Lunar New Year Bazaar.
The Super Bowl isn’t the only hot event happening this
week. Check out an incredible one-woman show, a wine stroll through
downtown Pleasanton, girls night out in Blackhawk Plaza, a Frank Sinatra
ballet, and a street party to welcome the Year of the Tiger. Here are
your Top Tickets…
Through February 27: The Syringa Tree Center
REP presents Pamela Gien’s 2001 Obie Award–winning play about two families
in 1960’s South Africa—one black, one white, and the two children that
are born into their shared household. Astoundingly, all 28 roles are
played by one actress: Shannon Koob. Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601
Civic Dr., Walnut Creek, $18–$41, (925) 943-7469, lesherartscenter.org.
Solo plays are always risky – if the performer in
question fails to connect with the script or the audience, the result
can be a very long night indeed. The strength of The Syringa Tree,
which opened Feb. 2 in a captivating Center REPertory Company production,
is that Shannon Koob, playing 28 roles in Pamela Gien’s Obie Award-winning
drama, breathes life into all of them. If her performance, which morphs
through characters young, old, black, white, English, Afrikaans and
others, never quite makes you forget that’s she’s the only actor onstage,
she manages to create a distinct identity for each. That’s accomplishment
enough in this moving coming-of-age story set in South Africa.
The play’s principal character and engaging narrator
is Elizabeth. Six years old when the story begins, she’s the picture
of white privilege. Her overworked physician dad and harried, often
depressed housewife mother have insulated Elizabeth and her brother,
John, from the injustices of apartheid. Cared for by her beloved nanny,
Salamina, Elizabeth spends her days playing under the estate’s enormous
syringa tree – a symbol of security and shelter, as well as history
– with Salamina’s daughter, Moliseng, comfortable in the belief that
their mutual affection makes them equals.
If the story is about the end of that dream, it’s
also about the changes in South Africa itself. By the end of the 105-minute
production, the Soweto riots have happened, apartheid has ended, and
racial violence has claimed the lives of a number of Elizabeth’s family
and friends. Now a young woman, Elizabeth has moved to California, married
and had a child of her own. A return visit supplies a somber coda, as
she faces the extent of her losses, and begins to comprehend what still
remains.
Gien’s script is a marvel of narrative and nuance.
The playwright grew up in South Africa – two of the characters are named
for her grandparents – and her writing is filled with sensory memories:
the smell of thunderstorms, the taste of candy “sweets” eaten on the
back porch, the smoothness of mud floors on bare feet. Director Michael
Evan Haney gives the play an evocative staging on Narelle Sissons’ rusty
metal-and-rock set; James Sale’s lighting, Elizabeth Eisloffel’s costumes
and Chuck Hatcher’s sound designs provide apt enhancement.
Gien also has a keen ear for the voices of her South
African characters – children, servants, a prim schoolmistress, a disapproving
preacher, an English-speaking black nurse who’s “more white than white.”
Koob’s mercurial performance captures them all in deft strokes. But
it’s her articulate, endlessly kinetic Elizabeth, telling much of the
story from the vantage point of a rope swing suspended from the title
tree, who proves an irresistible presence. If “The Syringa Tree” is
a love letter to Gien’s childhood, Elizabeth makes an ardent messenger.
Pamela Gien's The Syringa Tree continues in a Center
REPertory Company production, through Feb. 27 at the Lesher Center for
the Arts in Walnut Creek. 105 minutes, without intermission. For info:
925-943-7469, or go online.
