Marquis’ ‘Madwoman’ Has Its Lucid Moments

Fools and madmen tell commonly truth.

--Robert Burton

“The Anatomy of Melancholy”

In a world gone mad, it is the mad upon whom we sometimes rely to see things clearly. That is the underlying thought in Jean Giraudoux’s “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” in which a tribunal of madwomen, aided by a ragpicker, defend Paris against a group of speculators determined to rip up the streets of the city in search of oil.

The play was produced posthumously in 1945, at a time when the world had never seemed crazier. Still, the issue of defending land that belongs to all people against the greed of the wealthy few is as relevant today as it was then.

It seems fitting that the play is being staged by the small (99-seat) Marquis Public Theater, which, like the madwoman herself, always operates on the scantiest of budgets. As in the successful production of “Six Characters in Search of an Author” earlier this season, intelligent direction by Minerva Marquis and a fervor of feeling from the cast summon sparks from an uneven array of talent.

The title role of the Madwoman of Chaillot lends itself to a mythic representation. Unfortunately, although Ann Richardson is winning in the part, she is never larger than life. Similarly, as her fellow madwomen of Passy and St. Sulpice, Bonnie Dillingham and Linda Anderson capture only glimmers of the fire that should burn like a light in a boarded-up house of worship, conveying a sense of values in a time that has none.

But as they move with dignity, proud of their faded and flowing finery of feathers and fake pearls, all succeed in capturing the sweet naivete and gentle, self-effacing humor that makes one care about the world they are fighting to protect. Robert Larsen, as the Ragpicker, is their worthy knight.

Heading the dark forces in the opposite camp are the wonderfully unapologetic J. Paul Moretto as the prospector, H. D. Argenbright as the millionaire company president and Robert McKenna--all decayed elegance--as the Baron, the newly recruited (and corrupted) member of the team. Janine Lowe does a lovely turn as Irma, a potential madwoman in training, and Robert Himlin is every bit her match as the ingenuous young Pierre, with whom she falls in love.

The set design by Nancy McNaught Levinson contributes to a gentle, soft-focus ambiance as a nicely detailed array of curving gray surfaces moves neatly from a cozy cafe setting to the Madwoman of Chaillot’s dungeon-like cellar. The lighting and sound by Ellery J. Brown smoothly usher in the change of set, and the musical selections from Alexander Haas and Albert Hague help build the magically romantic mood.

One would have to be crazy, as the Madwoman of Chaillot is, to think that anyone can set the world right in the space of an afternoon. But it is nevertheless fine to see so much set right at the Marquis in the space of an evening.

Performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 7 p.m. Sundays through July 3 at the Marquis Public Theater, 3717 India St., San Diego.

Those who caught the Little Boots production of Edward Albee’s “Zoo Story” last year at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse got a chance to see this brilliant one-act play done right.

Those who waited for the Marquis Gallery Theater to do the show would do well to let this production pass and catch the next one--anywhere.

The best thing about the show is the set design by Paty Sipes, a detailed depiction of wisps of greenery poking through paving in Central Park.

The worst thing is the all-important dynamic in this two person-play. Whether the fault lies at the door of the actors or in Steven Soden’s direction, wrong it most certainly is.

Todd O’Keefe is far too young to portray the unruffled middle-class comfortableness of Peter. And Mark C. Petrich, who did a fine, forceful job as the drag queen in “Bent” at the Bowery Theatre, creates a Gerry so strong that the character’s ultimate self-destructiveness strains all belief.

“Zoo Story” plays as part of a double bill with “The Conquest of Everest” by Arthur Kopit. If Kopit has ever turned in a manuscript that deserved to be burned, this is it.

Indeed, his very release of this dated, embarrassing and offensive material is a mystery, unless it is just another sad example of the triumph of royalty greed over self-respect.

Julie Jerzewski provides the one fresh-faced and charming note as young Miss Almanside, who climbs Mt. Everest with Mr. Almanstar, a fellow traveler from a tour group. Their courtship is the stuff that necessitates the creation of words like cutesy-pooh.

The author’s reflections on their love has all the depth of a Hallmark card. Putting these words in the mouth of Gary Awe, a non-Chinese speaking in the caricatured accent of a Chinese soldier, lends the play its final racially offensive touch.

Performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 7 p.m. Sundays through June 5 at the Marquis Gallery Theater, 3717 India St., San Diego.

There are few favorites as stalwart as “Fiddler on the Roof,” the musical adapted from Sholem Aleichem’s stories about Tevye, a poor dairyman struggling, through humor, to survive the dual tribulations of being a Jew in hostile turn-of-the-century Russia and the oft-challenged father of five headstrong daughters.

The enthusiastic applause that greeted the current United States International University production of “Fiddler” on opening night can largely be attributed to a triumph of material over production.

Musical director Kerry Duse and vocal director Roy Mote pull strong work out of the chorus and many, though not all, of the leads. The acting stresses charm at the expense of conveying the gritty harshness of the times.

The disappointments begin with visiting artist Lee Pelty as Tevye and trickle down to the USIU cast. The only other visiting artist, Priscilla Allen, offered a double liability as Tevye’s wife, Golde, falling down on the vocal and acting demands and looking generally uncomfortable throughout.

The best part of the direction by David Larson is the staging that shows Tevye’s community of Anatevka disappearing magically into a black box behind the theater, as suddenly as the communities that Aleichem wrote about vanished through the door of history.

Only at that moment does the show become more than an opportunity to play old favorites like “Sunrise, Sunset” and become, instead, a piece of work that plays on the old heartstrings.

Performances at 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays through June 12, with a 2 p.m. matinee June 5. At The Theatre in Old Town, 4040 Twiggs St., San Diego.