| Gemini Cricket |
05-16-2009 01:10 PM |
A review came in this morning for the show.
Quote:
'Duck Hunter' a good time, with a twist'
By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Special to The Advertiser
"Duck Hunter Shoots Angel" doesn't walk the line between reality and sensational tabloid journalism, it tromps and dances across it, trailing bits from both worlds until it's hard to determine where that line might have been.
Take the half-man, half-alligator, for instance. He's a silent figure with a remarkably expressive papier maché crocodile grin that slips in and out of the action like an attentive butler, giving a shave or a back massage. Gator Man (Vincent Fitzgerald) is the physical manifestation of a story invented to sell newspapers at the supermarket checkout stand, but he's also an accepted part of the action.
While the audience is concentrating on realism, fantasy elements creep in at the edges, like the pair of duck hunters who believe they have shot down an angel because they keep finding pieces of her in a swamp.
They're a pair of good ol' country boys — Duane (pronounced do-wayne) and Duwell (do-well) — played by Jim Tharp and Braddoc DeCaires for all the broad laughs they can scoop up. Duwell is the gullible brother and the butt of Duane's sarcasm. "The wheels are turning," scoffs Duane as Duwell concentrates hard on collecting a thought, "But the hamster died."
With these two providing chorus, the job of creating melody goes to Scott Francis Russell as a New York reporter sent south to cover the angel story — or to invent it. Turns out he's packing his own history, revealed as the memory of the Woman (Chantelle Sawa) he loved and left behind.
Playwright Mitch Albom — whose "Tuesdays With Morrie" played successfully at MVT earlier this season — eventually pulls all the story threads together into a surprise ending. Along the way, he noticeably links dialogue by repeating the closing words of the ending scene in the first lines of the one that follows.
The action is tightly managed by director Paul Mitri and played out on Karen Archibald's realistic stage set filled with large swamp trees. But to see them, we spend the evening peering through a large scrim that is used only rarely for projections.
Some of the heartfelt emotion that is found so generously in "Tuesdays With Morrie" spills over into "Angel," primarily when the reporter retreats into memory from his everyday pose of hard-bitten cynicism. But the play exists primarily for laughs based on character idiosyncrasies and absurd exaggeration.
It's a good time capped by an unexpected switch.
|
Source
The other article already went into the Hon Adv's "pay to read it" archives. Darn it.
ETA: But here it is anyway! ;)
Quote:
May 8, 2009
Theology — and humor — with a 12-gauge
By Dave Dondoneau
TGIF Editor
There may be an underlying message in the name of the character Braddoc DeCaires plays in "Duck Hunter Shoots Angel," Manoa Valley Theatre's latest stage production, opening Thursday.
DeCaires plays Duwell (pronounced DO-well), one of two bumbling Alabama brothers who believe they shot a celestial being.
That neither Duwell nor brother Duwayne have ever shot anything before is part of the excitement. Both are unemployed and hunt daily, so when they see what they think is a duck dropping from the sky, they celebrate.
And when they see what they shot laying on the ground has a long robe, blonde hair and huge wings — they contemplate their fate and which shooter will be in trouble for bringing down the alleged angel.
Along the way they're joined by a cynical tabloid journalist and photographer who don't believe anything until feathers, wings and a tiara are discovered.
"There's a good vibe with this show," DeCaires said. "The cast is funny. My character, we think, may have a psychic connection with the angel, so maybe 'DOwell' is a tip on his character. It's all part of the story, which is very funny. My brother Duwayne (Jim Tharp) is a cross between Elmer Fudd and Dick Cheney."
"Duck Hunter Shoots Angel," is a play written by Mitch Albom, who also penned MVT's last production "Tuesdays with Morrie."
This one is much different. Instead of basically a two-man play like "Tuesdays," "Ducks" has eight characters. And while the "Tuesdays" set was basically a bed or chair, "Ducks" drops theater patrons into the Alabama backwoods and swamp.
It's a comedy with an underlying message.
"It makes you think and it makes you laugh," DeCaires said. "To me, everybody's idea of faith is different, just like your own fingerprint."
In real life, DeCaires said he doesn't know if he could ever hunt.
"The one time I thought about it, I was fly-fishing and a deer came into the stream, a 14- or 16-point buck that was huge," DeCaires said. "I remember looking at it and thinking 'I could never shoot something so beautiful.' "
Though Duwell and Duwayne shoot the angel (or was it?), Albom's play follows the cynical journalist (Sandy) as his beliefs are tested.
"All I can tell you is there is a resolution at the end if it really is an angel," DeCaires said. "But I don't want to give anything away. With this set and cast, you really get sucked in."
Correction: Manoa Valley Theatre’s “Duck Hunter Shoots Angel” opens Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. and runs through May 31.
Additional Facts 'Duck Hunter Shoots Angel' Manoa Valley Theatre
Wednesday through May 31
Performances: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays
$30 general admission, $25 seniors and military, $15 for 25 and younger.
988-6131
www.manoavalleytheatre.com
|
|
