Production Directed collaboratively with Dale Nakagawa JACK Glenn McCumber STAGE MANAGER James Standley |
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Last summer at a barbecue, Heather told me of this wild idea that she had about starting a theatre company. And then she said something about getting married and changing her last name to Kahl. I believe I gave her a slightly quizzical look as I thought to myself, "Yeah, whatever, you'll always be Heather Lundy. Wait, what was that about a theatre? Ooh look, sausages!"
After satiating myself on sausages, I wandered off and pretty much forgot about the craziness of launching a theatre from scratch. Fast forward about nine months to my phone ringing and Heather saying, "Hey, remember that theatre idea I told you about last summer? I did it!"
What followed was a whirlwind of activity, with the help of countless people (and one very understanding Masons' lodge) here we are tonight performing a script that fascinated us back in college. When I was in college I directed a much abbreviated version of this show. During that process I thought to myself, "I hope I get to work on this show again when I'm older; maybe then I'll have some idea of what this thing is actually trying to say." Well, I'm not sure if any of us will ever really understand the totality of a particular piece of art, but I do have a very different take on this particular piece of art than I did when I was in college.
More than anything, Jack and Jill explores the human experience. And it is a very ambitious exploration. It forces us to look at ourselves, at both our best and worst moments. At our highest and lowest. At our strongest and most vulnerable. But more than that it poses the question: Which of these moments are of strength and which are of weakness? I think if we could actually find the answers to that question, Dr. Phil and his ilk would be out of a job.
Highly Recommended. If you plan to bring your partner to see Jack and Jill, I hope your bond is solid. Jane Martin's play is so emotionally honest and so precise in its vision of the minutiae of relationships that, if yours is shaky, you'll probably find your own imperfections reflected back at you. This makes for an uncomfortable ride home. The first production by Lunacy Stageworks features only two speaking characters - sensitive-guy Jack (Glenn McCumber) and upfront, feminist Jill (Heather Lundy Kahl) - engaging in naturalistic dialogue through years of marriage. Jack and Jill contains moments of brilliant humor that it never strains to achieve. Regardless, the air that permeates Dale Nakagawa's production is overwhelmingly one of melancholy, with just enough glimmers of hope to keep the storm clouds at bay. There's also a slight draft in the air at the Masonic Lodge, so bring a coat.
- Matt Graham
Lunacy Stageworks' Remarkable Jack and Jill. There's a profound self-indulgence among new theater companies. Coming together to create art that really isn't any different from any other art, those involved nonetheless see themselves as markedly different. Excited by the notion of taking on something that seems impossible, they reason that they are destined to make an impact no other company could match. In truth, most startup theater companies don't have what it takes to succeed. The irony of the situation, though, is that it takes a few tries at starting a company to learn this lesson.
Now, in truth, some companies succeed. And we as a community are better off for their struggle to survive. In addition to the self-indulgence, there's an urgency and resourcefulness among the startups: having nothing to lose, they have everything to gain. Some of the best shows I've seen or worked on have been in drafty cafe basements, in theaters whose seats double as packing materials, with casts and crews who know they might never be able to leave that office day job to walk the boards - but they're never going to stop trying.
I hope, for all of our sakes, that Lunacy Stageworks is one of the new companies that makes it. Their inaugural show, Jane Martin's Jack and Jill, follows a couple's relationship through courtship, marriage, and divorce. Over the years, Jack (Glenn McCumber) and Jill (Heather Lundy Kahl) struggle with their own notions of companionship and solitude, self-perception and understanding of each other, and how we can make room in our hearts for others when there's barely room for ourselves. McCumber, Kahl, and director Dale Nakagawa do masterful work with this show. The actors fully inhabit their characters and bring an intimacy and eloquence to the stage that more established theaters can only dream of. McCumber, especially, delivers heart-shattering moments of truth with merely the nod of his chin or a shift in his posture.
On the night I attended, the audience barely outnumbered the cast and crew, and the stage lighting failed in the middle of the first act. Even under shadowy house lights to a nearly empty house, this show was remarkable. There are two weeks left in their run. Go see it, and be able to say you were there when they started out.
- Temple Lentz