The Alley Cat Strays
One of the most hopeful events in Bay area theater activity recently has been the emergence of the Alley Cat Players. Formed by Jo Averill and Teresa Gallar, the Alley Cats first stepped onto the scene with Emma Goldman: Love, Anarchy and Other Affairs, a rare act of political theater which, modest though it was, suggested that a new viewpoint might be coming to local stages. Alley Cat's next production, a staged reading of Pablo Picasso's Desire Caught by the Tail, was equally encouraging, both in its promotion of a difficult surrealist work and in its implication that Alley Cat would search for theater far outside the usual avenues. True, both presentations were low-budget and looked it; still, the excitement was in the texts and in all that they seemed to prefigure. With time and money, Alley Cat might one day be able to afford top production values; until then one could still look forward to daring scripts on unusual subjects.
But now Alley Cat has opened its third production, and taken, I'm sorry to say, its first misstep. Theresa Rebeck's Spike Heels, currently showing at Ybor City's Silver Meteor Gallery, is an entirely unimpressive soap opera, living room realism of the most conventional, predictable sort. Yes, the Alley Cat production has a few redeeming features. But mostly Spike Heels is the same old same old, and one can only wonder how it got into this youthful feline repertoire. Let's hope it's an exception.
The subject of Spike Heels is, as in all soaps, relationships, and the problem with these relationships is, as in all soaps, insignificance. What difference does it make to anyone but themselves if scholar Andrew stays engaged to Lydia or if attorney Edward goes to bed with secretary Georgie? These characters don't stand for anything outside themselves, they don't speak in particularly interesting or witty ways (at least Sex and the City has good writing, not to mention likable characters) and the changes that take place by the end of Act Two might be entirely reversed without any real shift of meaning.
Even to catalog the various alliances in the play gives them more attention than they deserve; but here they are, for the record, anyway: Andrew's engaged to Lydia but in love with Georgie. Andrew's best friend Edward used to go with Lydia, but now has his sights set on Georgie, who also happens to be his legal secretary, and whom he may or may not have threatened with rape. Georgie's in love with Andrew, but she's not above sleeping with Edward to make Andrew jealous. Andrew sees himself as Georgie's mentor. Lydia likes to dance with other women — for example, Georgie. Everybody (but particularly Andrew) pounds (rather than knocks) on doors and yells at the slightest stimulus.
It all adds up to precisely nothing. And the acting, with one exception, is no reason to endure the general irrelevance. That exception is Katrina Stevenson, who, in the relatively small part of Lydia, provides a convincing portrayal of a woman whose strength is exercised first in self-control and then, more subtly, in the control of others.
The other actors are all competent, but not nearly as persuasive. Ned Snell as Andrew starts well. (After having seen his always angry, always abusive character in Snakebit a few months ago, I was pleased to see that he could play a much nicer guy.) But as the evening progresses, Snell seems to lose hold of his character's milder qualities, and by the last scenes it's mostly his propensity for yelling that defines him. Teresa Gallar as Georgie isn't much more dimensional; aside from a certain earthy sensuality, there doesn't seem to be much going on here, certainly nothing that might pass for an interesting interior life. And Jim Wicker, who was so good as Bernard Shaw's anti-hedonistic Don Juan at Gorilla Theatre several months ago, is less believable as the real thing: slick lawyer and smooth operator Edward. Director Jo Averill skillfully moves her characters around the small Silver Meteor stage, but one can't help but wish that she'd insisted on more psychological complexity from her actors, more levels of personality.
In the name of fairness, we'll mention some positives. First, there are a (very) few patches of noteworthy writing in Rebeck's text — for example when Georgie observes that the improvement in her environment has only led to sexual harassment from men of a higher class. Then there's the set (uncredited in my program) with which Act One begins: This neatly furnished living room with bright walls is about as attractive as I've ever seen the Silver Meteor stage look. All the costumes (also uncredited) are fine, especially Lydia's primly perfect pink sweater and khaki skirt. And, again, there are Stevenson's and, early on at least, Snell's performances: precise, specific, controlled.
But they're not enough: Spike Heels would be an unremarkable play in any circumstances. If Alley Cat's founders want to nurture the company's reputation, they must be more discerning than they were in selecting this dud.
Careful, Alley Cat: there's a world of trash — and treasure — out there.
Playbilla Gorilla. Tampa's Gorilla Theatre has announced its 2001-02 season, and it's as eclectic as all get-out.
The Gorilla season begins with A Thurber Carnival (opens Sept. 6) in which several of humorist James Thurber's classic stories are adapted for the stage. Next is Side Show (opens Oct. 25) the Bill Russell/Henry Krieger musical about Daisy and Violet Hilton, Siamese twins who became Depression-era vaudeville stars.
Gorilla's Aubrey Hampton is the writer of 'Tis the Season to Do Folly (opens Dec. 13) a Christmas mystery featuring a detective who's also a magician; and then those apparently immortal Italian anarchists are back in Louis Lippa's Sacco & Vanzetti: A Vaudeville (opens Jan. 17). Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom comes next (opens Feb. 28); it's about race and art and is set in 1927 Chicago.
And then Gorilla co-founder Susan Hussey checks in with a new, as yet untitled play (opens April 11) about the aftershocks of a love affair. One of the most celebrated plays of the last few years, Warren Leight's Side Man, about a jazz musician and his family, opens next (May 23); and finally June brings us four one-act plays in the Young Dramatist's Project 2002.
For tickets and information, call 813-879-2914.
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2001.