RED ELM

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Red Elm" by Dan Hunter

Date: Sun, Dec 4, 6:20 PM

Quicktake on RED ELM

     As the final new play in BPT's fall season, Dan Hunter's "Red Elm" shares the theme of growing old and leaving a legacy with "The Red Lion" and "Permanent Whole Life". This script may be the best written, but it's the most incomplete. The play's 90 minutes would make a good first two acts--with a bit more tweaking. Like too many current scripts, which seem to be written with an eye to the TV movie market however, the hard work of completing the drama has been left up to the audience--or some future producer's wishes. There are at least three dramatic conclusions implied by the action, some of which is brilliant. The author needs to pick one and go for it.

     The cast of "Red Elm" is superb. Veteran actor William Young is patriarch Jack Butler, a modern Iowa farmer. His long-suffering wife, Margaret, is played by Worcester actress, teacher and playwright, Anne Marie Shea. Their remaining son, Ezra, is Mark Peckham, new to Boston with credits in Providence and elsewhere. Jack's secretary and Ezra's love interest is Julia Jirousek in another appealing performance. Their acting as much as the author's storytelling makes one want to know what happened to these people.
     The set is another effective exercise in abstracted realism by Susan Zeeman Rogers with believable costumes by Gail Astrid Buckley. The show, which was announced for Wesley Savick was directed quite smartly by newcomer Karl Michaelis; Savick is listed as the dramaturg for all the preparatory work he did with Hunter. Lights and sound, plus other technical details are well-handled by a largely B.U. crew. It's a good close to a fall season of interesting work. Look for 11:11 and Brian Tuttle;e to come down from their fourth floor perch at the Actor's Workshop in January. Also in January, playwright Elizabeth Wyatt, who works both here and in Brighton England is bringing "Flowers of Red", a show based on the life and death of Rachel Corrie which she premiered this summer at the Edinburgh Fringe.


"Red Elm" by Dan Hunter, Dec. 1 - 18

Boston Playwrights' Theatre in Studio B

949 Comm. Ave, Allston, (617) 358 - PLAY
Boston Playwrights' Theatre