Days 6 & 7: Las Meninas

Day 6: Thursday

  I successfully managed to spend most of Thursday sleeping.  When mom got home from work, she and I went to see Hunger Games.  I'd seen it once, but it was fun, and I thought mom might enjoy it as well.  She did.

Day 7: Friday

  I successfully managed to absolutely nothing productive with my Saturday, until we went to go see Las Meninas at Howard Community College's Rep Stage.  Las Meninas, by Lynn Nottage, was directed by Eve Muson, halfway imported from Muson's KCACTF performance.  Some actors were from the original cast, others were professional actors brought in for this show, and still others were HCC students.

The play is about the relationship between an African dwarf, forced to be a jester in Louis XIV's court, and the wife of Louis XIV, Queen Marie-Therese.  It is narrated by their love child, sent to a nunnery where she has no choice but to take the veil.  Fatima Quander did a fantastic job as that daughter, Louise Marie-Therese, and Susan Rome provided solid, if somewhat extreme, versions of Mother Superior and the Queen Mother.

The set design was intriguing.  The floor had been painted to look like a ceiling in the style of Michaelangelo.  A mirror angled toward the stage gave us all a clear view from above, allowing the audience to look down at the actors at all times.  At specific times, such as flashbacks or actions happening technically offstage, the mirror became a transparent scrim.  It worked magically.

The costume design was a little questionable at times.  While I understood why making wigs out of ribbons might be cost efficient, I didn't understand why Louis' costume was so strange compared to everyone else's.  I'd need to do some research to confirm my feeling of his costume being out of place, but the rest was fine... except for the cups.  All the drinking and pouring was mimed.  It irritated me.  The "gold" cups, as well, were so obviously painted it also bothered me.  I wish the same attention was paid to the smaller details as it was the larger, such as Nabo's box, which transformed wonderfully as the play went on.

Katie Hileman, as Queen Marie-Therese, did a good job.  Her accent wandered from the Spanish it was intended to be, and her performance was weak in some more trivial scenes, but she nailed her performance with her energy and passion when it mattered.  KeiLyn Durrel Jones performed as Nabo Sensugali, the African Dwarf.  This may seem wrong of me, but I couldn't tell if he was African at all.  The references in the play, through song and dance, conjure an Africa not found on the Mediterranean, a tribal Africa full of drums and rich with myth.  I couldn't imagine that RepStage would have cast a white actor in an African role... I'm sure folks would be up in arms about it.  But it still jarred.  Moreover, KeiLyn is not a dwarf.  He played the role on his knees.  If people would be upset about a white actor taking a black role, why not a man of average height taking a role meant for a dwarf?  Whatever the case, he did phenomenal work.  His expressions and reactions made us care about Nabo and entranced us with his words.

I would go and see this play, but not for the prices that they are charging.  Student rate, yes, but not regular rate.