Peter Anthony may be the most distinctive theater director in Colorado. This guy doesn’t just put his signature on his productions – he sears his brand onto them.
It starts with the abstract look of his sets – vaulting, earth-toned geometric shapes that defy specific time or place. Then there’s the moody, angular lighting and that overwhelming music – dour, heavyhanded dirges that lead you to believe every word out of every mouth must hold more consequence than Kim Jong Il pressing the nuclear button.
Taken together, The Anthony Effect can be quite, well, effective. It was to the first-timer who accompanied me to his capable new staging of George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan” for OpenStage & Company. To me, it was more of the same.
Because Anthony is a respected fixture in Fort Collins, most of his audience is not new to him. So here’s a fascinating question: When someone’s work is always self-referential, at what point does signature become mere repetition? As accomplished as his body of work is, you have to wonder if he can ever leave his comfort zone. Just once I’d like to be unable to identify a play as Anthony’s before the first line is spoken.
None of which is to say “Saint Joan” is mailed in. The lovely Jessica V. Freestone is passionate and reverent as the poor shepherd girl who in 1429 believes saints Catherine and Margaret have called her to reclaim Orleans from England for her bratty future French king Charles VII. And she grows positively riveting as her convictions become clouded by what appears to be an insatiable thirst for further military action. Her confession, “It is so dull after battle,” is particularly telling. She’s pious and humble, angry and arrogant … and addicted to fighting.
Unfortunately, while Joan carries the fate of France on her shoulders, many of the support characters around her are comparably weightless, especially when her climactic act of defiance seals her doom, and the surrounding stageful of men seems asleep. I wanted to snap my fingers and say, “Guys? You hearing this?”
Still, the ensemble manages to adequately communicate the complicated political backstory of the French civil war, as well as the threat Joan’s claims were to the Catholic Church at a time when one of its bishops was a political ally of the rival Burgundians. This was a time when claims of divine revelations were common – but pious women donning military weapons and men’s attire were not.
As for Anthony’s dark and morose tone, it’s appropriate here. In the new book “The Trial of Joan of Arc,” Daniel Hobbins argues no event of the Middle Ages created a greater international sensation.
But there’s one more truism of The Anthony Effect that’s less forgivable: The constant, ill-advised tweaking. “Saint Joan” is a masterpiece that all but won Shaw the Nobel Prize in 1925. But Anthony isn’t one to leave well enough alone. Most grievous is his insertion of a new character – an angel of God who gives Joan counsel and pep talks between scenes.
The entire point in considering Joan of Arc’s story as a play today is in exploring whether she was touched in the head or touched by God. Was she a heretic, saint, witch or a nut job? It took the Catholic Church five centuries to decide Joan was indeed a saint. Anthony doesn’t let his audience go five minutes before he stamps his overtly nonsecular opinion on the matter. You’d think that if Shaw’s play
really needed an angel character, it might have occurred to Shaw.
Joan’s talks with this angel (Matthew Stalker) might not seem so invasive had Anthony acknowledged his conceit in the program. But there is no mention of futzing, adapting or inserting. An unsuspecting audience member might believe this to be Shaw’s device. From what I recognized, the scenes appear to have been taken from Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Duino Elegies.”
Nevertheless, “Saint Joan” remains an astonishing tale of paradox and political potboiling. Joan showed extraordinary courage and conviction, and her death by political necessity bears out the absurdity of mere humans being charged with arbitrating deific claims – while simultaneously charged with keeping their masses in line.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
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“CRAZY FOR YOU” Boulder’s Dinner Theatre takes on the Gershwin dance spectacular about a New York boy who moves to Nevada for love. Stars Scott Beyette (Bobby) and Alicia Dunfee (Polly). 7 p.m. Wednesdays, 7:45 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 1:45 and 7:45 p.m. Sundays (dinner 90 minutes before) through March 3 at 5501 Arapahoe Ave. $32-$53 (303-449-6000 or bouldersdinnertheatre.com).
“TEMPODYSSEY” Curious Theatre’s world premiere follows the world’s perfect temp. Problem is, she thinks she’s the goddess of death – and she’s been placed at a bomb-manufacturing plant. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays though Dec. 16 at 1080 Acoma St. $28-$32 (2-for-1 Thursdays); 303-623-0524 or curioustheatre.org.
“AMAHL & THE NIGHT VISITORS” Gian-Carlo Menotti’s beloved tale of a mischievous disabled boy and the guests who change his life. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 6 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 23 at Miners Alley Playhouse, 124 Washington St. in Golden. $16-$18 (303-935-3044).
