Choosing to work as a union actor in the metro area can be a blessing and a curse. It’s an earned privilege that means higher wages and health insurance. But jobs are scarce. And you can’t work at nonunion shops, which make up the vast majority of local companies. So many union actors here simply don’t act anywhere.
But thanks to a “showcase” exception in the Actors’ Equity contract, a few members of the Denver Center family are taking it upon themselves to make their own work. It’s a freelance tack never tried here before.
The romantic period thriller “The Mysterious Mr. Love” is being self-produced by director Jeff Roark with actors Rachel Fowler and Leigh Miller through Tuesday at the Grant-Humphreys Mansion.
And Friday through Sunday at the Crossroads Theater, Anne Penner, Allison Watrous and Ashlee Temple are staging Len Jenkin’s “American Notes,” a series of weird sketches that send up the great American myth. “Imagine if Tom Waits wrote a play,” Penner describes it.
Neither staging will kick anyone into a higher tax bracket. They’re just innovative ways of keeping actors working. And they’re opportunities for local audiences to see accomplished actors perform unexpected stories in intimate venues.
“The Mysterious Mr. Love” is perfectly suited for the adorable little stage from yesteryear tucked into the basement of the elegant Grant-Humphreys mansion, built in 1902. On a playing space as big as a doily, Fowler and Miller tell Karoline Leach’s overly familiar yet undeniably compelling tale of a smarmy con man who preys on the vulnerability of unloved women in 1910 England.
It’s a simple scam: He targets them, woos them, “marries” them and leaves them — minus their money. His fake moniker is Mr. Love, who comes off as an almost intentionally cardboard villain only one person in the room can’t see straight through. Or so we think — at first.
This staging is notable for the formidable Fowler’s constantly surprising portrayal of lonely Adelaide, who appears to be the perfect mark. She’s a fat, aging and unloved hatmaker with zero self-esteem, an eating disorder and 50 quid of disposable income. Tom Cruise had Renee Zellweger at hello. In much less romantic fashion, Mr. Love has Adelaide, she admits, by merely looking at her. No one else has ever bothered.
The story, told to us largely in alternating direct-address, comes alive when the two start to fully interact. Mr. Love has Adelaide off and married (so she believes) in a mere two days. He’s got a pocket full of her cash and one foot out the door when an unexpected confession triggers a change in Mr. Love. Now, a change is exactly what you’d expect from a play of this nature . . . but not this kind. From there, the play keeps you guessing right up to its discombobulating and unforeseeable end.
Seeing cracks of real humanity in the insufferable Mr. Love allows us to suddenly see similarities in these two lost, damaged souls. With the veneer of deceit stripped away, might they actually make perfect partners, however compromised? You might even root for it.
The onus for us to fully buy this improbable transformation rests squarely with Mr. Love. And unless you’re Christian Bale, that’s one tall order for any actor to pull off in such short time. Miller nails the confidence, the seething sleaze, but not the promised mystery of the man, and the evident emotional complexity that fuels his pathology.
Miller and Fowler share an obvious familiarity as actors, and that’s not necessarily to their advantage. Instead, we must be allowed to feel the unfamiliarity and danger that can come from such seemingly random connections.
Literature and film are filled with stories of repressed dupes taken by a scam, only to discover they’re better for having been taken. In that game, love is a more powerful tool than money. When you’ve been denied love for a lifetime, it’s a victory just to get the chance to feel anything at all.
Despite the play’s title, love is the real mystery, not the man who has stolen its name.
John Moore: 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com
“The Mysterious Mr. Love” *** (out of four stars)
Romatic thriller/period drama. Presented at the Grant-Humphreys Mansion, 770 Pennsylvania St. Written by Karoline Leach. Directed by Jeff Roark. Starring Rachel Fowler and Leigh Miller. 8 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday. 1 hour, 40 minutes. $20. 303-866-3682.
“American Notes”
Presented by Sys Tryst Productions at the Crossroads Theater, 2590 Washington St. Written by Len Jenkin. Directed by Ashlee Temple. Featuring Micheal Cobb, Michael McNeil, Allison Watrous, Anne Penner, Drew Horwitz and others. Through Sunday. 7 p.m. Friday; 7 and 10 p.m. Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday. $10. 303-947-0221.
