Baltimores Everyman Theatre has a well-deserved and very palpable hit in Ronald Harwoods backstage drama THE DRESSER, now playing through March 23. Set in an obscure corner of England during WWII, THE DRESSER concerns an aging, possibly senile actor, known to the company as Sir, as he prepares to play Shakespeares KING LEAR for what may be the last time. He has some help, however, from Norman, a barely-closeted gay man who serves as his loyal dresser, valet, prop manager, prompter, analyst, confidante -- but never, it seems, his friend. In Everymans production, Bruce Randolph Nelson plays Norman, Carl Schurr plays Sir, and the confrontational sparks between Mr. Nelson and Mr. Schurr are the stuff of which great shows are made. Harwoods THE DRESSER is a clever riff on KING LEAR in which offstage drama subtly parallels onstage drama: Scenes between Sir and Norman, for instance, are meant to suggest King Lear and the Fool. Beyond that, THE DRESSER serves as a bittersweet homage to the final days of a theatrical era in which well-known thespians acted as their own managers, assembled their own professional troupes, and played the classics in repertory throughout the Empire. The actor-manager system of British theater is largely unknown to American audiences today, though it was a vital theatrical institution in the UK from the mid-eighteenth century through the 1940s. Everyman has provided some helpful program notes explaining how the system worked, but its basic outlines and potentially exploitative employer-employee dynamic are conveyed quite clearly in the show itself. Everymans eleven-member cast for THE DRESSER is superb: Among the supporting actors, Deborah Hazlitt stands out as the troupes leading lady, while James Whalen has a small but chilling part as a disabled veteran whose shattered leg seems to aggravate his boorish disposition. I did have a minor quibble, however, with Bruce Randolph Nelsons performance as Norman: Mr. Nelson struggles a bit too mightily to make his character likable, strait-laced and unthreatening, and so when he lashes out against a starstruck ingenue (Charlottesville native Emily Vere Nicoll), blasting her with his own rage and disappointment, the moment feels strangely flat. As one would expect from Everyman, technical work is top-notch: James Fouchards set makes full use of the stage, the lighting design by Harold F. Burgess II is moody and nostalgic, and Chas Marshs sound design effectively suggests the horrors of German aerial bombardment. Director Derek Goldman keeps the pace quick and the tension high in a gold-standard production. Run time: 2 hours, 10 minutes, including one 15-minute interval. Tickets $40-$60. For more information, visit everymantheatre.org/ .
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 06:38:15 +0000
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