THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601230105
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Theater Review
SOURCE: Montague Gammon III
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The current production of two obscure and difficult plays by Edward Albee mounted by the ZWG Repertory Theater suggests that this new group will become a worthy and important member of the local theatrical scene.
``FAM and YAM'' is a brief one-act dialogue between a famous American playwright, otherwise known as FAM, and a young American writer, referred to as YAM.
The interchange between the successful author and the rebellious young man who is determined to attack every facet of the commercial theater establishment is an example of communication failure.
Each of the two characters spends 15 minutes talking, in effect, to himself. Only at the very end of the play does something that YAM has said sink through FAM's self-satisfaction.
Director Rodney Suiter appears as YAM, with Heath L. Cheek as FAM.
Suiter attacks his role with a restrained sincerity, though YAM seems a bit less ferocious in his all-encompassing scorn than one might expect. Cheek has a firm grip on FAM's condescension and good natured superficiality.
Suiter reappears in ``The American Dream,'' the more difficult and longer second play in this ``Evening with Edward Albee.'' He and Yolanda Wilkinson are Daddy and Mommy, members of a strange household which also includes Grandma and which may or may not include a son who may or may not be adopted, and may or may not be dead.
There are obvious similarities to ``Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe,'' Albee's masterpiece that first made its appearance a year after ``The American Dream'' had its New York premiere.
Though the title supposedly refers to a young man who arrives toward the end of the play, there is a dreamlike quality to the logic of the plot and dialogue. It often sounds like an improvisation, much like many of the plays of Sam Shepard that were derived from improvisational acting exercises.
Wilkinson has some especially strong, clear moments in her role as a materialistic, domineering housewife, to whom talented Suiter's portrait of her indecisive husband serves as an effective foil.
The audience favorite on opening night was Majorie Beal Murchison as the aging, perhaps failing Grandma whose sharp tongue belies her age and physical frailty.
Gina Bullock-George appears as a mysterious visitor who flirts outrageously with Daddy. While her character doesn't have the knife-edged clarity of Mommy, she has some memorable passages nonetheless. Joe George is the Young Man, also referred to as ``The American Dream,'' who may be a son, the fantasy about a son, or the ghost of a child who died.
Don Brown directed ``American Dream,'' providing an appropriate tone that mixes realism with the comically surreal and fantastic.
The worth of this production extends beyond the strength of these two plays themselves. It's hard to imagine that any other group in this area would stage these scripts. ZWG may be accepting the position of being Norfolk's experimental theater, and anyone interested in the vitality of the arts in this area should welcome such a newcomer. ILLUSTRATION: AT A GLANCE
What: ``An Evening With Edward Albee.''
Who: ZWG Repertory Theater.
When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Alive Arts Studio, 737 Granby St.
Tickets: 471-8041.
by CNB