THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210024
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MONTAGUE GAMMON III, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: 43 lines
NORFOLK'S NEWEST professional dinner theater, Center Stage, opened last weekend with a production of two one-act plays that was favorably marked by its fair share of youthful enthusiasm.
The second show in the double bill, ``Adam and Eve,'' introduced one watchable guest artist to Hampton Roads, but the fledgling group does have a way to go before the quality of its work fully lives up to the expectation that comes with its proclaimed professional status.
One might ignore the difficulty at least one performer was having remembering lines on opening night, although true pros should know their parts. What one could not ignore, especially during the first show, ``The Warrior's Hero,'' was an acting style of just standing in front of the audience and reciting lines with minimal emotional variations.
``The Warrior's Hero,'' adapted from a longer piece by Julian Thompson titled ``The Warrior's Husband,'' may not have been the best choice for a debut performance. This comic version of the confrontation between the ancient Greek and the Amazon warriors, literally a battle of the sexes in classical garb, has little to recommend other than an occasionally amusing use of modern terminology by characters of ancient myth. Theseus refers to young Homer, for instance, as a ``war correspondent.''
Acting and writing both picked up for the second piece, ``Adam and Eve.'' A dramatization of Mark Twain's story, ``The Diary of Adam and Eve,'' the script originally formed one-third of the Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick Broadway musical ``The Apple Tree.''
Guest performer Erin Considine brightens up the show with some pleasant singing and an understated, winsome and appropriately innocent charm. While she does not seem to find much depth in her role as Eve, she had, according to director Henry Edger, stepped into the role only during the last few days of rehearsal. She may grow into the part in later performances.
Elizabeth Ory, who appeared as the Amazon Queen Hippolyta in the first act, is more lively in her brief role as the Snake. Chris Ryan certainly looks the part of Adam, and of his earlier role of the Greek hero Theseus.
Center Stage has been active on the Peninsula for a number of years, and one hopes their next venture on this side of the water will build more strongly on the foundation of their long experience. by CNB