What I did on my summer vacation...
Planet Earth Theatre's "Haunted Summer"
**1/2 (out of *****)
Mark S.P. Turvin
(w) 965-1021  (h) 894-5443
I can be reached for comment via e-mail at: mspt@asu.edu

	As Planet Earth Theatre winds down another season and 
prepares for the widely publicized departure of its Artistic 
Director Peter James Cirino and lead actress Mollie Kellog 
Cirino to the colder but more artistically-inviting climes of 
Seattle, each play remaining in the season becomes a duality 
in the representation of past achivements and statement of 
future intentions. To that end, the latest work, "Haunted 
Summer," written and directed by outgoing Artistic Director 
Peter Cirino and future Artistic Director-wannabee 
Christopher Haines fits the bill perfectly. The play is 
highly experimental, highly evocative, and highly pretentious 
while somehow remaining maddeningly entertaining at its best 
moments. 
	The play's experimental and poetical ruminations center 
on the summer of 1816, when esteemed British poets Lord Byron 
and Percy Shelley summered at the Geneva home of Byron's 
homosexual lover, Dr. Polidori. Also in attendance were 
Percy's wife, Mary Shelley, and Byron's pregnant mistress, 
Claire Claremont. It was from this group that the great works 
of "Frankenstein" and "Vampyre" sprang. Speculating on their 
interaction, the play explores the inspirations that were 
behind the creation of such works, and conjecturing on the 
other works that were created by Byron, Shelley and 
Claremont. 
	The idea has great potential, and it was the basis of 
another historically inaccurate work, the film "Gothic." In 
this production, laudunum is supplied by Dr. Polidori to 
enhance their respective writings, and each person creates 
the monsters that best represent their darkest truths. 
Heavily depending on the great source material at hand, and 
the melodramatic history between these characters, the play 
is able to rise from the depths of self-indulgence that runs 
through the first act to create something that is poetic, 
haunting and thought-provoking before allowing the campiness 
to return once more by its end.
	The play is admittedly improvised, and depends just as 
much on actors who create lines as they play their roles as 
it does on the writers and Dramaturg Kent Kemmish. The adult 
content and nudity that runs throughout the play seems 
gratuitous, despite the attempts at historical and 
relationship justification that surround it. The play begins 
as a soap opera, then suddenly, with the introduction of the 
opiate, turns into a freak-out orgy of colors, naked bodies 
and humping forms, then finally settles down to the truth of 
the piece, the inward introspection by the guests that 
creates the five respective and reviling monsters. 
	At the center of the play, Christopher Haines' portrayal 
of Lord Byron is symptomatic of the problems of the acting in 
the show. Despite his self-pitying claims of being a club-
foot, Mr. Haines plays Byron as a swashbuckling hedonist and 
egocentric, with no hint of infirmities. Also disappointing 
in her role of the sane, stable (well, at least in comparison 
to her companions) Mary Shelley, Mollie Kellogg Cirino mugs 
and acts even weirder than the rest of the group, despite the 
fact that she is supposed to be the only one not using drugs 
after the first bout. Jesse McCrea as Percy Shelly and Erika 
Crawford as Claire Claremont are at times drawn too far into 
the wildness of their parts, but are able to give 
performances that are at other times dark and subtle.
	There are three outstanding performances that overshadow 
the shortcomings of the rest of the cast. As Dr. Polidori, 
Sean Robbins uses his speech impediment and slight stature to 
full effect, creating a haunting and haunted obsessive lover 
that fits perfectly with his creation of the Vampyre, and in 
the role of his Vampyre creation, John Hammond completely 
avoids the stereotypical vampire and creates a charmingly 
evil accomplice to Polidori's desires. Also very powerful as 
Cain, Byron's creation, David Gonzales performs the difficult 
role of the murderer re-incarnate with abandon, balancing 
well with Mr. Haines' poetic parlays.
	Technically, the production also suffers from the 
schizophrenia inherent in the piece, where David Gonzales' 
extensive and effective lighting illuminates Larry LoPresti's 
unstable and visually disgusting, gargoyle-ridden stark white 
set and Sean Robbin's oppressively all-white and all-black 
costumes. The result is a visual stereotype of experimental 
creation, reveling in 'subtleties,' 'vaguaries' and 
'overstatements.'
	Planet Earth has always been, and one hopes, will always 
be, an outlet for those who view the standard canon of 
theatre as too limited. This is a very hit-and-miss 
proposition, and one must sift through many stones to find a 
gem. "Haunted Summer," though, has sprinkled stones and gems 
throughout, and manages to be at turns infuriating and 
inspiring. The result is an interesting evening of theatre 
that is not necessarily for everyone's tastes, and which 
could use  pruning scissors and sure hands to become an even, 
commendable work.

Production Details:
"Haunted Summer" by Peter James Cirino & Christopher Haines
Planet Earth Theatre, Phoenix
241-1828
February 28th-March 22nd, 1997

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