Loot at The Scottsdale Center for the Arts
(out of 
)Mark S.P. Turvin
(home office) (602) 912-0117
I can be reached for comment via e-mail at: mspt@goldfishpublishers.com
(out of )In the late '60s, Joe Orton took the English theatre world by storm with his farcical, indignant and raucous plays. Openly discussing, even flaunting, such previously taboo subjects as homosexuality, incest and gender-switching, Mr. Orton's woefully brief theatre career was the shot-in- the-arm that the stodgy establishment desperately needed to get itself into the more liberal times that were sweeping society.
Set in England in 1967, Loot, one of Mr. Orton's farcical scripts, centers on the McLeavy family at the time of Mrs. McLeavy's death. Her grieving husband must deal with his wife's shady nurse, Fay, and his ungrateful son, Hal; the first who may have offed her to become the next Mrs. McLeavy, the second who has just pulled a bank job with his boyfriend Dennis and is looking for a place to stash the cash. It winds up that Mrs. McLeavy's casket becomes the most logical hiding place, leaving the corpse out in the cold. Throughout, the abusive Truscott, a policeman claiming to be with the Water Board, is hot on the trail of bank robbers and murderers, and will let nothing stand in his way to discover the truth, or at least his version of it.
Now, more than 30 years after the first production of Mr. Orton's play, the once revolutionary text has aged quite considerably, and what used to be outrageous seems pretty tame. The script, not as racy as Mr. Orton's famed What the Butler Saw, now plays like a slower Monty Python sketch, rather than the outrageous society-slammer it once was. That isn't to say that the script doesn't still pack some whallop at times, but what used to produce gasps now offers titters instead.
The Ensemble Theatre, last season's most promising start-up company, has spared no expense, artistically or financially, to mount a wonderful production of this no-longer-outrageous-but-still-very-funny script. Director Steve Josephson has brought together a very talented and professional cast to lovingly portray these funny, self- centered, and wretched characters. Without exception, the production values and performances are of a caliber that would be expected from a Broadway performance. The accents are perfectly consistent, the portrayals rarely waver, and the pacing, though a bit slow at times, keeps the audience's attention throughout the two hour and fifteen minute play, even at the times when the script shows its age.
As the evil Fay, Marguerite MacIntyre is both tantalizing and flip, as only a British beauty and ne'er-do- well can be. Her low key performance is enhanced by her calmly stiff upper lip attitude. As the honest and doomed McLeavy, Jim Newcomer plays rigid while never losing sight of human. David Vining's Truscott is funny and threatening at turns, balancing better than a tightrope walker through his treachery and ineptitude. Not quite as balanced, but still very solid performances come from Gene Meeks and Ryan Giauque as the young lovers and bank robbers Hal and Dennis, who very occasionally stumble over their lines, but still bring out their character's near lack of morals quite well.
Jeff Thomson's scenic design and Rich Visokey's lighting design were beyond commendable, using the cavernous mainstage of the Scottsdale Center of the Arts to create a perfectly intimate and workable space. Katia Kaplun's costumes and JD Blethen's sound were also very professional, and enhanced the evening greatly.
Summer theatre in Phoenix is starting to show itself as a viable
second season. The lower rates on theatre spaces and the off-time
that many theatre professionals experience is helping to bolster
more varied and interesting fare. At a time when theatres previously
would have been dark, we are now experiencing a slew of productions
that are making theatre a year-round proposition in the Valley
of the Sun. The Ensemble Theatre is a group to watch, and seems
likely to offer even more interesting, unusual and worthy choices
in the future.
Production Details:
Loot by Joe Orton
The Scottsdale Center for the Arts Mainstage
994-ARTS or 784-4444
July 11th-July 27th, 1997
Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm
$22.50 GA, Seniors and Students,
$18