EMAV Review: Glengarry Glen Ross ★★★

Mamet-Speak is on full display

By Paul Atreides

*** Satisfying

Photo by Kris Mayeshiro (KM2 Creative)

Closing out Las Vegas Little Theatre’s (LVLT) 44th season is David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.” It’s a little bit mystery; it’s a little bit comedy, it’s a little bit drama. But moreover, it’s a morality play, a tale of unscrupulous real estate salesmen all trying to undermine one another even as they make pacts to team up.

Having won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, two Tony awards, and two Oscars, Mamet is hailed as one of the greatest playwrights in the U.S. He’s also considered the guy who made the patterns of normal speaking an acceptable thing in plays and films. In some circles, it’s known as Mamet-Speak, not to mention the frequent use of vulgarities.

The 1984 Pulitzer-winning “Glengarry Glen Ross” is perhaps, the most frequently produced of his stage works. When a production works best, it’s because it has been treated as an ensemble work, regardless of stage time or the number of lines. That’s not to say performances can’t – or don’t – stand out. Directed by Jacob Moore, this doesn’t feel like ensemble work. It feels a bit disjointed as if each scene has nothing to do with the entirety.

Especially odd is the major set change from restaurant and bar to the rummaged-through real estate office. The cast is seen tossing the place—too intimate; we are watching a break-in. Yet, this set has been residing upstage behind a curtain, and earlier scenes intimate a plan for a singular burglar. The change then becomes an unnecessary distraction. It feels like a deliberate false red herring inserted by Moore and sticks out all the more with the final reveal.

Christos George Nikols turn in standout performances as Williamson, the guy who manages the real estate office. And Joe Basso as top-salesman Roma. That is not to say the rest of the cast turns in poor performances. They don’t. They just don’t feel part of the same production.

Nikols listens attentively, the wheels of his reactions turning inside his head and revealed in subtle ways by the twist of a rocks glass, the tilt of the head. When he outsmarts those who think he’s too young to know how the game is played, his tone almost tells us more than the words.

Basso as Roma bursts onto the stage with power and energy. His excitement levels hiccup as he switches gears back into full con mode with a client trying to back out of a large deal. The brilliance of the change comes in his mannerisms because Basso doesn’t drop energy; he reroutes and refocuses it. In this particular scene, Glenn Heath’s performance as Levene comes alive in the way he recognizes the need to assist in retaining the sale.

The set design is up to the usual high standards. Ron Lindblom always manages to evoke time and place regardless of whether it’s representational pieces, as he does with the opening Asian-themed restaurant-bar scenes or the full-box set of the real estate office. The attention to detail is always there. There are even hints to explain the play’s title, which many have wondered about over the years.

LVLT provides a warning for those who may not be familiar with a Mamet script filled with vulgarities. If f-bombs galore—among another language—bothers you, this play is not for you. But if you want to taste some true-to-life dialogue, “Mamet-Speak” is on full display.

What: Glengarry Glen Ross

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sundays through May 15

2 p.m. Saturday, May 7

Where: Las Vegas Little Theatre-Mainstage, 3920 Schiff Drive

Tickets: $30 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org)

Grade: *** Satisfying

Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Director: Jacob Moore; Set Design: Ron Lindblom; Lighting Design: Ginny Adams; Stage Manager: Jim Braun

EMAV Review: On Golden Pond at Vegas Theatre Company ★★★★

40-plus and still golden

By Paul Atreides

★★★★ - Delicious

It’s been more than a year since my last theatre review. The play “Thurgood” was presented in person to an audience of six in the venue, which seats 155. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on the theatre community with dark houses. But it looks like we’re back, baby.

Venturing out among unmasked people was a little scary, but how could I not attend when the two lead roles of Ethel and Norman Thayer are filled by Las Vegas icons Valerie Carpenter-Bernstein and Gary Lunn, respectively.

For the final production of their 21-22 season, Vegas Theatre Company (formerly Cockroach Theatre) has mounted “On Golden Pond” by Ernest Thompson. It’s a script that mostly holds up after 43 years. After all, there are still curmudgeonly old men who would be lost without their caring wives.

Lunn takes curmudgeon and makes us love him. His Norman is full of fun. There’s a half-smile that appears when he’s poking fun at someone else’s expense. The only one who catches on fast and sees it for what it is is his future son-in-law, Bill Ray. When Lunn dispenses with being old and near death, the idea that he’s serious is just below the surface of the factiousness. Lunn is having a good time, and it shows.

After 49 years of marriage, his wife Ethel is well aware of Norman’s shenanigans. Carpenter-Bernstein responds to the “old poop” with total love and understanding. She brings feistiness and a tiny bit of looniness to the role while, at the same time, keeping a laser focus on the husband, who seems to be obsessed with aging and dying.

Playing daughter Chelsea (Katrina Currow) is a tough, unenviable task. The script doesn’t provide the transitional dialogue needed to move from happiness to ruminating on her faulty relationship with a father she refers to as Norman rather than Daddy to allowing herself to show her excitement and happiness at having gotten married while on vacation in Brussels. As a result, Currow still pulls off a decent job.

As Chelsea’s fiancé-turned-husband, Bill Ray, Mario Peoples, is on to Norman pretty quickly. Given one scene, he delivers a fine performance putting Norman in his place and coming to what might be considered a gentleman’s agreement when it comes to sex with Chelsea.

Billy (Sofonyas Alebachew) is Bill’s 13-year-old son. Alebachew portrays Billy as a beaming, fun-loving kid from the get-go rather than the sullen, rebelling child of divorce. And that’s the problem. When he first meets Norman, he tries to shock and taunt an old man. By the end of the play, they’ve become buddies and partners in crime. However, it feels as if any character growth is missing.

The supporting cast also includes Erik Amblad as Charlie, the guy who delivers the mail to the residents of Golden Pond via boat and has kept a candle burning for Chelsea. Amblad digs into Charlie with gusto, mining every extrinsic motivation in the script to great success. He’s a joy to watch, and the laugh is contagious.

Overall, it’s a lovely evening that starts out with Jenn Chandler playing her cello and singing to entertain the audience with tunes such as “Summer Wind” and “Singing In the Rain.” Her interpretations of the songs, along with the scene interludes she’s composed for the production, are wonderfully fitting.

What: On Golden Pond

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday - Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday; 5 p.m. Sunday through May 8

No performance Friday, May 6 due to First Friday

Where: Vegas Theatre Company, 1025 S. 1st St

Tickets: $25 - $33 (725-222-9661 or visit theatre.vegas

Grade: **** Delicious

Producer: Vegas Theatre Company; Director: Daz Weller; Set Design: Whitney Lehn Meltz; Lighting Design: Jordan Hall; Sound/Projection Design: M. Sohaa Smith; Stage Manager: Lily E Vetter; Original Compositions/Live Music: Jenn Chandler

Nevada Women's Film Festival 2021 Recap: An Impressive Collection

A moment from "Fight Back".

For the second year in a row, the Nevada Women’s Film Festival was held online, and festival organizers once again rose to the challenge by putting together an impressive program of films for attendees to watch at home. This year the festival was able to hold one in-person mixer, and the hope is for a full in-person return next year. In the meantime, though, there are plenty of advantages to the virtual experience, including the chance to pick and choose individual short films from various programs, to create your own curated version of the festival.

I did that by making sure to catch all of the Nevada-based short films sprinkled throughout the NWFFest programs, and my favorite among those was the goofy comedy “Genie-ous,” from director Jay Hoffman. In a festival full of serious movies that often take on important social issues, “Genie-ous” is a bit of a lark, featuring two friends who discover a magic lamp at a garage sale and summon a surprisingly horny genie. Stars Tina Wallace Carter and Mariam Chirino have lively chemistry as the two friends, and Hoffman fills the movie with amusing background details, although it ends sort of randomly and abruptly.

The Nevada Women's Film Festival - www.nwffest.com

Among the non-local short films that I particularly enjoyed, there was some appealing humor in both Jaclyn Vogl’s “Savage Breakup” and Bonnie Ryan’s “GraceLand,” along with some serious emotion. “Savage Breakup” is more lighthearted, with a simple premise about a woman confronting the third party in her boyfriend’s infidelity, via a popular call-in advice podcast. It builds to an obvious yet satisfying punchline. “GraceLand” is a bit longer and more complex, although it retains a sense of humor in its story of a kid who identifies as Elvis Presley, to the confusion and frustration of a mother (Anna Camp) who thought she was raising a little girl. It’s partially about trans identity, and partially about parents letting their kids pursue odd interests, even if they seems to invite mockery.

Image from "I've Been Afraid".

More serious but still elegant and engaging were the French drama “Christine” and the Israeli drama “Fight Back.” Both take on difficult situations for women, but they keep the focus on the characters and their emotions, never getting heavy-handed with their messages. In “Christine,” a woman summons the courage to leave her abusive husband, and directors Katherine Harold and Celtill Jalaber depict both the abuse and the escape with subtlety and grace, leading up to a minimalist but impactful final shot. Loren Trabelsi’s “Fight Back” is a little blunter, positioning its main character as the only woman training in a gym full of male kickboxers. Still, the micro-aggressions and condescending treatment are woven into a story about finding inner strength to back up more obvious outer toughness.

Then there was “I’ve Been Afraid” from cult experimental filmmaker Cecelia Condit (“Possibly in Michigan”). A mix of music video, spoken word poetry, animation and abstract imagery, “I’ve Been Afraid” is strange but mesmerizing. I’m not sure I entirely understood Condit’s message, but I was riveted for seven minutes of unexpected, haunting juxtapositions of the cute and the disturbing.

A moment from "Take Out Girl".

The handful of narrative features in the festival included the Las Vegas production “Take Out Girl,” from local director Hisonni Johnson, which has been a sensation on the festival circuit over the past year or so (including at the most recent Las Vegas Black Film Festival). Set in LA but shot almost entirely in Las Vegas (with primarily local cast and crew), “Take Out Girl” is inspired in part by the life of star and co-writer Hedy Wong. Wong plays a young woman who starts delivering drugs out of her family’s Chinese restaurant in order to make extra money. Johnson and Wong mix a thriller story with a portrayal of a struggling immigrant family, and that combination has brought them plenty of attention that should translate into future projects.

A still from "Mother of Apostles".

My favorite narrative feature was the Ukrainian film “Mother of Apostles,” starring Natalka Polovynka as a woman who travels to the frontlines of a war between the government and separatists, determined to find her pilot son after his plane is shot down. It’s a complex portrayal of a conflict that most Americans know very little about, and also a touching story of the strength of a mother’s love, which sometimes goes beyond reason and self-preservation for the sake of a child (even after that child is an adult). The acting is excellent, especially from Polovynka in a difficult lead role. The movie deservedly won the festival’s award for best feature film, and it’s an example of the kind of challenging art that film festivals continue to bring to Las Vegas, whether online or in person.