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[Theater reviews]

Anton’s antics
TheatreZone serves Jane Martin

BY ELLEN PFEIFER

Anton in Show Business
By Jane Martin. Directed by Danielle Fauteux Jacques and Thomas Benton. Set design by Linda Amsler. Costumes by Jennifer Russell. With Jessica Chance, Katrina Toshiko, Jenny Gutbezahl, Tori Davis, Danielle Fauteux Jacques, Shelley Brown, and Danielle L. DiDio. Presented by TheatreZone at the Actors Workshop through November 24.

Theater is in such profound trouble that it’s a wonder anyone bothers with it anymore. Most actors can’t make a living. Those who do succeed — usually in television or movies — are often talentless egomaniacs. Directors are frequently self-indulgent frauds. Producers allow themselves to be manipulated by stars or big donors. Audiences are not without culpability either: they are often superannuated, unadventurous, and inclined to sleep. Corporate funders are capable of withdrawing their support with devastating fickleness. Critics are no help: mostly they’re theater wanna-bes who haven’t the guts to put themselves out there under the spotlight.

And yet . . . and yet, with all its flaws, theater still holds out a dream of communicating with people on the deepest levels. Under the right and sometimes most improbable conditions, it can unite players, playwright, and audience in a powerful communal rite.

It is this mythic conception of theater that, I presume, allows playwright Jane Martin to persist in her calling and that animates her play Anton in Show Business. Winner of the 2000 American Theatre Critics/Steinberg New Play Award, the all-woman show takes a clear-eyed, unsparing, and brutally funny look at the backstage machinations of an ill-fated production of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. And TheatreZone’s Danielle Fauteux Jacques and Thomas Benton have crafted a vivid, funny, and disturbing realization.

The author clearly knows the scene — particularly that of regional theater in the United States. Long associated with the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the pseudonymous Martin is widely thought to be ATL’s long-time producing director, Jon Jory, who only recently stepped down from the post.

In Anton in Show Business, Martin evokes a fictional theater company in San Antonio. The producing director, Kate (played by Fauteux Jacques), has made a devil’s deal by engaging Holly (Tori Davis), a famous television star, to headline her Chekhov cast. A veteran of 17 cosmetic surgeries, Holly is trying to make the leap to movies by acquiring some legitimate acting credits. Bolstered by her fame, she’s unafraid to throw her weight around. Taking pity on two nobodies, Casey (Jenny Gutbezahl) and Lisabette (Katrina Toshiko), who audition for the other sisters’ parts, she gets them hired. She herself chooses to play Masha, the largest and most prominent part, because " the most powerful person " gets the best role.

As the show unfolds, we become intimately acquainted with the three very different " sisters, " the portrayals of whom are note-perfect in this TheatreZone production. Holly is drop-dead gorgeous and almost completely self-absorbed. Casey is cynical and unglamorous, the latter quality resulting in her being cast as Olga, the oldest and least attractive sister. She’s been in 200 Off Off Broadway shows and hasn’t gotten paid for a single one. Lisabette, who’s cast as the youngest and most optimistic sister, Irina, is a sweet little hick from Texas, a former third-grade teacher who has returned to her first love. Still starry-eyed and naive about theater, she becomes the playwright’s mouthpiece, offering in a touching curtain speech the few words of hope and affirmation that can be said about the art of the stage.

Playwright Martin is hardest on stage directors. She skewers touchy-feely types like Ralph (Shelley Brown), who directs his auditioning actors to play a scene using only nonsense syllables. And she’s savage with politically correct poseurs. Andwyneth (Jessica Chance), guest director from the " Black Rage Ensemble, " has no patience with " Brother Chekhov. " In her headwrap and African robes, she wants to " get down on the race question. "

Then there’s Ben (Fauteux Jacques), the C&W crooner and family man who plays Chekhov’s Vershinin and is the object of Holly’s seductive scheming. Critic Joby (Danielle L. DiDio) sits in the audience and periodically interrupts the proceedings with silly objections. Don Blount (Jessica Chance), an arrogant cigarette-company executive, hasn’t a clue about the art form his firm supports.

Although not all the performances are consistently eloquent (the women taking men’s parts are not entirely persuasive), TheatreZone’s production gives you much to think about — after you’ve stopped laughing.

Issue Date: November 8-15, 2001

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