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Written by Andra Coberly
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Friday, 19 October 2007 |
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The Poet, pale and frail looking, has lost his heart. The Millionaire, a big-bellied, fast-talking pig of man, has purchased himself a new one. George is wearing blue eye shadow and a housecoat, and there is a ladder to heaven.
Suspend belief and all that you know of science and the human body: “Rag and Bone”, now presented by the always-offbeat openstage etc, an offshoot of OpenStage Theatre Co., is beyond wacky. Young playwright Noah Haidle, inspired by Yeats’ poem “The Circus Animal’s Desertion,” creates a world where a ladder shop serves as a cover for a black-market heart ring, becoming a destination for those who don’t play the lead in the movies of their life or who can’t feel anything, and where a “simple” heart transplant can take the most insincere woman or the most coarse man and make them new. For the right price, they can see all the colors of the world, feel the emotions of others and bleed with compassion and empathy.
“Rag and Bone” is a newfangled sort of work: It’s dirty and bloody in some places, funny and far-out, and rough as sandpaper. It’s sour without being off-putting and sweet without being smooth.
Theater in its best is never easy, it challenges, it evolves, and it has heart. Haidle’s “Rag and Bone”, though not faultless, does have heart.
In its Colorado premiere, “Rag and Bone” is done in the tight confines of the Armstrong Hotel’s third-floor ballroom, an intimate and not at all theater-like space. It’s an awkward situation that is perfect for the awkward plays that openstage etc puts on in the room. In the Armstrong, the set is simple with several different scene-scapes sharing the space.
With direction by Emelie Borello, openstage etc’s production of “Rag and Bone” is awkward—but it also has an energy, humor and appeal that make the show a pleasure. As a bulk of the cast portray stereotypes (The Hooker, The Poet, The Millionaire and T. Bone, the street-wise pimp with an anger problem) and several portray people who have lost their heart or have been given someone else’s heart, it is honestly difficult to judge how well the actors get into character. But openstage has fun with the stereotypes, embracing the characters and playing up their quirks.
The most unique personalities are brothers Jeff and George, who own The Ladder Store. Jeff, who is ambiguously “slow,” is a ladder-selling man-boy who wonders about building a ladder to heaven and is completely unaware that his brother George is pushing human hearts out of a red lunch cooler. Those who come to the shop looking for “a very special ladder” are really in need of a new take on life. In Haidle’s world, a heart has memory, personality and holds with it emotion and feeling. With a swipe of your Mastercard, a whole new outlook on life can be bought.
The play is full of goofy humor and far-fetched plot turns. The characters are essentially unrelatable and it’s really hard to tell what message Haidle was hoping to send. The end is fairly ridiculous—even more so than the beginning.
With that said, openstage etc creates an adventurous little romp that never takes itself too seriously and is unapologetic for the play’s absurdity. Borello and the cast make an entertaining, heartfelt production out of the unreal story and from the surreal characters.
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