I recently previewed two current productions on local stages — Enemy of the People at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Where the Mountain Meets the Sea by Jeff Augustin. Here’s a link my CityBeat advance feature. These productions opened last week, and I’ve reviewed both for Talkin’ Broadway.
Cincy Shakes is presenting Amy Herzog’s recent adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play. Even in its original version, it’s a powerful piece about civic greed and self-serving arrogance, but Herzog’s translation makes it frighteningly timely. The story of a well-intended physician who is hired to open a spa in a coastal Norwegian town goes quickly off the rails when some water testing reveals health-threatening contamination. The small town has invested significantly in what’s been imagined as a tourist attraction, so there’s a lot of pressure to move the project forward. (The cost of remediation is a further obstacle.) The clash is personified by the virtuous doctor (played by Brent Vimtrup, below) and his bullying brother, both ably played by Cincy Shakes actors. It will make you think about Dr. Fauci and his uphill battle to warn Americans about the covid-19 virus, in spite of many who wanted to minimize the challenge. My review is here. Onstage through Sept. 20.
On the Playhouse’s intimate Shelterhous stage, Jeff Augustin’s poetic script focuses on a son and his late estranged father (Robert Cornelius and Isaiah Tyrelle Boyd in the lower photo). They each describe coast-to-coast travels, a generation apart, that reveal more in common than they had imagined. Rather than actual dialogue, each character talks of his life and his journey in a series of beautiful, emotional monologues, and these are underscored with a handful of contemporary folk-styled songs by the renowned duet The Bengsons, performed by two actor musicians. It’s not truly a play or a piece of musical theater — it’s better characterized as musical storytelling, lovely and heartfelt. Here’s a link to my Talkin’ Broadway review. Onstage through Sept. 28.
BOTH PHOTOS BY MIKKI SCHAFFNER