Go See Children of a Lesser God

For why is all around us here

As if some lesser god had made the world,

But had not force to shape it as he would?*

   -- Alfred Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King

I have been volunteering, performing, and otherwise working at the Limelight Theatre in St Augustine for over 4 years now and this is the first time that I have been compelled to write about the experience.  I have to say that the current production of the 20^th season, Children of a Lesser God, ranks among the very best of the shows that I have seen there.

I had the good fortune of seeing the National road of the show back in 1981 while I was a cadet.  I found the show to be very moving and was surprised to learn of the conflict between hearing and deaf culture that is at the heart of the play.  I enjoyed the play immensely, but, perhaps because I was too young then, it did not move me as much as this current production.

The play takes place in the mind of James Leeds, a speech therapist at a school for the deaf in the 1970s.  James recounts his relationship with Sarah Norman, a maid at the school.  Sarah was born deaf and has resisted every effort to learn to lip read and speak, despite the fact that knowing these skills would better enable her to live in the hearing world.  The conflict between the deaf and hearing world comes not only from James and Sarah, but from Sarah’s mother and the faculty and students of the school.

Both leads are incredible.  As James, Joe Walz has the daunting task of delivering not only his lines, but also Sarah’s for the sake of those of us who do not understand American Sign Language.  His performance is powerful and nuanced.   He is the man caught between two worlds.  As a full fledged member of the hearing community, he naturally wants to help the deaf enter his world.  With Sarah, he is pulled into the deaf world where he struggles to understand a woman who does not want to enter his world.  Walz admirably conveys James’s struggle to connect with Sarah in the intersection of the two worlds.

Kristy Garcia-Santiago as Sarah commands the stage.  With nary a spoken word, Garcia-Santiago pulls the audience into her world.  Her beautiful, powerful, signing combined with her lovely, expressive face convey all that she says and feels so well that the oral narration by the others serves more to reinforce what she is saying rather than define it.  She is a force to be reckoned with every time she comes on stage and her Sarah is heartbreaking in her insistence that she will only do something she can do well.  The chemistry between her and Walz is palpable and served to totally captivate the audience.  I hope we see her onstage often.

With such powerful leads, the supporting actors are often in danger of being overshadowed.  Directors Heather and Britt Corry have cast their show well and their capable direction has elicited wonderful performances from all their actors.

Brian Kelly in histheater debut as hearing impaired Orin Dennis is a natural. His turn as a student who grows into a teacher/deaf activist is a joy to watch.  Amy Francis as Sarah’s mother Mrs. Norman is both brittle and touching as she tries to reconnect with the daughter she thought she lost.  As Mr. Franklin, the school administrator and bridge fanatic, Andy Fitzpatrick strikes just the right note of weary cynicism as he deals with a push for deaf power at the school.  In sharp contrast to Franklin is Edna Klein, winningly portrayed by Evelyn Peralta as idealistic young lawyer who is ready to help the deaf fight for rights that she does not truly understand.  Last and certainly not least, is Anna Styron as hard of hearing student Lydia, who has a crush on James.  Anna’s Lydia presents just the right touch of youth and woman as she falls for her teacher and tries to compete with Sarah.

The show flows smoothly thanks to the seamless light and sound operation of Brian Delker.  The set designed and lit by Britt Corry, meant to represent the mind of James Leeds, is starkly effective.  Consisting of a series of platforms and a few pieces of furniture, the set functions as number of places that prompts the audience to focus on the human interaction that is the heart of the play.  The play also features sign language interpreters for deaf audience members.

With this production of Children of a Lesser God, the Limelight Theatre has once again show why it is the preeminent theater in St. Augustine.  If you enjoy theater, think you might enjoy theater, or just want to pass a couple of enjoyable hours, go see this show.  This show is too good to miss!

*The excerpt from Idylls of the King above, is the source the term of a lesser god in the title.  I have my ideas about what it means, but I would like to hear your thoughts about it on the comments. 

Some Thoughts on The Hunger Games Movie

The Hunger Games finished the weekend with the largest non-summer opening in history.  It is a success, but is it good?  The answer is yes.  The movie takes a very internal book and gives us a story rooted in the world it creates and still gives us a very character driven tale.  The only way to capture the depth of the book would have been a voice over and that is extremely difficult to pull off, so the filmmakers had to present that development in other ways.  (SPOILERS FOLLOW)

Before I get further into to what this film did right, let me pick the few nits that I found.

Haymitch was far too sober.  At the start of the book, he is supposed to be a drunken disgrace who is so smashed he falls off the stage at the Reaping.  He later vomits on the train, before he gets to know his tributes.  Now don’t get me wrong, Woody Harrelson does a remarkable job as Haymitch.  The look of hate he directs at the hovercraft that takes the tributes to the arena is absolutely chilling and shows a fire that that he has not been able to drink away.  We just need to see how hard he has been trying drink himself into oblivion, before we see him get it together.

The camera work in District 12 was so shaky as to be distracting, 

Peeta comes out of the games physically unscathed.

District 11’s gift of bread not happening.  I understand why they didn’t show it (choosing to show the start of the rebellion instead), but  I still missed it.

The final mutations did not have the features of the dead tributes.

I know there were more changes, but those were the 5 changes/omissions that hit me.

Now back to the good stuff.  Since a voice over was impossible and dialogue could not be used to convey Katniss’ inner thoughts, it fell on Jennifer Lawrence to use her considerable skills to show Katniss’ internal monologue.  Since Katniss is a woman of few words captured in a situation where her every word is subject to observation by the Capitol, there is little opportunity for her to express her true thoughts.  We rely on Lawrence’s expressive face to give us glimpses in to the conflict inside.  The script also allows that conflict to show in what Katniss does not say, such as when Rue asks her about Peeta and Katniss responds with a question to move away from the topic. 

Donald Sutherland was a brilliant choice for President Snow.  He presents just the right air of menace and establishes the character as a ruthless ruler who knows just how fragile his domain is.

Lenny Kravitz brought Cinna to life and I found myself wishing for more interaction between him and Katniss.  I look forward to his appearance in Catching Fire.

Rue, as she should be, is positively heart-breaking. 

When I saw the first trailer for the film, I commented to my sister (the bright lass who introduced me to the books) that the film went outside the arena.  This change is what makes the film work.  We see the control room and how they decide to herd the tributes for maximum dramatic effect.  In the book, Katniss often thinks the games makers will do something to make the show more exciting.  Here we see it.  My other concern from the trailer was that her interview dress looked too plain, but I can see now that the purpose was to hide how well they had actually done at bringing Cinn’a creation to life.

 We also get a welcome glimpse into the politics of the Games as Snow instructs Seneca Crane on what needs to happen.  I must admit his execution was certainly not what I expected.

Going back to Haymitch, the cut away scenes from the arena to Haymitch working the sponsors were another welcome glimpse into what is only hinted at in the books.  Watching Haymitch schmooze the sponsors and even Seneca Crane was a treat, and offered a plausible explanation of why the “change” to the rules was even considered.

I found the shift in focus to be very effective and it is what makes the translation for page to screen work.  Was it a perfect adaptation?  As noted by my nits above, no.  But it was effective and delivered a movie that truly honored the spirit of the book.  I walked out of the theater fully satisfied with this adaptation.  If you haven’t already seen it, go!

Check it out

      About 8 years ago, I received an e-mail stating something along the lines of "Target stores do not support veterans."  The body of the e-mail indicated that Target refused to donate money to a veteran’s organization.  Something about it did not ring true and I decided to research it.  I called Target and was referred to their website where there was a posting that explained that the e-mail was completely wrong.  I posted this to my friends who had received the e-mail and resolved to always check any e-mail chains before I decided to share them.

     Eight years later, Facebook has made internet hoaxes even easier to pull off.  Just this week I have seen my friends post as fact items about a pistol packing grandma, a comeuppance delivered to a racist airplane passenger, and a picture supposedly showing President Obama failing to salute the flag.  A quick visit to Snopes revealed all three to be false.  While the first 2 were nice apocryphal stories that were funny or made a strong point, the third was just partisan propaganda designed to make POTUS look like he doesn't respect the flag.  I strongly suggest that before sharing any post from a friend you check it for accuracy so you can say here is a funny story (the grandma) or I hope this would happen in real life (the racist passenger), while indicating that it is not a true story.  In the case of political items, rather than writing  "If this is true it just show that he hates America", how about checking first and not reposting at all.