Tag Archives: Geoff Elliott

Theatre Review: One Man, Two Guvnors

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Led by a sensational Kasey Mahaffy, One Man, Two Guvnors brings the fun with a flamboyant display of physical comedy, witty dialogue, and an evocative touch of retro style.

Francis Henshall (Kasey Mahaffy) gets lucky enough to land two jobs the same day. But that also means that he has two bosses, Rachel Crabbe (Christie Coran) and Stanley Stubbers (Ty Aldridge), so he needs to be careful not to mix things up. Francis tends to forget things and get easily distracted, especially thinking about food. The first half of the story is his pursuit of food, the second half is his pursuit of his love interest, Dolly (Trisha Miller).

As a subplot, a local wealthy mobster, Charlie “the Duck” Clench (Henri Lubatti) wants to marry his daughter, ingénue Pauline Clench (Cassandra Marie Murphy) to Rachel Crabbe, who is in a male disguise as her murdered twin brother Roscoe. But Pauline is in love with Alan Dangle (Paul David Story), an overdramatic amateur actor who, facing the impossibility of his relationship with Pauline, wanders the streets as a dude in distress, with a Shakespearean flair, of course.

Playwright Richard Bean places the story in 1963 in Brighton, England, the same city where more than 1,000 Mods and Rockers initiated a famous fight a year later, in 1964. For One Man, Two Guvnors, Bean uses the city as a bustling background for the hectic action of the play. To complement the tone of the story, Bean brings back the atmosphere of the swinging 60s with a live band that uses a variety of instruments, including a washboard.

Of course, a 60s story can’t be complete without dazzling costumes. Costume designer Garry Lennon and wig/make up designer Tony Valdés contribute with their talents to enhance the story and characters with a combination of Mod dresses for the ladies and slick-dressed attire for the gents. Even the set design (Frederica Nascimento) and lighting design (Ken Booth) make a striking statement about the geometric and fun patterns of that period.

Directors Julia Rodriguez–Elliott and Geoff Elliott capture the slapstick quality of the script with vaudeville-like kinetics that turn into a visual spectacle of humorous madness that keeps the audience fully engaged. Talking about the audience, the fourth wall disappears at times to make the play more interactive, catching the audience off-guard in a playful exchange of jokes and actions.

The cast is a stellar combination of resident and temporary actors. They all do a splendid job in bringing the comedy and movement to new heights. Mahaffy, as the leading actor, continues his ascending career showing his superb skills as one of the best in the industry. His timing and quirkiness are a perfect match for these energetic and unconventional characters. He keeps getting the opportunity, and he continues to shine.

With so much talent on display, this is for sure one of the best plays staged this year. It won’t be a surprise if A Noise Within adds more accolades to their long list of awards with this extraordinary production.

One Man, Two Guvnors

A Noise Within
3352 E Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91107

Performances Sept. 6 – Sept. 28:
• Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7: 30 p.m. / Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. (no Saturday matinee on Sept. 6)

Tickets: anoisewithin.org

• Written by Richard Bean
• Adapted from The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni
• Original songs by Gary Olding
• Directed by Julia Rodriguez–Elliott and Geoff Elliott
• Music director Rod Bagheri
• Presented by A Noise Within, Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott, producing artistic directors

Cast: Ty Aldridge, Lynn Robert Berg, Christie Coran, Luis Kelly–Duarte, Henri Lubatti, Evan Lugo, Kasey Mahaffy, Josey Montana McCoy, Trisha Miller, Cassandra Marie Murphy, Paul David Story.

Creative team: Scenic designer Frederica Nascimento; lighting designer Ken Booth; projection designer Nicholas Santiago; sound designer Jeff Gardner; costume designer Garry Lennon; wig and make up designer Tony Valdés; properties designer Stephen Taylor; fight choreographer Kenneth R. Merckx, Jr.; dialect coach Andrea Odinov; and dramaturg Miranda Johnson-Haddad. The production stage manager is Angela Sonner, assisted by Hope Matthews.

Theatre Review: The Skin of Our Teeth

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The Skin of Our Teeth, an abstract play with hints of impressionism, is back on stage, this time at A Noise Within.

The three act play is an attempt to illustrate the complex and oftentimes turbulent history of humankind. Playwright Thornton Wilder used figures of speech to convey the spectrum of the human condition and the resilience to survive in the face of disaster, covering thousand of years of history. Obviously, this is a challenging task for a theatre director. To translate Wilder’s concepts, Directors Julia Rodriguez–Elliott and Geoff Elliott use lighting, visual effects, and background projections to frame the brilliant performances of Ann Noble, Trisha Miller, and Frederick Stuart, who facilitate the understanding of the philosophical elements of the play.

Wilder wrote the script in 1942, when the world was witnessing the horrors of WWII. Probably as a premonition of what lay ahead, Wilder wrote a play about the necessity to rely on each other to survive a disaster of epic magnitude. The three main events mentioned in the play are a new ice age, a great flood, and a devastating war. By the way, the casualties of WWII were 70-85 million, a catastrophic war, indeed. The Antrobus family, however, is able to survive each disaster, an allegory to the indestructible spirit of humans, especially the family, the fundamental block of society.

The text references three of the most influential philosophers in history: Plato, Aristotle, and Spinoza, a way to convey the idea that their teachings would help humans navigate the treacherous paths in life. This element is used breaking character and addressing the audience directly to bring down the fourth wall. Wilder didn’t use this for a comical effect only, he also implied that the survival of the human species depends on our ability to take personal responsibility, thus transferring rhetorically the action of the play onto the audience.

The excellent acting of Ann Noble as Sabina, Frederick Stuart as Mr. Antrobus, and Trisha Miller as Mrs. Antrobus make the deep philosophical ideas more digestible to the audience. They balance the dramatic tone of the play with a touch of comedy to lighten up the subject matter. In the third act, Christian Henley, amazing in King Hedley II, delivers a powerful and moving performance as a war survivor and resented son. Henley and Stuart offer a touching scene that captures the essence of the play during the resolution.

The ideas imprinted in the play are as relevant as they were 82 years ago. Whether we agree or disagree with Wilder’s points of view, the truth is that human history continues its turbulent path—economical crises, Covid, and more wars included. An analysis of The Skin of Our Teeth is a window to the building blocks of civilization, the wonders of the human experience, and the innate grit to survive adversity.

The Skin of Our Teeth

A Noise Within
3352 E Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91107

Performances Sept. 7 – Sept. 29
• Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.: Sept. 19, Sept. 26 (dark Sept. 12)
• Fridays at 7:30 p.m.: Sept. 20*, Sept. 27*
• Saturdays at 2 p.m.: Sept. 14, Sept. 21, Sept. 28 (no matinee on Sept. 7)
• Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.: Sept. 7 (Opening Night); Sept. 21, Sept. 28
• Sundays at 2 p.m.: Sept. 15*, Sept. 22, Sept. 29
*Post–performance conversations with the artists take place every Friday (except the preview) and on Sunday, Sept. 15.
**A one-hour INsiders Discussion Group will take place prior to the matinee on Sunday, Sept. 8 beginning at 12:30 p.m.

Student matinees are scheduled on select weekdays at 10:30 a.m. Interested educators should email education@anoisewithin.org.

Written by Thornton Wilder. Directed by Julia Rodriguez–Elliott and Geoff Elliott. Presented by A Noise Within, Geoff Elliot and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, producing artistic directors

Starring Christian Henley, Mildred Marie Langford, Kasey Mahaffy, Trisha Miller, Cassandra Marie Murphy, Ann Noble, Frederick Stuart.
Ensemble: Anthony Adu, Stella Bullock, Julia Chavez, Jacob Cherry, Yannick Haynes, Amber Liekhus, Veronica McFarlane, David A. Rangel, Landon M. Robinson, Micah Schneider, Maya Sta. Ana.

Creative team: Scenic designer Frederica Nascimento; lighting designer Ken Booth; composer and sound designer Robert Oriol; costume designer Garry Lennon; wig and make up designer Tony Valdés; and dramaturg Miranda Johnson-Haddad. The production stage manager is Angela Sonner, assisted by Hope Matthews.