In Beautiful Thing, currently being produced by Nicu’s Spoon Theatre Company, director Michelle Kuchuk accomplishes a charming revival of this British classic written by Jonathan Harvey and originally staged in 1993, with a later release as a screen adaptation by Channel 4 Films in 1996.

Instantly transplanted into the mid- eighties slums of South London, we meet Jamie (Trip Langley), an awkward teen who hates playing ball, Sandra – Jamie’s single mom (Julie Campbell), her boyfriend Tony (Tim Romero and Leah (Rebecca Lee Lerman), their eccentric sassy teen neighbor who has been expelled from school, does drugs and is obsessed with Mama Cass. She fancies herself an up-and-coming music star and has a bit of a crush on Ste (Michael Abourizk), who lives next door to Jamie and, unlike him, loves sports and is tall and handsome.

Life struggles are a norm in their neighborhood, but Ste has it the hardest: his father is a drunk who beats him. When things go really bad one evening, Ste hurls out of his father’s shack with a fat lip and Sandra takes him under her wing – and into her house, where there’s no other bed than Jamie’s, so the boys have to ‘top-and-tail’ for the night. While Jamie is propped on his pillow reading a magazine and Ste devours Sandra’s salad asking shyly “Will your Mom mind if I leave out the beet?” something clicks. And although the boys don’t fully understand what draws them together, they find each other in Jamie’s bed again the next night. Their rendezvous continue on and off, bringing comfort and joy as Jamie rubs Ste’s scrapes and bruises with lavender cream and as they read together and giggle happily. As they slowly but surely discover their identities and realize who they are, anxieties enter their happy fairyland. “Do you think I’m queer?” Ste asks Jamie nervously. “Don’t matter what I think,” Jamie answers before he turns off the light. He’s right – people are who they are.

But neighbors and families aren’t blind and deaf, and the boy’s peculiar habit of overnight get-togethers gets noticed. Leah makes

acomment she may spill the beans if the boys won’t take her along with them to the park. Ste freaks out – he is sure his father will kill him. Yet, love is stronger than fear and the boys find each other in Jamie’s bedroom again, planning their first outing together. But things go awry and someone tells Sandra her son was at Gloster, a pub known as the town’s gay hangout. Why did you go there?” Sandra demands as she wakes Jamie up, and they have a heated conversation that leaves her in tears. She will not hate her son for being who he is, but she is not happy about it either.

The play brings forth the beauty and magic of a boy-meets-boy romance as the audience learns to love, grieve and be anxious through their eyes. Will the boys be able to embrace their love openly? Will Ste’s psychotic father beat him to death? Will the boys stay together on the uneasy path Mother Nature has chosen for them? We can only guess. And wish them the best of luck in this stern unforgiving world they are coming of age in. But for now they are happy, dancing with each other on their next night out at Gloster, taking life in stride one day at a time.

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Related Posts:

• Celebrating “Holy Days”
• Entrevista: Heather Cunningham Of Retro Productions

Retro Productions’ latest show, Holy Days (Written by Sally Nemeth and directed by Peter Zinn) comes off as deceptively simply until you’ve sat with it a while.  It’s been several days since I’ve seen it and I find that I’m haunted by the seemingly stark yet surprisingly deep performances by Heather E. Cunningham (Rosie), Joe Forbrich (Gant), Lowell Byers (Will) and Casandera M.J. Lollar (Molly).

Holy Days begins with a metaphor, one which shifts the more you think about it.  At the opening of the play, Rosie addresses the audience with an empty gaze and a lilt-less voice to explain how she had once seen her garden full of daffodils which were in danger of being covered in frost; she gathered as many as she could into her arms, thinking she’d taken more than enough to fill all the vessels she had in the house.  But when she was able to arrange them, they barely filled one pitcher.  She went out to take more, but the remaining flowers were dried up … gone.

Certainly, since Holy Days takes place during the Great Depression in the Dust Bowl, one can make the obvious connection that this story is an analogy for the way life just dried up on the plains, how colors faded and

Casandera M. J. Lollar and Joe Forbrich (photo by Jordana Zeldin)

hope left.  However, sit with this image for a while and it grows deeper – the idea becomes one of need.  Needing to hoard the good moments, feeling almost overwhelmed by them when you have them, thinking you’ve got more life, love, goodness, and prosperity than you can handle, only to find it’s barely enough … and when you move to get another shot at happiness you find the prospects have all dried up.

Holy Days is also a metaphor for death, mourning and rebirth, but mostly it’s about the in-between … the waiting.  For those who know their Christian calendar, these particular holy days in the play refer to Good Friday – the day Christ died, Holy Saturday, the day he was deeply missed and strongly mourned, and Easter Sunday, they day he rose and restored hope and faith.  When we come upon Rosie, her husband Gant, his brother Will, and Will’s wife Molly, they seem to be stuck (metaphorically) in the mournful day of Holy Saturday even as they are literally preparing for Easter.  No doubt their Good Friday has past – clues are passed along thought the ways of their daily life as well as things that are hinted at – yes, the Great Depression has hit, but this family has lost a lot more.   And no doubt their Easter Sunday is coming – Molly is pregnant and full of eager anticipation to start her life; she’s annoyed by anything that smacks of hurt and detachment … she wants fun, and renewal, and affirmation.  And so, this family wallows in this never ending day of waiting … full of mourning for the death they’ve seen in all its forms, and bowed with diminishment … doing what they can to figure out how to keep themselves together even if the only way to accomplish that is through separation.

Heather Cunningham and Joe Forbrich (photo by Jordana Zeldin)

Each of the four characters is strongly carved out; they have all lived through the same dark episode but represent four different stages of acceptance.  Heather E. Cunningham’s Rosie is suffering deeply from a loss which has taken her hope and her heart, but there are still moments of anger in her, and where there’s anger there’s at least a spark of life.  She tightly wraps her depression around her as if it were the ratty sweater she can’t keep from pulling closer and closer.  Joe Forbrich’s Gant is the strong and silent type, he suffers as deeply as his wife, but he’s tasked as “the man” and so he must bear the burden of tending to the farm, looking for work in order to pay the mortgage, and resolutely abiding by the unwritten rules of the times that if going off to build a bridge for three years is what you must do to keep your family together, then you do it without hesitation.  It’s in the quite moments that he drowns his sorrows in liquor and lets the alcohol dull his ache. Casandera M.J. Lollar’s Molly is desperate to cast off these depressing relatives; she’s been part of the tragedies from a distance, and even her closing speech underlines the fact that she is unwilling to give over to this oppressive social and economical environment.  A gesture as simple as needing to color Easter eggs perfectly pinpoints how she must look for the promise of tomorrow.  Unfortunately, it leads to an almost cruel attitude toward her sister-in-law that presents itself in between otherwise mundane moments like baking a pie or milking the cow.  Finally, Lowell Byers’ Will represents youth, energy and hope.  He’s strong, both in character as well as build, and he’s been lucky enough to suffer less than his brother, even while he steadfastly sticks by him.  However, he does suffer for his brother, for the loss and the under-expressed sorrow … he even sheds tears of his own.  But ultimately he’s been spared and that gives him something that’s in short supply around the farm –optimism.  Subtle, but present optimism.

With an amazingly detailed set by  Jack and Rebecca Cunningham and Justin Sturges, and property design by Heather E. Cunningham and Casandera M. J. Lollar the world of this family rises up around you and you can feel the dust come in on the wind every time the door is opened.  While Holy Days could never be called a happy story, it most certainly is a beautiful one, filled with all the places the human spirit goes when facing down its greatest enemy: misfortune.

For an in-depth conversation with Heather Cunningham where she discussed this play, her role as Rosie, and more about her life in the theatre, check out Antonio Minino’s great interview which ran a few weeks ago.

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Related Posts:

• Entrevista: Heather Cunningham Of Retro Productions
• Entrevista: Peter Zinn Director Of Benefactors
• “Beautiful Thing” – The Classics Never Age
• Desk Set: Back Then, The Future Was Now
• Eli and Cheryl Jump … Look After You (Fringe Festival 2009)

If I said to you I was an old time fan of Heather and Retro Productions I would be lying … and why start off with a lie? Who would I be! Despicable me … so lets start with the truth and nothing but! I first became acquainted with their work about a year ago as a matter of … chance.  I reviewed their production of Mill Fire for The Fab Marquee and was taken in by their attention to detail, something that made me think they had been around for  – oh, I don’t know – 10 years. To my surprise they are only a couple of years old, but seasoned in talent and determined to bring back quality pieces – and as I learned after interviewing their Artistic Director Heather Cunningham – new works as well.

Heather Cunningham Artistic Director Retro Productions

Their mission is to present works of “retro theatre”, and they so wisely include the American Heritage Dictionary definition of Retro (since everyone has different ideas of what that is), as “involving, relating to, or reminiscent of things past“; in their case with extra emphasis on the 20th Century.

They were nominated for 6 New York Innovative Theatre Awards last year (2 leading actress, costume, lighting, set and sound nominations for Mill Fire), meaning they left a lasting impression on more than this theatergoer.

Premiering this Friday, November 6th at The Spoon Theater, is their production of Holy Days, a play set in the Great Depression written by Sally Nemeth and directed by Peter Zinn.

I did say this was an interview right? enough blabbing about, lets ask Heather some questions…

AM: How did Retro come about? do you consider yourself a retro girl – stuck in the fashion and art trends of the 50′s and 60′s?
HC: I’ve been told I’m “retro”, certainly I have my share of vintage inspired fashions, but I’m really a jeans and sneakers kind of girl. Musically I’m a big fan of the swing and big band sounds of the 30′s through the 60′s, my favorite artist is Bobby Darin!  I don’t claim to know much about contemporary music.  I also happen to love old things, from 30′s kitchen gadgets to 50′s children books, to 70′s advertising.

As to contemporary theater, I like quite a bit of it, both as an actress and as an audience member.  I started producing out of frustration as an actress for the quality of work I was getting, and part of that had to do with the fact that everything was either new works that were simply not ready for production or Shakespeare.  There was no happy medium!  And I love the plays of the middle of the 20th century!  They are the plays I grew up with.

AM: In your quest to bring back these plays … do you ever produce (or will you ever produce) new work?

Heather in Still Life ©Kristen Vaughan

HC: I would love to produce new work if it was “Retro”.  The plays we’ve done have not always been written in the time period they take place in, for example, Holy Days was written in the late 1980′s but it takes place in 1936.  A play doesn’t have to be old to be retro, it just needs to take place in another time period.

AM: You come from a theatrical family – your parents (Jack and Rebecca Cunningham) are a dynamic set design duo.  What’s it like working with them?  And do you always see eye to eye when those sketches are presented?
HC: I could not do what I do without my parents’ support, first and foremost.  Sometimes they think I’m nuts (Dad might still be in denial that we are doing The Desk Set in May!), and sometimes when I say “let’s do this bare bones” I get this incredible set!  I usually make my requests before the design is conceived, but on those rare occasions when I ask for something afterwards, they are great about incorporating my requests.  But above all, I am a huge fan of their work.  I think it is stunning.

AM: Six IT Award nominations for the same production is a great accomplishment!  What has it meant for the company? Have you sensed any  “drama” with colleagues because of it?
HC: It was absolutely thrilling.  I didn’t sense any jealousy at all.   In fact there seem to be a greater number of people from the Off Off Broadway community interested in Retro Productions now than before our nominations.

AM: What has been your most challenging work as an actress in or outside of Retro?
HC: There is no question… Still Life was the most challenging thing I have ever done as an actress.  The memorization alone was mind numbing.  I don’t think I have ever done a play before or since where the adrenaline of going on stage was as high from just fear of going up.  And the subject matter was not easy either … it was a play about a Vietnam vet and it was quite graphic and included pictures. And my character, the vet’s wife, was someone who was actually really far away from who I am, so playing her simply was an added challenge.

AM: What can we expect from your upcoming production of Holy Days?
HC: Holy Days is a beautiful play, and on surface quite simple.  But like some of Pinter’s best writing, people aren’t always saying what they are thinking.  These are stoic people and they don’t (or can’t) always express their feelings.  It makes for a lot of palpable tension between the characters.

The play takes place during the Great Depression in the Dust Bowl.  Our characters are farmers and their wives and they are struggling with the devastation around them.  There is dirt and dust piled up, there is loss everywhere they look; out in the fields, in their homes, in each other.

AM: It seems the Great Depression is a recurring theme in these recession times, a true testament that artists need to express what is going on in their surroundings. What connects you to your fellow cast members?

Heather in Mill Fire ©Kristen Vaughan

HC: Sure, we can all relate to the fear of losing our jobs, our homes, our livelihoods.  That it is reflective of the times we are in just makes it closer to the surface and therefore easier to tap in to.

AM: Is this your first time working with director Peter Zinn?
Peter and I go way back … more years than either of us probably wants to admit!  But seriously, we went to undergrad together (at Denison University) and I was in the first play he ever directed there.  The play was Betrayal by Harold Pinter and it was quite honestly one of the highlights of my University theater experience.  I hold that project close to my heart to this day.  Pete and I lost touch, but were reunited last year.  I told him how I felt about Betrayal and he admitted to me he felt the same way.  It’s been a joy to work with him again.  Not just because it has been wonderful to reconnect with my old friend, but also because he is such a passionate director and so perceptive.

AM: I enjoy the Spoon Theater, but if you could take over any existent theater space in New York City, which one would that be and why?
HC: Oh, I couldn’t possibly answer that!  There are so many wonderful spaces in New York … I will admit to playing a game whenever I’m in a theater, it’s called the “if this was my theater” game!  But I don’t see that happening any time soon, unless I start playing the lottery and actually manage to win!

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You can catch Heather Cunningham in Holy Days from November 6-21 at The Spoon Theater. Be on the look out for our lovely managing director Karen Tortora-Lee‘s review of this production.

Ticket are only $18, available at www.retroproductions.org.

Related Posts:

• Celebrating “Holy Days”
• Desk Set: Back Then, The Future Was Now
• Scene/Unseen – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• The Stranger To Kindness: City Of Strangers (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The Stranger To Kindness: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)