Theatre Buzz: Angel Eaters Trilogy - a Three Course Meal

Posted in Events, Theater, Word On The Street by karen
November 20, 2008

My husband’s home town in Michigan is so small that, to them, the word “theatre” is 1) spelled “theater” and 2) always preceded by the word “movie”. And if you want to get to that “movie theater” you’ll need a car — because the closest one is 13 miles away in the next town over. Growing up, if he wanted a theatre experience of ANY kind he needed to head to Chicago.

Meanwhile, New York is so rife with theatre space that you can’t go to a Starbuck’s without being within a stone’s throw of one. Heck … there’s one in the building where I work. There was even a theatre connected to the restaurant I had dinner in last night. If you climb on any mailbox and squint, you can see independent theatre going on everywhere in New York.

I’m particularly fond of theatre companies who put on well crafted plays written by up and coming writers. Johnna Adam’s Angel Eater’s Trilogy is just such a work, and FLUX Theatre Ensemble is just such a company.

I went to see the first installment of the trilogy, Angel Eaters (directed by Jessi D. Hill) this past Saturday, and am looking forward to seeing the second, Rattlers (directed by Jerry Ruiz) later this week. The trilogy wraps up, both for me, as well as for its run, on November 22nd with 8 Little Antichrists. For those who are interested it’s not too late — you can catch any one of the shows before then or, if you’re really up for a full-day theatre experience, you can see the whole trilogy play out before your eyes in one jam-packed day this Saturday. (For more information go to the Flux site at http://www.fluxtheatre.org/).

Angel Eaters, the first play of the trilogy, concerns itself with a poor, depression-era Oklahoma family and their particular take on the circle of life. On one end there’s Death (patriarch Herbert has been “stinking up the living room for three days now”) and on the other end, Life — in the form of an unwanted pregnancy (nothing a little swallow of turpentine couldn’t cure.).

In between these two guideposts lies everything else from faith, to regret, to good ole fashioned hoodwinking. Each character has a different swagger on their walk through life, be it Joann’s (Marnie Schulenburg) religious devotion that swings from babbling innocence to full blow transformation, her sister Nola’s (Tiffany Clementi) caustic cynicism (she’s raised her skirt once too often and hasn’t found salvation in it yet) … or their mother Myrtle (Catherine Michele Porter) who is so blindly bent on resurrecting her husband that she allows herself to believe two sweet-talking carnies (”Resurrection Boy” and his “uncle” Fortune Clay played by Isaiah Tanenbaum and Gregory Waller respectively).

When they claim they can bring back the dead … for the unheard of sum of 50 depression-era dollars … she’s quick to hand over the money, though she holds them to their claim in a rather unorthodox way. Weaving through the story is Doc O’Malley (Ken Glickfeld) whose education of Joann runs the gamut from teaching her to identify and imitate bird calls … right up to teaching her about such bird-related “games” as “A Bird in the Hand” … or its cousin, the one in the bush. Doc is kind enough to reward Joann with some chocolate every time she “wins”.

In between all these characters are links which begin to reveal themselves, and secrets which come to light in the most unusual ways. Let’s just say, it ain’t called Angel Eaters for nuthin’. Overall, it’s a spellbinding piece, full of strange humor, and thoughtful, heartbreaking moments of desperation. The final tableau of the play is both haunting as well as disturbing.

I sat down with Kelly O’Donnell of the Flux Theatre Ensemble who is also the director of the 3rd show in the series, 8 Little Antichrists, to talk about the Trilogy.

Q: Right now your company is doing the Angel Eater’s Trilogy. What attracted you to this project?
KO’D: We were initially attracted to the project the first time we met Johnna Adams. She brought the first 2 scenes of Angel Eaters to our weekly workshop, which we call “Flux Sunday” and I remember saying “Wow, this seems like the type of play that Flux is drawn to.” It was unique, theatrical and magical. From there, we invited Johnna to our annual retreat where the ensemble worked together with her on the play. After some intense discussions on whether or not we should take on such a massively ambitious project, we decided to just go for it.

And to you, Neighborbee Readers - If you go and see any or all of these great shows, please drop a line and let me know!

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