High school and college theater taking bold risks
Carnegie Vanguard High School’s production of “The Pillowman” is better than the average professional play in Houston.
It’s braver, wilder and more challenging than the majority of shows I see and review. It features puppetry, an original short film, child torture and extended mythical storytelling from the mind of a disturbed writer. It’s a hodgepodge of ambition and experimentation that the “pro” scene of Houston, so to speak, doesn’t seem to be able to accommodate on a regular basis.
To be fair, Carnegie Vanguard’s “Pillowman,” which closed Nov. 4, is leagues beyond the typical high school production. The school is considered one of the best in the nation, with a recent U.S. News report ranking it No. 8 in the country, and the theater program consistently wins state-level awards.
But from a consumer standpoint, it remains a jarring experience to see theater performed, directed and designed by 15- to 18-year-olds, which makes Houston’s middletier theater scene seem embarrassingly drab.
“The Pillowman” is Martin McDonagh’s 2003 play about a writer being interviewed from a series of child murders that closely resembles the gruesome endings to his short stories. Senior Cyrus Shafiei is thrilling as the protagonist Katurian. Shafiei makes us see Katurian as a victim of a totalitarian government at first, but as Katurian’s tragically bizarre past unfolds before us, Shafiei’s demeanor darkens. He creeps toward the abyss as he describes horrific scenes to the police officers interrogating him, making both the officers and audience wonder what is or isn’t real about what he says.
“The Pillowman” is a self-contained drama that’s perfectly happy with presenting its ideas as a spiral, spinning inward and downward toward unthinkable places. It has, at first glance, nothing in common with “Topdog/Underdog,” the seminal 2001 play by Suzan-Lori Parks about two rambunctious brothers living in poverty. Parks’ play, which sees a thrilling production at the University of Houston through Sunday, is symbolic of African-American men in general while never making commentary a substitute for its drama. The two productions seemingly share nothing but the accident of being excellent dramas performed in Houston schools on the same weekend.
But “Pillowman’s” Katurian and his brother, a supposed dimwit whom Katurian takes cares of, share the same interplay of external and internal struggle that makes “Topdog/Underdog” one of the best two-person plays written in the 21st century. Like the Katurians, Lincoln and Booth, the two underprivileged brothers in Parks’ play, are carriers of trauma and subjugation that’s exemplified by their parents’ neglect and twisted manipulation.
Both sets of brothers have the kind of touching relationship necessary when a person has no one else to depend on. Meanwhile, the forces they battle end up turning the brothers against each other. The explosive endings of the plays run parallel in literal and metaphorical terms.
Again, the UH production, which stars Yao Dogbe as Booth and Derrick Moore as Lincoln, sets a standard that much of Houston theater struggles to meet. Dogbe and Moore are graduate students in UH’s MFA acting program. Seeing the two deliver Parks’ colloquial dialogue with such assertive cadence helped me grasp what the play is meant to show us: an impossible position of strength and vulnerability, oppressor and victim, embodied in the brothers.
The success of “Topdog/Underdog” isn’t surprising. Headed by Rob Shimko, the UH program is the largest of its kind in Houston. The school has a long history of producing excellent talent, including Tommy Tune, Dennis Quaid and Jim Parsons, not to mention the entire cohort of Catastrophic Theatre actors. UH’s theater faculty has included Jose Quintero, Lanford Wilson, Ntozake Shange and Edward Albee.
Houston theater has had a good run this fall, with the Alley Theatre’s “Describe the Night,” Stages Repertory Theatre’s “Balls,” Rec Room’s “Sender” and Horse Head Theater Co.’s “Sonic Life” showcasing experimental fervor and diversity. But the confluence of “The Pillowman” and “Topdog/ Underdog” remains a jolt to the spine for audiences looking for a fresh perspective in the local scene.
The difference is counterintuitive — shouldn’t professional work, one assumes, be better than student work? But Carnegie Vanguard High School and UH seem to be “talent magnets” for actors, whereas Houston’s professionally minded theater makers often move to larger markets. Economics, too, can feel like an especially large obstacle for independent theaters, including the soon-to-be shuttered 4th Wall Theatre Co., that depend on ticket sales and donations.
So daring, interesting work can feel like a rarity in this city. There are many reasons for this. Yet look at what’s possible from a group of teenagers wracked with schoolwork. Look at what can be done in a single, excellent weekend of two bar-raising school productions that have simultaneously nothing and everything to do with each other. After seeing those two shows, I felt genuinely inspired.