‘Row After Row’ boosted by historic venue
TROY, N.Y. >> Creative License, a four-year-old theater company that has been working in Albany, is offering its first production in downtown Troy. It’s an interesting work made even more fascinating by offering it in the historic Frear Building, attached to the Troy Atrium. The play “Row After Row” continues Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
The space, while impressive and beautiful, is both a blessing and a curse. Played before an imposing three story wrought iron staircase, the structure makes an immediate connection to the work which centers about events of 1863, but the background overpowers the action of the play. The cavernous space is an acoustical challenge and many lines are lost during the presentation. A lack of risers for the chairs makes for a lot of obstructed vision seating.
However, “Row After Row” is a well-performed and interesting play. Despite the challenges, there is something very exciting about experiencing theater in such a unique space.
“Row After Row” is a three-person play about three Civil War re-enactors. After participating in a re-creation of the famous Pickett’s Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg, two male friends go to their favorite Gettysburg tavern expecting to have a drink at their usual table. When they find a female reenactor at “their” table they are offended and ask the intruder to leave.
Actually, just one of the men, Cal is quick to express his displeasure. Tom, being a go-along to get-along guy is more passive. So, when Leah offers to share the table, peace hasn’t been declared. It’s more like an uneasy armistice has been formed.
Cal is the kind of guy who can obsess over a uniform that lacks the proper thread count to make it historically accurate. Imagine how he feels about a female playing the role of a soldier in the Civil War. Leah is wearing a uniform with a threat count that is lacking and is a strong, independent, modern woman. So you know that peace will not come easily.
And it doesn’t. Throughout the 80-minute, intermission-less production the three argue, debate, share stories and reveal secret fears and dreams. There are few surprises, but the connections between the characters are both honest and truthful.
But sometimes the play is thwarted by its ambition. It wants to be more than a simple drama about people adjusting to the changing world in which they live. The play jumps back in time and the characters take on the identities of their reenactor characters, as if to show the more things change the more they stay the same The time travel is the weakest part of the play as the results tend to be heavy-handed. For instance, Tom who is reluctant to join his teachers’ union as they prepare to strike, plays the role of a deserter in 1863.
A bigger problem with the changes in time is the language. Playwright Jessica Dickey has a flair for capturing the nuances of contemporary conversation, but when she goes to the past the characters speak in overblown prose, which seems artificial.
Performances are excellent in revealing the identity of each character. Aaron Holbritter is a gruff Cal, but he signals that the man’s outspokenness is partially a cover for his inherent insecurities. His approach to victory - whether it be a conflict about the authenticity of a costume or as a general - is to attack. It’s a tribute to Holbritter’s performance that it is the inflexible Cal who at play’s end appears most open to change.
Ian LaChance is deceptively shaded as the meek Tom. He creates a character who is easy to like, but is tightly wound as the pressure of a wife, child and an insecure workplace force him to put aside expensive, time consuming hobbies. Though Tom is troubled, LaChance’s convivial portrayal nicely masks what lies underneath his calm.
Leah is played by Casey Polomaine, who creates a confident woman who is starting a new life and is unable to put away some painful past experiences. She’s excellent in creating a passive-aggressive person who avoids direct conflict, but a choice to be more aggressive and less passive might have added more conflict to the early stages of the presentation.
It’s well directed by Ben Katagiri who keeps the play flowing and his staging helps make the shifts in time clear and focused. It’s nice work by Katagiri and his extremely talented cast. “Row After Row” continues at the Frear Building at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For tickets and information call (518) 618-2996 or go to creativelicenseonline.com.