[NEohioPAL] What Play Did She See? Two Rave Reviews of FICTION at Actors' Summit

[Neil Thackaberry]

*Theater review: The line between truth and ‘Fiction’*

By Kerry Clawson
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published: January 22, 2013 - 10:04 PM | Updated: January 23, 2013 - 12:16
AM

* *

*Fiction* is a wonderful wordsmith’s mystery, full of eloquent dialogue
that peels away at the truth bit by bit.

This intriguing play, tautly directed by MaryJo Alexander at Actors’
Summit, is full of tension as it explores the line between truth and
fiction for two authors, who are husband and wife. *Fiction*, a regional
premiere in Akron, was written in 2002 by Steven Dietz, one of the nation’s
most produced playwrights.

Dietz, who divides his time between Seattle and Austin, Texas, also penned
the comedy *Becky’s New Car*, which Actors’ Summit produced nearly two
years ago.

In *Fiction*, writers Michael and Linda begin their game of verbal sparring
the minute they meet in a Parisian café. Linda refers to Michael as “a man
who has made his way through the world with bluster and hyperbole” yet both
find the artfully turned phrase a powerful aphrodisiac.

Twenty years later in their marriage, they discover that Linda has a
malignant brain tumor and has only three weeks left to live. She asks to
read her husband’s journals, and he reluctantly agrees. He will read hers
once she has died.

As the passionate, intellectual Linda, actress Sally Groth’s face seems to
be an open book. Or is it? She brings an intense yet luminous vitality to
Linda that makes it understandable why her husband would remember her as
“achingly vibrant” upon their first meeting. But writing, like talk, can be
cheap. Is “achingly vibrant” really what Michael wrote about Linda in his
journal that first day in Paris?

Through Michael, Dietz points out a truth about human nature: We tend to
romanticize the memory of momentous events in our lives, when what was said
may actually have been mundane.

As portrayed by Bob Keefe, Michael is a smug bore who’s so in love with his
own words, they become trite and precious. He completely turns off Abby,
whom he meets at a writer’s colony, with his purple language that turns
everyday spoken communications into over-the-top, flowery prose.

Michael vows he’s above adapting his stories for the big screen.
Nevertheless, he becomes a best-selling author whose books are turned into
films.

Linda, on the other hand, is a one-hit wonder. Yet it is implied that she
is the superior writer.

*Fiction* delves fascinatingly into the nature of writing as well as the
egotism involved in the process. One of Linda’s former writing professors
is quoted as saying, “The lies begin when we lift the pen.”

Actors’ Summit newcomer Cassandra Capocci creates a no-nonsense character
in Abby, who cuts through all of Michael and Linda’s posturing. She is
attractive, dry, unerringly confident and highly likable. Although at first
we don’t understand how she really fits into this story, she becomes a
surprisingly vital character.

Secrets grow like cancers in this story. Dietz’s elegantly written play
toys with our minds, keeping us constantly guessing. His drama is replete
with irony, and its scenes of foreshadowing are tightly connected to the
rest of the story.

*Fiction* is for mature audiences only, due to its adult language and
content. Audiences will thoroughly enjoy soaking up Dietz’s rich language
in this well-crafted story.

Let’s just say Linda and Michael’s truth IS stranger than fiction.

Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or
kclawson at thebeaconjournal.com.




 *Well written FICTION gets excellent production at Actors’ Summit*



Roy Berko

*(Member, American Theatre Critics Association & Cleveland Critics Circle)*



Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, William Inge, Arthur Miller, Stephen
Dietz.  What do these playwrights have in common?  They are on the list of
the top ten American writers who have the most produced plays.  Never heard
of Dietz?  You are not alone. He is a regional playwright who makes a
living as a college professor and writing scripts that are done in
mid-America.



Dietz is a prolific writer, having penned more than 30 original plays. He’s
scribed political, comedic, and personal scripts.  Most center on the
effects of personal betrayal and deception.



In contrast to playwrights who write a script, showcase it, and then have
some production company stage it, many of Dietz’s works go from computer
right into acting editions that are published by Dramatists Play Service or
Samuel French.  Many of his short plays appear in anthologies.  Broadway is
not on the list of sites for his works.



Actors’ Summit, which is producing FICTION, a 2002 Dietz work, did a
delightful production of his commissioned piece, BECKY’S NEW CAR, in 2011,
which was written as a birthday present from a man to his wife.



Dietz is a wordsmith.  He writes poetic language and produces quotable
feasts.  His lines include such bon mots as describing a character in
FICTION as “having a mouth like a machine that goes by itself.”  Another
character states, “you don’t leap a shadow, you just run through it.”
Describing a discussion between a man and his wife, he states, “The point?
Why does there need to be a point. . .the Great Reductiveness in which
everything we say must be shrunk down to You Make a Point and I Refute it;
I Make a Statement and You Rebut It. Is that really the best we can do?.” A
secret that his ill wife is keeping inspires the statement, “A secret, like
a disease, is a very human thing. It hides inside you. Discovers where you
are most vulnerable. And then it hurts you.”



FICTION centers on an author (Michael), his wife (Linda) , his lover
(Abby), and a series of secrets.  The married duo originally met at a Paris
café, develop an argumentative repartee, and avoid “real talk” by playing
verbal ping pong.  Michael and Abby met at a writer’s seminar, and have a
strained relationship.



Linda, who has been diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor, teaches literary
fiction and book writing, and is the author of a critically acclaimed novel
based on her supposed rape while in South Africa. Michael is a commercially
successful novelist who is uncomfortable with his having “sold out” to the
movie industry and forced to write best selling pithy novels. Both are
prolific journal keepers and it is their journals which serve as the
touchstone of their problems.



Linda figures she has about " twenty meals" left in her life, and asks
Michael to read her heretofore strictly private journals after her death,
and she asks to read his.  She explains " “It's ludicrous…not to mention
vain -- I mean vain in a truly Tom Wolfe-ian sort of way -- to think that
they are not real, that I am not real unless someone reads them."   From
this request, through a series of audience affronts and interactions, we
are led down an intriguing path which reveals much and makes for the
questioning of the truth of it all.



The well paced Actors’ Summit production, which is adeptly directed by
MaryJo Alexander, is compelling.  Though it is all words, with no comedy,
and no explosive action, there are enough highlighted twists and turns and
questions of what is true and what is fiction, to grab and hold the
audience.



Sally Groth (Linda), Bob Keefe (Michael) and Cassandra Capocci (Abby)  each
develop a real, living character.  The parts aren’t acted, they are lived.

* *

*CAPSULE JUDGEMENT:  FICTION *is a well crafted script which should be
appreciated by people who enjoy good acting and literate dialogue.  I’d
class it as a “go see” for those who can forsake lots of pseudo-drama or
escapist comedy.



For tickets to FICTION, which runs through February 3, call 330-342-0800 or
go to actorssummit.org.



Coming up:  ACTORS’ Summit’s next offering is the recent off-Broadway
smash, FREUD’S LAST SESSION, from February 28-March 17.  It will star 2012
Cleveland Critics Circle’s Best Actor award winner Brian Zoldessy.  For a
review of the off-Broadway show go to http://www.royberko.info and search
under the Broadway link.
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