[NEohioPAL] REVIEW: The Hobbit, at Canton Players Guild Theatre

[Tom Wachunas via NEohioPAL]

Tolkien, Enchantingly Condensed


By Tom Wachunas


 
    For this PlayersGuild production of The Hobbit (adaptedby Markland Taylor and based on the classic 1937 novel by J.R.R. Tolkien),director Micah Harvey was a man on a mission. He must surely have felt asolidarity with the central character, a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins, who wasrecruited by the wizard Gandalph to accompany a dwarf named Thorin to hunt downthe evil dragon Smaug, and steal back its ill-gotten treasure. Harvey’s dragon,if you please, was to somehow transfer the fantastical dramatic and visualsprawl of Tolkien’s narrative – already imprinted on pop culture as an epicfilm trilogy - into the unlikely and otherwise tight confines of the Guild’sarena theater. Even more challenging is the fact that Markland Taylor’s verycompacted stage adaptation unfolds in only about 90 minutes with a cast of justsix actors.


    This small band ofperformers has to in turn play a bevy of interconnected roles depictingdwarves, elves, goblins, trolls, and assorted other woodland denizens. Adaunting task, to be sure. But aside from some passages when the overalldialogue energy and expressivity becomes a bit lethargic (arguably as much aflaw in the writing as it is in audible delivery), it’s a task well met here withnotable versatility and panache. 


    Three of theactors have single roles. Douglas Lizak, as Bildo Baggins, turns in a warm and intricatelynuanced rendering of the reluctant and nervous hobbit, who much prefers simplecreature comforts - such as smoking his pipe and eating favorite foods on hisidyllic home turf - to stalking a dragon in forbidding lands. He’d rather becalled “expert treasure hunter” than “burglar,” and much of the story embraceshis struggle to realize his latent courage and inventiveness that promptedGandalf to enlist him in the first place. 


   But Bilbo’stravelling companion, the dwarf Thorin, played by Bobby Severns, doesn’tinitially share Gandalph’s faith in the jittery hobbit.  As Bilbo’s more confrontational counterpart,Severns captures his character’s sardonic and feisty nature with memorablefinesse.    

    In his role of Gandalph,Jonathan Tisevich is both a commanding and at times gently understatedpresence. He’s at once the tender encourager and the powerful, stern mentor - amystical catalyst and embodiment of fatherly optimism tempered with cautionarywisdom. 


 
   Meanwhile, thethree remaining actors in the cast each have multiple roles of varyingdurations that nonetheless call for all sorts of postures and attitudes,ranging from the convincingly regal or militant, to the just plain silly ormalevolent. In one of several scenes worth the price of admission, RussellJones, Corey Paulus, and Jacob Sustersic are particularly spectacular – andhilarious – as three gargantuan trolls apparently made of stone. Bellowing indeliciously gravelly voices, they bicker over what do with the cowering Bilbo.Their sculpted costumes – a marvelous collaborative concoction by directorHarvey, local artist David McDowell, and costume designer George McCarty – areworks of art in themselves. A similar sculpted and kinetic marvel is thedragon, Smaug, voiced in explosive, bone-rattling tones by Sustersic, who alsoplays Gollum. In that role, he’s utterly startling in his frenetic writhing andleaping, all the while spitting out his urgent and faithful re-creation of thathorrible and familiar voice from the films - a terribly throaty and liquiddeformity. 


    The combined worksof scenic designer Joshua Erichsen, lighting designer Joseph Carmola, and sounddesigner Scott Sutton constitute a stellar “performance” in its own right.While static, the multi-tiered set can nonetheless evoke dense forests, rockyterrain, or darkened caves via the remarkably fluid light changes amid smokymists. The richly layered recorded aural effects include bucolic music passagesalternating with night sounds near and far, soothing as well as alien andterrifying.    

    So did MicahHarvey and company subdue their dragon and bring home the gold, as itwere?  Is this ambitious mission, thishighly edited epic by the Players Guild, a success? Given the sheer breadth andcomplexity of Tolkien’s narrative vision, in a manner of speaking you couldcall it a wholly enchanting some of its parts.     

    The Hobbit, at Canton’s Players GuildTheatre, 1001 Market Avenue N., Canton, Ohio, THROUGH APRIL 24 / Performances at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday andSunday / Tickets: $16 for adults, $12 for 17 and younger, at 330.453.7617or  www.playersguildtheatre.com 


    For othercommentaries by Tom Wachunas on the arts in the Canton area, please visit hisblog, ARTWACH, at ARTWACH


  
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