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</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_2996" style="text-align:center" align="center"><b id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_2997" style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Hail to the Grief</b></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_2998" style="text-align:center" align="center">By Tom Wachunas</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_2999" style="text-align:center" align="center"> </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3000"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3001" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><b id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3002" style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3003" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">I am
he as you are he as you are me / And we are all together/See how they run like
pigs from a gun/See how they fly/ I’m crying – </i></b>from “I Am the Walrus”
by John Lennon and Paul McCartney</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3004"> </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3005"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3006" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The etymology of
the English word <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3007" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">assassin </i>is a
fascinating one, derived from the Arabic <i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3008" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">hashishiyyn,
</i>meaning “hashish users.” During the time of the Crusades, a fanatical
Muslim sect was notorious for killing enemy leaders after working themselves
into a frenzy brought on by ingesting hashish.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3009"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3010" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And so it is that
the one-act musical,<i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3011" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> Assassins,</i>
currently playing at Canton’s Players Guild Theatre,<i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3012" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i>with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, probes the intentions
and motivations of nine disillusioned and deluded individuals who either
attempted or succeeded in killing a U.S President. One might say that their
frenzy-inducing drug of choice wasn’t hashish, but rather their dangerously
festering resentments after their desires for societal inclusion, attention, or
celebrity had been denied. Sound familiar? As one of the show’s songs puts it,
"There's another national anthem, folks, for those who never win... We're
the other national anthem, folks, the ones who can't get in..." It’s a
thin line indeed between the American Dream and American Scream, between “All
Lives Matter” and “All Lives Shattered.”</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3013"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3014" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The narrative is a
time warp that plucks these individuals (some more infamous than others) from
history and places them all together in a surrealistic carnival setting,
complete with a grimy shooting gallery (scenic design by Joshua Erichsen),
adorned with targets bearing a President’s face. Director Jonathan Tisevich
clearly has an uncanny gift for unpacking and fleshing out the characters’ challenging
and complex strata of emotional and psychological nuance. And in turn, it’s the
astonishingly gifted cast members, both as singers and actors, who altogether
transform what could have been merely absurd or toxic cartoons into authentic
and impactful human presences. Their visceral, in-your-face energy is all the
more augmented by the black-box surrounds of the Guild’s arena theater.</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3015"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3016" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Micah Harvey brings
sinister relish to his role of the carnival proprietor - a Mephistophelean
huckster who provides guns and temptations to his customers. Joe Halladey III
doubles as the “Balladeer” and, late in the proceedings, the John F. Kennedy
assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. As the former, he’s a crooning narrator who
articulates Sondheim’s lyrical verbosity with practically magical ease, often
mocking the deviant thoughts and actions of the other characters. As Oswald,
he’s an arresting figure, flummoxed and haunted by the pleas of the other
assassins to join their “family.”</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3017"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3018" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Vincent Sisley
plays Guiseppe Zangara, who attempted to kill FDR in 1933. Jacob Sustersic
plays Leon Czolgosz, who killed William McKinley in 1901. Both performers
invest their performances with palpable gravitas, delivering their rants and
grievances with convincing accents (Italian and Polish, respectively).</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3019"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3020" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Craig Joseph deftly
paints an edgy portrait of optimistic clownishness with a brooding underside in
his colorful role of Charles Guiteau, who shot James Garfield in 1881. As John
Wilkes Booth, Jimmy Ferko is a particularly magnetic presence, and for all of
his character’s arrogance, oddly likeable. Corey Paulus is truly<i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3021" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i>scary as Samuel Byck, who intended to
kill Richard Nixon in 1974. Clad in a tattered Santa costume, he’s at first
utterly hilarious in a dark sort of way, bellowing all manner of foul-mothed
(and full-mouthed) insults and complaints which relentlessly escalate into
unfettered rage.<span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3022" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3023"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3024" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Speaking of dark
hilarity, Julie Connair’s portrayal of Sara Jane Moore, who tried to kill
Gerald Ford in 1975, borders on comic genius. One of the most memorable
passages of the evening transpires when she shares a scene with Taylor Marie
Scott, playing “Squeaky” Fromme, another would-be Ford assassin who was
obsessed with Charles Manson. Scott’s performance is a chilling look at insane
idol worship. Russell Jones is similarly commanding in his role of John Hinkley
Jr., who wanted to impress his imagined lover (Jody Foster) by shooting Ronald
Reagan in 1981. </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3025"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3026" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Through it all, the
excellent off-stage orchestra conducted by Steve Parsons plays, often very
softly, an intriguing, almost ghostly montage of period-style tunes reminiscent
of ragtime, old-timey folk songs, or circus marches. <span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3027" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3028"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3029" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Here then is a
challenging tragicomedy, a startling parade – at once bleak, vulgar, and
uncomfortably funny - of wounded or hopelessly corrupted psyches. And with no
intermission, it seemed to me at one point an agonizingly<i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3030" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> long </i>parade. But on further reflection, an intermission might well
have broken the intensity necessary to let these disturbing characters and
their twisted stories resonate beyond their own times and thus evoke something
much more urgent and timely. </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3031"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3032" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So I don’t think
this work is<i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3033" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> </i>just about the horrific
consequences of the moral/psychological aberrations that triggered a handful of
murderous individuals from America’s past. What makes it still stand as an
electrifying <span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3034" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>work of theatre art is in
how it becomes a compelling indictment of the terrible spiritual poverty of not
only our current American culture, but of the global human condition as well. </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3035"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3036" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We have met the
enemy… With a broken moral compass, when we’re not <span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3037" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>running about in aimless panic, we’re flying
upside down. Meanwhile the walrus, as it were, sits in our living rooms. We’re
crying. Goo–goo-g’joob. </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3038" style="text-align:center" align="center"> </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3039"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3040" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><i id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3041" style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Assassins, </i>at Canton Players Guild’s
William G. Fry Theatre, 1001 Market Avenue N., Canton, Ohio / Shows THROUGH
SEPTEMBER 18 – Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. / TICKETS $27
for adults, $19 for ages 17 and under, $24 for seniors / Order at <span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3042" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3043" href="http://www.playersguildtheatre.com/">www.playersguildtheatre.com</a><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3044" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>or call 330.453.7617 </div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3045"><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3046" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For other
commentaries by Tom Wachunas on the arts in the Canton area, please visit his
blog, ARTWACH, at <a id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3047" href="http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/">www.artwach.blogspot.com</a><span id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1473103572634_3048" style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></div>
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