Date: Fri 09-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHIRLE

Illustration: C

Quick Words:

If-Only-Rep-Palminteri

Full Text:

(rev of "If Only" @Yale Rep, 8/9/96)

Theatre Review-

A CAR WRECK, A HAPPY ENDING (FOR YALE REP)

By June April

NEW HAVEN - It came in wrecked and quartered, then (kind of) made whole again.

It served as the chariot of dreams in otherwise dying lives. A car, this was

the set and setting of If Only, the final production for the 1996 Summer

Cabaret at Yale.

An original production by playwright Jeffrey B. Teitler, this play provides an

opportunity to question what is a dream and what is the reality of life.

Flying in the face of conventional theatrical staging, the wonderfully

creative artistic director Preston Lane elected to keep two actors

seated/slumped in relative stationary positions throughout the entire play.

Their being "trapped," explained Mr Lane, exists on more than the physical

level. In fact, much of the dialogue transcends the car accident that gets the

play going. If Only starts with a bang and a crash, and moves on through the

power of dreams.

The two main characters are two core actors of the Summer Cabaret, Amy Cronise

and Adrian LaTourelle. Ms Cronise is truly an actress, because off stage she

is a classy, refined, enthusiastic and soft-spoken young woman. The character

she plays, Ellen, is kind of a tempered Martha from Whose Afraid of Virginia

Woolf who whines, challenges and fantasizes as she faces possible death.

Adrian LaTourelle has gone from a woman to a manic killer, among other

eccentric roles this summer. As George, the boyfriend in If Only, he is again

another persona. Mr LaTourelle suffers his injuries beautifully, sans excess.

The only real difficulty many have had with this play is its ending. The

musical message had too many in the New Haven Theatre asking, "What were they

saying?" In the post-play talk, it was explained the lyrics were in German

(which partially explains the problem) and the meaning is somewhat elusive:

"go to sleep little children, etc."

Loud applause to the technical crew who put together the set, and the curtain.

As set designer, Jim Larkin clearly has an outstanding group of people working

with him.

The lighting are also to be commended, albeit the bright lights at the end are

one of the "mysterious" questions posed by the play each member of the

audience needs to find for themselves.

The effective audio elements are clearly in the hands of a talented sound

designer. Apparently Douglas Graves has quite a reputation because he was also

selected from a range in his profession to work in the new and successful

Shakespeare on the Sound company this summer in Rowayton.

The state and building crew met the challenge of If Only with panache and true

genius. Empathizing with the horror of bringing a car into the depths of the

Cabaret, Preston Lane promised the car will exit in pieces of eight.

A graduate of New York University and the Playwrights Horizon School, Mr

Teitler is about to begin his second year at the Yale School of Drama. Three

of his plays - All Those Years, Carnival of Minds and Last Call - have already

been produced. His work is provocative and intellectually stimulating.

If Only closes August 10. For reservations or more information, call 432-1567.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or charged over the telephone. Yale

Summer Cabaret is at 217 Park Street, in downtown New Haven.