by dick kerekes dickkerekes@yahoo.com
Have you ever been conned? If no, consider yourself lucky because they are everywhere! Con artists, that is. In the winter, Florida gets its share of those who roll down from the North and knock on your door offering cheap housepainting, roofing, re-paving or whatever they think you need.
Players by the Sea is currently presenting As Bees in Honey Drown. Written by Douglas Carter Beane, this play was an off-Broadway hit in l997. Its central character is a con artist named Alexa Vere de Vere. Her victims are up-and-coming artists, musicians or writers who have just had their first success. Suddenly they are in the spotlight with their photos in top magazines and their desire to move into the “in-crowd” makes them even more gullible.
Alexa turns her charm onto a young writer, Evan Wyler, who has had his first book published. He falls for her offer of $1,000 a week to write a screenplay of the story of her life. After maxing out his credit cards to the tune of $ l5,000 dollars, she takes off. Unlike her previous marks, who were too embarrassed to chase her or to publicly admit their stupidity, Wyler digs into her sordid past.
His research brings him to Mike (Joel Sumner), an alleged ex-husband that committed suicide. Wyler learns that, in fact, Alexa is just a small town girl who invented her current persona to sell Mike’s paintings, but since splitting with him she has set up her own very successful “business.” Wyler tracked down and organized a reunion for all of her victims, and there are a lot of them. The writer extracts his revenge, but I will leave details for you to discover when you see this show.
Jenny Wright has landed the role of a lifetime in Alexa and her first lead in community theatre. Most of her previous experience was as a student at UNF. Alexa is a character who speaks at a motor-mouth pace, no doubt to keep her marks off-guard so they are never fully able to think about what is happening. Ms. Wright is razor sharp with her lines and has the charm and looks to dazzle the audience. She needs to double her vocal volume in Act One (as do all of the actors) because the set has no walls to reflect sounds and the black curtains, used as a background, just absorb the dialogue.
Garry Bourgoyne brings extensive stage experience to the role of Wyler. He is very convincing as the naïve writer who turns avenger in a sweet sort of way. Players has an excellent supporting cast who all turn chameleons and play multiple roles very well. Kudos to Zack Bass, Joel Sumner, Shani Harper and Christine Voight
Director Jason Collins has added something unique to this production, five characters playing multiple roles that he calls Paparazzi. Bonnie Hall, Solomon Levine, Danielle Card, Myrna McBroom and Debbie Delgado have no lines, but they do a lot of visual acting that certainly makes the scenes more interesting,
The set by Anne Roberts and Ryan Maloney is very minimal and the tall skyscrapers outlined in lights on the black curtains are most impressive. Collins has his actors moving swiftly to restaurants, offices, hotel rooms, clothing stores and even onto the Staten Island ferry. You will enjoy to using your imagination in this play.
The many costumes by Kathryn Youngberg were good and fit the action but I do agree that the only outfit for Alexa is the black dress. She is a mystery woman, and black is a mystery color. The problem is that Ms. Wright has black hair and wearing a jet-black dress in front of a black curtain tends to make her disappear. I previously saw this play in l999 and the leading lady wore electrifying and stunning clothing (and more than one outfit as well) and greatly enhanced her persona as a high-powered person.
This play runs through April 28th at Players by the Sea in Jacksonville Beach.
It is a challenging play that Director Jason Collins has chosen to bring to the stage and requires that, as an audience, you pay close attention. My principal suggestion is for the cast to play more to the audience and project louder to present this intriguing, wild adventure into the glitzy world of celebrities. Warning: the language is earthy and there are sexual situations.
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