by dick kerekes dickkerekes@yahoo.com
This is the time of year when ghost stories abound and last weekend, Orange Park Community Theatre opened its second show of the season, The Contrite Spirit and it features a couple of ghosts.
The time is now; the setting is the living room in a home near the Manassas Battlefield in Virginia. A young single male, Kerry Kirkpatrick owns the house, and works as self employed cartoonist at home.
In the middle of the night, Kerry is visited by the former owner of the home 100 years ago. Colonel Percival Scott is a Confederate officer and a ghost.
He explains why he is back and asks for help from the perplexed Kerry. Scott says he stole Union Army money and gold and buried it under the house, but was killed before he could come back to get it. He says that all is fair in love in war, and that the war is over and what he did was no longer a crime but he has a problem and it concerns God. It seems that his wife has been allowed to enter heaven, but he has not been allowed to join her because of this stolen money. God has commanded him dig up the money and give it back to the government and he will be forgiven.
Problem # 2. The house had burned down in l992, and when it was rebuilt, the foundation changed position so the Colonel is not sure where exactly it is. He convinces Kerry to dig until he finds the money so that the money can be given back.
There are other complications, like horse farmer Chandler Martin (play by David Niblock as a rough and tough cowboy), who knows about the treasure and wants to buy the house to get it. A nosey magazine writer, Pamela played by Michele LeMay, who suspects there are ghosts in the house and is curious about the treasure. Andrew Scott, Colonel Scott’s nephew was the last owner of the house before it burned down and he suddenly disappeared. As played by Kristoffer Knapp, he comes back as a ghost, having been done in and buried under the house by someone apparently after the money.
The final character is Hamilton Gerard, a government official who wants to buy the house for a museum until the ghosts scare him off. This role is played by Bill Leseur, one of the true veterans of OPTC going back l9 years as an active member of this group. It was good to see Bill back on stage. I recall some of his memorable performances. First as Alfred Dolittle in My Fair Lady and as Froggy in The Foreigner.
Bobby Weitzenhofer is very good in the leading role of Kerry. He has wonderful stage presence and a smooth delivery. This is his first community theatre production in Florida and he has worked as an extra in a couple of movies made locally.
Richard Sheffler as the Colonel complete with a Confederate uniform is quite convincing. Sheffler has been seen all over town in various roles. He’s performed at the Limelight in Other People’s Money, and at Players by the Sea in Auntie Mame and The Lion in Winter.
As the nephew, Kristoffer Knapp is doing his second role at OPTC. He was in “Twelve Angry Men” as one of the jurors. I loved the makeup he and his “uncle” used as they teamed up as ghosts to find the killer or killers.
Michele LeMay as the reporter is wearing considerably more clothing in this role than she did when she played a seductive mistress in The Sensuous Senator and I’ll bet her fiancé Skip is a lot happier with this role. (At least she did not have to crawl under the furniture).
Virginia native, Denis J. Harrington is the playwright and has written one other play called Fall Out. The Director is Barbara Wells, who just finished up a tour of duty as President of OPTC and just stepped into her duties of Executive Vice President when she was called upon to direct this show when the previous director had to drop out. Faced with a short rehearsal period, the show comes off quite well. Ms. Well, and her husband David, also designed and built the set and planned the lighting and special effects. The play is not the most complex murder mystery I have seen recently but is a pleasant diversion, especially with the ghosts. (I mean you just don’t see them in many plays!!)
My only compliant is that the playwright has given the ghosts the ability to make themselves seen as they wish but they never explain why or how but then I was never one to understand much about the paranormal.
You can bring the kids to this one, so call 276-2599 to make reservations. The Contrite Spirit runs through November l8th. All performances are at the Orange Park Theatre.
|
