Diversions > Theater
The Vertical Hour
Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
Monday, January 21, 2008 3:13 PM CST
Print
E-mail
 |
Play: The Vertical Hour
Group: Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
Venue: Emerson Studio, Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road
Dates: Through February 3
Tickets: From $32.50 to $50; contact 314-968-4925
or www.repstl.org
Story: Nadia, a former war correspondent who now is a professor of International Relations at Yale, championed the cause of the U.S. invasion of Iraq at its inception, so much so that she was invited to meet with the president. This puts her at odds politically with much of the student population at the Ivy League school, but not with Philip, an attractive physiotherapist who has won her heart. When she travels to Wales to meet his father, a British physician who now is a genteel general practitioner in a quaint country village, she finds herself debating with a man as passionate about politics, and life, as she is, only with a contrary viewpoint. Their conversations become intense as they probe each other’s conscience and social and political opinions.
Highlights: David Hare’s thought-provoking drama takes its title from a battlefield medical term described as "when you can actually be of some use." Like his other works such as Skylight, Plenty and Via Dolorosa, The Vertical Hour is charged with penetrating questions about politics. And like those plays, it reveals itself essentially to be about the human spirit and the myriad emotions that stamp each of our souls with unique branding.
Director Jim O’Connor has assembled an impressive cast, eliciting solid performances not only from the three major players but also two brief gems by Brian White and Jamie Concepcion as students whose direct conversations with Nadia in her college office, one humorous and one serious, bracket the play’s central setting on Oliver’s pastoral patio.
Anderson Matthews is splendid as the cynical father, revealing in calculating fashion his amorous yet cold-blooded approach to romance and life while also underscoring his ruminations on the Iraqi conflict. Gloria Biegler is terrific as the confident professor, gradually showing us the blind passion that ultimately drives her desires, and Jeremiah Wiggins offers a suitable contrast as Philip, who still chafes at his divorced father’s callous treatment of his brilliant, but now depressed, mother.
Other Info: The unnamed sound designer provides simple but meticulously relevant music to color various scenes, while Mark Wilson’s lighting subtly supports the casually comfortable set designed by Marie Anne Chiment, which focuses on Oliver’s serene terrace offset by Nadia’s professorial office. Chiment also dresses the characters in suitable upper-class attire for the adults and cool indifference for the students.
The primary problem with The Rep production is a second act that moves too slowly too often, as O’Connor grapples with the basic conundrum of a work that is long on intellect but short on action. Still, it’s a handsomely mounted and impressively calibrated presentation.
Rating: A 4.5 on a scale of 1-to-5.
Group: Repertory Theatre of St. Louis
Venue: Emerson Studio, Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road
Dates: Through February 3
Tickets: From $32.50 to $50; contact 314-968-4925
or www.repstl.org
Story: Nadia, a former war correspondent who now is a professor of International Relations at Yale, championed the cause of the U.S. invasion of Iraq at its inception, so much so that she was invited to meet with the president. This puts her at odds politically with much of the student population at the Ivy League school, but not with Philip, an attractive physiotherapist who has won her heart. When she travels to Wales to meet his father, a British physician who now is a genteel general practitioner in a quaint country village, she finds herself debating with a man as passionate about politics, and life, as she is, only with a contrary viewpoint. Their conversations become intense as they probe each other’s conscience and social and political opinions.
Highlights: David Hare’s thought-provoking drama takes its title from a battlefield medical term described as "when you can actually be of some use." Like his other works such as Skylight, Plenty and Via Dolorosa, The Vertical Hour is charged with penetrating questions about politics. And like those plays, it reveals itself essentially to be about the human spirit and the myriad emotions that stamp each of our souls with unique branding.
Director Jim O’Connor has assembled an impressive cast, eliciting solid performances not only from the three major players but also two brief gems by Brian White and Jamie Concepcion as students whose direct conversations with Nadia in her college office, one humorous and one serious, bracket the play’s central setting on Oliver’s pastoral patio.
Anderson Matthews is splendid as the cynical father, revealing in calculating fashion his amorous yet cold-blooded approach to romance and life while also underscoring his ruminations on the Iraqi conflict. Gloria Biegler is terrific as the confident professor, gradually showing us the blind passion that ultimately drives her desires, and Jeremiah Wiggins offers a suitable contrast as Philip, who still chafes at his divorced father’s callous treatment of his brilliant, but now depressed, mother.
Other Info: The unnamed sound designer provides simple but meticulously relevant music to color various scenes, while Mark Wilson’s lighting subtly supports the casually comfortable set designed by Marie Anne Chiment, which focuses on Oliver’s serene terrace offset by Nadia’s professorial office. Chiment also dresses the characters in suitable upper-class attire for the adults and cool indifference for the students.
The primary problem with The Rep production is a second act that moves too slowly too often, as O’Connor grapples with the basic conundrum of a work that is long on intellect but short on action. Still, it’s a handsomely mounted and impressively calibrated presentation.
Rating: A 4.5 on a scale of 1-to-5.
 |
||
| The Waiting Room |