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Love's Fire by Stone Soup Theatre Company 
Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.-- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 154 For its second show, the newly formed Stone Soup Theatre Company has turned to The Bard -- more or less. Love's Fire is a set of four short one-acts loosely based on some of the themes presented in various Shakespearean love sonnets, each one-act written by different writers. Love, as well as the associated subtopics of affection, physical needs, emotional needs, jealousy, hostility, monogamy, adultery, homosexuality, and the metaphysical purpose and origin of love, are all considered within the stories, but with decidedly mixed results. Although Stone Soup has once again drawn some quality actors to their stage, this production is hampered by a somewhat mediocre script that has trouble living up to its provocative title. Perhaps the biggest flaw in the writing is that it fails to generate much in the way of intense emotion -- either love or hate or laughter or sadness. The stories tend to seem more analytical than emotional. Or perhaps it is just that we know so little of the characters and their histories -- we just seem to be watching an assembly line of different lovers facing different problems. The middle two stories are the driest of the four, but are highlighted by the work of Tony Beville as a gay patient who believes he wants to have sex with his lesbian psychologist played by aptly by Therese Schneck in Ambivalence. Sara Plaisted gives a touching performance as the rejected wife in 140. But the best acts are the first and the last, both containing more intriguing dialogue and characters that allow the actors to show off their abilities far better. The first is Bitter Sauce by Eric Bogosian and features Amy Peters dressed in her Winnie-the-Pooh pajamas and drunk as a skunk. And why not -- she's getting married in the morning. And to the nicest guy in the world (Gaalan Michaelson as Herman). Problem is, she's been having a purely physical relationship with the meanest guy in the world (John Byrom as Red), and he's coming tonight to give her another fling before the wedding bells ring. Which leads to the other problem -- her fiancé is home tonight, and he's not very happy about the situation. Can the clever nice guy get rid of the big mean guy and keep the girl? Does he still love her and want to keep her? Bitter Sauce is buoyed by the great work of those three actors, but the last scene, Love's Fire, sees the entire ensemble shining as college students trying to figure out Sonnets 153 and 154 -- first by reading study aids and then by acting out brief stories of the interaction among humans and between humans and God. The stories try to decipher or disentangle "love and mercy" from "vengeance" in the Old and New Testaments wherein God keeps expelling humans from Eden, and humans keep trying to get back to it by using knowledge and art. Jen Meyer is most impressive, both with her humorous efforts to understand the rhyme scheme of the sonnets and with her hauntingly beautiful singing as the humans vainly struggle to stoke Love's Fire and once again find the true happiness that always seems to allude them. Rob Hopper San Diego Playbill ~ Cast ~
Tony Beville John Byrom Jen Meyer Gaalan Michaelson Tracy Moore Amy Peters Sara Plaisted Therese Schneck Director: Esther Emery Scenic Design: Nick Fouch Costume Design: Jennifer G. Brawn Gittings Lighting Design: Lindsay Byrne Stage Manager: Will Hill |