|
BACKSTAGE WEST
April 30, 2008
Rising Water at the Maverick
By Eric Marchese
Southern playwright John Biguenet's 2007 drama, an account of a couple awakened suddenly on the night of Aug. 29, 2005, to discover that Hurricane Katrina has brought flood levels of Biblical proportions to their home, is a gripping and compelling tale. Having survived dozens of Category 3 (and worse) storms, and with complete confidence in the Big Easy's system of levees, they had gone to bed that evening with no expectation of the horrors to come. Camille (Veda Franklin) and her husband, Sugar (Rick Franklin), hurry to the attic, the only part of the house not yet submerged. As Sugar paces, trying to comprehend the magnitude of the disaster, Camille perches herself atop the attic stairs, her anxiety growing as the water rises, with no sign it will ever begin draining away.
Biguenet dissects the couple's marriage and life together. Being trapped alone in the attic and eventually on the roof forces them to look back at some of the most painful events they've endured. They can smile at some of the good times -- their wedding and a Mardi Gras party at which Camille's harem-girl costume yielded a memorable sexual encounter -- but it's the difficulties they've suffered that come to the fore.
Producer-director Brian Newell gives the play's West Coast premiere everything it deserves, including an impressive attic set with a huge rooftop that pivots into place for Act 2, evocative lighting and music, and apropos sound effects of the relentless, constantly lapping water. It's the work of the Franklins, though, that is the evening's pièce de résistance. Though their real-life marriage lends their work verisimilitude, it's their honest, real, absorbing, and convincing portrayals that make Biguenet's work so indelible an experience.
|
