On March 31, Stone Soup Theatre Company (founded in 2002) opened “Tongue of a Bird,” Ellen McLaughlin’s 1997 lyric meditation on motherhood, mental illness and loss. Performances continue through April 23 at the 10th Avenue Theatre, 930 10th Ave. downtown.Directed by Esther Emery, it is the troupe’s first production in the black box theater newly created by Eveoke Dance Theatre’s Christopher Hall and Gina Angelique.Emery’s husband, Nick Fouch, fully utilizes the playing area with an imaginative set suggesting a Cessna airplane at stage right and a multi-level home and roof on the other. With an assist from Valerie Breyne’s lighting, Fouch creates the feeling of openness McLaughlin’s piece needs to succeed visually. The characters, both real and imaginary, fly, long to fly, or fear to fly.It’s an enigmatic piece, cut from the same diaphanous cloth as Lee Blessing’s “A Body of Water,” produced recently by the Old Globe in the Cassius Carter Centre Stage. Sadly, “Tongue of Bird” is not nearly so well written, poetic or fascinating in its ambiguity, though it has pretensions. The talented five-member company is obviously dedicated. I longed to be swept up in the surreal, to take flight with the rest of them; but instead of being overwhelmed with emotion when the denouement came, I was sabotaged by a mind that insisted, hey, wait a minute, that cannot be.Julie Anderson Sachs portrays Maxine, a pilot hired by the distraught Dessa (the excellent Wendy Waddell) whose 12-year-old daughter (bratty Abbey Howe) was abducted in foothills of the Adirondacks, witnessed by friends with whom she was on a nature outing. Everyone else has given up the search, so Sachs hires Maxine, who was raised in the area and whose record of locating the lost is unblemished. On opening night, Sachs was the least comfortable of the actors, perhaps because her character’s angst is more internalized than Waddell’s.Robin Christ portrays Maxine’s mother, Evie, who committed suicide when Maxine was a child. Christ, who moves like a dancer, hovers over and sometimes distracts from much of the action, a case of too much of a good thing. June Gottleib, in the finest performance yet in her late-in-life career, portrays Maxine’s aged grandmother, Zofia.Jennifer Brawn Gittings’ costumes are excellent and regionally indicative. Ruff Yeager’s original music and the extraordinary work of sound designer Rachel Le Vine are impressive elements.
For tickets and information call (760) 434-1707.
Another space in time
Calvin Manson, artistic director of the Ira Aldridge Repertory Players, has carved out what he hopes is a permanent home at Acoustic Expression, 2852 University Ave.
Though his “Passion and Honey: Original Choreo-Poems,” seen April 1, completed its run the following day, the production is worthy of note for the strong ensemble work of Anthony Bell Sr., Nicole Bradley, Charles Bruce, Cedric Damon, Charmen Jackson and company debutante Amber Rose Ward. The work, based largely on Manson’s poems, concerns growing up black, but the emotions evoked are universal.
Of late, Manson has produced musical dinner-theater productions, such as “Raisin’ the Rent” at Caesar’s Restaurant downtown. The Express Stage at Acoustic Expression is comfortable and adaptable. Let’s hope it works out in the long term.
