|
|
 |
|
|
|
Realistic Demons Highlights Local Talent
|
Mary DeBerry
August 19th 2007 |
|
Jerry hears barking dogs, Sydney hears galloping ponies, Napoleon hears - what else - the roar of adoring minions. But they are all imagined. Or are they? Have you ever "heard things"? How do we know if we have stepped over the line into madness in our own lives?
The Demons explores these questions through the intensity and reality of the characters that inhabit a group home for developmentally disabled adults. Authored by Spike DiMartino, The Demons is currently in performance at the William Hall Free Library in Cranston, RI and is directed by Rhode Island theater legend Bob Colona. Adult themes and language make this play inappropriate for children, but richly entertaining and thought provoking for adults.
The Demons gives us a realistic look into the challenges of a group home by presenting the poignant, funny and terrifying moments that happen in the lives of three mentally challenged adults and their variety of caregivers. The interesting question is - do you feel more connected to the residents, or the caregivers? Most of the audience, myself included, certainly have days when they feel just a few steps away from a padded cell and a locked door.
Playwright DiMartino drew on his own experience as a worker at a group home to write the play, then developed it further in collaboration with Colona. DiMartino was struck by the opposing elements of utter boredom created by the home's same routines day in and day out, and the tension of waiting for the unpredictable outbursts by the residents. Colona took it on because "…it's full of life and humor; it's intense and disturbing and yet the characters are all so fascinating."
 "Who got me?" Jerry (T.J. Paolino) asks over and over. He needs to know which caregiver he is working with for the day. He is unsettled until he finds out. "Who is my general today?" demands Napoleon (Mark Carter), asking the same question. But Napoleon becomes a bit more than unsettled. Sydney (Gabby Sherba) just tries to get through the day without punishment for straying from her "program". Predictability is what the residents crave. Unpredictability is what they give. And that raises the stress level of the caregivers. Who will survive? Who can survive? Who will hear voices next?
Performances from all of the actors are tight and focused. The play is set "in the round" so the audience has the experience of being in the home, perhaps sitting just a few feet away in the Visiting Room. The dedicated caregivers Makeisha (Cilla Julia Bento), James (Russell Partridge), and Dante (Joe Ouellette) gain our sympathy immediately. They try their exhausted best to support each other and do their jobs, alternately boring and frightening. The younger caregivers Lynn (Kara Cancelliere) and Roger (Doug Young), don't really seem to care if their actions help the residents or harm them. But their characterizations are real.
The three actors that bring the home's residents to life deserve special recognition for the intensity and energy of their characterizations. You have to dig deep to play crazy on purpose in public. Gabby Sherba as Sydney is alternately charming and out of control. She is very true to her character and utterly convincing in hearing the "voices", especially the key sequence near the end of the play.
The physical and appropriately emotionally manic performances of T.J. Paolino as Jerry, and Mark Carter as Napoleon are surprisingly freeing, at first. It feels good to hear an adult swear at an authority figure without reprise. Although Paolino's Jerry provides comic relief and is more controllable, his unsettled spells appear suddenly and consistently throughout the play, always on the verge of exploding.
Carter's Napoleon is quite mad, but so was the Frenchman he emulates. Increasingly agitated, he charges the front row of the audience making them reel back in reaction. He is quite real indeed inside his fantasy.
The Demons plays through August 25th, Thursday through Saturday evenings at 8pm. Tickets are $15, discounted to $10 for seniors and students. Call 401-331-6118 for reservations. Please do not call the Library. |
| |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
