The Theatre of the People's latest show is a two-fer. Under the title Project P: The Property Line Punch Out, the group pairs Edna St. Vincent Millay's Aria da Capo with Albert Powell's new drama A Sand Castle in the Sky. The former is a classic antiwar play written in 1920; the latter a contemporary piece about the complexity of property rights.
Aria da Capo
In Aria da Capo, Jennifer Smith and Keith Barrow played two effete, high comic characters, Columbine and Pierrot, while Nicholas Maudline and Ben Monticue were the considerably more earthy shepherds of the low tragedy. Lehua Aplaca played a menacing deus ex machina.
Co-Directors Patty Blanchfield and Adam Bradley chose a somewhat restrained pace. The actors and audience had plenty of time to take in the play's folk tale-ish quality. Yet the imaginary wall that became central to the plot was all too real to work in such a fantastical setting.
A Sandcastle In The Sky
A Sandcastle in the Sky's author Albert Powell drew his inspiration from Aria da Capo, but his play begins with the property and then delves into the maddening complexity of the unraveling plot. Not one, but two bureaucracies are in competition as the defensive character Suzie Zimmerman claims the area is her backyard, while charmer Tyler Hill claims he owns the space.
Compared to Aria da Capo, which has plenty of breathing room, A Sandcastle in the Sky is more over-packed and breathless. Molly Rose and Jared Miller, as the two property claimants, behaved as sometime champions, sometime adversaries. Ultimately, it is a clever play, albeit one that has more characters than actors, and more acronyms than anything.
The very cute house, garden, pond and signage that made up the set for A Sandcastle in the Sky were by Patrick French and Erica Pointer. Direction is credited to the ensemble.