ARTS . Theater Review

Impractical Magic

Rag and Bone stumbles in the dark.


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Published: Apr 16, 2008

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Playwright Noah Haidle wants to take us to a place where the literal and the figurative intertwine, a magic realism exploring ordinary life in extraordinary ways. But Rag and Bone, unlike his Mr. Marmalade (produced by Theatre Exile last fall), stumbles in the dark in the Vagabond Acting Troupe's regional première.

In "a place that gets less oxygen and sunlight than the rest of the world" — a description that looks great on paper, but onstage is just dreary — amateur surgeon George (Ryan Capps) sells black-market hearts in his ladder store. Though they're apparently literal squishy bloody hearts, people buy them to feel something different: "Make me the lead in the movie of my life," a customer (Sarah Robinson) pleads, while Millionaire (Ethan Lipkin) insists, "I want to feel the world, not just own it."

One of George's hearts was stolen from Poet (Ted Powell), who wanders morosely with a big Band-Aid on his chest until befriended by a gold-hearted hooker (Jan Michener) and pimp T-Bone (Todd Ryan Jones). Millionaire receives Poet's heart, while George's simpleminded brother, Jeff (Jeremy Hagan), installs their dead mother's heart in George's chest.

By Act 2, Haidle's setup runs off the rails. George becomes their mother, complete with matronly dress and falsetto. Hooker and T-Bone escape to Bermuda, but can't ditch who they are. Andrew Thompson's set of artfully stacked platforms compounds the confusion, forcing actors into near collisions while teetering in heels.

All this fuss wants to add up to something spiritual, but VAT artistic director Aileen McCulloch's production tries to reach Haidle's higher goals in the last five minutes, after two hours of dimly lit shtick. (Thompson's lighting takes that description too literally: There's aesthetic murkiness, and then there's freakin' dark.) The most grounded character, George, simply disappears, while the other actors doggedly pound their single notes — except for Sarah Robinson, great until given a key male role for no clear purpose.

By the play's final moments — the first lit with any clarity — abeautifully staged finale tries to transform caricatures into characters and blocking into meaningful action, but no stage magic can achieve that trick.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Rag and Bone Through April 26, Second Stage at the Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St., 215-563-4330 ext. 3, vagabondactingtroupe.org