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'God's Plot' by Mark Jackson review: ye olde fun Robert Hurwitt Colonial American history has gotten a lot more personal, tuneful and much more entertaining with the opening of Mark Jackson's "God's Plot" at Ashby Stage. Did I mention sexy? Jackson's script and production could use some fine-tuning, but his tangy blend of early American theater, religious sectarianism, rebellion, hypocrisy and exploitation is almost irresistibly enlightening. The fifth and final world premiere of Shotgun Players' ambitious 20th season - all plays commissioned by the company - "Plot" resonates with issues Americans are still fighting about. It tells the little-known story of the first play known to have been staged in the English colonies, William Darby's 1665 "Ye Bare (or Bear) and Ye Cubbe," a long-lost satire against King Charles II's oppressive trade policies. Jackson spins a tale of romance, intrigue and economics in a remote Virginia colony, spiced with inventive stagings and Daveen DiGiacomo's blithe tunes. A laborer turned tobacco farmer (Anthony Nemirovsky) goes bust due to London trade manipulations. A Calvinist carpenter (Joe Salazar) profits from his loss. The formidably easy-going sheriff (Dave Maier) keeps the peace partly by ignoring such crimes as Sunday drinking and secret Quakers in the Puritan town. Nina Ball's set enchantingly frames Jackson's bare-bones stagings by transforming the theater into a colonial version of its former identity as a church, complemented by Christine Crook's period costumes. Juliana Lustenader's seductive warblings and a driven banjo (Josh Pollock) and bass (Travis Kindred) energize the action (music direction by Beth Wilmurt). Lustenader's Tryal Pore is our song-commentator and most sympathetic character. The free-spirited daughter of the pietistic judge (a blustering Kevin Clarke) and his judgmental wife (Fontana Butterfield) - whose prayer-foreplay is a hilarious showstopper - is madly in love with the only kindred spirit in the county, her tutor Darby (a smooth, attracted but wary Carl Holvick Thomas). Once she finds out he's a secret former actor, and he stages his "seditious" satire, there's no stopping her sexual and theatrical ambitions. Jackson's version of the old play itself isn't much, but his depiction of the trial and attendant intrigues - enhanced by John Mercer's convincingly fanatical Quaker - is inspired. A few passages seem overwritten. Most of the acting still needed fine-tuning Saturday, but should settle in during the run. Even as is, Jackson's "Plot" is a timely, upbeat way to Occupy your local theater. |
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