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Seth Weinberg
Friday, October 12, 2012
laneytower.com
‘Every now and then a madman is bound to come
along,” sings the balladeer following John Wilkes Booth’s
assassination of Abraham Lincoln in Stephen Sondheim and John
Weidman’s 1990 musical, “Assassins.”
Presented by Shotgun Players on the Ashby Stage, Director Susannah
Martin’s “Assassins” is a delightfully entertaining
production which still manages to capture the crushing desperation
an individual can feel when left behind by the American Dream.
“Assassins” is a play about the everyman, men like
you and this humble reviewer. About how men and women who took
the extraordinary action of assassination were not just psychopaths,
but everyday people who were pushed into desperation and hopelessness
by society.
The story follows nine assassins and would-be assassins, providing
an attempt at understanding what drove them to take drastic action.
The treatment each assassin receives is not equal however, and
some become much more sympathetic and relatable.
At the Ashby Stage no assassin is more relatable than Actors Equity
Association member Ryan Drummond’s portrayal of Sam Byck.
Appearing alone on stage with nothing but a voice recorder, Drummond
creates a scene straight out of the Eminem song “Stan.”
Drummond manages for a scarce few minutes to embody the disillusioned
and depressed American everyman finishing his monologue with the
play’s motif, “We do the only thing we can do, we
kill the President.”
Also putting on excellent performances are Kevin Singer, playing
the Balladeer; Cody Metzger as Squeaky Fromme; and Dan Saski as
Leon Czolgosz, who assassinated William McKinley in 1901.
Time doesn’t pass in any normal fashion in “Assassins.”
Instead, characters from the middle of the 19th century directly
interact with characters from the 1980s. Martin uses inspired
set design to reinforce her ideas of a history which repeats itself
should no one look to correct the flaws.
Upon entering the theater, the first thing one notices is the
fifteen-foot tall metal zoetrope erected in the middle of the
stage. The zoetrope–a renaissance-era animation toy–provides
a limbo space, outside of time, for all of these characters from
different times to interact. As characters step outside of this
space, the audience witnesses a window into their lives and the
circumstances surrounding their assassination attempts.
Martin’s decision to have the main cast play all of the
ensemble roles reflects one of the main themes of “Assassins”
during these scenes. By having the assassins play the everyman
characters throughout the play, Martin reinforces how close the
assassins are to the members of the audience; it’s only
a few small differences that cause–to paraphrase the Balladeer’s
opening–a madman to come along.
