Arts & Entertainment

Deaf West's "Flowers For Algernon" Soars

By: Radomir Luza

If you want to see a play about what it really feels like not to fit in make your way to Deaf West Theatre’s production of Flowers for Algernon at the Whitefire Theatre in Sherman Oaks running through Nov. 3.

David Rogers’ stage adaptation of Daniel Keyes’ novel is presented on two brilliantly-executed levels.  The 23-year-old theatre company weaves American Sign Language (ASL) with spoken English to create a seamless dance of movement, style and voice.
     
Combining its signature signed and voiced theater to illuminate a modern American classic, Deaf West clears all hurdles in underlining the singular theme of the play, and perhaps humanity: How far will we go to fit in?
     
In Charlie Gordon’s case, it seems fairly simple.  He becomes a willing subject of an extraordinary experiment that will take his intellectually disabled mind and change it into that of a genius.
     
The interweaving of his life with Algernon, a mouse whose intelligence has been increased threefold by the same procedure, proves telling in the arc that is this “Flowers.”
     
Flowers for Algernon was first published as a short story in 1959 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. It was reprinted many times in many languages and won the Hugo Award. A dramatic version called “The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon”, starring Cliff Robertson, was telecast as part of the US Steel Hour in 1961.  From 1962-65,  Keyes worked on the novel-length version,  publishing it in 1966, and winning the Nebula Award the same year.  It is widely translated and studied in colleges and schools around the world.  Robertson received a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in the 1968 movie version, “Charly.”
     
Keyes’ premise and language are one of defeat on the precipice. They echo the chant never to give up and ask how far science will go to massage its ego, leaving human guinea pigs and sensitive souls in its wake.
     
Keyes takes on these questions head-on and leaves us, the audience, mesmerized by what we see through Rogers’ keen adaptation.
     
Matthew McCray directs both voiced and signed actors here crisply and with great feeling and momentum.  He, better than most, comprehends Gordon’s conundrum, and better than most, makes us feel it as well. 
     
McCray is a compassionate director who understands the play and the book that it is based on.  The proof is in the language, substance and action on stage, and in the superbly-gifted cast. 
     
Standouts include Alek Lev (Burt, Joe, Interpreter) who is convincing and moving in a tender turn.  
     
Sarah Lilly (Mother, Nurse, Voice of Mrs. Feldman, Convention Chair lady, Voice of Mrs. Mooney, Voice of Anne) juggles five roles deftly.  She has the depth to play the mother with uncommon gusto and heartache and the talent to portray the other characters with experience and guile.
     
Hillary Baack (Alice) gives a riveting and powerful performance that left this critic deeply touched and begging for more.  Her heart and soul on her sleeve from one moment to the next, Baack’s portrayal alone is reason enough to see the play.
     
Bruce Katzman (Dr. Nemur, Father) almost steals the play with a combination of passion and urgency.  His Dr. Nemur is a study in perfection and ego.   Katzman is a truly gifted actor who knows how to make the most out of a character. 
   
Daniel N. Durant (Charlie) is an uncommonly talented actor who begins the play hardly confident of himself and emerges from his cocoon a “super-signer,” painting pictures in the air. Durant’s energy, wisdom and vitality emerge in the end as he runs away with the show.  Truly, his love of humanity both as the actor and character can be seen, especially in Act Two.  This critic hopes the stages of Los Angeles will be alive with Durant's old soul and lively hands again soon.
     
Furthering the message are Sarah Krainin’s scenic design, Jeremy Pivnick’s lighting design, Gwyneth Conaway Bennison’s costume design, Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski’s sound design and Adam Flemming’s projection design.
     
All in all, Deaf West’s Flowers for Algernon speaks of alienation: personal, public and professional, and what it does to a human being, regardless of what stage of life he or she is in.
     
The way we all handle it may be different, but for one man it makes the difference between being alone and being like everyone else.   
     
Surely, that is a concept both voiced and signed audiences can grasp.
     
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm     

TICKETS: General Admission: $30 Students with ID: $20 through Oct. 13 only.    Sunday, Oct. 13 at 2pm.: Pay-what you-can.          

RESERVATIONS/INFORMATION:      (818) 762-2998     WHERE:     Deaf West Theatre @ the Whitefire Theatre     13500 Ventura Blvd.,     Sherman Oaks, CA 91423  


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