REVIEW: At Playcrafters, a sad, moving song says so much

There’s an aching sense of melancholy and foreboding that permeates the entire John Guare play, “The House of Blue Leaves,” which is given a spot-on, profoundly heartbreaking production at Playcrafters in Moline.

The New York Times review of the original 1971 production called it “mad, funny, at times very funny, and sprawling.” It’s billed as a dark comedy, but “Blue Leaves” is clearly more dark than comedy.

Director (and Playcrafters board president) Kathy Graham and her outstanding cast of yearning misfits have nailed the dreams and nightmares of this motley crew, set in Sunnyside, Queens, N.Y. in 1965.

In her director’s note in the program, Graham says she likes characters “who are over the top, yet have troubles and dreams like all of us. This script made me laugh and made me cry.”

Our troubled protagonist, Artie Shaughnessy (Eric Teeter, a downtrodden, frustrated dreamer) is a harried zookeeper, and a fledgling singer-songwriter who bombs at an amateur night in the show’s first scene (done here even before Graham makes her introduction to the audience).

His mentally ill wife Bananas (Ashley Hoskins, teetering between childlike joy and intense fear and panic) speaks of her tranquilizers as caging the wild animals inside her; she pretends to be a dog when Artie feeds her, and Artie laments that his home has become a zoo.

Artie longs to find fame in Hollywood with his vivacious, cunning, tacky girlfriend, Bunny (Leslie Day, loud, flirtatious and sexy). Artie has found an institution for Bananas and will take her there before moving to California with Bunny, hopefully to find fame, fortune, and favor from his best friend, Billy (Eric Landuyt, who makes a late entrance in the story), a Hollywood director.

Artie desperately wants to escape his lower-middle-class existence and become a popular singer and songwriter, but his life is complicated by an ambitious mistress, a crazy wife, and a bomb-making son.

Artie and Bananas’ son, Ronnie (Tim Burrow), is illegally home from the Army attempting to assassinate the Pope, and in the play’s second act, the family’s evening is disrupted by three nuns and Billy’s deaf actress-girlfriend. Chaos erupts when characters’ lives intersect as they all try to be in the presence of the Pope on this historic day.

As the big, bold, and brassy Bunny, Day is the most upbeat, happy character in the play – she gives the story hope near the beginning when she exclaims, “There’s miracles in the air,” conveying the city’s excitement to see Pope Paul VI (who was head of the Catholic Church from 1963 to 1978).

Bunny calls Artie’s song “The Devil in Evelyn” (great rhyme) a classic, and Day’s enthusiasm and plans for moving to sunny California with Artie are irresistible. We soon learn that Bunny is heartless and cruel, toward Bananas and Artie.

In the capable hands of Teeter and Hoskins, this husband and wife are heart-wrenching and poignant. We can tell they love each other, but can’t live with each other. Bananas is dead to Artie and needs to be put in an institution for her own good, and for Artie to pursue his dreams with Bunny.

The title of the play is referenced in the script. The rest home Artie takes his wife to, has a tree that when he visits, appears to be filled with blue leaves. When he walks to the tree, the leaves fly away and they’re all blue birds.

Burrow gives off a haunted, loner assassin vibe as Ronnie, seeking his own brief time in the spotlight. Shyan DeVoss, Jesslyn Cohen and Eric Landuyt are strong in their roles as Corrinna, Little Nun, and Billy, respectively.

The craziness of the story reaches its peak in the frantic, farce-like second half, but the tragedy also deepens, as Billy grieves a loss and then Artie experiences a shocking loss of his own.

Teeter is tremendous in reflecting the agony and ecstasy of Artie; especially moving is his plea to the pope on TV to help Bananas. Hoskins is a wonder, with great expressiveness, as the unpredictable, wild wife. The tense gut-punch of the final scene is ineffably sad.

Again, the Playcrafters stage is artfully transformed by Graham and Jake Ladd (who both designed and built the set) into an authentic mid-‘60s apartment, including a cool New York City backdrop behind the rear window. Kendall and Kathie Burnett did set construction and painting.

Full disclosure: I recorded piano (and wrote one brief song, “The Day the Pope Came to New York”) for the show, so that was neat to see come to life. The upright piano at back of the stage has its back facing the audience.

“The House of Blue Leaves” continues at Playcrafters (4950 35^th Ave., Moline) at 7:30 p.m. this Friday and Saturday (May 24-25) and 3 p.m. Sunday, May 26.

Tickets ($15 general admission, $13 for military and seniors) are available on the Playcrafters website HERE or by calling 309-762-0330 to make a reservation. Tickets will also be for sale at the door while available.

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