"Mary Milton production spotlights relationships"
The Napa Valley Register, March 24, 1996
by L. Pierce Carson, Register Staff Writer
In a current production by the fledgling Eastenders Repertory Company, Richmond school teacher Mary Milton weaves a tapestry from the relationships of the common man.
Milton builds on everyday encounters, would-be friendships, loneliness, dreams, anger and hope in a two-act pastiche she calls "On The Outs."
Acting as "docent," Milton suggests her characters have backed themselves into "mental boxes" that confine spirit as well as intellect. "To get out of the box is a challenge," she insists, "and while we don't always succeed...(the) struggle itself can be a triumph."
Nattily dressed in a camel's hair suit, Milton, with schoolmarmy demeanor, uses a single prop, a jack-in-the-box, to make her narrative point, that stripping away the shackles requires more persistence than dynamite.
The theater is small, located in the basement of LaVal's Pizza Parlor, a hop skip and a jump from the North Gate of the UC Berkeley campus (1834 Euclid Ave., to be exact).
In a dozen-plus scenes played out on a sparse stage set with a stack of colorful, often utilitarian boxes, the playwright gives her audience a chance to visit with both ingratiating and unsavory characters.
We meet a female alcoholic with a glass eye (Michaela Greeley) whose husband got religion after his involvement in a fatal accident. There's a foul-mouthed racist loser (Paul Buckner) with a big chip on his shoulder, and an angry black man (Derek Lassiter) worried that the victims of a fire in an upscale neighborhood will drive up rents now that they're seeking shelter in his neck of the woods.
Alberta (Jaxy Boyd) is a dreamer who believes the best is yet to come, even though she's been evicted, has but a temporary job, needs a car and is trying to help her ex-con son cope.
Wade Gardner is a lad who idolizes Batman, who hopes the masked marvel will help him steer his mom away from drugs.
Director Charles Polly works the most magic when his playwright is at her best. One of the best scenes involves Buckner and Rossell as a couple meeting via a personals column in a trendy tabloid. Buckner's lists of likes and dislikes are legion, while the young lady hasn't really developed any criteria for her would-be soulmate. Amusing and on the mark, it's a delightful "connection."
Lassiter and Greeley also fare well as a couple of calligraphy students who discover they're "sharing" the instructor.
Greeley also offers a sharply drawn portrait of a southern lass who encounters a bit of violence after breaking up with a lazy maintenance man.
For the most part, Milton's sketches are either amusing or thought-provoking - sometimes both.
The two-hour world premiere is well worth the visit to Berkeley's Northside. |
