RELATIVE CAPTIVITY (November 2007)

Robin DiCello and Johanna Hembry in Relative
Captivity. All photos by HSU Graphic Services
unless otherwise noted.

A "Bold New Play": Relative Captivity Reviewed

From the review of Relative Captivity in the Eureka Times Standard by Betti Trauth:

"It's all about relating and relationships -- about love and hate, laughter and tears, anger and loss, separation and incarceration, freedom and captivity. When all is said and done, it's all relative. That's the paradoxical nature of the bold new play written by HSU professor, Margaret Thomas Kelso that opened its limited run last weekend in HSU's intimate Gist Hall Theatre.

" The playwright's characters are careful composites of real people and true situations that mirror stark reality. These people will shock you, move you, make you suddenly laugh and just as suddenly cry. Kelso has created a tattered tapestry of lives that unravel before your eyes in poignant moments of light and dark.

Thanks to the astute, strong hand of director John Heckel every character's emotional nuance is unpeeled -- every physical element is staged with stunning clarity. Heckel's scenic design also captures the visual moods of the piece perfectly, as does the vivid lighting designed by James McHugh and the costumes by Emily Blanche.

The intricate sound design is by Michelle Carter, and the powerful incidental music is played live on drums by Liam Carey-Rand (in the persona of Nordic god, Loki). This intense drumming, that introduces and later underscores the action, is as sharp and edgy as a knife. "

"... the roles of the relatives and inmates all give the cast a chance to individually shine with their believable, gritty portrayals. Especially outstanding is veteran actress, Bernadette Cheyne -- who is close to remarkable in her portrayal of the cranky, endearing Cerese. She's a lonely old woman who comes every visiting day to sit outside the walls by the entrance to the prison, generously sharing unsolicited wit and wisdom with visitors (especially newcomers). Hers is a definitive performance.

Other show-stealing turns come from Sharon Butcher as the tough-as-nails mom and repeat offender Donna; Robin Dicello as her down-to-earth mother, Rona; and Alexander Gabriel as their sullen son/grandson, Ryan -- who has vowed to never forgive his mom for basically abandoning him.

The rest of the demanding roles in the ensemble are strongly delivered by Angelakis, Cartier, Joe Castro, Charlie Heinberg, Johanna Hembry, Kristin Hoffman, Thomas Tucker, Lian Carey-Rand and Dion Davis. "

Relative Captivity resumes tonight--Thursday, December 6, and plays two more nights, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm in the Gist Hall Theatre.

RELATIVE CAPTIVITY

A play by Margaret Thomas Kelso
Directed by John Heckel
Songs by Margaret Thomas Kelso and Missy Hopper.

Featuring: Missy Hopper, Bernadette Cheyne, Joe Castro, Alexander Gabriel, Sharon Butcher, Michelle Cartier, Thomas Tucker, Kristin Hoffman, Joey Angelakis, Robin DiCello, Johanna Hembry and Charlie Heinberg.

Gist Hall Theatre November 29, 30, Dec. 1
December 6, 7, 8 at 7:30 PM

Press Previews!

Press previews for RELATIVE CAPTIVITY:

Bannered on the front page of the Eureka Times Standard (Nov. 29) and the cover photo of its Northern Lights arts section, with photos and preview by Betti Trauth inside.

Bannered on the front page of the Eureka Reporter (Nov. 29) with photo and preview by Wendy Butler leading the arts section cover.

Previews with photos also in the Arcata Eye (Nov. 27) and North Coast Journal (Nov. 22.)

First show is tonight, November 29 at 7:30 in the Gist Hall Theatre.

Joey Angelakis as Dennis, Kristin Hoffman as Carrie.

From the Headlines

"The massive incarceration of young males from mostly poor- and working-class neighborhoods, and the taking of women from their families and jobs, has crippled their potential for forming healthy families and achieving economic gains."

New report on U.S. prisons by JFA Institute, a Washington criminal-justice research group, from a news story today: November 18, 2007.

Let the Stories Be Told

They meet in a place that is not inside, and not outside: one million fathers behind bars, a hundred thousand mothers, meeting a million and a half children, most of them under age 10, and countless parents, spouses, partners, grandparents and other relatives. Represented by a multi-level set, this is the nameless space where this play takes place. The characters are contemporary Americans, the families of prisoners and prisoners themselves.

Missy Hopper with Charlie Heinberg,
Robin DiCello and Johanna Hembry.

In the midst of them appears Sigyn, a neglected goddess who for countless generations has ministered to an imprisoned husband and serves as the patron saint of all families of prisoners.

But her attempts to find a new life and new ways to speak in the language of today’s prison families are often comic (and musical.)

Missy Hopper as Sigyne

The goddess Sigyn carries a bowl that holds all the stories of our prisoners and their families. “I must find a new container for the stories,” she tells us, “and I have decided that the container will be you.”

“So let the stories be told.”

Kristin Hoffman

With music, pathos, humor, drama, and the help of a career-switching goddess, a DJ and a trickster god as rock drummer, a multi-racial cast composed of students, faculty and community members brings those stories alive.

Charlie Heinberg as Uncle Robert

We meet an imprisoned mother and her troubled son, his grandmother and self-righteous uncle…an uncertain college student beginning a relationship with a prisoner through the mail…two mothers of very different classes with a shared past and future…a couple separated by bars and probably a lot more…an imprisoned father complicating the life of his adult son…a mother of a convicted killer on her first visit…

Johanna Hembry and Robin DiCello

Their stories are complex, poignant, funny, gritty, ironic and courageous—and above all, human stories of people we may know without knowing it. They grapple with issues in their lives-- addictions and responsibilities, independence and connection, separations and hope, fear and rejection, birth and death, guilt, penance and redemption, and the transcendent knot at the heart of it all: love.

Joey Angelakis and Kristin Hoffman

“Outside in, I’m inside out/tell me what this pain’s about”: As one character says, “Everyone who gets sent inside takes a whole bunch of others with ‘em: wives and mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers and friends.”

To the prisoners, their families represent the outside world, yet they know they must concentrate on surviving inside. And though the families are physically outside, and have been convicted of no crime, they are tied in many ways to the prisoners, and to the prison itself. Theirs is a relative captivity.

Relative Captivity: The Playwright

Margaret Thomas Kelso