Monday, March 3, 2003
Intensity, racy issues affect this workplace
Workplace plays have skewered everything from the newspaper business (The Front Page) to real estate (Glengarry Glen Ross) to theater itself (Noises Off).
Rob Ackerman's Tabletop, a sometimes savage comedy about the making of a particular kind of television commercial, belongs to that genre, but it's less successful in jumping from the specificity of its world into broader appeal.
Ackerman, who has worked in the business as a prop master, certainly knows that world. So does director Joseph Adler, who staged GableStage's searingly acted new production of Tabletop and who directed TV commercials long before he started running a theater company.
Authenticity isn't the problem. It's the stop-and-go, hurry-up-and-wait pace of this particular workplace that makes Tabletop feel longer than its 95-minute running time.
Built around shooting a commercial for a pink frozen fruit concoction, Tabletop reaches for more universal themes -- including homophobia, racism, sexism, old school vs. new talent, pursuing dreams vs. working for a living. But too many of its plot lines come to nothing.
Adler and a half-dozen of South Florida's best actors give it their all, and given the depth of that talent, Tabletop is sometimes quite entertaining, sometimes deliberately disturbing.
George Schiavone tears into the role of Marcus, the commercial's foul-mouthed tyrannical director, with such force-of-nature fury that you eventually cringe whenever he enters. Michael Vines is Ron, Marcus' favorite victim, a verbose young talent incapable of getting out of his own way or anyone else's. One particular spewing, sputtering comic monologue -- about how Ron once drowned a fly that was buzzing inside his ear -- earns its own deserved applause.
Paul Tei beautifully underplays Jeffrey, the lascivious (and gay-bashing) prop guy whose job is to find and re-create perfection. Joe Kimble is Dave, the camera man preoccupied with a secret romance, and John Archie is Oscar, whose dream of getting his own business going looks stymied. Pamela Roza is Andrea, an assistant director who yells a lot but comes off as benign next to Marcus.
Set designer Tim Connelly has created an incredibly detailed, equipment-laden studio, with cables snaking across its floor, work areas both messy and pristine, and an office to which Marcus can retreat between tirades. Lighting designer Jeff Quinn supplies everything from the muted green glow of a desk lamp to the blazing intensity needed to make the commercial's "star" -- swirled pink goo surrounded by carefully misted real fruit -- sparkle.
Which is more than you can say for Tabletop itself.
Christine Dolen is The Herald's theater critic.
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
Boiling Over
By Jack Zink, Theater Writer
So, you think that the film business is all that glam stuff? Take a peek at Tabletop, the off-Broadway potboiler now at the GableStage, and you'll find out otherwise.
Rob Ackerman's play is about a small company that makes TV commercials, run by a hot-tempered, bad-mouthed old coot whose employees are strung so tight, everything they do goes boiinggg! The slice-of-life scenario follows the maddening process of making just one 30-second commercial about a milkshake-type fruit drink.
The title comes from the fact that this type of work involves filming products on a table, lighted and arranged just so, to make everything seem more lifelike than life. For that, Gable-Stage artistic director Joseph Adler went to all his buddies in South Florida's film industry to load Tim Connelly's set up with a horde of expensive equipment.
Adler is also a successful commercial and feature-film producer, so he knows first hand the emotional frenzies that erupt in the tight surroundings of a low-budget studio shoot. So Tabletop is theatrical verismo from the get-go, with the added lift of Ackerman's blistering (and at times explosively funny) plot and dialogue. Tabletop says more about one-upmanship than the human condition or character development, but there's just enough of a plot to tie up the loose ends before the final blackout.
Marcus, once a hot talent in the commercial racket, is getting sloppy and too reliant on old ideas. George Schiavone, a professional photographer himself, plays the obstreperous Marcus to the hilt, cussing and insulting his staff and generally treating them like dirt.
His assistant director Andrea is a no-nonsense efficiency bug played with curt, unquestioned authority by Pamela Roza. Paul Tei is the studio's prop master, an edgy guy with no patience or particular allegiances to anyone, but a surprising dedication to doing the right thing.
John Archie is the electrician, the only one in the bunch with more than an ounce of compassion. He wants to start his own business in another line of work but needs help from Marcus, who doesn't do anything for anybody without attaching strings. Joe Kimble is the camera man, a quiet soul who wants to go about his business and have a personal life when he clocks out at the end of a regular shift. Fat chance.
The ringer in the mix is Michael Vines as the junior guy who thinks of their work as art and is constantly trying to be creative. He's also a klutz who's constantly in trouble with the other guys, as well as -- especially -- the boss. Although Tabletop is 90 percent situation and only 10 percent plot, it doesn't take much guesswork to figure out that junior will have a key role at the finale, when the table is turned.
Jack Zink can be reached at 954-356-4706 or jzink@sun-sentinel.com.
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