|
|
Highly Recommended |
Elegant direction
and performances |
Highly Recommended |
Recomended
|
Earnest
performances |
|
Highly
Recommended
April 2009 Theatre Review
by Alan Bresloff
steadstylechicago.com
What if you met someone who had the power to see death and happiness by
the "aura" surrounding those he met or encountered? Would you
think this person to be crazy? Would you believe this could be
factual? What if this person was you? How would you cope
with this power, knowing that even with this knowledge, you could do
nothing to change the fate of those you know are about to die?
Redtwist Theatre is presenting a marvelous
new work, "Aura" written by Tommy Lee Johnston that takes us on
a journey. Mike (played with
great feeling by Johnston) is a man who is believed to be crazy
because of what he sees and Earl (a
marvelous portrayal by Larry Wiley) is a man he sees in the park
every day. Earl comes to the park each morning from the senior
housing unit he lives in to watch and feed the birds and
squirrels. Mike strolls through the park every day and until this
particular day has just nodded and kept on going. On this day, he
stops to talk. Mike talks about himself and that he has watched
Earl and his recently departed wife for many years. As Mike
talkshttp://chicagocritic.com/
ofhttp://chicagocritic.com/ his "power" and how he is thought to be
crazy but isn't, he changes
Earl's routine, and as it turns out his life.
Earl starts off with the notion that Mike is in fact a loony, but Mike
opens up and tells his story and how his "gift" affected the lives of
two women, a woman at the airport, Amanda
and his psychiatrist, Dr. Emily Wallace (both skillfully played by
Connie Anderko). Both of these female characters have a
special feeling for Mike and in the case of Amanda, he knows that the
fate she faces will kill her and cannot convince her that she must
listen to him. "If people keep calling you crazy, you will become
crazy". Mike is special and has a gift that can only cause him
pain. Earl is alone and feels guilt for his wife passing away
first. He should have died first, so she could have gone on,
while he has a difficult time trying.
Through this 80 minutes in the park and some flashbacks, Johnston
explores these two men and intertwines their lives with a great deal of
emotion. There are some funny moments and some moments of fear,
but as these two men learn more about each other, there is a bond that
become evident and a trust that grows. We all need to have someone to
trust and under the direction of Jan
Ellen Graves, each little movement, each little gesture and the
delivery of each line brings the audience much closer to these
characters. So close that you care about them, each one of them
in a very special way.
This is a well
written, well directed and very well acted World premiere and in the
intimate storefront space of Redtwist, an emotional, exciting
theatrical experience has been created. The theater has been revamped to make the
park setting (designed by Ms Graves) more realistic as we sit on two
sides of the performance area. The lighting by Christopher Burpee
and sound by Christopher Kriz all add to this experience.
|
Highly
Recommended
by Tom Williams, Tom99@chicagocritic.com
Date Reviewed: April
27, 2009
Aura is a
clever, well thought out fable
Redtwist Theatre continues their fine productions with playwright Tommy
Lee Johnston’s world premiere fable, Aura.
This is an excellent
play—filled with humor, memorable characters and a thought provoking
theme.
It is rare that a playwright also doubles as the lead actor in his own
work—but Tommy Lee Johnston is perfect
as the eccentric man who can see color auras surrounding others. His
talent or curse allows him to feel a person’s emotions whether their
vitality or their imminent demise.
Utilizing director/set designer Jan Ellen Graves’ park set complete
with flying birds and hungry squirrels, Aura finds Earl (Larry E. Wiley), a
still-young-and-vital senior who spends his days feeding squirrels and
watching the birds in order to cope with his wife’s recent death. The
early scenes find Earl sitting on his favorite bench observing the
animals. A strange middle-aged man wearing a jacket adorned with
strange buttons and an mp3 player with ear phones circles Earl and
kindly observers the bird watcher. This man hurriedly mover around Earl
nodding recognition. Earl is puzzled by the stranger’s attention.
Mike (Tommy Lee Johnston) is determined to meet and talk with Earl. He
is animated, hurried and obnoxious. As he strikes up a conversation
with Earl telling him that he has observed him and his wife in the park
for years. He explains that he has a special gift—he sees an aura
around people—yellow means their death is imminent. He can also feel
one’s emotions with a devastating sensitivity. Earl thinks Mike is a
crazy foul. He does, after all, live in a mental home. Mike honestly
isn’t sure if he is mentally ill—all he knows is that his power is real.
As Mike tells his story to Earl of how his sightings of the auras cause
him so much pain that it fills him with guilt because he can’t alter
the inevitable. He tells about how he was working at the airport when
he noticed that all the passengers waiting for a delayed flight had the
yellow aura. He notices a lady and her 4 year old boy waiting for the
flight. He befriends Amanda (Connie Anderko) while she waits for the
weather to clear for her flight. Mike tries desperately to charm Amanda
to take another flight.
We see Mike as he has mental health sessions with his psychiatrist, Dr.
Emily Wallace (Connie Anderko). These scenes demonstrate Mike’s
intelligence and charisma. The doctor’s reaction to Mike is surprising.
Mike slowly convinces Earl that he should believe him in an effort help
him cope with his wife’s death. There is urgency to Mike’s
conversation. Playwright Johnston has written a smart script with a most memorable
character deftly played by himself. Larry
Wiley is outstanding as the grieving senior and Connie Anderko moves nicely from the mental
health worker to the fight-knuckle flyer. There are clever
twists that make us question the plausibility of such powers. Is Mike a
lunatic or a shaman? See this show and decide for yourself. Aura is a swiftly paced and tightly written new
play. You’ll not soon forget this story of a pure soul. Tommy Lee Johnston is a talented
playwright/actor.
Back to top
|
Time Out Chicago /
Issue 219 : May 7–13, 2009
***Critic's Rating
By Christopher Shea
With this original account of an aura-reading mental patient and the
elderly widower he befriends in the park, Johnston alarmingly fuses the
hitherto disparate worlds of Samuel Beckett and Tuesdays with Morrie scribe Mitch
Albom. Johnston kicks off with the bleak-chic conceit of two anonymous
souls meeting to argue inanities, but eventually he veers into
schmaltizer territory, filling in the backstory of elderly Earl’s
deceased wife and clairvoyant Mike’s blissful memories of observing the
couple’s contented emanations from across the park... Mike’s a modern
iteration of Shakespeare’s wise fool: a superficial weirdo who’s
ultimately more sagacious than any member of the socially appropriate
classes...The roundabout course nearly succeeds: Aura works best when summoning
tears with bathos-laden flashbacks to loves gone by.
...elegant direction and performances....
modern-day morality
tale.
Back to top
|
Reviewed 5/7/09
By Albert Williams
This 80-minute one-act by Tommy Lee Johnston is receiving its world
premiere at Redtwist Theatre. Johnston plays Mike, a mental patient
whose ability to see other people's human energy fields alerts him to a
person's imminent death. Striking up a conversation with an elderly
widower he meets in the park, Mike recounts an encounter he had with a
woman at an airport--a promising flirtation that went wrong...A cross
between Edward Albee's The Zoo Story
and an episode of The Twilight Zone...
The actors deliver
earnest performances under Jan Ellen Graves's direction, and off-Loop
veteran Larry Wiley is particularly good as the widower, still
hurting from the loss of his wife.
Back to top
|
"Recommended"
Redtwist's 'Aura' by Laurie Grauer
Author Douglas H. Everett once wrote, “There are some people who live
in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there
are those who turn one into the other.”
If this is the case, how do we as individuals draw the fine line that
exists between fantasy and reality? What would happen if we temporarily
traded one realm for another? These quandaries as well as others are
posed in Redtwist Theatre’s world premiere of Tommy Lee Johnston’s
“Aura.”
As a company member, Johnston has appeared in several Redtwist
productions, including “Family Malfunction” and “Marvin’s Room.” He’s
also written and performed in “Life’s Tremors,” “Gifted” and “Time
Frame.”
In “Aura,” Johnston reveals the story of one man who can see the color
of people’s auras and determine their vitality or imminent demise. As
his own death nears, he uses this gift to reach out to loved ones and
heal their pain by showing them how to control their reality rather
than be influenced by it.
At first, the set up seems contrived. Moments into the story one would
expect to see Rod Serling pop out from behind the shimmering tree on
stage to declare that we have now entered the “Twilight Zone.” As the
play progresses, however, the plot
becomes increasingly fascinating because it challenges conventional
ideas surrounding love, reality and mortality.
Upon first impression the cellophane grass and Mylar strewn tree seem a
bit a cheesy. However, when combined with lighting effects as the
crucial role of light is revealed as a core concept of the play, it
transforms the set into a magical realm of possibility...
As with the rest of the details mentioned in this review, the players
also seem two-dimensional toward the beginning of the play, but soon
come to life with each dialectic exchange. Each cast member portrays his or her role
with such sincerity that is hard to discern the character from the
actor.
I recommend seeing
this show...the performances
given in this production were heartfelt and the concepts that surface
from their dialogue are insightful.
Back to top
|
 Playwright
knows how to read an "Aura"
By MYRNA PETLICKI Contributor, Pioneer Press, May 7, 2009
Three years ago, a co-worker confided to Tommy Lee Johnston that she
could read auras -- people's invisible emanations. Instead of being
skeptical, the Deerfield playwright and actor was inspired. His latest
play, "Aura," runs through May 23 at Chicago's Redtwist Theatre, where
the playwright is a company member. Johnston stars as Mike, a man with
that gift.
"Aura" focuses on how people react to the fact that Mike has this
ability and consequently treat him. "I took it one step further,"
Johnston said. "Not only does he have the ability to read auras around
people and what they're feeling and the type of people they are, he
also has the ability to know when they're going to die. It's something
that has been very conflicting for him."
Johnston noted that the play deals with a variety of issues including
"loss, how we are with each other and how we depend on each other."
Jan Ellen Graves, Redtwist's media director and facility manager,
directed the show. "This is the second play of his we've produced,"
Graves reported. The other was "Life's Tremors" in 2005. "Aura" was
recently Jeff recommended.
Graves described Johnston's work as having "a familiar voice, like some
songs you've heard in the past. You can really identify and get
familiar and comfortable and relaxed, and feel like you're hearing
something you know, when he writes."
The director described Johnson's latest work as "a broader show than
about a man who believes he sees auras. So, we tried to create a
setting in which the story can be told and all these other themes come
out as well."
The show is "perfect for these times," the director asserted, referring
to the economic climate and other changes occurring in the world. She
said it's a show that will make audiences smile as well as "come out
with some questions and some thoughts and some ways to move on."
Johnston, who has lived in Deerfield about 16 years, grew up primarily
in Central America and Southern Europe because his father was in the
Air Force. He worked in radio for about 15 years as both a program
director and on-air personality for music programs.
"I always had an interest in becoming an actor," he said. In the early
'90s, he began taking a class with Michael Colucci, artistic director
of Redtwist, then known as Actors Workshop Theatre.
He began writing scenes for himself at the same time. "Five or six
years later, I got more serious about the writing and started stringing
together plays instead of scenes."
Although all his theatrical work in Chicago has been with Redtwist,
Johnston is president of Offspring Theatre Company in Deerfield, which
he started so he could perform with his talented children, Sam, 15 (now
in "The Grapes of Wrath" at Raven Theatre), and Nicole, 13, in plays
that he writes for them. Johnson also runs a summer acting camp for
children, Kids Acting Out. Proceeds of plays produced through the camp
are given to charity.
These days, though, Johnston is focusing on his "Aura." When we spoke,
the actor/playwright was preparing for opening night. He was pleased
with the reaction the play had received during its four previews. "We
had really great response from the audiences," he said.
Back to top
|
|
|
|
|
|
