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Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WI
March 3 2013
In Tandem's 'Beast on the Moon' capture's young couple's struggles to
move on from painful past
By Mike Fischer, Special to the Journal Sentinel
In the first scene of Richard Kalinoski's "Beast on the Moon" - now on
stage in a beautiful and nuanced production at In Tandem's Tenth
Street Theatre - 19-year-old Aram Tomasian learns that his newly
arrived child bride is not the girl he'd been promised.
"I ordered the girl in this picture and they sent me someone else,"
Aram pouts. Yes, 15-year-old Seta replies, but "I am the same girl who
wrote you." Eager to please but also slightly impish, Seta can't
resist adding that she is also prettier than the pictured girl.
That exchange captures the difference between these two young Armenian
immigrants, played by Michael Cotey and Grace DeWolff.
Orphaned survivors of the Armenian genocide who have landed in
Milwaukee, Aram and Seta have a chance for a fresh start in their new
country.
But Aram can't move past frozen images of the past - including a
haunting photograph of his murdered family. Seta is haunted as well.
But she also is just glad to be alive - and well aware that life
requires periodic adjustments to our pictured expectations.
Under Mary MacDonald Kerr's direction, Cotey and DeWolff sketch this
couple's often painful efforts to bridge that divide through the
12-year span - from 1921 to 1933 - during which "Beast" unfolds.
Impeccably dressed in a dark suit, Cotey's Aram exhibits a matching
formality in everything he does, from his stiff posture and gestures
to the accompanying rituals - including selective Bible readings on
wifely obedience - through which he tries to honor the memory of a
dead father.
Cotey's young and puckish face underscores the disconnect between the
father Aram wants to embody and the lost boy he often still is. In his
self-conscious attempts to act like a man, he winds up stunting his
development; as time moves forward, he seems to regress.
As Aram shrinks, an initially cowed Seta begins to grow, and watching
DeWolff trace that arc leaves me certain we'll see much more of this
young and very talented actor, from whom Kerr has coaxed an
extraordinary performance.
When we first meet Seta, she is clearly still a girl, wearing her
quicksilver emotions - from joy and irrepressible laughter to terror -
on her homespun sleeves.
Once DeWolff's Seta morphs into a graceful and poised woman -
stylishly dressed from cloche hat to heeled shoes by costume designer
Eleanor Cotey - her formerly bright eyes and mischievous smile fade,
as she tries to conform to her husband's regimented expectations.
That's a no-go for many reasons, but chief among them is that Seta has
a mind of her own. When she eventually gives Aram his comeuppance,
DeWolff's Seta has long prepared the way, having already conveyed a
fierce inner strength through her sharp and intelligent face.
Playing both a young orphan boy whom Seta once protected and the old
man that boy later became, Robert Spencer persuasively reinforces the
inevitability of change - and how positive that experience can be,
when bolstered by love of the sort Seta wants to give and Aram
desperately needs.
***
IF YOU GO
"Beast on the Moon" continues through March 24 at the Tenth Street
Theatre, 628 N. 10th St. For tickets, call (414) 271-1371 or go to
www.intandemtheatre.org.
http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/arts/in-tandems-beast-on-the-moon-shines-brightly-vr8udct-194518881.html
March 3 2013
In Tandem's 'Beast on the Moon' capture's young couple's struggles to
move on from painful past
By Mike Fischer, Special to the Journal Sentinel
In the first scene of Richard Kalinoski's "Beast on the Moon" - now on
stage in a beautiful and nuanced production at In Tandem's Tenth
Street Theatre - 19-year-old Aram Tomasian learns that his newly
arrived child bride is not the girl he'd been promised.
"I ordered the girl in this picture and they sent me someone else,"
Aram pouts. Yes, 15-year-old Seta replies, but "I am the same girl who
wrote you." Eager to please but also slightly impish, Seta can't
resist adding that she is also prettier than the pictured girl.
That exchange captures the difference between these two young Armenian
immigrants, played by Michael Cotey and Grace DeWolff.
Orphaned survivors of the Armenian genocide who have landed in
Milwaukee, Aram and Seta have a chance for a fresh start in their new
country.
But Aram can't move past frozen images of the past - including a
haunting photograph of his murdered family. Seta is haunted as well.
But she also is just glad to be alive - and well aware that life
requires periodic adjustments to our pictured expectations.
Under Mary MacDonald Kerr's direction, Cotey and DeWolff sketch this
couple's often painful efforts to bridge that divide through the
12-year span - from 1921 to 1933 - during which "Beast" unfolds.
Impeccably dressed in a dark suit, Cotey's Aram exhibits a matching
formality in everything he does, from his stiff posture and gestures
to the accompanying rituals - including selective Bible readings on
wifely obedience - through which he tries to honor the memory of a
dead father.
Cotey's young and puckish face underscores the disconnect between the
father Aram wants to embody and the lost boy he often still is. In his
self-conscious attempts to act like a man, he winds up stunting his
development; as time moves forward, he seems to regress.
As Aram shrinks, an initially cowed Seta begins to grow, and watching
DeWolff trace that arc leaves me certain we'll see much more of this
young and very talented actor, from whom Kerr has coaxed an
extraordinary performance.
When we first meet Seta, she is clearly still a girl, wearing her
quicksilver emotions - from joy and irrepressible laughter to terror -
on her homespun sleeves.
Once DeWolff's Seta morphs into a graceful and poised woman -
stylishly dressed from cloche hat to heeled shoes by costume designer
Eleanor Cotey - her formerly bright eyes and mischievous smile fade,
as she tries to conform to her husband's regimented expectations.
That's a no-go for many reasons, but chief among them is that Seta has
a mind of her own. When she eventually gives Aram his comeuppance,
DeWolff's Seta has long prepared the way, having already conveyed a
fierce inner strength through her sharp and intelligent face.
Playing both a young orphan boy whom Seta once protected and the old
man that boy later became, Robert Spencer persuasively reinforces the
inevitability of change - and how positive that experience can be,
when bolstered by love of the sort Seta wants to give and Aram
desperately needs.
***
IF YOU GO
"Beast on the Moon" continues through March 24 at the Tenth Street
Theatre, 628 N. 10th St. For tickets, call (414) 271-1371 or go to
www.intandemtheatre.org.
http://www.jsonline.com/entertainment/arts/in-tandems-beast-on-the-moon-shines-brightly-vr8udct-194518881.html