On Stage: Dysfunction on display
MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer, 07/21/2003
From left, Scott Murtha plays Malcolm, Dody Sullivan plays Ella and David Dillinger Jefferis plays Weston in "Curse of the Starving Class," playing at the NIGHTINGALE THEATER. Below: Drew McUsic plays Wesley in "Curse of the Starving Class." Photos by A. CUERVO/Tulsa World
Sam Shepard's cursed family is coming to town
Jenny Jackson has long had a deep respect for the works of playwright Sam Shepard, and staging one of this American original's definitive works fulfills a dream for her.
Her friends supported her. They told her to go for it. Then they read the script for "Curse of the Starving Class."
"Now some of those same people are saying, 'I can't believe you're doing it!' Well, thanks a lot, folks," Jackson said, laughing. "When I started, I thought the show would be 'Jenny and her friends.' Now it's 'Jenny and some of her friends.'
"I've come to realize that you either like Shepard's work or you don't."
A darkly comic exploration of the American family psyche, "Curse of the Starving Class" revolves around a classically dysfunctional family as they shift into adolescence, adulthood and old age, facing the loss of their farm to debt and developers.
The characters blindly search for human connections, but they find only emptiness in this work, which is essentially a tragedy hiding under a comic veneer.
"The kids are trying to keep everything together, but no one is connecting," Jackson said. "It's a tragedy, because these are real people, and they make bad choices, and bad things happen to them as a consequence."
It's not easy to explain any Shepard play -- the playwright has compared his works ("Buried Child," "True West") to "lucid dreams" in which characters grounded in reality then experience outrageous events.
It's easier to learn why Jackson, a veteran of several local community theater troupes, is producing her first show under the name of Wilhelmena Productions.
"That's a nickname from college. A friend of mine just made it up. We were at a theater festival, and this woman from Louisiana Tech kept getting people's names wrong, so some of my friends just started making up names for people. I got stuck with Wilhelmena.
"I got that name when I was in college at the NSU drama department, and that's where I came across this play, reading it 15 years ago."
The cast for Jackson's tribute to those idealistic days includes Drew McUsic, Dody Sullivan, Kate Pieratt, Kevin Roden, David DillingerJefferis, John Clark, Scott Murtha, Andy Alder and Dale Sams. George Romero is stage manager, and Kris Adair has the tech responsibilities.
Performances of "Curse of the Starving Class" are set for 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 8 p.m. July 31-Aug. 2 at the NIGHTINGALE THEATER, 1416 E. Fourth St. Tickets are $8 and may be reserved by calling 838-3999. This play contains adult humor and language.