first night review: small craft warnings @Lower Depths Theatre, Loyola University

Small Craft Warnings @ Lower Depths Theatre, The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans (Photo by Brittney Werner)

First Night Review: Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams @ The Lower Depths Theatre, Loyola University
Review by Dorian Hatchett

Two men are at the end of a bar. One is the bartender, forever standing, busy hands polishing glasses and wiping the same place on the bar top for the thousandth time. His name is Monk, and he’s the proprietor of this juke joint. Monk is the definition of alone. Living above the bar, his entire world exists inside of this building, and while he is surrounded by people he knows better than they know themselves, he keeps no true confidence with any of them. 

Monk (played by James Howard Wright) is the repository of dreams and sorrows and joys, and he bears the weight of it all on a pair of stooped shoulders. Atlas himself could not have borne the weight of this sacred knowledge the way Wright hefts and wields the power of this fiefdom. He stands between the patrons and potions unbowed; the last step between thirst and inebriation. There’s a steadfast solemnity to Wright’s performance that speaks to that alone-ness, the voice of a man used to speaking aloud in an empty room.

Robert Alan Mitchell plays Doc, the other man at the bar. His words are casually seedy in a way that makes us unsure at first if he’s a harmless cad or something deeply unsettling. This is a bar where cheer feels ominous. Smiles feel pasted on. Dirty jokes are the height of hollow mirth.  

The two men discuss a woman sitting alone on the other side of the room as though she’s not there at all. She’s drunk and crying and while most of us can feel a kinship with that moment, we will only admit to the humor of the uncontrolled messiness, not the secret shame of it. That’s Violet (Kelly Holcomb) who is a woman without a place in the universe. She’s a stumbling tragedy, perhaps beautiful but most certainly broken. The men at the bar don’t even register to her, because in a way they’re right. She’s not really there. She’s not anywhere, and she can’t seem to stop feeling the pain of everywhere. 

This is Small Craft Warnings by Tennessee Williams, and there’s no place in the world more appropriate than New Orleans to play a show written to howl at the sad banality of human fragility. No place better than a city with a thousand dive bars. The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company roars into its second decade of  productions with this flawless rendition of a show meant to hone the sharp edges of the jagged pieces we all carry inside of our secret selves. 

The set designer, Nathan Arthur, has expertly crafted a set that manages to look exactly like every place we’ve all ever gotten absolutely hammered for less than $20. The Lower Depths theatre is a challenging space, and he transports us to another universe with his craft. The audience is even invited to sidle up to Monk’s Bar and buy concessions during intermission.  

The story is told in monologues and confrontations. Kevin Wheatley plays Bill, a man as crass and mean as the world that refuses to accept his unwillingness to work a “single day of his life” even if that means a life on the fringes of polite society.  His most recent benefactor, the nomadic beautician Leona, is LaKesha Glover. They are mutually driven by a desire to not be alone, but for very different reasons. Glover’s Leona is sincere and unbridled.  She’s the kind of woman that has no time or inclination for self-censorship. She feels entitled to take up space in a way that makes uptight patrons uncomfortable.  

Come and drink with this motley crew. Drink with Steve (Benjamin Dougherty), the perpetually sauced fry cook who accepted his lack of inertia and let it eat him alive. Dougherty has a knack for physical comedy that adds a sardonic twist to the tiny tragedies of everyday life. Drink with Quentin, who is too young to be there. Drink with Bobby, who only likes people who hate him, and drink with Tony the inspector, and all of their demons.

There’s a storm blowing in off of the Pacific, and if you’re going to be trapped somewhere in the downpour, it should be in Monk’s Place.  

- Small Craft Warnings plays through March 29th at the Lower Decks Theatre at Loyola University, click here for show information and box office  
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