Artie Shaughnessy (Eddie Walsh, COL ’10), a struggling singer-songwriter lives in a mental institution. All the classic stereotypes are present: psychiatric doctors wielding straitjackets and crazy patients. One is a woman vacillating between thinking she is a dog and a normal 1960s housewife. Another is a boy who wants to kill the Pope with a homemade bomb. There are also three hard-drinking and lusty nuns, more apt to be drinking beer than praying an “Our Father.” And who can forget Bunny (Amanda Evans, COL ’08), a singing and dancing whirl of a woman who claims to have worked everywhere from a law office to a travel agency?
However, there is one rather big problem with this description. It is not actually the truth, for Artie does not in fact really live in a loony bin. The above world is instead his own Queens, New York City apartment; the woman is his bipolar wife Bananas (Allison Curran, COL ’08), the boy his AWOL son Ronnie (Andrew Dolan, COL ’10) and Bunny his kooky mistress.
It’s Oct. 4, 1965, and Pope Paul VI is coming to New York. Artie’s world will never be the same on this holy, yet extremely crazy, of days. This scenario of sanctity and mayhem, tragedy and comedy, is the premise of Nomadic Theatre’s latest production: “The House of Blue Leaves.” Written by Georgetown alum and Tony award winner John Guare (CAS ’60), “The House of Blue Leaves,” though certainly odd and eccentric in its characters, story and circumstances, is in reality the classic tale of the American dream and the lengths people go to achieve it.
The play, amidst shrieking nuns running to and fro across the stage and the random appearances of Hollywood stars, is indeed quite funny — Evans especially shines as the wild and zany Bunny — but still deep in the questions and issues it investigates. Is success preferable to duty? Is personal happiness more important than personal responsibility? What place does mental illness have in our society? “Blue Leaves” gives neither typical nor complete answers to these questions, but part of its strength lies in the fact that it causes the audience to consider these conflicts and predicaments.
The play is also engaging and endearing for its realistic portrayal of real human beings, though not in normal circumstances, tackling real problems and situations. Artie, though not as well-developed or heartbreaking as the classic American man Willy Loman from Arthur Miller’s famous “Death of a Salesman,” is more likeable and relatable; he is appealing in his struggle for personal and professional success, funny and lovable in his affection for Bunny and ridiculous puppy-love for his Hollywood director friend Billy (William McKeithen, SFS ’11). Yet Artie is also extremely flawed, caustic and often downright tyrannical to his sick wife. His “everyman” character is part of the reason why the play works and appealed to Reginald Douglas (COL ’09), the play’s director.
“It’s an American story,” Douglas said. “It’s a guy trying to make it against all odds.” Douglas said he especially liked the work for its portrayal of a struggling artist — something he personally feels as he contemplates what he will do after college. Producer Alex Aki (SFS ’08) also felt the story was surprisingly relatable to students.
“It’s very ordinary,” she said. “It can appeal to Georgetown students [because] it could be you or someone you know.”
The cast, as well as the set and costumes, perfectly adds to the play’s already present sense of ordinariness. Walsh, as Artie, is excellent as he switches from bumbling and joking to raging and angry — he seems like he could be your next door neighbor or maybe even you, yourself, with his mood swings and broken life and dreams. Curran and Evans both excel as the female leads, with Curran vacant and twitching as the mentally ill Bananas, and Evans hilarious as the insatiable Bunny.
The supporting cast is less outstanding — the two head nuns too over-the-top (though their physical comedy along with Dolan is very well-done) and Kaitlyn Neuberger (SFS ’10), though funny and sweet as the deaf starlet Corrinna Stroller, appears too jittery and fidgety in her movements — but overall, she portrays the character well.
The most surprising element of the show is the set, as most Georgetown theatre performances always seem to rely on minimal (if any) and bland set design. The set of “Blue Leaves,” designed by Keith Porcaro (SFS ’08), is complete and perfect — the apartment has all the necessary props and the background real windows, doors and hallways behind them. The juxtaposition of painted wood floor with blue leaves closer to the audience is also ingenious, as it both separates the apartment from the area where the characters say their monologues and blends the worlds of reality and the imaginary. And it is the imaginary — the blue leaves — that ultimatly makes the play truly magical. Mentions of them flit throughout the play, but it is their intangible, unreal presence that makes them important; if there can be blue leaves, anything can happen.