Robert Mansell has fulfilled many an actor's dream: gathering up scenes and roles he'd like to play and doing so in a well-directed, designed, entertaining program. Though without a thematic frame, the first half of this one-man show mainly presents men involved in monstrosities. They -- and he -- come off as most effective in chilling scenes from Roch Hochhuth's The Representative (Pope Pius XII, failing to mitigate Hitler's persecution of the Jews); Gita Sereny's Out of Darkness (Franz Stangl, nonchalant about a Pole forced to collaborate in his death camp); David Williamson's Guatemala (a reporter watching soldiers murder innocent villagers during rebellion). Flanking these historical villains are a cuckolded husband from The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard and the title character of David Ives' A Singular Kind of Guy, who thinks he's a typewriter.
The first, possibly weakest, of the portrayals does show Mansell's resonant English accent to advantage; the last, a quirky sense of humor. Neither, however, seems consonant with the serious central scenes, where Mansell powerfully disappears into the characters.
The substance of each scene is reinforced by a fitting graphic back-projection of real artistic quality.
Mansell goes onto more familiar ground in extended final scenes as Salieri from Peter Schaffer's Amadeus and as Lady Bracknell from Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. He presents both characters transformationally, even by changing costumes to fit different motives, ages, actions in the case of the enemy of Mozart.
Mansell's interpretation is standard -- that is, tour-de-forceful, in which he catches the essence of how Schaffer views Salieri. In the case of Lady Bracknell, Mansell not only makes her famous interview with Jack Worthing a monologued remembrance, he has also edited Wilde and embellished the feisty old Lady's character and family relationships. But transvestite Bracknell, even with an ode on imitating Edith Evans, doesn't improve Wilde's version. It goes over the top while seeming to put Mansell under strain. Lady Bracknell should be nervey but never nervous.
Mansell could not have assembled better support than by Steve Dawson, proficiently changing costumes, attitude, movement as Dresser and sometimes scene-setter.
Variety and vigor mark Bob Trisolini'd direction. Cassandra Mockosher's costumes are ingenious. With his designs Rick Cannon simply creates just the right atmosphere for each scene, enhanced by Jimmy Hoskins' fine projections.
It is a shame that Mansell's show, originally scheduled through March, closed early. I'd like to see it brought back at a time when performance schedules aren't so full, even on usually "dark" Monday nights. Mansell is worth watching and listening to, especially in the company he kept at the Apple.
