The Brown University Graduate Program in the Literary Arts has continually produced impressive and original works by young, talented playwrights, and this year's New Plays Festival proved to be no exception. Saturday night's performance of "The Fishbone Fables," written by Dan LeFranc GS with direction and music by Peter Sampieri, showcased the incredible creativity that characterizes the program. LeFranc's innovative and interactive play found the perfect setting in the Pell Chafee Performance Center's simple black box set.
"The Fishbone Fables" combined LeFranc's glib writing with Sampieri's catchy musical score in a hybrid of traditional musical and folkloric oral narrative. The play's singular style set the stage for a witty mockery of foundation legends and creation myths. LeFranc's lyrics thrived on nasty humor that mercilessly poked fun at historical re-enactments and dowdy New England tradition.
"Fables" surpassed the conventions of a traditional musical not only in its sharp lines but also in its theatrical presentation. Instead of simply their seats, the audience trailed after an assembly of actors called "Mad Minstrels of New England" as they romped and roared about the stage.
In the center of the black box, a large cedar shaft akin to a totem pole or the mast of a tall ship likened the play to a series of campfire tales. Hanging from the ceiling in a circle around the pole were thin screens displaying eerie symbols and icons, many of which depicted skeletons of fish and other nautical images. Three of the screens displayed lists scrawled in a crude hand of phrases such as "The Fishbone Fable," "The Waitress from Worchester," "The Mild-mannered Mafiosos," "The Neighbor from Nantucket" and "The Anchor Shaped Shoe."
As the play unfolded, the meanings of these menacing messages became clear. Each phrase referred to one of the fables, which the highly skilled and perfectly timed chorus of actors related in pagan-like songs and chants. Acutely aware of their own presence and those of their fellow actors, the chorus relayed a total of 30 fables with impressive comedic timing and outrageous antics. Dressed like the Grim Reaper and the Addams Family, the chorus' dark costumes and startling white faces fit the play's unsettling atmosphere and further evoked the gloomy portent of "The Fishbone Fable."
Each fable centered on the origins of traditional New England stereotypes, such as the Puritans, fishing, stoic endurance of foul weather, WASPs, the Red Sox and liquor stores closed on Sundays. Each fable incorporated a creepy reference to the fishbone skeleton or another allusion to death, recalling provincial regional myths and urban legends. Ideal for an audience mostly made up of members of the Brown community, LeFranc's coy jabs and New England inside jokes had the robust and appreciative crowd clapping and hooting their praise throughout the performance.
The undeniable entertainment and excitement provoked by "Fables" reflect the playwright's own ease with words and the actors' confidence in their engaging performances, which easily drew in the audience without overwrought lines or exaggerated amusement.
Strumming on stringed instruments and chiming on cymbals and tambourines as they sang out their lines, the actors effortlessly led the enthralled audience around the stage. The rush of their running energy encouraged the audience to actively participate in the action of the play. At times, the actors belted out their lines with gazes directly fastened at particular audience members, as if beseeching them individually and enveloping them wholly in the play's rhythm and flow.
The coordination of music, noise and lyrics carried the audience along as they shifted around and began to make sense of the mysterious legends. Though the stage teemed with energy and movement, the audience effortlessly kept up with the chorus as they chanted out their epic tale in perfect, bard-like unison. The pulse of the play beat with a distinct vitality.
Whether encouraging audience members to dance or coaxing them to sit cross-legged as though listening to campfire stories, the actors stepped beyond the boundaries of imagination and brought LeFranc's mock historical re-enactment to life.
