By Robyn Bradley Litchfield • April 9, 2010
Magic, betrayal, forbidden love, tragedy, secrets and familial bonds -- you'll find it all in the Alabama Shakespeare Festival's latest Southern Writers' Project world premiere.
"The Fall of the House" by Robert Ford previews today and Saturday, opens Sunday and runs through April 25.
Ford has said that "The Fall of the House," a play haunted by the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe, grew out of his fascination with "the secrets in our soil, our walls and our DNA, with how the past quietly shapes the present, with how the gross indecencies of that past still haunt us, and with how theater -- uniquely -- just might help run off the demons."
Sound mysterious?
There is a mystery, but ASF's artistic team is keeping it under wraps until the show opens and audiences can experience it for themselves.
ASF's producing artistic director, Geoffrey Sherman, was primarily drawn to the playwright's sheer literacy.
"His command of the language is quite extraordinary," Sherman said. "I was reminded of plays by the likes of Tom Stoppard immediately. Then, when we met, I discovered that he had based the play on some of Stoppard's work."
ASF associate director Nancy Rominger is directing this SWP production, and the cast is divided into two groups, the Past and the Present & Recent Past.
The Past comprises Erika LaVonn as Munny, Gerritt VanderMeer as Edgar Allan Poe, Margaret Loesser Robinson as Eliza Poe and Jonathan C. Kaplan as David Poe.
The Present & Recent Past comprises Angela K. Thomas as Janice Berry, Kaplan as Cage and Jack, Robinson as Wilson and Lucy, VanderMeer as the judge and social worker and Ta'Myia Narcisse-Cousar as young Janice and Linney. (Ta'Myia, by the way, is a 10-year-old Montgomery resident who attends Dozier Elementary School.)
Before rehearsal a few days ago, LaVonn said, "This is a fantastical piece that journeys over time. It explores loves lost and missed connections."
LaVonn spent more than three years on Broadway in "The Lion King" and recently appeared in ASF's production of "Nobody" by Richard Aellen.
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It's fun to read these great literary works with some mysteries and twist and turns involved.
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