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'The House of Blue Leaves' By Roberta Kent Special to the Tidings It is truly a shame that the SOU's Department of Theatre Arts' production of John Guare's "The House of Blue Leaves" opened the same weekend as the 2003 season of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and only plays again Thursday through Sunday, March 6 through March 9. This production deserves a long and prosperous run - it is outstanding theater on every level. When John Guare's semi-autobiographical black comedy, "The House of Blue Leaves," opened off-Broadway in 1970, it took everyone by surprise. This was not reality-based comedy or drama. It wasn't existential, it wasn't farce. Guare's vision was quite different. "The theater," Guare argued, "is a place of dreams were you lay out the unconscious and make it visible." "The House of Blue Leaves" went on to win both an Obie and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best American Play of 1970-71 and received four Tony Awards during its 1986 revival. "The House of Blue Leaves" is about the life and dreams of aspiring songwriter Artie Shaugnessy (Craig Jessen). Artie is trapped in the New York City borough of Queens. He is incessantly tantalized by the wealth, power and success of Manhattan and, even better, Hollywood. He has a girlfriend, Bunny Flingus (Clea Plumb), solidly self-assured and supremely self-centered. Bunny shares Artie's vision, sees his talent and is constantly pushing him to act on it - move to Hollywood, draw upon his old friendship with the now-successful film producer Billy Einhorn (Casey Bates) and make his dream reality. Unfortunately, Artie already has a wife, "Bananas" (Heather Lundy) - presciently nicknamed by the very same Billy - and there is no trip to Hollywood for Artie until Bananas is safely sent away to a convenient mental hospital - the "House of Blue Leaves" of the title. We enter this story the weekend the Pope visited New York in 1968. To Bunny, Artie, Bananas, Billy, Billy's girlfriend Corrina (April Grace Lowe), Artie's AWOL son Ronnie (Jeris Schaefer) and, inexplicably, three equally AWOL nuns (Jessica Geffen, Elissa Dunn and Broke Bilofsky), the Pope's visit becomes both the answer to and a distraction from all of life's discontents. We are in the landscape of dreams here, nothing is "real," and yet the play is desperately about the reality of dreams. Dreams of success, of wealth, of celebrity and, most of all, of being more than we are in day-to-day life. Faculty Director Maggie McClellan has admirably done the job of keeping her ensemble of actors performing in a delicate balance between broad physical comedy and heartbreaking tragedy. On the whole she succeeds - with the exception of the trio of overly shrill, hyperactive nuns. And, someone has tutored this cast impeccably in the accent, inflections and mannerisms of New York's borough of Queens. SOU Scenic Designer Craig Hudson provides the properly claustrophobic apartment surrounded by the bright neon lights of fame and fortune. Student costume designer Alison Axland has insightfully dressed the characters, from Bunny's "sensible" skirt to Bananas fanciful pajamas to Corinna's over-the-top Hollywood-red dress. Lighting design is by student Mike Stanfill, sound design by Kim Fuhr. "The House of Blue Leaves" plays at SOU's Center Stage Theatre this weekend, Thursday through Sunday, March 6 through March 9, at 8 p.m. As I said, it deserves a much longer run. For more information call 552-6348. LINKS: REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. DAILY TIDINGS: Main | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -