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http://www.omniture.com --> Sections Home Page Local News AP News Blogs Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Multimedia Photo Gallery Readers Photo Gallery Sports Tempo Weather Road Cams Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Distinctly Northwest Women in Business Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend April 2, 2007 'Tracy's Tiger' examines life and love through music, imagination By Bill Varble Mail Tribune Like Harvey the rabbit in the play of that name, Tracy's Tiger cannot be seen by most people — audience excepted — except at a few rather key moments. But the hipster tiger will become visible and be wounded by foolish humans in the central incident in the new play based on the William Saroyan novella "Tracy's Tiger," unveiled by Penny Metropulos and company Saturday night at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's New Theatre. The production piles rarity on top of rarity for the festival. It is a musical. It is about an invisible mammal. It was written by four artists associated with the festival: Metropulos, who also directed; actor Linda Alper, who plays gossip columnist Betty Olivetti; writer/dramaturg Douglas Langworthy, for whom not even moving to New York could derail the project; and Sterling Tinsley, who also wrote the music. It is 1956, and Tracy (Jeremy Peter Johnson), who is 27 and knows he is destined for greater things, finds himself toting beans at Seyfang's Coffee Emporium on the San Francisco waterfront. His tiger (Rene Millan) has been with him since it spoke jazz riffs to him ("Zhwa do ba ... Bwa doo bwa dah ... ) at the City Zoo one day when Tracy was a teenager. One day, beautiful Laura Luthy (Laura Morache) comes walking down the Embarcadero, and lo! she has an invisible Tigress (Nell Geisslinger), which is visible to Tracy. Tracy woos Laura and seems to be winning her until he messes up. Badly. After a three-year downward spiral of bars and girls, Tracy blames the tiger for his strangled heart, and rejects him. "Guess it's time to split," the Tiger sings. "We'll see how it ends/Now the dreamer wakes up/And the Nightmare begins." Advertisement Which is when the play's most dramatic event marks the end of the act. The second act moves around several questions: Will Tracy get the girl back? What will happen to the tiger? What does it all mean? Saroyan wrote "Tracy's Tiger" in 1950, at a time when his literary star had diminished and he was trying to convince his ex-wife to re-marry him (that time he got the girl back). Although it's a sweet, sentimental fable, it contains the rather tough suggestion that if you mess up, it can cost you not only your woman but your soul. "Tracy's Tiger" is based on another work but is highly original in its witty treatment of that work, and in its joie de vivre. The writers have taken liberties with Saroyan's story, borrowing from his "The Barber Whose Uncle Had His Head Bitten Off By a Circus Tiger" and transplanting Tracy's story from 1950 New York City to 1956 San Francisco. That choice moved things from the height of bebop to the advent of cool jazz and the Beats. There are references to early television, Sputnik, commercial jingles (Tracy dreams of going "into advertising"), and the circus. Most of the rest — bungling cops, packs of nattering reporters — would have worked either way. But the choice works well for Seyfang's, which we can see on the Bay, for the complex geography Tracy must comically negotiate to find Laura, and for designer William Bloodgood's fanciful set. Act Two begins with Tracy confronting William Blake's "The Tyger," a poem that has famously resisted attempts to nail it down and turn it into a syllogism. "You understand this poem?" a psychiatrist named Pingitzer (Michael Hume), who comes nearest to Saroyan's viewpoint among these characters, asks Tracy. It's a trick question, because nobody completely understands this poem (there is even a school of thought that its tiger was created by the devil), and if Tracy can be saved, it won't be by understanding. Tracy's long, strange journey is mapped by Tinsley's music, which encompasses turf from cool jazz and beat poetry to pop and show tunes. There's much cool vamiping and effective singing, including a show-stopping rave-up by Miriam A. Laube as Laura's mother, the disconcertingly youthful Viola Luthy. "Tracy's Tiger" is a delightful, highly imaginative exploration of Saroyan's belief that the point of life is to be wholly alive in the moment. Metropulos' staging is vigorous throughout, along with Patdro Harris's choreography. Momentum seemed to flag in the second act, and the play went about 15 minutes over its listed time of two hours, 30 minutes. It's at the New Theatre through Oct. 28. Would you like to respond to this story? If so Click Here to visit our forums. Advertisement Copyright © 1997-2007 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback online casinos news Home Security Systems Online Casino Reviews Trunks, Footlocker Fundraisers UK Homeowner Loans Casinos Canada Cord Blood Banking Discount Hotel Reservations Texas Electric Choice Compare Electric rates in Texas Online Casino Windermere Van Vleet Men's Clothing Debt Help New Hampshire Primary