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'Beautiful Thing' is lacking in emotional impact
Review By Rick Pender
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(L-R) Jeremy Rice and Daniel White in Beautiful Thing
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Jonathan Harvey's Beautiful Thing is a romantic story of two kids falling in love. The twist: They're teen-age boys. The play presents the angst of young love through a filter of unease over a gay relationship.
In a working class London neighborhood in 1993, Jamie (Jeremy Rice) is a sensitive kid, ill at ease with himself. His mom (Sherry Rowland) carps at him and is suspicious of his behavior. He likes Ste (Daniel White), a slightly older boy-next-door, a budding athlete whose father and brother abuse and taunt him regularly. Jamie and Ste are drawn together, tentatively explore a relationship, and become more confident in their feelings, despite the taunting they expect.
Beautiful Thing would benefit from a bit more texture, but the set -- three low-income apartment doors with a bit of railing in front -- is too neat for the grimy neighborhood they all want to escape. And in spite of the working-class language and accents affected by the actors, they lack the grit that the story seems to suggest.
Harvey subtitles his play "an urban fairy tale." It's meant to be a bit dreamy and romantic, even cartoonish. Unfortunately, director Don Sterling Wong has failed to evoke performances from his actors that are charming, let alone possessing of believable emotion.
The cast is rounded out by mom's boyfriend, Tony (Patrick Kearns), and another teen-ager, Leah (Tatiana Lazutkina), a loser who wiles away her hours wishing she were '60s Pop singer Mama Cass Elliot. None of the characters are fully explored by the script, but all five actors never rise above one dimension. (The fantasized ending is especially weak, setting forth an unexpected relationship with no foundation whatsoever.)
As a result, Beautiful Thing is devoid of emotional impact. Lined up side-by-side behind the railing in most scenes, each actor speaks his or her lines, but never connects with anyone else -- or the audience. And connecting should be what this story is about.
BEAUTIFUL THING, produced by Cincinnati Public Theatre, is being presented at the Aronoff Center's Fifth Third Bank Theater through Saturday.
E-mail Rick Pender
Previously in Onstage
Tempting Fate
Review By Rick Pender
(April 13, 2000)
Telling Tales
By Rick Pender
(April 13, 2000)
Warming Up
Interview By Rick Pender
(April 13, 2000)
more...
Other articles by Rick Pender
Curtain Call (April 13, 2000)
Liking It (April 13, 2000)
Shining Leight (April 6, 2000)
more...
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