The Story: As a blizzard rages outside his remote Alaskan cabin, Henry lies deep in slumber under a heap of blankets. Suddenly, he is awakened by the desperate knocks of an unexpected visitor — a distraught young woman who bursts into his cabin dressed in full bridal regalia. It is not so comforting to have to decide 'now what did he mean by that?' Such is the case with Cindy Lou Johnson's Brilliant Traces now at the Area Stage, Miami Beach.
Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous locations. To subscribe, E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.comput SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country.
Visit Curtainup's Blog Annex
For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader
Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter
REVIEW FEEDBACK
Highlight one of the responses below and click 'copy' or'CTRL+C'
- I agree with the review of Brilliant Traces
- I disagree with the review of Brilliant Traces
- The review made me eager to see Brilliant Traces
Brilliant Traces Cindy Lou Johnson
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V):
Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review.
Tags
Related Posts
Share This
By Marcina Zaccaria
Through the bluster of winter, a distraught bride bursts into a snowy cabin in Alaska. Having nowhere else to run, she struggles to find a place for herself in Brilliant Traces.
Rosannah DeLuce, played by Alyssa May Gold (Broadway’s Arcadia), awakens in the cabin to find Henry Harry played by Blake Merriman (Orion). What elapses is a profound journey that includes the more subtle tracks that can get buried in time.
Rosannah has traveled from Arizona, after running from the altar. Though she describes herself as not really healthy, she’s quite chatty. Henry is stalwart. He provides soup and asks many leading questions about how she got to such a remote place. The haggard Henry explains that he works in an oil rig, while slowly grilling the woozy and dependent Rosannah about her awestruck, magical arrival.
Throughout this persistent psychological drama, both characters will discover the nature of love, and the possibility of what might be next. The best thing about Cindy Lou Johnson’s script is its imaginative landscape. In it, we search, seek, and find. The character of Rosannah says, “So, I get out of the car and save myself and the fact is, I don’t like it. I don’t. Life –Death. It’s all one big tragedy. Someone can love you…can touch your soul — that’s what they can do — touch your soul, and then – BAM – something happens and they can’t even remember you…”
Brilliant Traces Cindy Lou Johnson Playwright
Johnson’s past work includes The New Americans, launched at A.C.T. in San Francisco. Brilliant Traces was previously produced in NYC at Circle Repertory Company and at the Cherry Lane Theatre. It’s a two character play set in one room, and so much happens over the 90 minutes. The surprises serve the characters and propel the action. As they move through almost celestial patterns in their thinking, they reveal deeper truths. When we find that Henry has thrown her wedding slippers in the oven, it seems like an extraordinary break. While caring for the overwrought Rosannah never seems to be a chore, it slowly conjures stories about his former wife and child. Finally, Rosannah races away, flying out like a UFO just on the brink of disappearance.
Director Joshua Warr has good taste. With Brilliant Traces, he’s gone a step above bare-bones actor’s theater, to create an artistic landscape, where the characters slowly navigate the space. The spare set, designed by Matthew S. Crane, features snowy wing space and fantastic amber lanterns. The flickering lights, carefully timed by lighting designer Paul T. Kennedy, create the fluctuations of mood that support the overarching drama. Great movement sequences build toward the brilliantly-staged dramatic ending that rivals any theatrical feat reached in larger scale productions.
Brilliant Traces was produced by Art of Warr Productions, Ruddy Productions, Stonestreet Studios, George Gross, Derrick Moore and Gene Pope. It will be playing until Sunday, March 4th at the WorkShop Theater, located at 312 W 36th Street in NYC.