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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > January > 24 > Entry
Review: ‘Spirits to Enforce’
Bruce Wayne was lucky enough to be independently wealthy, but as Peter Parker and Clark Kent can tell you, being a superhero doesn’t generally mean you can quit your day job.
Capital T Theatre’s production of “Spirits to Enforce,” playing now through Feb. 12. at the Blue Theatre, shows us what happens when a group of twelve quirky superheroes take to telemarketing. But this band of spirits isn’t cold-calling people just to pay the bills, they’re fundraising for a production of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” — in which they’ll all be performing, and are all (apparently) trying to direct.
The show opens with energy and bustling activity — surprising given that the characters are all seated and speaking into telephones. As they plead with people to donate money for their upcoming production (which admittedly sounds pretty awful), we get a clear sense of the dismay that comes with hopeless fundraising efforts.
For their New Directions program, Capital T offers their FronteraFest show to a young director with no professional credit. Yale graduate Gary Jaffe directs this difficult and static play effectively on the whole.
At times, however, the conventions of the world of the play seem to shift, resulting in some confusion. While “Spirits” seems to be commenting on disconnection by having characters speak to each other through phone lines, it’s unclear at times whether or not they can see each other or are in the same room. Or, rather, the same submarine.
They’re calling people from their secret hideout, and sound designer Brett Hamann skillfully crafts the world of a decrepit and creaky underwater lair.
Listening to one half of a phone conversation can be exasperating in real life, and in a play that is entirely constructed of one-sided dialogue, it does get old at times. But the dialogue moves in waves — often overlapping, rising to a cacophony, and receding into quietude — and the top-notch cast manages to keep it engaging.
As “The Bad Map” and “Fragrance Fellow,” La Tasha Stevens and Stephen Mercantel are delightfully expressive, though, admittedly, this occasionally lapses into scene stealing.
As “The Page” and “Ariel,” Jenny Gravenstein and Jay Fraley eloquently steer the play with grace and Shakespeare.
“Spirits to Enforce” is a fun adventure in meta-theater, a commentary on the problem of too many cooks in a kitchen (or too many heroes in a play), illustrating the tensions of fundraising, disparate artistic visions, and trying to please everyone at once — including a hostile audience (of super-villains).
“Spirits to Enforce” continues 9 p.m. Jan. 28, 1 p.m. Jan. 30. and 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturday at Feb. 1-12 at the Blue Theatre, 916 Springdale Road. $15. www.fronterafest.org.
Cate Blouke is an American—Statesman freelance arts critic.
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