A Mysterious Success

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Word for Word's production of Angel Face at the Artaud Theatre. Coming from my cynical point of view of “every piece of theatre is shit,” especially since my last two experiences, and my current one, are experiences that bring up horrific visions in my head of stressful times, heartfelt performances, and amazingly dreadful directors. Needless to say, I came to the theatre not in the jolliest of moods.

What greeted me upon walking through the doors in the spacious Artaud was a set that seemed to take hints both from the Noir world and Expressionism. High rectangular white walls were in one corner, and diagonal from that, downstage left, a large block platform that serves as multiple apartments for the characters that inhabit this world. The lights gave the subtle hints that we were in a place of mystery; cool tones wash over the set, with one striking light of a window splayed across the stage.

The show itself brought nothing out of the ordinary for those who are familiar with Noir pieces, wrongful imprisonment, vengeance, an innocent woman led down the path of excess. The script was clunky at times, but made up for it with the punctuations of terms from the period, (“young dreadnaught” – a new car, “sucker for a twist” – unable to resist a woman) all referenced in a handy glossary in the middle of the program.

What came as a slight change from the formulaic noir films and theatre is that our hardboiled detective story centered on Jerry Wheeler, the sister of the wrongfully accused man. A murder takes place, and her brother, Chick, is framed for it, being the last person to see Ruby Rose Reading, a woman of loose morals. She follows the mystery to its end, and, with the help of a local dick/love interest, she digs deeper into the seedy underbelly of New York City.

Of particular note is Michael Patrick Gaffney, playing many characters over the course of the evening, came just short of stealing the show with his performance of what could be a largely overlooked part of an auctioneer.

While the ending is predictable and the text is a little quirky and rambling at times (a large section is spent in search of red herrings, and more often than not, it seemed like the action wanted to go quicker than it was allowed), the actors were in the same world, there were no weak links in the cast, and it was easily apparent as to how hard they were working by the fact that everyone looked as if they were naturally vengeful, stylistic, hard-boiled, streetwise people. The true delight of the story itself is the fact that Word for Word does exactly what it says. The company takes a story and, word for word, adapts it for the stage - the noir style works seamlessly with their own, and while the characters in any other play might seem neurotic dictating their actions without pause, it felt perfectly in context to hear each of them advertise their movements.

Angel Face is largely a fan piece – the play is primarily for true noir aficionados. However, the acting and the simple visual beauty of the piece give it a universality that could be enjoyed by everyone.

Or not, because it ended 2 weeks ago. Oops.