Review: Pirates
The Road Theatre, Van Nuys (818) 785-6175
by Barry Williams
The Road Theatre’s latest production, Pirates, opened in Van Nuys and is a splendid tour de force. The Road Theatre is establishing itself as one of the most exciting theatrical venues in town.
Pirates is a curiously astute piece of writing for the stage by Mark Lee, who won the California Playwrights Competition in 1990. The play tells the parallel stories of four women trying to find their way in a man’s world, the setting continually shifting from the early eighteenth century Caribbean, aboard an English frigate, to a modern day university History department, where academics take a back seat to bureaucracy and power struggles. The two women at the core of this piece are Anne Bonney (Taylor Gilbert), a woman who disguises herself as a man in order to become a pirate, and professor Helen Raymond (Nealla Gordon), who is writing a historical essay on pirates, and on Bonney, in particular. The juxtaposition of these settings and characters proves remarkably effective and interesting as the play unfolds.
Director Brad Hills’ fluent and capable direction set the stage for some noteworthy acting, which this company seems never to lack. Gilbert’s feisty and irreverent Anne Bonney is a spirited fusion of cunning, wit, and bravura. As evidenced by her work here, Gilbert relishes the part and lends her portrayal a dynamic gusto and verve. Nealla Gordon counters Gilbert with a more conservative and studied performance, guiding the narrative of the piece with considerable restraint and pathos. Gordon is always compelling and interesting to watch in a role that is stridently academic and talky. Nealla Gordon is appropriately smug and self-assured as the department Chair and provides much of the dramatic conflict of the piece. Other fine performances from Michael Dempsey, Christopher Michaels, and Karen S. Gregan make for a thought-provoking and well-rounded evening of theatre.
One final comment: Chris Mills’ set design is a knockout and once again uses the theatre’s space to its maximum potential. ♦