Theater goers treated to an evening of empty ‘Holes’
Sometimes a book is better than a movie and sometimes a movie is better than a play.
During such a play, an overly polite but listless audience longs in their heart of hearts for an abrupt fire drill or natural disaster.
Unfortunately, Wednesday just happened to be one of those times.
Utah State Theater’s production of “Holes,” a play for children’s theater written by Louis Sachar, while shining briefly with snatches of entertainment and laughter, was too much like a high school production to keep a steady interest.
The fact that the production followed in the footsteps of a skillfully produced children’s movie didn’t help much either, because try as I might, I had many expectations before I arrived at the Morgan Theater and few fulfillments when I left.
One of the biggest entertainment snuffers of the evening belonged to the characterization, which was full of enough ‘holes’ to sink an ark (pardon the pun). Some of the boys, including Eddy Wong (Armpit) and Albert Bergado (X-ray) seemed inexperienced. Their sub-par performances were a little hollow, flat and often hard to understand.
While I understand attempting to cast characters ethnic-specific can be difficult in Utah’s ethnic desert, perhaps the scarcity of quality ethnic actors could have been taken into consideration before deciding on the production.
Newcomer Dallyn Steenerson (Stanley Yelnats), while looking the part of a luckless teenager who is “always in the wrong place at the wrong time” left his character a little too emotionless.
Noteworthy for their life-giving additions to the play, Jon Hemingway (Zig-zag) and Demetria Cabaillas (Magnet) had some of the best performances of the evening with well-timed punch lines and cookie-laden comments. Kynsie Kiggins (Warden) was convincing in her role of a heartless, money-grubbing “care-giver” and Dan Merket (Judge, Myra’s Father and Sheriff) played three small and different roles well enough to stand out and low-key enough to fit in.
The flashback scenes were among the most entertaining of the play, with good characterization by Jed Broberg (Elya Yelnats, Policeman #2, Attorney General), Tami Eastman (Madam Zironi) and Hollie Campbell (Myra, Kate Barlow). Though he was nearly a photo-copy of the movies’ Pendanski, Michael Gardner had enough funny movements and comic timing to keep his scenes lively.
More noticable than anything else, the play felt drawn-out. Just like a sentence interuppted
often and with
little reason, the constant
set changes interuppted the flow of
the play and dragged
out what could have been
entertaining scenes.
Attempting to cover up the frequent stops and starts, the technical crew played music during almost every set change. While some of the music, like “In the Jailhouse Now” (O Brother Where Art Thou), added to the flow of the production, others seemed out-of-place and overdone (I love the Dropkick Murphy’s, but they didn’t quite fit the ambiance of the evening).
Giving credit where credit is due, I must admit that the set and costumes were aesthetically pleasing and very fitting of the tradition of excellence I’ve come to expect from UST.
Though I can’t in good conscience give the production my seal of approval I must stop short of outright condemnation. You won’t leave cursing and screaming – but that may be simply because the production had the passion infusing power of an oyster.
If you aren’t one of the several hundred students required to watch the play for class, it might be worth your while to see the production tonight or tommorow.
But I wouldn’t count on it.
Matt Wright is a theater critic and assistant features editor of the Utah Statesman. Comments and questions can be sent to him at mattgo@cc.usu.edu.
Stanley Yelnats (Dallyn Steenerson) and Zero (Ryan Hall) are confronted by Camp Green Lake´s Warden (Kynsie Kiggins) and Mr. Sir (Frank Shaw). (Photo by Jamie Crane)