by Maria Staiano-Daniels
Daily Lobo
Leigh-Ann Santillanes, the director of "Orphans," first saw the play 15 years ago and was immediately drawn to it.
"There was something about it that was so tremendously beautiful," she said.
At the Vortex Theatre, Santillanes and her cast have created a production of tremendous beauty - a strange, sad beauty that is more unsettling than uplifting.
The play focuses on two brothers, Treat and Philip, living hand-to-mouth in their dead mother's dilapidated house. Treat steals to support himself and his brother, occasionally using violence against his victims. One day, drunken businessman Harold follows Treat home after Treat steals his briefcase, changing the two brother's lives in ways they could never imagine.
Santillanes called working with a cast of three both a challenge and a joy.
All three men are skilled in their craft. They inhabit their characters as comfortably as old shoes, creating people who are mesmerizing, yet very real.
Colin Jones, last seen as Carl in the Vortex's production of "Lonely Planet," gives a powerful yet subtle performance as Treat. Jones's Treat deeply needs to control his brother, and is playful and uncontrollably angry in his interaction with him.
Peter Kierst, who first appeared at the Vortex in 1978, plays Harold, an outwardly friendly man with a hard edge of latent violence. Kierst's Harold is hypnotically fascinating. I was on the edge of my seat for much of the play wondering what he would do next.
Treat and Harold are constantly in conflict, and the chemistry between Jones and Kierst is suitably electric. Together the two actors create an atmosphere of growing menace that is almost as unbearable as watching your parents fight when you're a kid.
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Fortunately, the third member of the cast, Richard Boehler, provides timely comic relief as Philip, Treat's innocent, childish younger brother.
Boehler's Philip is a Forrest Gump-like man-child whose naivety is like a refreshing breeze.
Boehler's attention to detail is impressive. Every gesture and intonation is perfectly tailored to his presentation of Philip.
Because of the character-driven nature of "Orphans," some of the scenes were slow and low key, almost tedious. Luckily, these alternate with highly-charged scenes of tension and conflict, so the play never loses the audience's attention.
Santillanes said she hoped the audience would not be too depressed by "Orphans." The play is occasionally funny, but the humor is subtle and dark. Most of the play seems designed to put the audience on edge and make them uncomfortable. The purpose of art, however, is not only to entertain, but to provoke and disturb.
If you want to be entertained, see "The Island," or any other movie based on explosions and eye candy. If you want to be provoked and disturbed, see "Orphans."
