{"id":2423,"date":"2014-10-19T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2014-10-19T20:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/?p=2423"},"modified":"2014-10-22T18:47:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T01:47:19","slug":"virago-theaters-production-of-william-bivens-ransom-texas-at-the-tides-theater-notes-and-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/?p=2423","title":{"rendered":"Virago Theater’s production of William Bivins’ “Ransom, Texas” at the Tides Theater: notes and comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

William Bivins’ “Ransom, Texas<\/a>” reminds me of Oedipus Rex turned inside out– a Greek tragedy with a distinctly Western accent. \u00a0There are no women in the play, except as references, and it shows: not a hint of femininity anywhere. \u00a0The world condensed down to two men, fighting, as John Steinbeck once said, like terriers. In a very, very small, dingy room full of old papers, photos, and a very heavy, ponderous desk.\"Ransom_1_K45C7729_scale1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Like all power struggles, this one rests on the delusion that if you have control of some external thing, you have power. \u00a0Delusion begets delusion — the two men are drowning in\u00a0deceit and treachery. It’s never quite clear who is actually lying, or about what, until the end, and then it doesn’t really matter, because the subterfuge is just another posture that hides the truth: a young man wants what an old man has, and the old man, steeped in pain, tries to warn him off. \u00a0And at the same time draws him in. And the young man goes willingly. \u00a0Is that fate? Or simply the nature of the beast?<\/p>\n

Dixon Phillips plays the father, Vern \u00a0— by turns a wise man, a hateful \u00a0braggart, a liar, a man of deep truth, violent, tender. \u00a0A generation ago he had the same struggle with his father. \u00a0He knows the past and the future. He has a love-hate relationship with himself, and he sees himself in his son.<\/p>\n

Damien Seperi plays Bruce, a deceptively gentile young man, Vern’s son. \u00a0He is by turns mild, cajoling, pleading, whining, violent, perceptive, a loving husband and father, treacherous and every bit as ambitious as Vern. \u00a0Full of desire. He knows little of the past, and his vision of the future is dimly lit. \u00a0His journey into himself is only beginning. \u00a0He loves his father, but wants to displace him. He naively believes himself to be different from his father.\"Ransom_2_K45C7803_scale1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And they do appear at first to be very different — Damien’s accent (which I took to be Castilian), soft demeanor, refined modernity. \u00a0Opposed to Vern’s roughness, his crude speech, his old world manners and combative nature.<\/p>\n

No two men could appear to be less alike and yet be the same — possessed of a destructive need\u00a0to rule. To be supreme. \u00a0The only difference is that one man knows the cost and the other doesn’t.<\/p>\n

It’s that discovery of the cost that makes this play work. \u00a0At 70 minutes it feels like 15. \u00a0Tense, terse and unremitting. \u00a0The acting is brilliant, the staging perfect.<\/p>\n

Produced by Virago Theater<\/a>, directed by Jon Tracy. \u00a0“Ransom, Texas” will be\u00a0\u00a0playing at the Theatre Asylum in Los Angeles<\/a>,\u00a0Jan 9-25, 2015.<\/p>\n

Photos of \u00a0Damien Seperi and Dixon Phillips by by Luis A. Solorzano courtesy of Virago Theater.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Bivins’ “Ransom, Texas” reminds me of Oedipus Rex turned inside out– a Greek tragedy with a distinctly Western accent. \u00a0There are no women in the play, except as references, and it shows: not a hint of femininity anywhere. \u00a0The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plays","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2423"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2463,"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2423\/revisions\/2463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libernetics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}