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Theater review
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 10, 2003
SARASOTA -- No doubt there's educational value in having theater students engaged in the process of developing, writing and staging a play. At the FSU/Asolo Conservatory, the student actors in The Conservationist deserve an A for their efforts, but the play doesn't score more than a C.
Commissioned by the conservatory from British playwright and screenwriter Mark Wheatley, The Conservationist is about a family in crisis. As it opens, Robert, a magazine publisher, reunites with his father, Martin, who deserted the family when Robert was a boy.
Robert's in no mood for reconciliation. On top of his old resentments, he's in the middle of an acrimonious divorce and battling his wife for custody of their teenage son, Shawn.
The boy is having an identity crisis of his own: His father is white, his mother is black, and his father's lifelong assurances that Shawn is multiracial and therefore above racial categorization no longer ring true to the kid.
Robert's emotions toward his wife and son spill over into his relationship with his business partner, Valerie. An old friend and former lover, Valerie is also black. The constant shifts in everyone's loyalties based on race, ethnicity, gender, intimacy and self-protection propel much of the play's plot.
The Conservationist chooses an intensely complex subject, the effect of race on personal relationships, but offers no profound insights. The plot is painfully predictable, and the wrap-it-all-up-with-a-bow ending is right out of a TV movie.
The play's only surprises come from disjointed plot developments. In one ugly scene, Robert and Valerie have a near-encounter that's a mix of revenge sex and hateful racism, but a couple of scenes later they're civil again, without explanation.
Despite the play's shortcomings, the cast makes the best of it. Two guest artists turn in fine performances. As Valerie, Montego Glover conveys intelligence and warmth with steel underneath. Porter Lee Anderson III, a young actor from Sarasota, is convincing as the charming, troubled Shawn.
The student actors are impressive, especially Bryan Whitcomb, whose Robert alternates between desperate affection and barely controlled menace. Dean Anthony is touching as the rueful Martin, especially in his scenes with grandson Shawn. Lauren Orkus does a nice job as a girl who's smarter than everyone thinks she is, Robert's assistant (and Shawn's pal) Christine.
Heather Corwin makes a confident impression in the sketchy role of Addie, Robert's new love and the conservationist of the title. Addie seems to function mainly as a deliverer of metaphor; her job, she says, is preserving mosaics in all their varied colors, trying to bring coherent pattern out of the past. It's a nice figure of speech, but The Conservationist doesn't quite make art of it.
The Conservationist, a new play by Mark Wheatley, an FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training production at FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday through Jan. 26. $19-$21. Toll-free 1-800-361-8388 or www.asolo.org.