Children of a Lesser God
Written by Mark Medoff; directed by Kenny Leon
Performances through July 22, 2017
Berkshire Theatre Group,
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
berkshiretheatregroup.org
John Mellencamp
July 1, 2017
Natalie Merchant
July 2, 2017
Tanglewood, Lenox,
Massachusetts
bso.org
There’s so much to
choose from while in the Berkshires—music, museums, theater, ballet, historic
sites, shopping, restaurants—that it’s impossible to do more than a few things
on a weekend trip. This time around it was Children
of a Lesser God in Stockbridge, and John Mellencamp and Natalie Merchant
concerts at Tanglewood.
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| Joshua Jackson and Lauren Ridloff in Children of a Lesser God (photo: Matthew Murphy) |
Most people
remember Children of a Lesser God from the 1986 movie version, which won
an Oscar for Marlee Matlin in her sensational debut as a feisty deaf woman who
falls in love with the hearing teacher wanting her to read lips and speak,
while she stubbornly remains in her sign-language world. Despite its creaky dramaturgy,
Mark Medoff’s earnest drama nevertheless works strongly in Kenny Leon’s
thoughtful staging on the Berkshire Theatre Group’s stage.
Medoff tackles the
themes of miscommunication and the physicality of love between people from (literally)
two different worlds: James Leeds and Sarah Norman are shown sympathetically
but realistically, rough edges and all. As embodied by Joshua Jackson (whose
James is full of vigor and charm) and newcomer Lauren Ridloff (who has an
appealing stage presence and dramatic heft as Sarah), our protagonists are a worthy
adversarial couple.
Director Leon
navigates this relationship sensitively, even if he is occasionally tripped up
by Medoff’s central conceit: James repeating whatever Sarah and the other deaf
characters sign becomes wearying after two-plus hours. (I don’t remember it
being that annoying in the movie.) Still, with two excellent actors at the
center—a revelatory Jackson in a demanding role, and a sensational find in Ridloff—Children of a Lesser God is emotionally
satisfying theater.
* * *
The Tanglewood
experience is one of the summer’s finest. Sitting on the lawn for a concert
under the stars can’t be beat—especially when you can bring anything onto the
grounds for a picnic, which people do: tents and tables, lawn chairs and
coolers, hors d’oeuvres and main dishes, wine and beer, fruits and desserts.
Add to all of that the most casual vibe of any outdoor amphitheater.
Tanglewood concerts
by John Mellencamp and Natalie Merchant were prime examples of still-relevant music
of artists unworried that their most popular days are behind them. (But don’t
tell that to the thousands who showed up both nights.)
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| John Mellencamp at Tanglewood (photo: Hilary Scott) |
John
Mellencamp—who
has remarkably morphed from an arrogant young cock-rocker named Johnny Cougar
into one of our most perceptive and sympathetic chroniclers of ordinary
American lives—played a lean, dynamic 90-minute set that included several of
his biggest hits along with more politically charged recent material, like the stand-out trio of songs from his latest album, Sad
Clowns & Hillbillies, which he recorded with Carlene Carter, who opened
the show.
The lovely harmonizing of Carter and Emmylou
Harris—whose fine 45-minute set followed Carter’s—joined Mellencamp for the
stately “My Soul’s Got Wings,” and Mellencamp sang a powerfully raspy “Easy
Target,” the most trenchant of his current political songs. He even broke out a
rousing “Pop Singer,” his 1989 hit about how much he hates being a hit-making
jukebox. So it was no surprise that, when it came to “Jack and Diane,”
Mellencamp basically told the audience he hates singing it but knows everyone
wants to hear it—so he did a solo acoustic version, letting the enthusiastic
crowd take over for the “Oh yeah, life goes on” chorus.
But he’s not
averse to all of his hits—he and his crack band (including his MVP violinist
Miriam Sturm) cranked out hard-hitting renditions of “Pink Houses,” “The
Authority Song,” “Paper in Fire” and, for his lone encore, “Cherry Bomb,” which
immaculately closed the show.
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| Natalie Merchant at Tanglewood (photo: Hilary Scott) |
Natalie
Merchant’s
enduring solo career began nearly a quarter-century ago, after she left 10,000
Maniacs, and her latest tour—subtitled “3 Decades of Song”—features many songs
of more recent vintage, wildly appreciated by the Tanglewood crowd.
Of course, she did
play tunes from her multi-million-selling solo debut, 1995’s Tigerlily: “Carnival,” “Wonder,” “River” and an unbearably emotional
rendition of “Beloved Wife,” which was nearly ruined by some in the audience
who felt the need to shout out during the song’s many quiet moments. But Merchant
and her band—which featured a superb string section that provided lush but not
overbearing accompaniment to these singular story-songs—showed their musical
mettle right from the starkly beautiful opener “Lulu” from her eponymous 2014
album.
As for political
commentary, Merchant waited until her second set—sans intermission, the show
spanned 25 songs and a generous 2 hours and 45 minutes—when she introduced the
biting “Saint Judas” with the quip that it’s “for all the racists and bigots in
Washington D.C.”
For someone who
writes and sings many minor-key, downbeat songs, Merchant has always been a buoyant
performer: yes, her delightfully daffy dancing, spinning, hand gestures and
arm-flailing are still very much in evidence. (By the encores, she had literally
kicked off her shoes to run barefoot from one side of the stage to the other.)
And she pointedly saved her most joyous songs for the end: a jubilant “These
Are Days” gave way to the ecstatic singalong “Kind and Generous,” the perfect
summation of another perfect Tanglewood evening.
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