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Theater: 'Johnny' be good
Marin Theatre Company pulls a winner from McNally's tale of losers in love...

by Lee Brady

The title Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune says it all: two star-crossed lovers under a full moon with a romantic soundtrack by Debussy and Bach struggle to find love. But as Frankie and Johnny move through various states of emotional and literal undress, love is only the half of it. Playwright Terrence McNally gives us two beat-up losers, and actors Terri McMahon and Rod Gnapp make us root for them.

A steamy opening scene (for mature audiences only, it's played in the dark but with sounds that cry out—sex!), is followed by Johnny's laughing fit. Frankie joins in "because you were laughing," but when he relates an earlier explosive experience during sex, she is offended. "I don't like fart jokes," she tells him. Already the glow is wearing off this odd couple, and Frankie, who sees this as a one-night stand, wants him out. Johnny, however, likes the sound of his own voice and for the next hour he talks. As she listens to his rambling monologues, she becomes afraid: "This is worse than Mr. Goodbar," she mutters. McMahon is intense but muted in the first act, while Gnapp plays a crude Stanley Kowalski (except that Johnny is insightful and vulnerable). And in his quieter moments, audiences, and Frankie, begin to understand this. McMahon's Frankie has her own scars, and when she finally speaks from her heart, it is moving and powerful.

Jasson Minadakis's sensitive direction keeps the tension high as the two actors prowl the stage, circling each other like jungle animals. Set designer Kat Conley puts a functioning fridge ("icebox") and stove in Frankie's Hell's Kitchen studio, which features a rumpled pullout couch. Tall windows reveal similar apartments nearby, as well as an atmospheric full moon (lighting by Michael Palumbo). Sound designer Chris Houston uses music sparingly but effectively; Debussy's "Clair de Lune" never sounded more moving. Callie Floor designs easy-off, colorful robes for McMahon, and boxer shorts and Levi's that Gnapp pulls on and removes.

McNally's 1978 drama doesn't feel dated, the relationship problems are timeless and he's created roles to challenge actors. It's a drama that plays out between two characters you usually ignore at your local diner, but never will again. Gnapp and McMahon have brought them home to you.

• • • •

You can read the three stories "Firelight," "Down to Bone" and "Sanity" in Tobias Wolff's latest collection Our Story Begins. Or you can see them brought to life in Word for Word's More Stories by Tobias Wolff. In case there is someone in the Bay Area who doesn't know, this is a unique company that makes literary fiction into three-dimensional drama without ever dropping a word. From Virginia Woolf to Daniel Handler, with stops along the way for countless others, the troupe has been a consistent delight.

The company has chosen to perform Wolff's short stories before. And no wonder, since they transform into stage drama easily with this excellent ensemble of actors. In "Sanity," Stephanie Hunt is married to a mad professor and Michelle Pava Mills is her stepdaughter. You could read that, but you'd miss Paul Finocchiaro's turn as a Jack Nicholson-type car salesman. Director Joel Mullennix and his design team—Lisa Dent (set), Jim Cave (lights), Calvin LL. Jones (sound), Laura Hazlett (costumes), Kehren Barbour (props) and Andrea Weber (choreographer)—keep the characters jumping off the page, as Pava Mills, in an abbreviated, scarlet costume becomes a shiny red Miata. Anthony Nemirovsky, after a stint as a cocker spaniel and an Airedale, morphs into a middle-aged Freud. The actors move smoothly through their various characters. Nemirovsky is affecting as a thin-skinned son in "Firelight." Pava Mills is poignant as a teenager "who wears an ugly dress because it made people pay attention"; and Jeri Lynn Cohen has her best moments as a Viennese seductress who manages a funeral home in "Down to Bone." Finocchiaro is aware of his desire for the red Miata and the loyalty he owes his dying mother in "Firelight"; and Hunt is a sophisticated Claire, who "had the gift of knowing what she looked like without a mirror" in "Sanity."

This writer is a natural fit for Word for Word and this production of More Stories by Tobias Wolff proves it once again.

NOW PLAYING

Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune runs through Oct. 5 at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley; 415/388-5208, www.marintheatre.org . More Stories by Tobias Wolff runs through Oct. 5 at the Magic Theatre, Bldg. D, Fort Mason Center, S.F.; 415/441-8822, www.zspace.org .