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Theater: The Keller elite
RVP finds its voice with 'Miracle Worker'...

by Lee Brady

Any time would be a good time for The Miracle Worker, but these wintry evenings when audiences are looking for heart-warmers seems a very good time.

Audiences will not be disappointed, even though most know the end of the story. Director Linda Dunn and her large cast of well-chosen actors build the drama to an emotional peak as playwright William Gibson's real-life character, dedicated teacher Annie Sullivan (Megan Pryor Lorentz), fights to give her young blind, deaf and mostly mute charge, Helen Keller (Sierra Stephens), a way to break through to life.

The battle involves all of the Keller family. Mother Kate (Lauren Doucette), out of love and pity, allows her child to run wild, but Helen's half-brother James (Brook Robinson) resents the chaos her animal-like behavior creates. James, a weakling with a smart mouth, already has enough problems with Captain Keller (Tom Reilly). Their father-son battles parallel those of Helen and Annie.

Reilly dominates the stage as well as his family. His character's mistrust of Annie, along with his patriarchal power, holds the outcome in doubt. Stephens keeps her Helen Keller locked down. Her physical fights with Lorentz take on a sweaty reality, especially as the battle rages under the dining table with a horrified family looking on. It ends with Helen giving in and folding her napkin, taking the first step in her long and fruitful life.

The cast is intergenerational, and the young, middle-age and older actors keep the play grounded in its time, 1880, and place, an upper-class Alabama household.

Michael Cook's set serves the family well, from Annie's upstairs bedroom to the embattled dining room, to the garden where the drama resolves to the audience's audible relief and satisfaction.

• • • •

Dominican University's Fringe of Marin, showcasing a wide variety of short plays, has been ongoing for 24 seasons (in the fall and again in the spring)—and director Annette Lust and her crew keep coming up with the new and unusual.

The six playwrights in program one (there is a program two as well) make for a varied and entertaining evening.

Susan Jackson unlocks the anger that caregivers don't always show; Steve North does a show-don't-tell playwriting seminar; John Robinson reveals the true nature of art criticism; Ruth Kirshner makes waiting for a bus a communal and funny experience; and Linda-Ayres Frederick's Latina googling is both touching and edgy. The final work, Naomi Newman's look at the tragedy of the end of life, ends up a satisfying farce.

The Marin Fringe is both a classroom and a playhouse for writers/actors and audiences, and the more it is supported by all of these, the better it becomes.

NOW PLAYING

The Miracle Worker runs through Dec. 6 at the Barn Theatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, Ross; 415/456-9555, www.rossvalleyplayers.com .

Fringe of Marin runs through Dec. 5 at Meadowlands Assembly Hall, Dominican University, San Rafael; Jeanlust@aol.com.

Share a miracle with Lee at freshleebrady@gmail.com