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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Frankenstein Chills and Thrills at Beverly Art Center On Halloween Night

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Yesterday, I saw the Beverly Theatre Guild's Production of Frankenstein.

The perfect Halloween offering, this production is based on Victor Gianella's frightening adaptation of Mary Shelly's original Frankenstein which singlehandedly created the Horror genre and carved a whole in the theory that women could not write significant literature held at the time.

Forget the B-movie or Scoobie Doo Frankensteins you might have seen before, this story is as relevant today in the era of cloning and DNA manipulation as it was then. Dr. Victor Frankenstein is not so much a madman as an obssesive-compulsive scientist blindly moving forward in search of the truth without thought of the consequences of his actions.

As the play moves forward and the consequenses of his actions become ever so much more horrible and personal, Frankenstein's hubris and soul seem stripped away by the monsters within as well as the creature without.


Top L to R: Rick Baiker (Herr Mueller), Marie Whitney (Frau Mueller), John Madison (Victor Frankenstein), Jim Michaels (Henry Clerval).

Bottom L to R: Kendall Klein (Elizabeth Lavenza), Brian Ott (William Frankenstein), Patricia Peterson (Justine Moritz, maidservant).

This is not just a play about the violence of a monster created by a man which then undoes him, but the violence within men, which perpetuates itself and destroyes the ones we love. For the play makes clear that the violence of the creature need not have been. How, why? You will have to see for yourself.

Kudos to the cast, especially Dennis Newport who plays the Creature and Denise Smolarek who plays the blind hermit DeLacey, the only person who has the vision to understand the pain the creature is going through and can accept his inner humanity. Their relationship is a gem at the heart of the play.


Dennis Newport (Creature) sits attentively in front of Denise Smolarek (blind hermit DeLacey) as she teaches him from the Bible.

Newport is outstanding. His interpretation of the role makes us wonder, as it should, who is the more human, the Creature, or the men of that time period? His actions are horrifying, but his motivations not difficult to understand given the circumstances that drove them.

Madison's Victor Frankenstein is every bit the consumed scientist torn between his great work and his love for Elizabeth which is genuine and deep, but still pales compared to what he sees as his nearness to the secret of life itself, while blind to the fact that death stands at the other side of life.

Jim Michaels plays Henry Clerval, Victor's best friend, conscious and sharer of his guilt, the only one who knows what Victor is up too. His presence as extoller, comforter and finally accuser for failing to save another in a dramatic rendition more powerfull perhaps, than had we seen it ourselves, is yet another facet that screws up the tension on Victor.

Kendall Klein as Elizabeth, Victor Frankenstien's niece turned fiancee, brings warmth, romance and life to a role that can be easily walked through. Her chemisty onstage with Victor, as his love, as the one who demands to know what is wrong, and as his ultimate defender is sweet, touching, sexy and noble.

Ott (the boy William), Denham (Alphonse, Victor's Father), Peterson (Justine the Maidservant), Baker (Frau Mueller) and Whitney (Herr Mueller the Magistrate) all add fine performances which add to the suspense and rising tension of the show.

I should mention that this show is not for young children or more sensitive adults. There is some blood, some violence, but a great deal of tension and rising emotional angst such that a very few people, mostly with very small children did leave the theater during extremely tense parts. Please don't bring toddlers! Consider this at least PG.

The show has one final performance on Tuesday, Halloween Night, October 31st, 2006. BTG has extended their 2 for 1 promotion that had applied to the Saturday Matinee to the Halloween Night Peformance. Click the ticket below to order tickets.

Happy Halloween!

Peter

Beverly Theatre Guild presents: "Frankenstein" Click Tickets to Buy Now!



$20 - See below for 2 for 1 deal!

Last Performance! Halloween Night! October 31: 7pm
Join us this Halloween weekend as the Beverly Theatre Guild presents the
classic tale of horror and suspense by Victor Gialanella adapted from the
novel by Mary Shelley. Set in 19th century Switzerland a young Dr. Frankenstein attempts to fathom the secrets of life and death and creates the most memorable
monster of all time. PG-13 for strong language and graphic violence. For
special offer on Halloween performance click here.

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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Robin Williams on Regis (Now isn't THAT an unpleasant image)

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Robin Williams: It's been long enough, we've got to bring our young boys home, and make them safe from

Congress!



Peter












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Saturday, October 07, 2006

Sick of Gubanatorial Election Ads

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Could everyone who is sick of the constant baragge of Illinois Gubanatorial Election ads pleaseraise their hands?

Wow, I've never seen an inland hurricane before...


Just wanted to get it off my chest.


JBT will never convince me that she has any better ethics than GR. For all we know the clock is ticking on an investigation of her own political methods. Some say that its possible.

RB will never convince me that he's not a democrat who will do things that are not in the long term interest of the democratic party.

However, I think he's at least as trustworthy as JBT. And I think he will serve the interests of the whole state, not just the NE region (where most of the money is).


There have just been too many of these ads all together. Someone invent an election ad mute circuit, please!



Peter







Don't forget to tell your friends and family about the The Peter Files Blog of Comedy.

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Peter, Chief Editor and Spell Wrecker
The Peter Files Blog of Comedy, Satire and Commentary
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Pages Turning in Washinton

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Because this is a safe for family blog, I'm going to assume that you know about the situation in the U.S. House of Representatives that has Americans all over the country turning pages, newsprint, press and otherwise to find out just what has been going on with the congressional page program in the U.S. House.

This is a high priority scandal because Congressional Pages are high school stundents and therefore minors for whom any panky with or without a hanky is not only illegal, but a crime! Worse yet, to use the internet to do so is just what people are seeing all those people getting arrested for on NBC DATELINE: Predators.

Except of course that as far as we can tell. As far as we can tell, nobody actually went anywhere, expecting anything. As I said, no details will be forthcoming - you put the em-pha-sis where you want to - about this sad story in these files.

Sad except for one thing. It looks like none of the Congressional Pages, so far, has gotten any more humiliation than an overeager email.

No home visits in the middle of the day, that kind of thing. Hopefully that means that any damage to those in the program so far has been minimal.

Then why am I bringing this up? Do I care about the grownups running the program or the impact on the overall elections?

Normally I might. This would be an easy time to make fun of some Republicans except for one thing. There has been talk of doing a knee-jerk eliminate the Congressional Page program until all this gets "straightened out".

What kind of idiots do we have down there anyway? Oh, right, I'm from Illinois, where the really interesting politicians come from. We're working to catch up with Louisiana on that front, at least state-wide.

Anyway, the way to keep a program like this safe is to make sure that all those working on the hill, let's not just keep the elected in mind, know that these Pages will be given the absolute confidence to talk about any odd or embarrasing encounter, immediately and KNOW that it will be taken seriously. Even years after his or her employment.

That's all it needs. Because if that had been the case a few years ago, a certain member formerly representing Florida would not have dared to act as he allegedly did.

Let's make government something that our kids would be proud to take part in. Not something to be scared of.

Seeing this scandal does put others in perspective though. Amazing how when confronted with problems like these the very first instinct is not to call a press conference but try to deal with it internally. Surprise, surprise.

I wonder if they can get that guy from The British Comedy based in the Department store to play the Congressman in the TV movie, you know the fella I mean.

That's it from me,


Peter







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