A blissful respite from the usual stage business
In a crowded field of disaffected and iconoclastic playwrights, Arlene Hutton is a breed apart. One of the most richly humane voices in contemporary theater, she drips balm, not acid, on the chafed psyches of her grateful audiences. Set in an 1838 Shaker community, Hutton’s “As It Is in Heaven,†now at Actors Co-op, soothes without benumbing.
As stripped down and unpretentious as a Shaker chair, the play is amusing, intellectually stimulating and moving -- a beautifully crafted piece that will endure.
Like “Last Train to Nibroc,†Hutton’s lovely World War II-era romance, “Heaven†is set in Kentucky, at the Shaker community of Pleasant Hill, near Lexington. The play is based on actual events -- a short “season of the gifts†in which religious raptures swept through the American Shaker groups, ultimately transforming their patterns of ritual and worship. Celibate utopians, the Shakers faced ridicule from their neighbors for their separation of the sexes. But by adhering to their motto, “Hands to work, hearts to God,†they flourished and were widely admired for their hard work and ingenious inventions. And, of course, Shaker furniture is still the paradigm of utilitarian elegance.
That same Shaker simplicity is reflected in Marianne Savell’s precise and gentle staging. Musical director David O and choreographer Brian Paul Mendoza contribute inspired re-creations of original Shaker hymns and dances, essential components that set the tone for the whole.
The unobtrusive opening scenes establish the quiet rhythms of Shaker life. But the Shaker sisters’ workaday round is disrupted when newcomer Fanny (Staci Michelle Armao) begins seeing angels. In short order, two other young women, Izzy and Polly (Robin Knight and Deborah Lynn Meier), experience heavenly visions. Some of the older sisters, such as gentle Sister Betsy (Rebecca Hayes), believe that the girls are in direct contact with Mother Ann Lee, the long-dead leader of their sect. However, for Sister Hannah (Lori Berg), the eldress of the order, the youthful women’s visitations are a threat to her spiritual supremacy and a bitter blow to her pride.
Hutton has deliberately focused on the female Shakers only, to poignant effect. In this egalitarian microcosm, all are “kindly welcome,†including Sister Rachel (E.P. McKnight), a woman of color, and Sister Jane (Bonnie Bailey-Reed), a shattered soul who has lost all four of her children. Sexual victims both, Polly and Fanny have their own sad stories. Others, such as Sister Peggy (Barbara Kerr Condon) and Sister Phebe (Susan Carol Davis), are devouts driven by sheer belief. Whatever their reasons for joining, these women find Pleasant Hill “heaven on earth†-- now literally so.
Whether the angels are real or merely mass hallucinations isn’t really Hutton’s point. The point is that, through striving for the greater good, these women glorify one another as well. Those weary of the modern world’s competitive grind will find a blissful contrast in this “Heaven.â€
*
‘As It Is in Heaven’
Where: Actors Co-op’s Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood
When: Thursdays-Saturdays,
8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 p.m.
Ends: April 13
Price: $20
Contact: (323) 462-8460
Running time: 2 hours
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