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Quality show not an
impossible dream for
Harwich company
By Bethany Gibbons
arts@barnstablepatriot.com
M a n
of La Mancha at Harwich
Winter Theatre is a robust,
hearty blend of rich notes
and dark undertones. The cast is
full-bodied, elegant and well-devel-
oped; sweet withjust the right touch
of nuttiness. The accompaniment
is mysterious and nuanced. The set
is aged to perfection; swarthy with
a smooth velvet consistency. From
first taste to last, .
this performance is not only enter-
taining, but also nourishing.
Jim Silverman plays Miguel De
Cervantes, a struggling sixteenth
century poet and condemned tax
collector who has been hauled into
prison by the Spanish Inquisition.
While awaiting his fate he is ac-
costed by aggressive inmates who
demand he defend himself in his
own dungeon trial. His presentation
of the defense comes in the form of
a "charade," and he enlists his fel-
low prisoners to enact the story. He
becomes Alonzo Qujana, a man who
believes himself to be a knight and
promptly takes the name Don Quix-
ote de La Mancha. Silverman excels
in his role, bringing a sensitive,
passionate character to the stage.
His deathbed scene is particularly
k compelling.
k Quixote's passion is most
¦
keenly felt in his pursuit of
W his beloved Aldonza,
/ a woman of the night
& f more accustomed to
\ abuse than devotion.
I "tSl Donna Credit is color-
| mr ful and strong in~this
¦ I I role. She takes the
W ^
Ji I s^aSe by storm with a
QatnaVI nW. big voice and intense
^^^ *Jfc| perform ance.
,; ^w David McCarty is a
f r
*
A% Mam scene"stealing Padre,
^
J^ A^m
the priest tapped to
_
:
Jt » exorcize Cervantes'
HB
VBB
KS fantasy-'oving
JlJiUg^ demons. His voice
|ffifr?P!lfS is clear and emo-
^ • I'TI2!!!5 ^ve
'
anc* he brings a
md^tiMmtm comedic element to
the stage.
The lightingis dark throughout
and especially so in the opening
scene when Cervantes enters the
prison. James K. Byrne creates the
dim dungeon atmosphere well, al-
though it is difficult , at times, to see
clearly all that is happening on the
stage. Things brighten incrementally
and there are some beautiful touch-
es, such as the light shining down
the cold stone stairway through the
prison door as prisoners are called
to appear before Inquisition judges.
The set design by Andrew Arnault
is more realistic than the original
play and, in this case, it works. The
faux stonework is attractive, as are
the various steps, ledges, nooks and
crannies of this dark place.
Some of the more philosophi-
cal aspects of this show are lost in
translation. The crucial struggle be-
tween reality and fantasy that Quix-
ote undertakes is not as apparent as
it should be. The point is made with
acceptable punctuation by Silver-
man in his pleasing turn as Quixote,
however. Director Richard Sullivan
has succeeded in making magic on
the Harwich Winter Theatre stage,
and the standing ovation from the
packed house of a recent matinee is
testament to that.
Harwich Junior Theatre, 106 Division Street
in West Harwich, presents Man of La Mancha
Thursday through Sunday through Nov. 26,with
performances at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.
(no Thanksgiving show). Tickets (call 508-432-
2002) are $18 for general admission with a $2
discount for senior citizens and a $6 discount for
students under 21.
Man of la Mancha a nourishing treat
Grandparents
conspire to keep
grandson at table in
Chatham comedy
By Melora B. North
arts@barnstablepatriot.com
ROBERT TUCKER/FOCALPOINT STUDIO PHOTO
AIN'T THEY GRAND? - Bob Nuss and Marianna Page
Glidden play doting grandparents Frank and Aida Gianelli
in Over the River and Through the Woods.
W
ord of warning: Do
not go to Over the
River and Through
the Woods, playing at the Cha-
tham Drama Guild, if you have
not had a full meal before-
hand. And if you dare to take
on the challenge, be prepared
for some intense grumbling
within 15 minutes of curtain
because this play is not only a
romp through the underpin-
nings of a tight Italian family
but a tour de force of all your
favorite fare from ravioli to
crumb cake, veal to lasagna.
Perpetuating the delightful
convention that Italians cel-
ebrate fife with gusto, imbib-
ing fine wines and abundant
food, this story of young Nick
(Doug McKenna) takes place
in Hoboken, New Jersey, where
he and his two sets of grand-
parents meet every Sunday for
a lavish dinner prepared lov-
ingly by his grandmother Aida
Gianelli (Marianna Page Glid-
den}, in the home her husband
built for her. It is to one of
these gargantuan meals that
Nick arrives full of big news he
is bursting to share - he has
been promoted to a market-
ing executive and is moving to
Seattle.
The news is not well re-
ceived, partly because his
CONTINUED ON PAGE C:2
What they did for love
The Remarkable Life
of John Murray Spear
By John Benedict Buescher
University of Notre Dame Press,
Indiana, 2006
Hardcover, 384 pgs.
By Kenneth R. Warren
arts@barntablepatriot.com
R
esidents of Cape Cod may
find it interesting that the
subject of this biography
was ordained to the ministry by the
Universalist Church
in
Hyannis, which much later became
a part of the Federated Church of
Hyannis. Anyone who is interested
in the history of our United States
in the Nineteenth Century will find
it interesting, because he was very
much a part of that history. The
author, John Benedict Buescher, is
well qualified to explain why he in-
cluded the word Remarkable in the
title and why he gave it the subtitle
Agitat or for the Spirit Land.
John Murray Spear was born
in Boston in 1804, and he was
christened at the First Universal-
ist church there by the Rev. John
Murray, the "Father of American
Universalism." He was brought up
in what was then a new religious
movement in America. He had
an older brother, Charles. Both
brothers studied for the ministry in
the Roxbury home of Hosea Bal-
lou, who was the first President of
Tufts College. Charles was called to
the Universalist Church in Brew-
ster. John assisted him there and,
with his help, was called to minis-
ter to the Hyannis congregation.
He worked there only briefly but
continued to preach in the area
for a few years. He then served
churches in New Bedford and in
Weymouth.
I However, he made a name
for himself not by his work as a
parish minister but by his par-
ticipation in other movements
religious and secular which char-
acterized decades of New England
public affairs and in fact a century
at least of American society. John
Buescher, who earned his Univer-
sity of Virginia Ph.D. in religious
studies, is well qualified to narrate
Spear 's rise to a position of leader-
ship which brought him fame and
notoriety. Buescher has written ex-
tensively on, among other religious
matters, spiritualism in Nineteenth
Century America. And it was
spiritualism, not universalism, that
made Spear's life what it became.
Spiritualism as we know it today
came to the attention of the Ameri-
can public in 1848, when the Fox
sisters of Hydeville , N.Y., reported
that they were receiving signals
from the spirit world. In 1893
the organization of the National
Spiritualist Association could be
said to mark its establishment as a
recognized and respected religious
denomination. That approximate
half century spanned the years
of Spear's life from age 44 to his
death at 84. Through those years
and even before - and he would say
even after - he was an everpresent
influence , not always admired and
respected but always present and
accounted for. Spiritualism was by
no means his only interest , but it
was what provided the guidance
CONTINUED ON PAGEC:2
entrpt@aol.com
FOR THE RECORD
Eartha Kitt Live From the Cafe Carlyle (DRG Re-
cords)
Sure she's affected. Always has been. Always will
be. We aren't being catty, but Eartha Kitt is as known
for her trademark purr and prowess as for her sultry
sex appeal. She put the "sex" in "(s) exceptional,"
long before Madonna found the material for her
foundation. Her latest recording captures Kitt during
her recent sold-out Madhattan stint... a stint that
proved the 79-year-old songstress is still witty, won-
drous and down-to-Earth(a) .Live recordings rarely
work -poor production values, restless audiences
and listless performers guarantee a flop - but this
one? C'est manifiquel It's an entertaining evening
of the lost art known as "cabaret ," during which
Kitt displays a style swift, light and enchanting.
Just wait until you hear "It Was a Very Good Year"
- she takes Sinatra's dirge of a sated romantic and
infuses it with optimism. Better yet: Her cover of
Rosie Clooney's "Come On-a My House," done in
guttural Japanese!
THE WRITE STUFF
The Discomfort
Zone: A Personal His-
' tory (Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, $22)
JonathanFranzen's
book is an intimate
memoir of growing
up squirming in his
own super sensitive
skin - from a "small
and fundamentally
ridiculous person "
through a strangely