Does it take a touch of madness to be a great artist? Is it better to live without art or live without madness? Is it possible to do either?
Structured as three linked monologues, the premiere show of the newly formed Man Alone Productions uses as its starting point the real-life theft of Edvard Munch’s painting “The Scream” from Norway’s National Gallery during the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.
Edvard (Michael Oakes), unlikely art thief and art school dropout turned accountant, can only paint pretty flowers and sunsets over fjords. Like a latter day Salieri jealous of Mozart’s talent, Edvard both recognizes and loathes Munch’s genius, and blames Munch for his own failure as an artist and in life. With the artist deceased, he can only wreak vengeance on Munch’s work. Edvard’s wife Tulla (Erin Ison) is an automaton of a housewife whose creativity finds its only outlet in the creation of a daily pastry. Twenty years later their son Gunnar (Brandon Ryan) visits the bridge pictured in “The Scream” in an attempt to come to terms with the painting’s hold on his family and, quite possibly, on the psyche of the entire Norwegian nation.
Ison’s Tulla displays ample physical comedic skills as she vacillates between pleasant vacuousness, demonic efficiency in the kitchen, anger at disruptions to her housewifely routine and self-control eroding to madness. Ison and Playwright Delaney have a lot of fun here with Norwegian stereotypes. Oakes as Edvard puts his facial expressiveness to good use but could use some more of the winking parody he employed to such good effect in “Ham for the Holidays”; the earnestness of his despair makes him more pitiable than comic. Delaney reserves some of his best comedic lines for the final scene; Man Alone artistic director Brandon Ryan plays aspirant-to-normalcy Gunnar with the casual deadpan of a standup comic.
Kudos to Scenic Designer Michael Mowery for the video backdrop of the sunset and minimalist but effective depiction of the bridge in Munch’s “The Scream”. Act I could benefit from a raised stage; some of the action takes place close to the ground and is difficult to see for audience members other than those in the front row.
In a welcome collaboration of the arts, audiences are immediately immersed in the world of “3 Screams” as they view lobby art inspired by “The Scream” and created specifically for this production.
“3 Screams” plays Thursday, Friday and Saturday through Feb. 26 at the Theatre Off Jackson. For more information visit www.theatreoffjackson.org.
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