REVIEW: Exit, Pursued by a Bear - Trustus Side Door Theatre

January 18 – 27

Written by Lauren Gunderson

Directed by Ginny Ives 

(Trigger warning – this script tackles the issue of domestic violence.)

Exit, Pursued by a Bear is Trustus’ Side Door’s current offering. Nan has finally had it with her husband Kyle’s physical and emotional abuse, and paybacks are hell. Assisted by her forever “ride or die” bestie, Simon and her new friend, a stripper named Sweetheart, Nan hatches a plan to teach Kyle the lesson of his life. Kyle comes home, tosses back a drink, and passes out in his favorite chair. Nan enters and proceeds to duct-tape him to said chair. When he comes to, he is made to watch Nan, Simon and Sweetheart act out scenes from a marriage – his marriage to Nan. Nan lets him know from the start that the “final act” is to cover the room with honey and venison (acquired through Kyle’s illegal hunting techniques), then leave Kyle to be devoured by bears.

I love bears. Always have. Dancing Bear on Captain Kangaroo, and Pooh Bear. Smokey the Bear. Yogi Bear and Booboo. Paddington. The list of cute, adorable bears goes on and on. B-HP’s mascot was a bear. (Go Bars!!!). Real bears, on the other hand, are not particularly cute and adorable. Shakespeare used a bear quite cleverly in A Winter’s Tale  - from whence cometh the title at hand. (Duh.) As a recovering Baptist, I will remind you that God sent bears to devour the small children who mocked the prophet Elisha (2nd Kings 2:23 – 24). Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend learned the hard way that bears are not our friends. I digress…

Kyle is sore afraid. As the evening progresses, he beseeches Nan not to follow through with her plan. He begs, he pleads, he coerces. He pulls out all the tricks that charming, attractive, magnetic abusers have up their sleeves, and  many times Nan very nearly succumbs to his charms. Simon and Sweetheart are there to make sure she doesn’t.

The “who are theys” in this production are Liza Hunter as Nan, Isabella Stenz as Sweetheart, and Bryent Taylor Marshall as Kyle. Clint Poston, a veteran of numerous Trustus productions, rounds out the cast as Simon. All four of these actors inhabit their characters with passion, humor, doubt, and determination. Some of the action in this play is ridiculous, absurd and over the top, but Ginny Ives’ direction, combined with the skills of each of these actors, creates very believable characters. We know these people. We, at least I, grew up with these people. Sweet, timid Nan; macho, violent, angry Kyle, “I’m gonna be an actress!” Sweetheart; and loyal, brave, and fearless Simon. Lord love all these people who grew up in the rural South. Bless their hearts, and I mean that with every fiber of my being. It ain’t easy bein’ weird. Especially when it’s the Kyles of the world who are considered “normal.”

Hunter’s Nan is the human version of a bunny rabbit. Sweet and fluffy and you just want to smoosh her widdle cheeks together and boop her nose! And then you realize this bunny has teeth. She moves from floofy bunny to Monty Python bunny with precision.

Isabella Stenz is so refreshing as Sweetheart, the stripper whose ambition is to be a real actress. She stays committed at every moment. Take a second to watch her when she isn’t the focus of the action.

Clint Poston is the cheerleading bestie we all want. From high camp to deadly serious, Poston’s Simon is  the best sidekick ever. And the boy got some stems. Just saying. 

Bryent Taylor-Marshall as the utterly horrid Kyle. Argh! He is an awful, reprehensible, hot-tempered card-carrying NRA member (wait, no. He’s too cheap to pay the dues), Fox-watching abusive redneck. And he is so cute and sweet and apologetic and coercive. I wanted to release him from his duct tape shackles, but I also wanted to bash his head against rocks.

I anticipated a “Misery” moment. Not gonna tell ya.

Dewey Scott-Wiley’s set is true. I know that trailer. The rutted driveway leading from the tar and gravel road up to the front porch. (We don’t see it, but we know it’s there). The deer head mounted on the wall. The hideous recliner. Absolutely evocative of rural upstate Georgia. (And South Carolina).

Sound and lighting design fit this production perfectly. The use of projections for scene changes and some narration is excellent.

A fun evening. Nothing but Bonfires.

Housekeeping: The show runs right at 90 minutes without intermission. Plan accordingly. The Side Door is an “intimate” space, so watch your feet so as not to trip up the actors. Get there early as the space fills up quickly. Beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks are available for purchase.

Curtain is at 8:00 p.m. so don’t be late. There’s no sneaking into this space. Tickets are $22.50 - $25.00.

If you or someone you love is a victim of physical or emotional violence, please don’t suffer in silence. The National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 800-799-7233. Sistercare’ s 24-hour crisis line is 803-765-9428. The Women’s Shelter can be reached at 803-779-4709. And yes, there is help for men who are victims. Oliver Gospel Mission at 803-254-6470, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and the SC Department of Social Services are available to you. The play is funny. The issue is not.

REVIEW: House Calls-The Strange Case of Dr. Gale is a Fine Follow-up to Last Week's Composure at Trustus Theatre

In the second of Trustus Theatre’s True Crime Rep series, the new play, House Calls—The Strange Tale of Dr. Gale by Charlie Finesilver, opened on Thursday night, August 18th. Directed by Ginny Ives, House Calls is the story of Dr. Ian Gale, an ostensibly successful psychiatrist who, in the 1970s, lived and worked in Columbia, SC by day, but by night burglarized the homes of 100 or more of his fellow Soda Citizens. Over the course of almost a decade, Gale, who was also an attorney and author, stole valuables amounting in worth to a half a million dollars, hiding the treasure away in a locked room in his home. He was finally caught and convicted in 1979 and served 15 years in prison. In 2017 and at 79-years-old, Gale shot himself in the head and set his home afire, taking many secrets and explanations to his grave.

Finesilver became fascinated with the story upon reading about Gale’s death in the newspaper and developed his own interpretation of contributing events into the original stage play which, like last week’s Composure by Jason Stokes, was intended to be staged in August 2020, before Covid shut the theatre down for health reasons.

Although it was originally intended to be directed by Lindsay Rae Taylor, Ginny Ives stepped in as director for the premiere of the show. Ives is a graduate of USC Aiken and has been a company member at Trustus since 2019.

Jeff Driggers was cast in the part of Dr. Ian Gale at the request of the playwright who had seen Driggers perform in another show and thought him an excellent choice for the part. Driggers, whose background lies primarily in Shakespearean roles, physically plays a bit young for the part although he does strive to create a mature presence that he consistently maintains throughout the play. Driggers is a lot on the stage, and we would have liked to have seen just a bit more variation in his character, more nuance to balance the bigness of his vocal expression, given that he is on stage almost constantly. Even so, Driggers shows fidelity to his interpretation of the part throughout his lengthy stage time.

Driggers is primarily cast against veteran actor Chris Cockrell (Inspector Anderson), one of Columbia’s most accomplished performers, and Deon Turner (Inspector Cummins), both of whom skillfully embody the roles of 1970s era gumshoes with finesse. It was also a pleasure to see Clark Wallace on the stage in the role of Solicitor Egan, reminding audiences of how much this experienced actor brings to a project.

Both Jordan Postal (Stacey) and Kathleen Pennyway (Jodi) gave astute and complex performances which promise more to come from both young women. And Sheldon Paschal, in the role of Gale’s memory of his mother (Vera) was decidedly creepy and intimidating.

Sharing the foundation of a set with last week’s premiere, Composure, once again we have Danny Harrington to thank for a set that is both functional and architecturally appealing. Sound and lights were fine and costuming by Andie Nicks was judiciously designed and era appropriate.

While in all likelihood Finesilver thoroughly researched the subject matter, a substantial part of the story was still conjecture by necessity and at the discretion of the playwright’s imagination in terms of what direction it would go. It would be interesting to know whether there were clues that led the author to point fingers at Gale’s mother Vera, so menacingly portrayed by Paschal, for the doctor’s mental instability or whether the playwright simply adhered to the old Freudian trope of blaming the mother whenever a son failed.  In a hearing that resulted in the revoking of his medical license it was noted that Gale prescribed amphetamines for a romantic interest as well as himself, had multiple false IDs, and exhibited other behaviors that indicated a sociopathic if not psychopathic  personality disorder. Ideally the conflict depicted in the action would have led the audience to additional possible explanations for the protagonist’s mental affliction, outside that of a domineering mother.

Certainly, like all new projects, House Calls would benefit from additional workshopping to sort out the possibilities for plot direction, and the pacing could be increased and the motivation of the lead actor finetuned. Compared to last week’s premiere by Stokes, House Calls may be less sophisticated in its storytelling methodology but, like its series companion Composure, which continues to run alongside it until August 27th, both have exceedingly strong bones and are triumphs for Midlands’s area theatre arts in that they were skillfully presented before enthusiastic audiences by accomplished casts and crews in a professional theatre.

Congratulations once again to the playwrights, casts, and crews for both performances and to Trustus theatre for trusting Columbia audiences to support new theatre art by talented local playwrights.