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Eleanor’s Story – An American Girl in Hitler’s Germany
Reviewed by Neal Weaver
Theatre of NOTE
Through June 27
RECOMMENDED:
Eleanor and her family were victims of a near-fatal case of bad timing. Her parents had emigrated from Germany, and settled in Stratford, New Jersey, where Eleanor and her brother were born. In the mid-1930s, her father received a job offer that seemed too good to turn down, though it meant returning to Germany for two years. They set off in 1939, only to discover on the boat, halfway to Europe, that Germany had invaded Poland and declared war on England and France. They wanted to return to America immediately, but things got complicated. Mom had never bothered to change her citizenship, and as a German citizen, she was not allowed to leave the country. The family was unwilling to leave without her, so they were stuck in enemy territory for the duration of World War II.
Writer-performer Ingrid Garner is Eleanor’s granddaughter, and she has shaped her grandmother’s story into a compelling first-person narrative. At first, for Eleanor, at 9 years old, the situation seemed more an exciting adventure than a threat. But as the war dragged on, food and manufactured goods became scarce, and the family struggled to hold on to its American identity, even as they pretended to be good Germans. When the bombing of Berlin began, their neighborhood was almost leveled, and they had to weather the harrowing battle of Berlin, and the violent arrival of the Soviets.
Garner is a skillful writer and an accomplished performer, and her response to her material is richly emotional, providing a sharp sense of what it was like to actually be there in those troubled and dangerous times.
Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hlywd.; https://hff15.org/2256.
The Three Musketeerers: Clowns With Swords
Reviewed by Neal Weaver
The Actor’s Company
Through June 28.
RECOMMENDED:
Three agile and athletic but dim-witted clowns (Mauricio Gomez, Jeffrey Heapy and Alec Tomkiw) in whiteface and blue boots set out to tell their story. Their inept attempts to put on their costumes (Gomez zips himself in the zipper of his 16th Century pantaloons) make it clear that a sustained narrative is beyond their powers. Then a woman (Cassandra Gonzalez, alternating with Lisa Labella) arrives, bearing a sliver of plot: She has received a mysterious letter from Cardinal Richelieu that confers authority on its bearer. The three men try desperately to capture the letter, leading to a zany array of slapstick, comic chases, stage combat, pratfalls, and swordplay with imaginary swords, daggers, and eventually an imaginary blunderbuss.
The most unexpected aspect of the show is the wildly imaginative use of props. At the top of the show, the three men are snoozing on three large, crate-sized boxes, ornamented with fleurs de lys and other emblems of French royalty. In the course of the action, the boxes are transformed into cupboards, a jail cell, a row-boat, and, on one occasion, the gondola of a hot air balloon, in which the men fly aloft, ‘till Gonzalez blasts them out of the air with her imaginary gun.
The actors bring sharp comic skills and a tatterdemalion charm to the proceedings, energetically directed by Andrew Amani. The protean set-pieces are fabricated by Jeff Kleeman, and the clown coach is Alex Suha.
Bellamani Productions at The Actor’s Company, 916 N. Formosa Ave., Hlywd.; https://hff15.org/2238
