The rich brocade of conspiracy theories and all their intricate undertones form the inviting sea upon which “Yankee Tavern” happily rides at Riverside Theatre. The show runs through April 7 on the Waxlax Stage.
The two-act drama is written by one of America’s most prolific and thought-provoking award-winning playwrights, Steven Dietz. It takes on some of America’s most conspiracy-laden subjects: the moon landing, the assassination of JFK and, most deeply, the 9/11 tragedy.
Indeed, the conspiracy theories are so intricately laid out that you might wonder if what you have believed all these years is really so.
But then there’s the program book, which slyly sets the American flag vertically with the blue union field to the right instead of the left. Something is amiss.
Not one to shy away from seductive playfulness in his writing, Dietz invites the audience to prepare for the fanciful yarn-spinning before the play starts via his written entreaty in the program. “The air is thick with invention,” he pens.
The play is set in a bar known as the Yankee Tavern. It is on the ground floor of an abandoned hotel and is about to be torn down. As the lights come up, Adam is setting up the bar, preparing it for the day’s business.
He’s also in the midst of a fight with his fiancée, Janet. They are planning their wedding, their own rocky union paralleling the shaky ground of our country. Janet is furious that Adam has given her a list of people to invite who don’t even exist. Adam wants her to drop the subject. Slamming a chair to the ground, we immediately see how strongly he feels, and perhaps irrationally so.
The tension soon breaks, though, when Ray enters. It is immediately evident that Ray is a penniless man and a beloved customer, whose drinks are always on the house. Looking very much like one of America’s homeless, Ray wears headphones with a microphone sweeping toward his face.
He sees Janet’s Starbucks cup and immediately launches into a non-stop rant about the number of stars on the Starbucks cup having to do with a dark corporate underbelly. That tirade slips into other ones about the moon landing and St. Gore (Al Gore) and finally he speaks into that little microphone on his headphones.
We now learn that he’s been on hold, waiting to say his long and involved piece for a radio show as he strides off stage into the lavatory.
Steve Brady serves up a most delicious portrayal of Ray. It’s a master class in acting to watch him adjust gait, voice, posture, rhythm and gesture into a lovable, entertaining, unforgettable soul.
Brady is just so doggone good in his role that he owns the show without chewing one bit of scenery or stealing a whit of focus from another character. In fact, his is a generous form of acting, one bringing out the best in others on stage.
And yes, you’ve seen Brady before on Riverside’s stage. He’s shown extraordinary range, most recently as the sophisticated, secretly sexually charged art curator in a three-piece suit in “Bakersfield Mist” and before that, the locked-in, intellectually driven psychoanalyst in “Freud’s Last Session.”
Here, as Ray, amidst all the blustering, rambling speeches informed by deep conspiracy theories, he has tender moments with Janet, whom he plays peek-a-boo with, and later comforts after she is rocked by a confrontation with a stranger.
This stranger’s presence comes unexpectedly. He sits at the bar, orders two Rolling Rocks, scoots an empty stool closer to him and sets the second beer in front of it. As the action unfolds, we wonder just who is this person and what does he know? And more so, why is he there? Is he following Ray, who might be unwittingly caught up in star-chamber intrigue?
As secrets are suggested and ultimately revealed, the question as to this stranger’s motives get oddly clearer and murkier at the same time. You’ve gone so far down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories that there’s no way back to the light of truth.
Emily Verla brings such believability to Janet, taking her through a range of emotions. She fleshes out Janet as a most likeable, strong but wounded creature, who frets over the safety of Adam.
Patrick M. Byrnes shows Adam as an angry young man buffeted by his father’s suicide and his frustration with his fiancée. He saves his gentlest moments, though, for Ray, which makes us wonder how solid his union is with Janet.
Christopher Schmidt makes the perfect Palmer, the stranger who toasts the second beer that is never drunk. We expect a little bit of what he will show, but the surprise will lead us wondering just what is real.
This Steven Dietz play is a delightful one for Riverside’s powerful creative team to mount.
Director/designer Allen D. Cornell crafts a production laced with rich visuals and rising character reveal.
The bar itself is beautiful “olde tyme,” its shelves loaded with glasses and bottles and festooned with postcards over the ages. A model of what could be a Yankee Clipper sailing ship sits on the top shelf alongside antique stoneware crock jugs. Genny Wynn’s lighting design adds the perfect touch to Cornell’s scenery.
This is such excellent theater. The visuals are perfection, the drama is solid and stunning, and the cast entertains from the get-go. Don’t miss it. Just be sure to get there early enough to read Dietz’s letter to the audience. It’s a sly wink about what’s to come.
“Yankee Tavern” runs through April 7 on the Waxlax Stage at Riverside Theatre, 3250 Riverside Park Dr., Vero Beach. Tickets are $65. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Wednesdays, select Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. For more information, call 772-231-6990 or visit RiversideTheatre.com.
Photos provided
