Hiya gang!
It’s August in Coviello Town and that means theatre! Award Nominations! And Festivals! This month started off with me playing an old man named Gonzalo in theTempest for Shakespeare Carolina. That’s right I played the faithful and kind old councilor in the back to the beach styled comedy down in Rock Hill, SC. Chir O’Neill directed. Great time. Right after the last show and breakdown came the cast party! Where I shaved my head to prep for the following week- when I returned to playing Hunter S. Thompson in GONZO: A Brutal Chrysalis.
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GONZO: A BRUTAL CHRYSALIS
Written by Paul Addis
Directed by Tom Ollis
Citizens of the Universe at The Mill
August 10 - 12, 14, 15 - 17, 2011Many of us are nostalgic for the Sixties era, whether we lived then or not. James Cartee's one-man show, portraying gonzo journalist and novelist Hunter S. Thompson, presents various comparative points between our time and that era, beating the drum of history for 90 passionate minutes.
An American flag forms the backdrop for the small set, with a desk onstage, typewriter, phone, newspapers, pill bottles, carafe, shot glass, and pistols, much of which goes to the floor during the show. Cartee is a whirlwind of energy, often changing moods, shirts, and hats, though perhaps peaking too early with his outrage at society and challenges to his audience. And yet, he portrays many poignant points in his character's story, while tearing up the stage and interacting with his imagined readers beyond it.
The play covers the years 1968-70, and also represents Thompson's suicide in 2005 at the age of 67. The character explains his gonzo attitude for getting at the heart of a story by throwing himself into it, blurring the lines between non-fiction, fiction, and political activism. Likewise, Cartee throws himself into the role, showing Thompson's personal and professional battles.
Thompson tells about the birth of his son, but also how he and his wife lost several other pregnancies. He reenacts his private interview with Richard Nixon in the back of a limousine, showing both sympathy and hatred for this political nemesis. Thompson evokes Mayor Daly's brutal "army of cops" at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where he was beaten along with others in the crowd. He describes the seductive edges of insanity, alienation, intoxication, and political provocation—recounting his wife's miscarriages, his articles being banned, his drug use (with speed as a safer "pick me up" than acid), and his leadership of the "Freak Power" party in his run for Sheriff of a Colorado county.
Thompson criticizes liberals as being too comfortable to fight for "fundamental and necessary change." In a similar way, Cartee offers a disturbing portrayal of this famous character from the Sixties. His Hunter S. Thompson is funny and scary, creative and destructive, while representing the truth-seeking, revolutionary idealism of the Sixties and its bad-trip dangers. Review by Mark Pizzato
Gonzo: A Brutal Chrysalis and More
Posted by Perry Tannenbaum on Thu, Sep 1, 2011 at 4:59 PMAmong local performers, Simon Donoghue and James Cartee are as different as it gets. So it wasn’t surprising that, in their recent one-man shows, the two actors took on wildly different historical figures. Last week at Belmont Abbey, the urbane and understated Donoghue portrayed Renaissance philosopher and politician Sir Thomas More. A week earlier, the frenetic and over-the-top Cartee completed a weeklong stint as the gin guzzling, pill popping, firearm-hoarding firebrand of gonzo journalism, Hunter S. Thompson — against the back wall of The Mill, that lovable NoDa dive.
What a perfect spot for Gonzo: A Brutal Chrysalis, Paul Addis’s sputtering, splenetic tribute to an obviously kindred spirit. I’d seen Cartee’s shtick in its previous 2009 incarnation at The Graduate. Then as now, the production in Plaza-Midwood was directed by that grizzled master of subtlety, Tom Ollis, an old hand at trashing typewriters since his True West days. This time around, people besides Ollis and me were in attendance as Cartee popped pills, swilled various simulations of ethanol, brandished firearms, and trashed his little stage, including a hapless Selectric.
Instead of the somewhat forced laughter I encountered in 2009, from Ollis and other Citizens of the Universe partisans who were manning the crude electronics — rudimentary electronics are a COTU badge of honor — there was plenty of lusty spontaneous laughter at The Mill, spurring Cartee on to funnier, more outrageous excesses. The approval also had a gradual mellowing effect on Cartee, so that more of Hunter’s fantastical ramblings were actually intelligible during Act 2, slowed down from blinding roadrunner speed to that of a creature less hunted.
In Thompson’s signature self-absorbed style, Gonzo takes us through the misadventures of his early career, dropping us off before his famed takedowns of the war on drugs in Las Vegas and the ’72 presidential campaign. So we hear about his sojourn with the Hell’s Angels, his beating at the hands of the jackboots at the ’68 Democratic Convention in Chicago, his quixotic run for sheriff in Aspen, Colorado, and the improbable triumph of his scribblings on the 1970 Kentucky Derby. That’s about halfway through a hard-drinking, loud-revving life that ended in 2005 with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.
If the COTU guerillas revive it, The Mill will remain the ideal place for the booze, the bluster, the cigarette holder, and the whole Hunter mishegoss. Reconnoitering the area near the N. Davidson-36th Street intersection during the intermission, I discovered posters on walls and in nearby shop windows ballyhooing Gonzo in an apt Bohemian style. Eureka! Somewhere in Charlotte, of all places, theater was happening like a grassroots community event. So the city isn’t running entirely on barcodes, plastic, and ATMs.
Cut to the Tower of London in 1535, where Donoghue as Sir Thomas addresses us with full monastic solemnity on the final morning of his life prior to his beheading. It’s just 400 years before Pope Pius XI will confer sainthood on the martyred champion of the Roman Catholic Church, so the man could use a stiff drink. But the “man for all seasons” didn’t cope with the vicissitudes of life — or literary composition — by turning to chemicals as Thompson would.
Or at least he doesn’t in Donoghue’s account, for Donoghue wrote More with the blessing of the Thomas More Scholars of Belmont Abbey College. While there are plenty of signs of More’s intelligence and wit, including some of his more familiar bon mots, the language is cold sober, devoid of expletives or startling expostulations, with frequent denunciations of heretics and expressions of piety — as there should be, since he is on the verge of dying for them.
The non-gonzo aspects of More’s style make for some dreary sledding in Act 1 as we hear about his study and practice of law, his first forays into politics and diplomacy, the acclaim bestowed upon him as author of Utopia, his disputations with Martin Luther, and his rise to the exalted — and dangerous — position of Lord Chancellor during the reign of Henry VIII. Intermission leaves us on the precipice of the “Great Matter,” Henry’s desire to annul his marriage to Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn, so he can sire a male heir to his throne. One huge obstacle lies in the king’s path: the Roman Catholic Church must approve.
So Act 2 perks up considerably as More’s loyalty to his king and loyalty to his church and conscience become more and more contradictory. Sir Thomas attempted to walk a tightrope after resigning the chancellorship, refusing to sign the Act of Succession endorsing Queen Anne’s children as Henry’s heirs yet never denouncing the king’s divorce or his formation of the Anglican Church. But how many queens would Henry go on to imprison and decapitate? You knew things weren’t going to go well for Thomas if he stuck to his guns.
Donoghue won a Creative Loafing Charlotte Theater Award for his contribution to A Man for All Season when Charlotte Rep presented Robert Bolt’s drama as the first show ever at Booth Playhouse in 1992, but that was merely a cameo. Under some deft direction by Jill Bloede, Donoghue was more fully in the spotlight revisiting More’s tragic demise, and once again he shone.
I’m betting that Donoghue and his one-man show will surface again in the near future, outside the Abbey. With its minimal set and lighting by Gary Sivak, More should travel light. Just not to The Mill.
What a blast! I do love the taste of a fresh mind…
As soon as that was over- literally- I packed my house and left for Detroit… well, Holly. In the midst of all this I fell off with my longtime love Rebecca. I wish her well in her future endeavors (but I’d still like to keep the dog, Lydia!) Actually, I brought one pup with me. My dear sweet Alaska (aka, Puppy.) Which might have been a bad decision at first, but has shaped up to have been an excellent idea. She’s a wonderful creature and the only thing she’ll leave me for is food! Holly’s a neat little town… lot’s of independent pizza places and small grocery stores. I have to admit- I haven’t traveled (my favorite pass time) as much as I have in other places… maybe it’s cause I don’t have a partner outside my dog to travel with. Maybe it’s because when I was last in this area my car was almost stolen (they got in and broke the steering column) and I was mugged while walking to my hotel just afterwards. They didn’t get anything. Maybe it was cause I was dressed in tattered shorts, a donkey hat, leather tow covered flip flops, a shirt that said: we can kick your city’s ass, and a pair of hulk hands (the ones they sell any time they put out a crappy hulk film.). Maybe I asking for it a little too much but I like the adage, ‘Make ‘em think you’re crazier than they are.’ Another reason I’m moving around so much might be that my passport expired. (I plan to get new one.) This might be a good thing though. If I were to go to Canada right now, I might not come back. Anyways- the awards.
COTU has gotten 14 nominations for an MTA:
Outstanding Cameo
David Holland (Miracle Max / The King) - The Princess Bride - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Set Design
Diego Francica - The Princess Bride - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Costume Design
Suzy Hartness - The Princess Bride - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Chroreography
Charles Holmes - The Princess Bride - Citizens of the Universe
Other Exemplary Performance/Element
James Cartee - Utilization of “Breakfast Club” as a theatre venue - The Princess Bride - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Properties Design
Rebecca Brown and Amanda Liles - Trainspotting - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Special Technical Effect
Bread & Water - Graffitti - Stage Art and Painting - Trainspotting - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Production
Gonzo; A Brutal Chrysalis - Citizens of the Universe
Love Conquers All; A Quiet Evening with Sid & Nancy - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Lead Actor-Male
Berry Newkirk (Sid Vicious) - Love Conquers All; A Quiet Evening with Sid & Nancy - Citizens of the Universe
James Cartee (Hunter S. Thompson) - Gonzo; A Brutal Chrysalis - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Supporting Actor-Male
Tom Moody (Interviewer/Rockets) - Love Conquers All; A Quiet Evening with Sid & Nancy - Citizens of the Universe
Outstanding Direction
Tom Ollis - Gonzo; A Brutal Chrysalis - Citizens of the Universe
Nick Iammatteo - Love Conquers All; A Quiet Evening with Sid & Nancy - Citizens of the Universe
So there you go.
But yes, the faire is neat and abit bawdy and the crowds have been kind… so I’ll have more to report on that next month. Till then- keep looking up space cadets!
-x
