TINY ALICE



Marin Theatre presents……
Edward Albee’s TINY ALICE
Directed by Jasson Minadakis
Starring Andrew Hurteau, Carrie Paff, Rod Gnapp

You cannot absorb a play written by Edward Albee the first time you see it. There are so many layers of meaning and such a wide variety of possible interpretations of each character, that the only way to enjoy the production is to sit back and let the marvelous dialogue sweep you into the action on stage. And indeed, that was director Jasson Minadakis’s intention. There is no single, correct interpretation of this play and that is the point. “This play is going to mean many things to many different people,” Minadakis said. “It will affect you based on what you bring to it…it’s impossible to say what it means. That’s the thrilling part of it.”

Marin Theatre’s spectacular production of this three hour classic is indeed thrilling on every level. “This is the most infamous play ever written by Edward Albee, one of the greatest living American dramatists”, said Minadakis. “In this equal-parts erotic thriller and darkly comic allegory, Brother Julian stumbles into a twisted world of manipulation, aggression and seduction when he visits the castle home of Miss Alice, the Church’s mysterious new benefactor.”

J.B. Wilson’s simple, stark set design keeps the model of Miss Alice’s mansion always before us. It’s stark, spare use of space keeps us focused on the intense interaction of the people on stage. The characters have no names, other than Alice (Carrie Paff) and Julian (Andrew Hurteau) and that alone makes them more symbols of the twisted products society creates rather than flesh-and-blood vulnerable human beings. Minadakis keeps the pace so rapid that three hours vanish as if they are but a moment. No doubt about it. This is a masterful piece of theater with a superb cast and amazing direction to make it unforgettable.

The play opens in the Cardinal’s (Richard Farrell) garden with a vitriolic encounter between him and Lawyer (Rod Gnapp) who had studied at the seminary with the Cardinal but left to study law and “become ringed in stench.” As with every Albee play, the characters at first seem so completely evil that we wonder at their humanity, but Gnapp gives his role veracity tinged with an urgency to validate his substitutes for an intangible god. His forceful and angry pursuit of his deity is reminiscent of the intensity of religious converts determined to convince themselves that they are “right” and the rest of the world is short-sighted and delusional. Lawyer worships his power over Alice and her money. He doesn’t care if Alice wants or likes him. Alice says “I have a loathing for you that I can’t describe,” and Lawyer answers, “You never had a way with words, did you?”

It is control that he is after. “To love is to possess,” he says. Gnapp never lets us doubt that his vicious sniping has become the very reins that tie Alice and Butler (Mark Anderson Phillips) to him. His is a masterful portrayal because nasty, demanding, stubborn and cruel as he is, he is still very real. One senses that underneath his callused, satirical baiting of the others on stage, he is a desperately uncertain human being. Alice rebuffs him and says, “Did it hurt? Does something finally hurt?” and when he answers, “Everything hurts,” you see his vulnerability. How similar he is to us all…searching for answers, thinking we have found them and realizing that every answer is as evanescent as the very vision of the god we abandoned.

The theme of the play is faith on every level. “It's about all religions that we create in our own image and the personifications that we make,” said Albee. “I'm convinced that the only thing that can be worshiped is that which is unimaginable - which is why the Mass was always more effective in Latin. (Tiny Alice) deals with a lot of things, the relationship between religious ecstasy and sexual hysteria, all sorts of stuff.”

Julian explains the six years of his life that Lawyer cannot trace by saying “I lost my faith when I realized men create a false god in their own image.” After his years in a mental institution, he realizes “My faith is my sanity. They are one and the same. Sometimes hallucination is desirable.”

When Julian moves in with Alice he asks her “Why am I being tested?” When he says his only wish in life is to serve others, Alice says, “Every martyr was a man first.” The tension builds as she tries to seduce Andrew into reacting like a man instead of the saint he is trying to become. The audience so hopes he will resist, yet they know he won’t.

“The language is amazing in this piece,” says Minadakis. “… Every line of this play takes amazing leaps forward, pushes the characters and the ideas deeper.”

Do not miss this opportunity to examine your own faith and wonder at its motivations. This amazing production of Tiny Alice will stay with you long after you leave the theater. It is the story of who each of us are and what we can become. It will haunt you for months after the curtain descends.

TINY ALICE continues through June 26 in Marin Theatre’s Boyer Theatre, 397 Miller Avenue in Mill Valley.
Tickets range from $33-$53 with senior discounts and rush tickets available.
More information: www.marintheatre.org , 415 388 5208 or boxoffice@marintheatre.org.