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In case you missed the ’50s
Michael Hollinger’s ‘Red Herring’ at Villanova
Steve Cohen
It’s 1952. Dwight D. Eisenhower is running for president; America’s about to test the H-bomb. And in this script, Senator Joe McCarthy’s daughter (Sophia Barrett) just got engaged to a Soviet spy, and a Boston detective (Victoria Rose Bonito) needs to find out who dumped a dead guy in the harbor. Her FBI boyfriend (Seth Thomas Schmitt-Hall) is investigating a Russian spy ring, and their two cases collide.
Michael Hollinger’s Red Herring cleverly juggles a spy drama, romance, a spoof of film noir and a critique of American politics in the ’50s. As boats and relationships alike spring leaks, one character compares marriage to a dory— a lightweight boat with a flat bottom, which a loving couple must constantly bail in order to stay afloat.
Harriet Power directed all these intricacies in the best manner of a Marx Brothers comedy.
Professor as actor
Villanova’s cast demonstrated versatility in multiple roles, even if the actors couldn’t match the star power of the 2000 premiere, which featured Jennifer Child and Scott Greer as the romantic/competitive couple. Some of the actors looked too much like they were acting, and the Boston accents sounded studied. Best was Raymond Saraceni, who deftly balanced broad comedy with touching sentimentality in three parts, especially as the Russian spy Andrei.
(Saraceni, like Hollinger, is a professor at Villanova as well as a playwright: He wrote the impressive drama Maroons: The Anthracite Gridiron, performed in 2011 by Iron Age Theatre.)
James F. Pyne’s uncluttered set used rolling units that doubled as beds and piers. Props were cleverly moved by stagehands wearing spy-like black hats. Winslow Homer’s painting The Herring Net appeared as a billboard along the back wall.
Over their heads
The music cues perfectly evoked ’50s notions about romance, with an occasional historical punch, as when an H-bomb blast is quickly followed by “When the sky is a bright canary yellow,” from South Pacific, of all places.
Some of the play’s references sailed over the heads of theatergoers who didn’t live through the good old days of McCarthy and nuclear tests. (But neither did Hollinger, who was born in 1962 but obviously did his homework.)
Some of the dialogue was inspired by the crime fiction of Raymond Chandler, whose name is mentioned in the repartee. Blank looks from folks in the audience, though, make me wonder whether footnotes are needed to fully appreciate a topical piece like this.
Michael Hollinger’s Red Herring cleverly juggles a spy drama, romance, a spoof of film noir and a critique of American politics in the ’50s. As boats and relationships alike spring leaks, one character compares marriage to a dory— a lightweight boat with a flat bottom, which a loving couple must constantly bail in order to stay afloat.
Harriet Power directed all these intricacies in the best manner of a Marx Brothers comedy.
Professor as actor
Villanova’s cast demonstrated versatility in multiple roles, even if the actors couldn’t match the star power of the 2000 premiere, which featured Jennifer Child and Scott Greer as the romantic/competitive couple. Some of the actors looked too much like they were acting, and the Boston accents sounded studied. Best was Raymond Saraceni, who deftly balanced broad comedy with touching sentimentality in three parts, especially as the Russian spy Andrei.
(Saraceni, like Hollinger, is a professor at Villanova as well as a playwright: He wrote the impressive drama Maroons: The Anthracite Gridiron, performed in 2011 by Iron Age Theatre.)
James F. Pyne’s uncluttered set used rolling units that doubled as beds and piers. Props were cleverly moved by stagehands wearing spy-like black hats. Winslow Homer’s painting The Herring Net appeared as a billboard along the back wall.
Over their heads
The music cues perfectly evoked ’50s notions about romance, with an occasional historical punch, as when an H-bomb blast is quickly followed by “When the sky is a bright canary yellow,” from South Pacific, of all places.
Some of the play’s references sailed over the heads of theatergoers who didn’t live through the good old days of McCarthy and nuclear tests. (But neither did Hollinger, who was born in 1962 but obviously did his homework.)
Some of the dialogue was inspired by the crime fiction of Raymond Chandler, whose name is mentioned in the repartee. Blank looks from folks in the audience, though, make me wonder whether footnotes are needed to fully appreciate a topical piece like this.
What, When, Where
Red Herring. By Michael Hollinger’ Harriet Power directed. Villanova Theatre production closed October 13, 2013 at Vasey Hall, 800 Lancaster Ave., Villanova, Pa. (610) 519-7474 or www.villanovatheatre.org.
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