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Review: Three Viewings at Austin Playhouse [Theater]
We think Austin Playhouse is running Three Viewings as their very special Halloween episode for their 2010-2011 season. This play comprised of monologues that snapshot several funerals in a small Midwestern town isn’t scary in any way, except for maybe how realistically sad the sparse set is. In our post-Six Feet Under world a viewing room in a funeral home is obviously a great setting for comedy AND drama. But when this play premiered in 1996 it was a different game. That said, the evening manages a few surprises.
This is a show with a long production history, and in other performances, the first monologue about Emil, a funeral director who falls in love with a woman who frequently attends services at his business, usually squicks audiences out in a sadly endearing way. The concept isn’t as exciting as it was when the play first came out, and Austin Playhouse’s Hans Venable seemed almost bored with it. He was charming and energetic, but the love story was flat and the twist at the end (SPOILER ALERT: there’s a twist at the end) was fairly tedious. The responsibility for this one probably goes half to the playwright’s worn out premise and half to Venable.
The bizarre choice to have a 5-minute intermission between each monologue only heightened the anxiety for the rest of the evening. In this piece, the first viewing is the least challenging and has some of the best punchlines in the show. The second viewing is typically a challenge for the actress and the third is both the funniest and most heartbreaking. In other words, the show raises the ante with each viewing. Uh-oh!
The second viewing owes its success to Jenny Gravenstein. Her interpretation of Mac, the character who steals jewelry off of corpses at funerals, is seldom more thoroughly realized or better executed. It’s a tricky monologue that can be a lot of fun and Gravenstein handles it so well that it's easy to forgot how hard it can be for less talented actresses.
Cyndi Williams, playing the financially destitute widow Virginia in the last monologue, does a good job anchoring the show. The character’s husband borrowed too much money against a failing business, then got dementia and died, leaving Virginia with impossible debt. There are a few resonant sections of the monologue that Williams nails, and she does a good job with the humor. During her monologue, it almost feels like you're at a Midwestern funeral home listening to mom’s friend talk about her problems.
Overall, the show has some kind of awful lows and some legitimately amazing highs. If you can float the $20 for a ticket, there are some real surprises in at least two of the three viewings.
