By Carol Davis
LA JOLLA, California—-When Arthur Kopit gets an idea, you can pretty much count on it being a little off the charts. Take for example his 1963 movie Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feelin’ So Sad based on the 1962 Off Broadway play that lasted 454 performances. It was then called “an extraordinary achievement for an unknown playwright with no previous New York experience.” (He was only 25). It went on to garner both the Vernon Rice and Outer Critics Awards.
No question Kopit marches to his own tunes. And speaking of tunes Kopit and Murray Yeston, who collaborated writing the Tony Award winning musical Nine, also collaborated in writing their own version of Phantom of the Opera that resembles the Andrew Lloyd Weber mega hit only as far as the characters and story line go based on the 1910 novel by Gaston Leroux. The music bears no similarity.
Fast-forward to Kopit’s latest idea based on a wee article he happened across in The Times of London titled “Faeries Stop Developers Bulldozers’ in their tracks”. Yup! Developers wanted to build a golf course on the somewhat sacred grounds where the fairies lived. This occurred on a remote island in Scotland in the Southern Hebrides called Muckle Skerry. Based on this article, Kopit got his imagination revved in full gear and came up with (he and his collaborator Anton Dudley) the most un-pronounceable name of his latest play A Dram of Drummhicit, which is now in full production at the La Jolla Playhouse.
It’s a little bit of this, and a little bit of that but here are some things to look for in the play: A Dram of Drummhicit (a small drink of whisky… ‘A wee dram to ward off the winter chill’) is gulped down by the townspeople a couple of times during the show; water that has chewy, crunchy bits of (?) is sampled; real life and live fairies fall in love and make love; unearthed ‘bog bodies’ approximately 2,000 years old (it’s a long story, but true) are schlepped back and forth; there is a mix and match of accents; some fun music (John Gromada) that gives the show a little a few more layers; sets by David Zinn are stunning showing a variety of locations in and around the playing grounds; David C. Woolard’s costumes, especially the kilts, are perfect; there is some nudity and ‘smirk, smirk, chuckle, chuckle’ sex jokes about faeries, fertility and the fringe community of the bog people.
Somewhere, just bubbling up beneath the surface in the bogs, though, there is a story about land preservation, but it gets lost in translation and might be good for another play.
The story line seems pretty simple at a first glance, but remember this is Kopit and nothing is as simple as it appears, but here goes. A mega wealthy golf enthusiast Robert Bruce (a bustling and obnoxious Murphy Guyer) wants to dig up portions of Muckle Sherry (?) to build at least 2 golf courses, hotels, a road and bridge leading to and from it and a housing development.
You see the sliver of land Bruce wants to destroy/build his project on is inhabited by bog bodies that are supposedly museum prime as witnessed by anthropologist Felicity Oliphant (Kathryn Meisle). They keep resurfacing only to be kid-knapped by some of the local wise guys but if you look carefully, they can be seen hanging in a coatroom at the local bar and used as coat hangers.
If that’s not enough to discourage Bruce’s development plan, we learn also that this land is home to fairies that live under this one huge rock that needs to be moved to make way for the road. The unspoken truth is that the fairies homestead is never to be disturbed, unearthed or otherwise messed with since they are the good luck charms that watch over the island.
The locals, looking for a bit o’ cash to line their pockets (the fish have jumped the island) are thrilled that $$$$ may flow into their little slice of land. That said they somehow failed to let Bruce in on the little secret of their beloved fairies. When Charles Pearse (Lucas Hall) Bruce’s ‘fixer’ finally makes it to the island, amid uncertainty and confusion, to spread the wealth in cash and bribes, he encounters one big setback after another. This in turn takes him, the good folks of Muckle Sherry and the story of the Dram on a convoluted course that travels many miles from home yet goes no where.
Director Christopher Ashley has his hands full with the complexity of the Kopit/Dudley oddball play. On the one hand, the premise is fine fodder and for a satire given the rape of our own lands in the hands of those who don’t feel the need for preservation. On the other hand the idea of fairies (just look at Shakespeare) real or imagined and falling in love makes a great case for a rousing comedy. “Dram” wants to be both and it gets in the way of itself with too many characters, too many plot diversions and not enough development of either.
Young, handsome Lucas Hall, the perplexed and overwhelmed Pearse heads the all star cast as he is taken on the ride of his lifetime when he comes under the spell of Fiona MacLeod (Polly Lee) and into the world of free love a la fairies style. Lee is wonderfully believable as she takes Pearse on this adventure into the never never land of fairies.
Others adding to this strange little story include Kelly AuCoin as the local barkeeper, Mackenzie, Larry Paulson as the incompetent clergyman, Reverend Hagglehorn who can’t wait to get off the island, Alan Mandell as the old timer William Ross, and who lends most of the comic relief and finally what fun to see an old friend and familiar local face, Ron Chularton as part of the ensemble and later on as the Reverend, Reverend Hume.
With a sprinkle of fairy dust, a name change, a game change and some retooling Kopit and Dudley might just hit the jackpot with this whimsical piece.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: through June 12th
Organization: La Jolla Playhouse
Phone: 858-550-1010
Production Type: Comedy
Where: 2910 La Jolla Village Drive
Ticket Prices: $35.00-$75.00
Web: lajollaplayhouse.org
Venue: Mandell Weiss Theatre
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Davis is a San Diego based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com