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See the rabbit?
n Newtowne Players to present ‘Harvey' for one more weekend
Friday, Oct. 2, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by REID SILVERMAN
Elwood P. Dowd (Kerry Jones), left, embarrasses his relatives by constantly introducing people to his imaginary friend, Harvey, a giant rabbit, or pooka.
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Though Elwood P. Dowd might be simultaneously classified as an eccentric and drunk and lunatic, he might also be described as one lucky guy.
He gets to barhop through life with boozy eyes and a smarter-than-you-are smile. He can predict the future, wears nice clothes and his pockets are full. Better still, he doesn't have to work since his rich family seemingly foots the bill. What's more, amid the wash of loony nonsense that unfurls in Mary Chase's "Harvey," Elwood rises up as our shining hero. (I've come across people like Elwood before, in books and movies and real life, although usually they drive a taxi.)
The Elwood clan, meanwhile, does not mind any of Elwood's aforementioned characteristics. They only really mind the company he keeps: namely, a six-foot three and half-inch pooka named Harvey.
That much they could handle, but Elwood also has the gall to introduce his constant pal to all the well-to-do company kept by his sister, Veta Louise Simmons, and his niece, Myrtle Mae Simmons. How embarrassing!
Only Elwood can see Harvey, except that's not quite true. Veta Louise and Myrtle Mae are among those who confess to possibly seeing the pooka, which in this case takes the form of an enormous rabbit. (A pooka is a shape-shifting creature of Celtic lore.)
At wit's end, Veta Louise takes Elwood to a sanitarium run by the much-respected William R. Chumley. But his assistant Lyman Sanderson gets it all wrong — or maybe he didn't — and checks her in instead.
"Harvey" premiered on Broadway in 1944. After a nearly 2000-show run, Chase, a playwright and journalist, received the Pulitzer Prize for drama. In 1950, a film adaptation starred Jimmy Stewart and Josephine Hull, and it was reported this year that director Steven Spielberg is working on an adaptation of his own.
In the meantime, "Harvey" has one weekend left at Three Notch Theatre, where The Newtowne Players' final play of the season features a mix of the troupe's go-to actors plus some new faces.
Frequently quite funny, less often a bit of snooze, director P.J. Baker and the cast do "Harvey" more than enough justice.
An incredible fit for Elwood, Kerry Jones has made the character his own with quiet, wistful precision.
Stacey Park and Ellynne Brice Davis, in turn, are convincing as Myrtle Mae and Veta Louise. While Davis entertains as the latter character by drawing out the ends of her lines and energetically shrieking and flailing during moments of breakdown and distress, Park's facial expressions draw the audience inside her character's pouty psychology with such ease that she barely even needed to say one of her most memorable lines: "People get run over by trucks every day," she whines to her mother, "Why can't one of those things happen to Elwood."
Meanwhile, for the operatic John Raley, who played Chumley, it was the same character in a new costume. Even still, he got the job done, as did John Giusti as Judge Omar Gaffney. TNP's artistic director, Wendy Heidrich, playing Chumley's wife, makes the most out of limited stage time.
The brightly lit, swiveling set transports the audience back and forth between the Dowd's mansion and the stark waiting room of the sanitarium, which turns out to be the setting for the majority of the plays' most hilarious and thoughtful moments.
Veta Louise surely has some tough choices to make. An injection of Chumley's special formula could make Elwood a normal person. But, as the taxi driver (Thomas Esposito) says, in some words, everyone knows what jerks they are.
So we know what's coming, or not coming.
But that's another thing about Elwood: For all his niceness and total lack of self assertion, he always seems to have his way.
If you go
The Newtowne Players' production of "Harvey" will conclude at 8 p.m. Oct 3 and 4 and 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 5. Produced by P.J. Baker and Lisa Gregory. Technical director: David Kyser. Stage managers: Thomas Esposito and Judy Angelheart. Lights: David V. Groupe. Tickets are $15, $12 for senior citizens, students and military. Three Notch Theatre is at 21744 S. Coral Drive, Lexington Park. Call 301-737-5447. Go to www.newtowneplayers.org.
