Sarasota Herald-Tribune
April 18 2010
‘Beast’ a beautiful, powerful story
By Jay Handelman
Published: Sunday, April 18, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, April 17, 2010 at 11:39 p.m.
( page of 2 )
While trying to move forward from the horrors of his past, an Armenian
man stumbles and struggles on his way toward building a future in
America.
In Richard Kalinoski’s beautiful and powerful play "Beast on the
Moon," Aram Tomasian is the lone survivor of a family beheaded in the
Turkish genocide of its Armenian neighbors in the early 20th century.
He proudly displays a family portrait with all the heads cut out as a
reminder of what happened and the hope that he will fill those holes
with pictures of his new wife and future children.
But Aram, a photographer like his father, may come to a different way
of seeing things thanks to his young, mail-order bride, Seta, a child
who was forced to grow up quickly because of her own family tragedy in
Armenia.
How these two come together and co-exist is the heart of Kalinoski’s
play, which gets a strong production by director Murray Chase in
Venice Theatre’s Stage II series.
The dramatic pauses may be a bit overlong and unnecessarily add to the
running time, but Chase has coaxed two fine and subtly nuanced
performances from Nidal Zarour as Aram and Ally Tufenkjian as Seta
that are far stronger than audiences may expect from a community
theater production.
Both have grown up at the Venice Theatre and into these
thought-provoking and moving roles. Zarour, who may be a bit young for
the role, is still effective as the tradition-bound Aram, who knows
how things should be in his home, even as he tries to figure out how
to treat his young, innocent bride.
Tufenkjian counters with strong arguments of her own, bringing a young
girl’s strength to a blossoming womanhood. Seta may be young, but her
point of view about things large and small carries a lot of weight and
indicates how time and events bring a shifting of traditions.
Jim Lovett injects a bit of drama as a narrator and observer to the
life of the couple. Steven Junker brings a cocky and almost too
playful spirit (it would help if he spoke a little slower and kept the
nervous smiles to a minimum in the more serious parts) to his role as
a young orphan who comes into their lives.
The play is staged on a simple but evocative set by Kirk V. Hughes of
three playing areas on sand-colored wood platforms.
Chase has done a mostly good job of making sure that the action is
visible to audience members who sit facing one another on either side
of the stage space.
There are moments that could be faster paced, but warmth, tenderness
and tension flow in equal and welcome measures in this involving and
often poetic play.
18/ARTICLE/4181058/2055/NEWS?Title=-Beast-a-beauti ful-powerful-story
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress