It isn’t often that a play as outwardly straight forward as this one could be thought about as an ongoing daytime TV series, but my immediate impulse when I watched Achilles in Arcadia was the extent that the storyline could be successfully unspooled from the beginning, when Aunt Amy (Gloria Tsai) becomes executor of her sister’s will and guardian of the children, to the revelations that take place when son George (Krit McClean) who is nicknamed “Achilles” because of his war wound from a stint in Iraq, commandeers a local Chinese restaurant for the student film he’s doing that involves all his family and friends….and even a surprise visitor (played by Jeff LeBeau). As “Achilles,” Krit McClean has a towering, glowering presence, while Devyn Kohl makes for a feisty counterpart that we will learn echoes previous loves in previous lives.
Intrigued yet? The opening scenes are straight-forward as we meet the characters. George has cast his student film with his war-buddy, Pat (Timothy Willard), girlfriend Lilly (Devyn Kohl), and sister Rose (Yulia Belyaeva) in a love-triangle that carries implications with the past.
Director Kiff Scholl keeps the cast moving around and through playwright Chris Collins’ circuitous plotting in a similar way as the revelations unfold. And the designers – from sets (by Joyce Hutter) lighting (Mark Richter) and costumes (Freddie Patrick) to the unobtrusive yet vital sound design by Jerry Buszeck, all intregrate seamlessly to amplify the closing revelations. If you’ve read Homer’s Greek classic, The Iliad, you’ll recognize the congruences. But, in a further reference to the classics, I feel duty-bound to mention Anton Chekhov’s dictum that, “if you show a gun in Act one, it must go off in Act Three.” Be warned.
Black Bough Productions presents Achilles in Arcadia, continuing Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 pm, Sundays at 2 pm through September 21st, at The Skylight Theatre, 18161/2 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles 90027. Tickets range from $20 on Friday and $25 on Saturday and Sunday, with $15 tickets for students and seniors at the door. Reservations: (213) 761-7061or online at http://achillesinarcadia.com.
