Review: The Difficult [Ring] Tone of ‘Cell Phone’

Play reviews are difficult. It’s sort of like reviewing some shlops singing karaoke at the local tavern. Although the town drunk may have picked your favorite song (perhaps Ricky Martin’s ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ or Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’), he’s still five drinks deep (cheap rum, most probably) and lacks both rhythm and pitch.

The Basement Arts production of Sarah Ruhl’s ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’ was rather opposite of the karaoke dilemma.  Although the acting was, for the most part, stellar, it had a difficult time carrying a play that failed at developing a connection between the audience and its characters.  ‘Cell Phone’ is about a woman, Jean, who, annoyed at the incessant ringing of a cell phone at the next table at a diner, picks up a stranger’s cell phone.  Complicating the situation, she soon finds out that the man, Gordon, has not picked up his cell phone because he is dead.  Jean, in acting as his secretary and, soon afterward, his legacy-maker, speaks to his colleagues, his family, and friends.  In a string of lies, Jean personalizes Gordon in her own mind and conceives of a dieing Gordon to explain to his loved ones.

Unfortunately, although closely involving herself in Gordon’s affairs – attempting to assuage some pain, Jean never becomes more than a liar.  The playwright, Ruhl, attempts to personalize her in, among other ploys, declaring a love for stationary that she shares with Gordon’s brother, Dwight (a role similar to Buster of Arrested Development fame).  However, even Jean’s budding relationship with Dwight is built upon lies and stories.  To Ruhl, Jean is supposed to be a, slightly misguided, heroine.  Instead, she creates an internal mess of a mess.

This takes away nothing from the exceptional acting in the Basement Arts production of the play on Friday night (also performed at 7pm Friday and 7pm, 11pm Saturday) (Full disclosure- a close friend, Neal Kelley, played the role of Gordon.  Even fuller disclosure- although not necessary today, I am zero percent afraid of talking shit about my friends.  They probably deserve it.)  The actors’ performances on Friday night were truly great.   Grounded in an exceptional performance by Margot McGrath as the overly-emotional Mrs. Gottlieb (Gordon’s mother), the actors displayed a deep intimacy and knowledge of each other and each others’ roles in the play.

The ‘sold-out’ crowd (some mortals even sitting in the aisles for a two hour play!) at Studio One in the Walgreen Center ate it up, laughing hysterically at any sign of a joke.  Unfortunately, just as these are the same kids who speak to hear the beautiful sounds of their own voice, there were many members of Friday night’s audience who really wished they were on stage-they really wanted to be the center of attention-so, rather unnaturally, they chose to yell their laughs.  (My slightly intoxicated friends- whom I met there- enjoyed laughing at the flamboyant crowd more than the show itself.)

If nothing else, I’m now a fan of the Basement Arts.  Quality acting with a price tag of $free.fifty is unlikely to be beat in these parts.  Although not my choice of plays, I will, again, choose to make the trek Up North to the Walgreen Center for a Basement Arts production.

Oh yeah, and I would probably choose Al Green’s ‘Love and Happiness’ for my karaoke performance.

Bennett. bstei@umich.edu. ‘No Shirt, No Radio’ Wednesday nights, Midnight-1:30am, WCBN