Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

There are some productions about which it would be better to say nothing at all. Shekinah, currently playing at La Mama Experimental Theatre, is one of those shows.

The weakest aspect of this poorly conceived and executed adventure is the script by Charles Case. Case attempts to dramatize his research on the connections between 19^th century spiritualists and con artists, manufacturing a story about Billie Dove, a fictional medium, and her partner, a crusty, alcoholic con-man named Lady. When Dove flits off to the country to become the live-in channel for a grieving doctor's dead ten-year-old, Lady recruits an insane youth to help him carry on his spiritualist racket. Eventually the action devolves into an incomprehensible mess of kidnapping and murder. Case fails to create three-dimensional characters or a coherent plot, resulting in a play which is poorly structured, difficult to follow, and crammed full of unnecessary scenes and cringe-worthy dialog.

The direction by the playwright's brother, Peter S. Case, does nothing to clarify the muddled story. He fails to forge connections between the main action and the extraneous scenes and allows his actors to stumble through the play's sprawling monologues without an understanding of what the words mean. While the blocking of the play is adequate, Peter Case's staging of séances is laughable. The show promises the “simple yet effective tricks” which were used by the faux mediums of the era, but delivers jaw-dropping sequences of actors standing broodingly in paper-maché masks or cavorting in black-spandex while poking their victims with plastic arms.

The director should have spent more time guiding his actors, who are lost in the circuitous text. Tavia Trepte as Billie fails to see the ghosts she purports to be conjuring and never decides whether her character is a grifter or in possession of genuine powers. Steve Francisco plays small-time-criminal Wesley as a bug-eyed maniac with such unrestrained abandon that one wonders when the men in white coats will arrive. Rick Zahn (Dr. Richardson) walks through his part with as much dignity as he can muster. Out of the entire cast, only Alex Emanuel (Lady) performs with any level of conviction or believability; his is a one-note character, but he plays that note with gusto even when he has to deliver lines like, "What has no bones and haunts your snatch“"

The show's design is minimal. The set (designed by Peter Case) is little more than a platform surrounded by black masking and a pair of wobbly flats; his costumes are slightly better. Composer and sound designer Bruno Louchouarn tries to make a little magic by providing mood music to accompany the séances. Unfortunately, nothing can mask the flawed script. Though spectacle might have made Shekinah look more polished, no amount of investment could raise the show above the level of a vanity production.