True Romance: PURE Theatre restages its 2007 Piccolo hit

With Piccolo Spoleto upon us, it's surprising to learn that PURE Theatre has only been rehearsing Cloud Tectonics for a few weeks.

This is a show full of emotionally complex moments. It requires audience members to stretch their imaginations, with the actors conjuring set pieces out of thin air (there's no set dressing and only a couple of props). It's an out-there acting challenge, even by contemporary standards.

Has PURE lost its work ethic? Is the five-year-old company acting its age?

Not quite.

The short rehearsal period is a necessary evil caused by actor and director availability, along with the performers' confidence in the material. After all, they've done the show before, in their fourth season and during Piccolo 2007.

The lines of the play are stuck in their heads like primal poetry. All they have to do is put the play back on in a new venue and recast one role.

How much rehearsal time could that possibly require?

In a nutshell, Cloud Tectonics is a boy-meets-girl story. A hardworking man picks up a bedraggled hitchhiker on his way home. Back at his house, the pregnant hitchhiker fascinates him with her strange perspective on the world. His infatuation grows — until his brother turns up to shatter the magic.

But the play is more than a traditional love story, thanks to the careful writing of playwright Jose Rivera. The boy and girl are named Anibal de la Luna and Celestina del Sol, drawn together like celestial bodies in an ever-spiraling orbit. Celestina exists out of time, losing track of previous relationships and the date of her baby's conception. Clocks stop. A night lasts two years in Celestina's mesmerizing stride.

As before, Sharon Graci plays Celestina del Sol. The PURE co-founder is fresh from a stint on Army Wives (presumably one of the reasons for the short rehearsal time). Her performance is the bedrock of this show; last year, she made her character a hauntingly beautiful pleasure to watch.

Anibal de la Luna is played by Rodney Lee Rogers, also appearing in Eurydice and The Tragedian (another reason for the stripped-down rehearsals). Music is provided by guitarist Michael Moran. Matt Bivins, who has played Anibal's brother Nelson, is moving to Chicago. PURE regular David Mandel takes Bivins' place.

The other major change is the space.

PURE has left its black box space in the Cigar Factory, its home of five years, now that the downtown building is being turned into condos, shops, and offices. Cloud Tectonics is being produced at the equally intimate Circular Church instead, with the same alley seating configuration on either side of the performance area.

Rogers' main concern has been transferring the play wholesale to a new place. "We had to research how to draw on the floor in the church," he says, referring to the lack of furniture in Anibal's house (there are mere outlines instead). "We're trying to keep the simplistic beauty of the piece."

PICCOLO SPOLETO • $25 • 1 hour 20 min. • June 5-7 at 7:30 p.m. • Circular Congregational Church, 150 Meeting St. • (888) 374-2656

As a roving Spoleto reporter, I've been able to catch a whole bunch of shows and let people know whether they're worth paying for or not (IMHO). Click on the links below to find out what I thought about the following productions.

I saw Harvard Sailing Team at the American Theater. Since they're from New York and they've been suriving the comedy clubs there for years, I thought the sketch comedians would be edgy as well as energetic. But their humor wasn't nasty at all; in fact it was good-natured and quite family friendly.

One of the highlights of the show was when the entire group did a stand up act in unison. For a polar opposite, I saw two one man shows: Rodney Lee Rogers' electrifying The Tragedian at Lance Hall and Marc Bamuthi Joseph's the break/s at the Emmett Robinson Theatre. Both performers are masters of their arts (Rogers, acting; Bamuthi, poetry and movement).

Marc Bamuthi Joseph, giving it some 'tude.

I also caught Under the Lights, ten short plays by ten College of Charleston playwrights at Chapel Theatre. A couple of very strong short plays made the show worth watching.

To lighten up, I also saw Scheer and McBrayer at Theatre 99. Both improv comedians are TV stars (Scheer's on MTV's Human Giant and VH1's Best Week Ever. McBrayers's a regular on 30 Rock). The joint was packed, so I stood to one side of the stage with Theatre 99 performers like Jenny Pringle and Lee Lewis. A good time was had by all.

More reviews (and blogs and photos and podcasts) to come as the festival enters its final week.

An Interview with Eurydice's father

PURE Theatre are producing "Eurydice" at 10 Storehouse Row this week. I interviewed the heroine's father.