Jul 20, 2007  |  By: JOEY DIGUGLIELMO  | COMMENTS     

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.VA — Intelligent and thought-provoking plays are being staged once again this summer at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in nearby Shepherdstown, W.Va., (about 70 miles from Washington), the annual event’s 17th season.

For local residents who’ve never made the trek to tiny Shepherdstown, home to Shepherd University which hosts the festival, it’s a worthwhile trip as CATF, which has four plays in rotation through the end of the month, is widely regarded as one of the country’s best venues for new plays. No big gay angles this year, but the works are as smart and professionally done as anything you’d see at Washington’s Studio Theatre or Woolly Mammoth.

Below are brief reviews of the show. For a more detailed analysis, see my related blog at the Blade’s website, washingtonblade.com.

“1001” by Jason Grote juxtaposes medieval Persia and several tales from “Arabian Nights” with a modern-day story of romance and activism that plays out in New York and Gaza. Most of its six cast members take on quintuple, sextuple and septuple roles, though Zabryna Guevara and Jonathan C. Kaplan play only two each — two sets of lovers.

“1001” has a lot going for it. Robert Klingelheoffer’s octagon-shaped, bi-level set is amazing; playwright Grote and director Ed Herendeen (CATF’s founder) each do their job to keep the action moving; and the actors are well cast and uniformly strong.

But the sheer number of stories thrown at us is so staggering, the effect becomes numbing. Thankfully each tale is introduced (“the story of so-and-so, part one”), but after about 25 times, a why-should-we-care attitude threatens to set in like theatrical rigor mortis.

In “Lonesome Hollow” by Lee Blessing, two convicted sex offenders, Tuck (Sheffield Chastain) and Nye (Lou Sumrall) are exiled to a prison camp called Lonesome Hollow in the “soonish” future.

The problem here is two-fold: even before we’ve seen the extent to which Blessing’s totalitarian society operates, we’ve figured out the gist of the play and the only thing to do is watch things grow grimmer.

FOLLOWING THIS YEAR’S apparent political and social themes is “My Name is Rachel Corrie.” The show has its origins in diaries kept by a 23-year-old girl from Olympia, Wash., who was run over and killed by a bulldozer while trying to prevent a house from being destroyed in Gaza in 2003. Anne Marie Nest plays the title role in this one-woman show.

Accusations of anti-Semitism that have dogged the play seem ludicrous upon seeing the production. It’s obvious from Corrie’s writings that she was more concerned about making peace than taking sides. It’s a touching, well-acted piece, but comes off more as a glorified monologue with a spare style than a great piece of theater.

In stark contrast — and purposefully so — is “The Pursuit of Happiness,” a comedy that shows an upper-middle-class family thrown into a tailspin when only child Jodi (Carter Niles) decides not to go to college.

The script, which explores happiness and the lengths Americans are willing to go to achieve it, is more cute than hysterical and raises lots of interesting questions about happiness, contentedness and joy.

Ripe themes for consideration but they were raised more effectively with last year’s blue collar-themed “Augusta.” It made the point that money doesn’t equal happiness, so it’s hard for this second play in the series to break any new ground.