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'Cell Phone' message is loud and clear
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Published: June 10, 2010
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If a ringing cell phone goes unanswered, the owner of said phone is probably dead. This is just one of the tragicomic ironies of Sarah Ruhl's "Dead Man's Cell Phone," an innovative play that Jobsite Theater has produced to remarkable effect.
Jean (Meg Heimstead) is sitting in a cafe and writing (with old-fashioned pen and paper), when a cell phone at a nearby table interrupts her Zen. The unnatural dings are jarring enough, but it's super annoying when the stranger (Steve Garland) who owns the device won't pick up.
Jean soon realizes the reason for this breach in etiquette. Cadavers can't answer the phone. So she does what any bored buttinsky would do: she hits "talk" on his behalf and takes a message.
Via someone else's calling plan, Jean soon dials herself into another life. After meeting Gordon Gottlieb, a.k.a. the Dead Man, she gets to know his mother (Elizabeth Fendrick), his underappreciated brother Dwight (Michael C. McGreevy), his boozy widow Hermia (Katrina Stevenson) and his certifiable mistress (Summer Bohnenkamp-Jenkins).
She becomes a balm to the family, fabricating Gordon's last words to soothe the hearts he's left behind. Conversely, the Gottliebs and their secret grisly business give Jean purpose in her presumably mundane life.
"Dead Man's Cell Phone" would have to be read or seen at least twice to catch all of Ruhl's messages. Her most basic premise is the current state of communication, its conduits and myriad ways of being manhandled. Her take is tender yet exasperated, as though she's head-flicking us and asking why we don't do a better job connecting.
Director David M. Jenkins picked the perfect actor to play the corpse (she said with affection). No one could do it like Garland. He'd gone AWOL from Jobsite's stage, but he's back and, amazingly, better than ever.
Heimstead lent an old-school Hollywood feel to this production, invoking the tenacious curiosity that hallmarked early performances of Lucille Ball or Rosalind Russell. The same can be said for the rest of the cast, all hugely talented, subtle and charming.
Special note: Fendrick can't take credit for writing the hilariously unexpected line, "You're comforting, like a very small casserole," but her delivery cracked me up. As the grieving mother, veiled in black at the funeral that suffers terminus interruptus because of Gordon's stupid cell phone, she could have peeled paint off the walls with her acid tongue. She was droll to the nth degree and really fun to watch.
THEATER REVIEW
Dead Man's Cell Phone
WHEN: Through June 20; 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, Shimberg Playhouse, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa
HOW MUCH: $24.50; (813) 222-1001 or www.strazcenter.org
RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes
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