RSS 2.0 FeedNovember 2, 2011, Cover Stories, Theatre
“Kisses” is a subtle seaside seduction
David Cale’s one-man show "The History of Kisses," playing through November 27 at Kansas City Repertory Theatre’s Copaken Stage, is a languorous but rewarding series of fleeting seaside romances.
A writer, isolated at an oceanfront motel, crafts stories of affairs, chance encounters, and secret pasts, all while sandwiched between the rooms of an Australian surfer-cum-motel-clerk and an English folk singer practicing sea shanties for an annual Maritime Festival in California. Though the piece sometimes drags, Cale’s expert character development and subtle, versatile performances make it worth sticking to the end to see how the tales overlap and intertwine.
Joined through a series of traditional sea shanties, written and sung in a beautifully raw, Irish accent by Cale, the tales introduce a motley assortment of characters. These include the aforementioned, emotional songwriter; the sex-crazed but head-over-heels Aussie; the writer in an accidental meet-up with a dentist and fish-tank enthusiast; a woman searching for just one moment of bliss that results in her only child; a business-trip affair featuring a wannabe park ranger with a Brooklyn accent; and a man on a “foolish” night stroll with Judy Garland, among others.
What’s so real about these stories is the characters’ short-lived, sometimes awkward moments of realization or happiness. Life is rarely as tidy as we dream it, but it can also be more tumultuous than we envision, too, and Cale captures this. His ability to delve into the psyche of so many female characters and play beyond caricature and stereotype also strikes a chord. Cale gets both men and women and understands that our conceptions of love or yearning or loss are often not so far apart.
But The History of Kisses isn’t all seriousness. In a moment of wild passion with a Portuguese stranger, all the woman can think about is that she’s never kissed a man with a mustache. The writer dreams up an erotic cooking show hosted by the Aussie motel clerk, who gives a play-by-play recipe for love-making that elicited an “oh my God” from a woman in the audience. And later, Cale runs, whooping, in triumphant circles around a battered lifeguard stand center stage as a woman who’s just been told she’s a “great fuck.”
The set (Eric Southern), lighting (Beverly Emmons), sound (Andre Pleuss) and costume (Laura Bauer) provide a sparse backdrop that complements Cale’s multilayered stories. Cale wears khaki cords, blue slip-on shoes and a casual blue button-down with the sleeves rolled up—a blank slate for the many characters he embodies. The stage is covered in sand, a lonely lifeguard stand sits center, an easel with cards featuring story titles and characters’ names stands stage left and a large rock sits stage right. Stone steps lead down into the auditorium from the stage, ready for an epic moment in which Cale enters the audience. A particularly subtle and effective moment of lighting occurs when one character looks out a plane window at night, blue light awash on her face. The far-away sounds of splashing surf and foghorns accent but don’t intrude upon each tale.
Criticisms are few, but the show isn’t perfect. Cale’s accents, ranging from American to Irish to English to Australian, aren’t always consistent. Some of the jokes try a little too hard, are out of touch, or fall flat, such as, “That kiss could’ve had its own zip code!” or when a character’s son tells her “Facebook is for little girls.” In today’s world, he would never say that, as he would be obsessed with stalking his friends. The pace dawdles occasionally, and some stories are more fleshed out than others. Still, none of this is enough to take away from Cale’s overall vision or impact.
Ending on the slow, bittersweet shanty, “See Ya by the Sea,” the songwriter sings, “I’ll hover ‘round the edges of your life.” Cale’s The History of Kisses hovers around the edges of love and yet begs its audience to dive in.
The History of Kisses runs through Nov. 27. The show is 90 minutes without intermission.
REVIEW:
Kansas City Repertory Theatre
The History of Kisses
October 21–November 27, 2011 (Reviewed Friday, October 28)
Copaken Stage
13th and Walnut, Kansas City, MO
For tickets call 816-235-2700 or online at www.KCRep.org
Top Photo: David Cale in The History of Kisses (Photo by Don Ipock)
Theatre Contributor
Jessica Showers, a long-time believer in the collaborative power of the performing arts, is a Midwest native and Kansas City-based arts journalist. She is on the editorial board for The Sondheim Review, a quarterly magazine dedicated to the work of renowned composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Jessica received a master's degree in arts journalism with a focus in theatre from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a bachelor's degree in magazine journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. As part of her graduate coursework, Jessica partnered with Charleston, S.C.'s daily paper The Post and Courier to cover theatre at Spoleto Festival USA. She also interned in New York City for American Theatre magazine and for Syracuse Stage, Syracuse, N.Y.'s local LORT theatre organization. Jessica looks forward to delving into Kansas City's wealth of theatricality and sharing it with KCM's readers.
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