Emerald Coast Theatre Consultant

Shaw Festival Visit: June 23, 2009 Moon For The Misbegotten

Let’s face it:   I love Jim Mezon’s acting!   And I also love Joseph Ziegler’s directing!  And together with  Jenny Young and David Jansen, wow, what an afternoon of theatre it was.
 
First of all, the setting is absolutely perfect.  The set took you where you needed to be and the actors held you there.
 
At first glance, one might think that a term like “cow” does not apply to the thin Jenny Young (Josie Hogan) but you soon forget that.   A really good example of what the Shaw has shown me over the years:   they don’t cast to “type”, they cast to talent first!   She does an admirable portrayal. 
 
Jim Mezon as her father Phil is nothing short of spectacular.  When watching him, easy to feel, hard to describe.  Using water and what looked like a well used soggy handkerchief to dilute either the booze or cool the heat of the day, he spits and sputters trying just to maintain.  
 
Director Ziegler’s staging that ends the first act lets the audience know exactly how precipitously close to DT’s James Tyrone, Jr. is most of the time.  The role is brilliantly played by David Jansen.  It is a very difficult tight road to walk and he does it with a fine artistic sense. I don’t recall if that is where O’Neill ended the first act, but from this staging, if he didn’t he should have!         
 
A flawless production.  Period.
 

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