"Bamboozled" at Central Works

Central Works photo by Jim Norrena

It's always something of a treat to go to Central Works plays. For one thing, their theater is a rather small room on the first floor of the Berkeley City Club, which is both a beautiful landmark building designed by Julia Morgan and also the place where my grandmother used to go swimming when I was a kid. So it's just a cool place. And on top of that, Central Works produces four plays a year, all of them world premiers, mostly by local playwrights. And they get lots of terrific local actors, and you get to see them in a really intimate space. What's not to like?

Anyway, the current offering, Bamboozled by resident playwright Patricia Milton, is precisely the sort of play Central Works does well. It's a small cast tackling a meaningful issue on both the substantive/policy level and the personal level as well.

The Play

Abby is a young antiques appraiser who specializes in American Civil War artifacts. Valuing Confederate artifacts is a little dicey for her because she is African American. She is also interested in researching her family history. As we meet her in the opening scene, these two aspects of her life both come into play. She is trying to convince Savannah, who works at a research center for just such  matters, to open her resources to help her find her twice-great grandmother, for whom Abby was named. It turns out Savannah is also working in the law office of the lawyers who are going to defend Abby in a civil lawsuit, in a case brought by some locals who believe Abby cheated them out of the value of their family Civil War mementos.

Basically, Abby was brought it to value these artifacts at the request of a boyfriend, whose family had heirlooms. Abby valued them for a rather low number, but they subsequently sold to a state museum for a cool million dollars, and the family wants the money, believing Abby has it. The boyfriend is a co-defendant, but they cases are being tried separately.

So we find ourselves in a law office in Shelby County, Tennessee. The lead partner in the firm is...indisposed, so Abby will be working with Rochelle, the hard-charging, attention-seeking lesbian lawyer who seems to have a track record of advancing her own career at the expense of some of her clients. This is a bone of contention with Savannah, in part because Savannah is a lawyer whose license got suspended as a result of Rochelle's hijinks, meaning she is currently reduced to clerical work in the office. Oh, and by the way the KKK is currently rallying outside the building to protest the impending removal of a Civil War memorial statue. There's a lot going on.

Things are already going a bit poorly when Opal Anne, the aunt of Abby's boyfriend, and the plaintiff in the case, suddenly appears and announces that she is representing herself. Opal Anne represents the Old South, the dedication to the Lost Cause, and so on.

I won't try to unravel all the fun that ensues. Suffice it to say that the plot is fairly intricate, with multiple characters in conflict with each other, even when they also need to pull together. And the script is also genuinely funny, with twists and turns that ratchet up both the drama and the humor in the script. Ultimately all four characters prove to be pretty interesting, which is a rare treat.

The Production

The time and space available for the show necessarily limit what the team can do, but within those constraints, they've come up with a pretty compelling set-up. We're in a conference room in the law office, with various people being sent out at times, often for prolonged periods, and often to their chagrin. Abby (Jeunée Simon) manages to remain remarkably calm in light of the lawsuit hanging over her head. Much is made of the racist temperament of the town, and Rochelle (Stacy Ross) hopes to create a situation that will produce a change of venue to someplace more sympathetic to Abby and her case.

One might expect Savannah (Chelsea Bearce) to be more of an ally to Abby, as she is also African American, but she has issues both with the Californian Abby and her treatment by Rochelle. Bearce manages to keep us guessing much of the time with sly, nuanced body language and facial expressions. She is, in many ways, the star of the show. And the unfashionable, atavistic Opal Anne (Susan Jackson) brings a whole new dynamic, as she gets to personally represent all the Civil War re-enactors and pretty much every racist, Southern stereotype you might want to throw out there. But she handles the load with aplomb.

Indeed, the casting is terrific all around. Watching Ross close up like this is a real treat. She was terrific in the big-stage production of Shakespeare in Love last year at Marin, but this is more like watching her in Aurora's Leni last year, as her personality can really fill up the small theater space. And yet, despite playing the character who seeks the limelight, she manages not to upstage the rest of the cast. Indeed, they all hold their own quite well--it's a very strong ensemble.

Technically, there's not much to the show. The lights and sound are pretty much limited by the setting in a single office space, with the occasional sound to remind us of the Klan rally outside. But this is definitely a show that lives and dies with the actors, and they come through.

Bottom Line

This is a really good play. It manages to be clever without being too full of itself, poignant at times without being cloying, and balances humor and drama pretty seamlessly. It's a treat to see the strong acting up close, though the configuration of the room necessarily makes it hard to see some bits if you sit toward the middle. But even with that, it's terrific.

The show we saw last Sunday was not just sold out, but oversold, so they added folding chairs and got everyone in. That enabled some of us to be even closer to the action than anticipated, but again, it's great.

The show has been extended a week, through March 25, so there are still opportunities to see it, and if it's still sold out, you can probably convince them to give you a folding chair. You won't be sorry.