"Communications from a Cockroach: archy and the underside"
by Ralph Lee, with Scott Cargle
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| Mehitabel and Archy in "Communications from a Cockroach" (Richard Termine photo) |
"Communications from a Cockroach: archy and the under side"
Adapted from the poems of Don Marquis
Adapted, designed and directed by Ralph Lee
Produced by The Mettawee River Theatre Company and The Shakespeare Project
Summer Tour of New York City Parks: see below for complete schedule
Call the Shakespeare Project Hotline at 212-479-7710 for updates
Don Marquis, who died in 1937, was the author of a fascinating, now obscure collection of poems and plays. His most significant claim to fame, however, was a series of newspaper columns that featured a loveable cockroach named archy who supposedly pounded out witty, acerbic philosophy on Marquis' typewriter one key at a time (and in small caps, since the shift key was beyond the tiny insect's capabilities). Among archy's cohorts was a scrappy, somewhat melodramatic alley cat named mehitabel, and in 1957 both of these characters made it to Broadway in the musical Shinbone Alley, starring Eddie Bracken and Eartha Kitt. (Mel Brooks was a co-author of this show.) Bracken had recorded a cast album several years earlier with Carol Channing, and it was with her that he worked on a quirky, 1971 animated film version of Shinbone.
It is not surprising that Ralph Lee would be attracted to this somewhat eccentric source material. As the artistic director of the Mettawee River Theatre Company, and as the creator of the legendary Halloween parade in Greenwich Village, Lee has long demonstrated a taste for the peculiar, as well as a brilliant flair for mask and puppet artistry. Both tendencies serve him well in Communications from a Cockroach: archy and the underside, which recently performed at Here Arts Center, in conjunction with Scott Cargle's Shakespeare Project. The show has just begun a tour of New York City parks that concludes with a September run at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
In one of the evening's finest moments, archy converses with the parched mummy of an Egyptian pharaoh who is horrified to find that he's been deposited in this country at the height of Prohibition.
"My political opponents back home always maintained that I would wind up in hell," says the pharaoh, "and it seems they had the right dope."
Another wonderful scene is inspired by an outraged contemporary of Marquis who condemned in print the proliferation of scenes in Broadway plays that took place in bed. Marquis' reaction was to concoct a teary melodrama in which the characters themselves were beds. Lee faithfully and hilariously recreates these characters: The damsel in distress is a divan with a seductively draped pillow; her stray lover is a hideaway bed; their child, of course, is a crib.
Needless to say, kids are not the only target audience of this whimsical puppet show, which features a moody, jazz score composed and performed by Neal Kirkwood. It takes a while for the production to get past a slow beginning in which we're introduced to the characters and their ramblings. But eventually Lee's marvelously expressive puppets and Kirkwood's Weill-like music are matched by theatrically compelling stories that are subversive and surprising. [Buck]
S C H E D U L E
We advise all readers to confirm dates by calling the number below. Performances
begin at 6:30 PM unless otherwise noted.
Shakespeare Project Hotline 212-479-7710
Thursday, June 28 Sunday, July 1 Sakura Park, Morningside
Heights, Manhattan West 121st Street & Riverside Drive
Saturday August 4 Sunday, August 5 Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island
1000 Richmond Terrace
Thursday, August 9 Sunday, August 12 Battery Park City, Manhattan Jefferson
Park at Chambers Street & West Side Highway
Thursday, August 16 Friday, August 17 Morningside Park, Harlem West 123rd
Street & Morningside Avenue
Saturday, August 18 Sunday, August 19 Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx Van Cortlandt
Mansion at West 242nd St. & Broadway
Thursday, August 23 Sunday, August 26 Fort Greene Park, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
DeKalb Avenue and Cumberland Street
Thursday, August 30 Friday, August 31 Sunset Park, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
41st Street & 5th Avenue
Saturday, September 1 Sunday, September 2 Performances begin at 6:00 PM
Socrates Sculpture Garden, Astoria, Queens Vernon Blvd. & Broadway; Queens
Thursday, September 6 Sunday, September 9 ; Thursday, September 13 Sunday
September 16 Performances begin at 7:30 PM Cathedral of Saint John the Divine,
Morningside Heights West 110th Street & Amsterdam Avenue .
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