One of Seattle’s newest theatre companies is a two-man outfit known as Wanderweg Productions. Started by Mathew Jackson and Bryan Sullivan, who met in 2006, Wanderweg “was born out of the idea of creating heartfelt and visceral art through collaboration.” Their first production is called “The Celtic Cross,” a two-act drama set in Belfast, Ireland during the early 1990s, the last few years of a period known as “The Troubles,” which refers to the thirty years of violence and terrorism between Protestant Loyalists and Catholic Nationalists.
The play tells the story about the unlikely friendship that develops between “Jacob,” the Protestant, played by Bryan Sullivan, and “Thomas,” the Catholic, played by Mathew Jackson. According to the company, the play “explores what it means to be Protestant, Catholic, Irish, British, too powerful for your own good, but too weak to change anything.” It was written by Mathew Jackson himself.
Although this show definitely has some potential, (some of the dialogue really captures the Irish wit and tone quite well), it also needs some work, — and one of the top things that it needs is an actual director. It is obvious that Sullivan and Jackson have lots of talent as actors, but their energy is too focused on their characters and not enough on staging. This is unfortunate, but it is what often happens when you have two passionate actors who want to collaborate together on a show, but who do not involve a director: all of their good intentions get lost in bad staging. Unless they are just spectacularly gifted as theatre artists, actors need a director’s eye, one that can help them not only build their character, but more importantly, one that has a global view of the entire production, and can focus on blocking issues, pacing issues, and on tightening up the whole show, which “The Celtic Cross” needs.
There were also some problems with the script itself. Being a two-person show, it is much harder to keep the audience’s attention for the two-hour run, especially when the setting does not change, nor does the overall tone of the play. One of the kinks that needs to be ironed out in this play is the passage of time; it is never quite clear how many years have passed and how long the two characters have actually known each other. Also, more needs to be explained concerning how their friendship developed and why it was sustained. There are also too many unnecessary blackouts between scenes; this is a big theatrical no-no as it destroys the pace of a show, and could have been avoided with the 3rd eye of a director no doubt. Finally, the show stays on one level of intensity the entire time, which is heavy, brooding, and slow. The script definitely needs a bit more variation in tempo.
This said, “The Celtic Cross” is a pretty good first effort on behalf of the new company. Unfortunately, they had a very small audience on opening night, which I am sure was a disappointment to the cast, but they nevertheless did a professional job in terms of the acting. They were fully committed and engaged. The big thing here is to get a director, pick up the pace, work out the kinks in the script, and tighten, tighten, tighten! I hope to see more from this group in the future.
“The Celtic Cross” is now playing at Washington Ensemble Theatre at 19th Ave. E. and Mercer on Capitol Hill. http://wanderwegproductions.com