"Up"

Theatre review
"Up" at Syracuse Stage
Ithaca Times
March 11, 2009
793 words
"Balancing Act"

full text here

Balancing Act

by Mark Tedeschi

"Up," by Bridget Carpenter. Directed by Penny Metropulos. Starring Christopher Duval, Susannah Flood, Suzanna Hay, Todd Jefferson Moore, Graham Powell, Mhari Sandoval. With scenic designer Michael V. Sims, costume designer Maggie Dick, lighting designer Thomas C. Hase, and sound designer/composer Ryan Rumery.

This year's Oscar-winning documentary was about a man who spent four years planning and executing an illegal wire walk across the two World Trade Center towers. The film presents explicitly the How of his feat, but can only rely on conceptual explanations for the Why. The single, inexorable reason offered by Philippe Petit, the title "Man on Wire": It was his dream.

Since Petit completed the walk in 1974, the amount of time, energy, and money he spent fulfilling his dream has been baffling minds perhaps moreso than the actual event. Petit's long-term dedication advances his accomplishment from ludicrous to transcendent. He nurtured a love and a talent, set a goal utterly insane by quotidian standards, and followed the plan to completion. The fascination with dream pursuit, as it relates (topically) to family and finance - as well as an investigation of Philippe Petit as an inspirational archetype - courses through the veins of Syracuse Stage's latest feature, Bridget Carpenter's "Up."

Director Penny Metropulos has praised Carpenter's "ability to move in and out of reality with disarming agility." In "Up," Metropulos holds true to that form. The ethereal production design is grounded by a rock-solid cast, unleashing performances at once comforting and exciting. "Up" zeroes in on the Griffins - Walter (Todd Jefferson Moore); his wife, Helen (Mhari Sandoval); and their son, Mikey (Graham Powell) - a family scratching to find that holy-grail balance between what they wish to do, what they "should" do, and what they can afford to do. Playwright Penny Metropulos based Walter on a real person named Larry Walters who, like Petit, decided the sky was the limit; in 1982, he tethered 42 weather balloons to a lawn chair and flew, unauthorized, 16,000 feet into the air across Southern California.

The play takes place 16 years later: Walter insists on keeping his thoughts out of and away from the box, focusing his efforts on impractical inventions that place a monetary burden on his loving, hard-working, mail-carrying wife. Powell plays their son with a crippling uncertainty as two conflicting ideologies wreak havoc on his developing psyche.

Mikey finds a bit of direction on the first day of sophomore year, when a spunky, six-months-pregnant new girl, Maria (Susannah Flood) spots and grills him. At first, Mikey is as scared of her as I'd have been at that age, but her congenial sincerity bonds them into a close friendship rife with romantic chemistry. Maria's Aunt Chris (Suzanna Hay) offers him a gig in her office supply sales business, and Mikey discovers a lucrative knack.

The acting in "Up" lends the already poignant script an additional closeness. When Flood weeps, she seems to notice her tears less than you will your own. She and Moore as the two teenagers find themselves entrenched in scattered emotional outpours as their characters discover that living doesn't inevitably become easier with time. Long tormented by that truth, Walter turns to Philippe Petit (Christopher Duval), who saunters occasionally across a platform "wire" high in the background, for nuggets of advice like "A bird does not carry a wallet!" that sounds a little too idealistic to be helpful.

Michael V. Sims's hypnotic set, the background and translucent pillars (moved about by crews clad in jumpsuits and headsets) all painted with a cloudy sky pattern, evokes a waking dreamworld under soft yellow lighting (Thomas C. Hase, designer). When the conflict intensifies, the stage is shocked with a blaze of green or red, the former accompanying a spike in overlapped dialogue. Sound designer and composer Ryan Rumery creates a mood that matches the setting - quiet, orchestral tunes featuring an array of instruments from acoustic guitar to accordion.

The costumes (Maggie Dick, designer) reveal character: Aunt Chris wears a loud vest and sparkly jeans, sequins all around; Walter looks frazzled in his ruffled shirt with rolled-up sleeves; and cautious Mikey in a blend-in polo becomes go-getting Michael between acts with a handy tuck-in and posture adjustment.

Eventually, Walter focuses considerably more on distancing himself from the stranglehold of money than Helen does on earning enough to support their family. Michael defends his father's right to follow a dream, but responds with fury when he finds out his father has been flat-out dishonest about his latest enterprise.

Though it concludes with a note of triumph, "Up" leaves the characters we've grown close to in a state of bleak disrepair. As Maria reminds Mikey, most people search their whole lives to find what makes them special, but she doesn't offer any counsel on balance - a crucial element, especially today, that the Griffins can't seem to pin. Still, the sentiment of Philippe Petit and Larry Walters, simple in theory and backbreaking in practice, remains: Follow your dreams, however high, no matter the cost.


Suzanna Hay, Todd Jefferson Moore and Mhari Sandoval in the Syracuse Stage production of ‘Up.’ (Photo by T. Charles Erickson)