Date: Fri 13-Aug-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: MELISS

Quick Words:

Yale-Cabaret-Hope-Bob

Full Text:

THEATER REVIEW: There Is Hope For Yale Summer Cabaret's Closer

(with cut)

By June April

NEW HAVEN -- The high point of A Man Called Hope , the final production of

this year's Yale Summer Cabaret, is about midway through the one-person play,

when Alicia Roper transforms herself into Fifi Boujeau.

Simply by an instantaneous altering of her body posture, a graceful and pert

character appears. Ms Roper changes from the main character, Miss Sally Fox,

who is convinced she is the conduit for the entertainer Bob Hope, into a sexy

French lass with a comparable problem. Only Fifi's bugaboo is the comic Jerry

Lewis.

Part of the Yale Summer Cabaret tradition -- which is observing its 25th

anniversary this summer -- is to include an original play each season written

by a Yale graduate. The choice of Brian W. Robinson's A Man Called Hope is

something of a conundrum. There are some funny, almost brilliant flashes

scattered here and there in the play, but overall one walks out mumbling, "So

what have I missed?"

It would seem, as the far as the script goes, not much. That's not to say (if

the reader will excuse the pun) that there isn't hope for this piece. As the

great acting teacher Constantine Stanislavsky pointed out, less is more; and a

heavy hand editing this would be advantageous.

As Sally Fox, Alicia Roper is wonderful with her timing and facial reactions.

A photographer of Linda Boggs, who took her husband's seat from the second

district of Louisiana when the airplane he was a passenger in suddenly

disappeared, is almost worshipped by Ms Fox. However, when the name of Boggs'

daughter, Cokie Roberts (a reporter for National Public Radio), comes up, the

Fox face becomes contorted with disgust and rage.

There are some groaners scattered throughout the play, among them, "I was just

about ready to give up hope" and "...hope is a word filled with promise and

potential."

In this case, to misquote Shakespeare, "`tis not the play's the thing, rather

the actor the king." In other words, people should go see A Man Called Hope

because Alicia Roper is an actor with talent, a lot of talent. It's fun to

watch how she handles herself as Bob Hope, Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Delano

Roosevelt and Fifi.

Credit for sensitive and creative directing is due Wier Harman. Formerly the

resident director at Settle's Annex Theatre before attending the Yale School

of Drama, Mr Harman shows he has the ability to make something that is

lumbering into a production that keeps an audience's attention. And that's not

an easy task.

( A Man Called Hope continues playing through August 14 at Yale's Summer

Cabaret, at 217 York Street. For tickets and other information, call

432-1567.)