Stage Review: Better staging might do wonders with 'Miracle Worker'

Carly Nahon and Nicole Renee Hale are cast members of "The Miracle Worker," Circuit Playhouse's inaugural production in its new space, the former Playhouse on the Square. Rory Dale

The main difference between the newly christened Circuit Playhouse and the old Playhouse on the Square (at 51 S. Cooper), besides some handsome new neon on the marquee, is a slightly larger stage. A few rows of seats were taken out in the front, and now the actors and designers have a little more room to work.

However, the first play to open in the new Circuit, "The Miracle Worker," is an excellent example of how not to take advantage of a bigger space. The sprawling, ugly multilevel set designed by Kathryn E. Springmann gives the cast the kind of cramped performance space you'd find in a doll's house (not of the Ibsen variety). They'd have an easier time acting their way out of an Escher drawing.

Carly Nahon and Nicole Renee Hale are cast members of "The Miracle Worker," Circuit Playhouse's inaugural production in its new space, the former Playhouse on the Square. Rory Dale

Space is vital in William Gibson's action-packed drama about the turning point in the life of Helen Keller. So is atmosphere. And in directing this production like the straightforward period piece staged every summer down at Keller's home in Alabama, Heather Wilson misses the opportunity to establish Circuit Playhouse as a venue of unique perspectives.

The script remains a solid blend of entertaining theatrics (Captain Keller heroically and awkwardly retrieving the teacher Annie Sullivan from a second-floor window via a ladder) and psychological exploration (Annie is haunted by voices from the institution where she learned to teach blind children).

Any production should give at least some expressionistic sense of what the two main characters -- Annie and Helen -- are experiencing in the savage darkness that brings them together. They are locked in an unprecedented struggle that should remind us how language makes us human. And yet, this "Miracle Worker" plods on like a movie of the week. How will a good, upstanding family ever find peace with a deaf-blind monster child running around? Can the beast be tamed?

The bad staging coalesces in the epic battle scene in which Annie tries to show Helen how to eat with a spoon at the dinner table. Helen's back is to the audience the whole time. Dishes fly through the invisible wall into the living room. Dragging, slapping, stomping, grunting and kicking their way around the densely arranged furniture, Annie and Helen do their best to keep from tumbling over the edge of their acting area and onto the front lawn.

It's been noted that the real Annie Sullivan, born in Massachusetts, had a slight Irish lilt, though actress Laura Stracko has clearly kissed the Blarney stone. Her sass adds color, certainly, as does the wide array of Southern spoken by the Kellers.

Two young girls, Carly Nahon and Erica Peninger, play Helen on different nights. At Friday's opening, it was Nahon, whose hair, a magnificent wavy mane, gave her the fierceness of a feral rag doll.

"The Miracle Worker" is one of the 20th century's great biographical plays. But it doesn't need to be told like a Lifetime movie. It could be managed just as well with a minimal set and intuitive lighting suggestive of the isolation that Helen and Annie must feel as people struggling with their disabilities. The short Circuit, in this respect, might have been an even better stage for the job.

"The Miracle Worker"

Continues 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through March 21 at Circuit Playhouse, 51 S. Cooper. Tickets are $30 adults, $20 students and seniors, $10 children. Call 726-4656.

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