Mystery Play
By ROBERT S. WALTERS World Entertainment Writer 6/28/00
John Crunleton plays Romolo in the Midwestern Theater Troupe's production of "Romolo the Great." Kelly Kerr / Tulsa World
Allegory combines ancient myths, a tightrope walker and a puppet
For the Midwestern Theater Troupe, it's a tag team effort explaining just what the heck their new play, "Romolo the Great" is about. Is it about the circus, or is it a fantastical allegory packed with historical and mythical allusions?
There's no doubt that the young upstarts of the Midwestern, now at home in their new digs at the the Nightingale Theater, have a definite knack for ambiguity. Frankly, they revel in it.
Midwesterners Sara Cruncleton, Amber Reeves and John Cruncleton, the troupe's primary creative motivator, initially seem more anxious to discuss "Romolo's" rind instead of its fruit.
"There's humor, drama and a large puppet," said Sara Cruncleton.
"We also have a seance, and fully committed stage fight with whips and umbrellas," said Reeves. "It's wacky stuff."
A pie in the face. Clowns. Practical jokes. Audience participation. Wacky stuff indeed. "Romolo" sounds like a trip to one of those Off-Broadway theaters specializing in the avant garde and audience-centered performance art.
While the troupers are enthusiastic, their conversation about "Romolo" is of the "Miller Lite" variety. It tastes great, but is less filling.
Fortunately, froth is not the Midwestern Theater Troupe's style.
"If someone comes to this play looking for linear statements, they're going to be disappointed," said John Cruncleton, "Romolo's" writer-director.
The show is about two brothers, Romolo and Remo, who were raised in the circus. Each has had a relationship with the ringmaster's daughter, Sabine. Remo leaves the circus for particular reasons (which may or may not be explained in the play). The play actually starts with Remo's return to the circus seven years later.
"I see (`Romolo') as being a blueprint for initiation, a blueprint for the mysteries of life," Cruncleton said.
Cruncleton contends that "nobody wakes up one morning and says they want to seek spiritual truths" and that "Romolo" is about that moment "when you slowly begin to wake up to the meaning of your reality."
The play utilizes the story of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, who were rejected and ordered killed by their uncle, left for dead in a basket, then raised by wolves. But given Cruncleton's past plays, it may be assuming too much to say that "Romolo" is a straightforward adaptation. What has made Cruncleton's plays intriguing is his will to deviate from expectation.
While the myth Romulus and Remus serves as a template for "Romolo the Great," Cruncleton says he found a deeper inspiration, not in the works of another writer, but in the work of a Soviet composer.
"Most of this play was inspired by Prokofiev's Third Symphony," said Cruncleton. "He had a way of cutting up his musical themes, then reassembling them. He would interrupt his themes with blasts of sound."
Much like Prokofiev's cutting-reassembling technique, Cruncleton dissects various historical, literary, mythological and even contemporary allusions and reassembles them into a new form.
The reserved writer-director says that his writing style is really nothing out of the ordinary.
"The idea of riffing on a chain of association . . . that's been the focal point of the 20th century. There's a method of skimming your subconscious for symbols. The associations you make with those symbols make sense to you, no matter what you do with them. Ideally, you can take those symbols and create something else meaningful, using those same set of symbols," he said.
Sara Cruncleton says that the Midwestern has attempted to push the show in the direction of reality.
"We've all worked hard to make this show as real as it can be. As an audience member it's like you're eavesdropping on someone's conversation. Of course, there are things that happen that wouldn't normally happen as well," she says.
While the show has various spectacles, Cruncleton says that the show is not grounded in them.
"The puppets and everything else, they're tools. We're using the tools to create a viewpoint that's unique. It's not about the tools. It's about what you do with them."
Despite the cloak of mystery and uncertainty he drapes over "Romolo the Great," Cruncleton knows that one thing is certain: "People who are coming out to see Neil Simon will be disappointed," he said.
"Romolo the Great" presented by Midwestern Theater Troupe
When: 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, July 6-8 2000
Where: Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St.
Tickets: $5 each. Call 583-8487 [As of February 2007, 633-8666]
Robert S. Walters, World entertainment writer, can be reached at 581-8334 or via e-mail at robert.walters@tulsaworld.com.