Chesapeake, Profile Theatre, (Grade A)

Written By: Lee Blessing
Director: Scott Yarbrough
Cast:
Todd Van Voris  .....  Kerr

sez says: BRAVO.... this was great entertainment--and based on Blessings definition of ART.. a piece with an artistic flare too.*  If you are a bi-sexual performance artist from a southern state where a nationally prominent homophobe and an all around right-wing scoundrel what do you do?  Move to NY of course.  But even in NY you can't escape being uses and abused by the aforementioned scoundrel when he wants to run for Senator.  You are angry and you decide to kidnap his dog (a creature used by the scoundrel in advertisements as an icon of his own classic American values --a man and his dog, etc).  The kidnapping goes wrong and the next thing you have become the bad-guy Senator's DOG!  But you can type--so you communicate with the Senator, who thinks you are a messenger from God.  That sounds pretty wacky now doesn't it.  But is works.  And there is plenty left out in my short replay--and Van Voris is on the mark here.  He is perfectly cast and he reads this piece well.  It is fun--it is funny--and it is dead serious.  (Grade A)

mjc says:  we saw this performed at Second Stage in NYC in 1999 with Mark Linn-Baker.  It holds up fine. But then it is my cup of tea.  I want to believe that even the most retrograde politician can brought to see the light and if there is a way to do that a dog is the way.

* Blessing defines art as follows: (paraphrased) art only exists if it contains controversy. If there is no controversy than what you are engaging is entertainment--not art.  There is nothing wrong with entertainment--but don't confuse it with art.