Jim Farrell's comic drama Trailer Park Prophecies makes its local debut here with The Splinter Group this month. It's a charming story of simple rural American folk. It's set just a few years ago in a place where everyone seems to be struggling to make ends meet on the low end of the socioeconomic spectrum.
Playwright Jim Farrell drops the paranormal into the setting and lets it breathe. Evidently Farrell was fascinated by the powers attributed to Edgar Cayce and imagined what those powers might be like if put in a completely different setting.
Marquette grad Joe Picchetti stars as Charlie--a man who hasn't quite grown-up who still lives with his mother. He's a spirit medium with clairvoyance. Given the right conditions, he can relax into a trance and let the spirit take over. His mother Angela (Linda Loving) is convinced that it's a gift from the Lord. The only other consistent figure in Charlie's life is Chelsea Cisco (Emily Vitrano)--a beautiful girl who works at the local Sonic who visits every day and watch him work. Things get kind of complicated for Charlie and company when a desperate police detective (Bryce Lord) comes to him to help him track down a kidnapped girl.
Given the territory that the script is treading, it could quite easily become a crime drama or a supernatural mystery. Farrell keeps the story quite grounded in the characters themselves. This is actually a relief as the ensemble does a really good job of rendering interesting characters. It's nice to see Picchetti and Vitrano here in particular.
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Picchetti's come kind of al one way since he graduated from Marquette two years ago. There are a lot of angles to the role of Charlie. Picchetti does an excellent job of showing this character's psycho-emotional progression at a very pivotal point in his life. Given al that takes place for him, the challenge here is to show dramatic change without delivering a drastically different Charlie from one moment to the next. Picchetti keeps the complex emotional life of Charlie quite clear, consistent and above all believable. There IS, however, a slight problem in the way he underplays the power of the spirit that comes to inhabit his body. HERE Picchetti could have used a bit more of a pointed difference in the way he carries his voice. As the special effects are minimal, I guess I would have appreciated a bit more of a transformation on Picchetti's part when the spirit is present. That being said, Picchetti's approach is vastly preferable to a comically exaggerated difference between spirit and medium. It would be difficult to get the amplification of stage presence just right if Picchetti were to play it differently. Thankfully, Picchetti's taking the spirit much more seriously than that.
Vitrano plays a young woman going through her own transformation over the course of the events of the drama as well. She carries herself very much like any woman you might see working at a Sonic, but she's also got a depth to her that Vitrano renders with a playful poise. She's got a great sense of humor that shines and and sparkles in casual moments. Chelsea is a tender person who seems to care a lot for Charlie and everyone else in general. Her enthusiasm during the spirit medium scenes is a lot of fun to watch. It's really difficult to make romantic love seem authentic at all onstage--let alone in a play cluttered with so many other things. Vitrano and Picchetti make it work without overpowering the rest of what Farrell has going on in the story. Quite an accomplishment. An enjoyably casually romantic night at the theatre.
Splinter Group`s Trailer Park Prophecies runs through January 26th at the Marian Center on 3211 South Lake Drive. All shows start at 7:30 pm. For more information, visit Splinter Group Online.
