It sometimes seems that our city offers infinite opportunities to be entertained, but precious few places to experience true art. Happily, that dyspeptic perspective was dispelled last weekend by a pair of performances that proved quality culture is alive and well, and living in downtown Orlando.
On Friday, Feb. 17, the Dr. Phillips Center’s Great American Orchestra series continued with a special appearance by the Philadelphia Orchestra, under the baton of internationally renowned conductor Nathalie Stutzmann. I’ve been vocal about my criticisms of the “acoustically perfect” Steinmetz Hall before, but this concert showed the year-old venue at its very best. The program began with Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major, featuring Grammy-winning violinist Gil Shaham; his elfin exuberance while dexterously executing the notoriously difficult cadenza (sans seat or sheet music) earned the evening’s first of several standing ovations.
After intermission, Dvorak’s familiar Symphony No. 9 “From a New World” received an equally rousing rendition, with Stutzmann’s subtly restrained conducting becoming more boldly expressive through the languid Largo movement and into the dramatic Allegro con fuoco finale. In fact, the only flaw in this magnificent presentation was the one it exposed in the Steinmetz’s celebrated acoustic configuration, which includes seating audience members behind and above the orchestra: Just as you can clearly hear every toot, whistle and plunk from the stage, every cough, whisper and phone alarm from the peanut gallery carries across the hall with crystal clarity. Until additional sound dampening is installed to muffle the din from patrons, perhaps every concert here should simply be billed as an audience participation affair.
As wonderful as it was to start my weekend with a world-class import, my Saturday night spent with Kangagirl’s production of Will Eno’s Middletown was even more special, because it showed that Orlando’s homegrown talent is equal to the best in any city. The new Fringe ArtSpace in Church Street’s former Mad Cow Theatre has been active nonstop since debuting with January’s Winter Mini-Fest, and its stages have already hosted premieres from Blue Star’s VarieTease and Phoenix Tears Productions, as well as events and seminars with Whiskey Theatre Factory and Meka King’s SJM Creative. But watching Middletown was the moment I became convinced that Fringe ArtSpace can be an important positive force for platforming the kind of challenging, sophisticated theater that other venues may be deem too unconventional or noncommercial to take a chance on.
Much of the credit for the transcendent journey that is Middletown must go to director David Lee, who won awards for his performances of Eno’s solo shows at the Fringe. Lee has wanted to direct Middletown since discovering the script in 2010, and he told me after the show that he submitted it for ArtSpace’s opening season because he thought “the play would be an amazing piece of theatrical sage for the space and for the community,” citing members of his cast who had been “wounded by the previous incarnation of the space.”
“It’s just amazing to have them back in the space, full circle, ” Lee said.
To populate the close-knit community of Middletown — which is most easily summarized as a surrealist self-aware Our Town scripted by Samuel Beckett — Lee called upon many of his longtime friends (and mine), assembling the most overqualified acting ensemble Orlando has seen in ages. Joe Swanberg’s assertively obtuse police officer, Anitra Pritchard’s kindly (but kinda spooky) librarian, and Daniel Cooksley’s self-destructive shaman are just a few of the fractured, friendly people that you’ll meet in this neighborhood, which also includes Janine Klein, Megan Borkes, Robert Laurita, Nick Rodriguez and Barry G. White in brief but memorable moments.
In the middle of Middletown is Felichia Chivaughn as Mary Swanson, a newly arrived mother-to-be with an absent husband who forms a friendship with Michael Marinaccio’s John Dodge, a hard-luck handyman. Marinaccio gives a masterclass in dramatic range, from charming, childlike enthusiasm in the early scenes, to agonizing physicality in the (spoiler alert) heartrending ending. But it’s Chivaughn’s beatific calm and grounded serenity — despite being surrounded by a swirling storm of non sequiturs and shattered fourth walls — that makes her Mary the “regular human being” who truly holds Middletown together.
Every element of Middletown‘s production contributes to its intense emotional — even spiritual — impact, from Matt Lynx’s haunting original live score and Kyla Swanberg’s timeless costumes to Lee’s abstract set of floating windows, backlit in moonlight by Amy Hadley.
But Middletown is ultimately not about its visuals — it’s Eno’s powerful, perplexing poetry that this peerless cast gorges on with glee, proving that “making sounds with your mouth” is among the highest things humans can do.
And please don’t be intimidated out of seeing one of the best shows in years because I’ve made it sound too highbrow; just like Waiting for Godot, Middletown is often laugh-out-loud funny, and sometimes sounds like a SAK improv skit that’s gone off the rails. Fair warning, though: You’ll still want some tissues for the finale.
Following two first-class outings in a row, I’m officially eager to return downtown for more than booze and Broadway, but Orlando’s nightlife needs to meet arts-loving audiences halfway. After a performance, there’s currently nowhere available within walking distance to sit and talk over affordable food or drinks, without navigating aggressive crowds along Orange Avenue.
If the city really wants to shift the vibe, a couple of late-night venues catering to the culture crowd would be a smart start.
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This article appears in Feb 22-28, 2023.