Excellent cast answers call of ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’
After seeing Las Vegas Little Theatre’s "Dead Man’s Cell Phone," I don’t believe I’ll ever think of the title device in quite the same way.
Sarah Ruhl’s intriguing script gives us an unforgettable beginning: Jean (Ariana Miner) is sitting alone at a cafe, where a stranger’s phone rings incessantly at another table. Winds up he’s dead. She calls the police but doesn’t give up the cell. She begins to learn things about the man she wishes she never knew.
Director Ruth Pe Palileo and her excellent cast are comically buoyant as Jean gets to know the dead man’s family and tries to make them all happy by lying about the victim’s last words. Things turn deliciously ominous as the plot unfolds.
The show is full of surprises, from the first-act curtain to a celebratory ballet (choreographed and composed by Erin Marie Sullivan and Arles Estes) to the final curtain. Pe Palileo and light designer Deven Ceriotti envelop the action in slight fog, so that the drama has the softness of a dream. TJ Larsen’s set — full of natural colors and unrealistic, oddly placed platforms — offers a subtle suggestion of the supernatural. Even the clever, precise scene changes add to the story’s power.
But, as it should be, it’s the acting that’s center stage. Miner is properly shy — the sort of young woman people don’t notice. Mick Axelrod plays the dead man’s long overlooked brother, and it’s fascinating to watch how the actor shows his character slowly taking charge of his life.
Marlena Shapiro is nauseatingly elegant as "the other woman." Sue McNulty makes for a hysterically eccentric mother. Bonnie Belle suffers as the widow with equal parts grace and anger. And as the stranger whose demise affects Jean so deeply, Geo Nikols’ powerful, grounding presence proves riveting both in death and life.
Pe Palileo has found just the right tone for this work (except perhaps in the heavy-handed final scenes following the ballet). She’s milked the humor while still getting at the deeper layers of the story that require a gentle touch.
Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat @aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.