The Wake

“This is a story of four souls bound together in their love for one another,” proclaims Johnny Oliver, an actor in University Theatre’s production of Las Meninas. He intends to continue his emotional-expressive delivery of this key monologue, but something is not quite right.

“Do it again,” says director Tisch Jones bluntly, observing him from the front row of the arena theatre in Rarig Center, where Las Meninas opens Feb. 24. “And don’t say anything this time. Show me.” Oliver looks confused. She explains, “Pretend you cannot talk, but you still have to make this story work. Make me understand. And be proud to tell it—this is the story of your life.”

Devoid of sound, Oliver reenacts the line with enhanced gestures at least 10 times over before Jones is finally satisfied. “See what you’re doing?” she smiles. “That’s beautiful.”

A demanding production like Las Meninas could never require any other sort of director. Jones is enthusiastic and particular, a commanding force who has shaped a unique interpretation of the largely unknown, but no less truthful, tale of oppression and loneliness amidst the search for love and identity. Not to mention, Las Meninas is a comedy.

Penned by Lynn Nottage, Les Meninas details the relationship between Queen Marie-Therese (Xanthia Walker), King Louis XIV (Matt Spring) and the Queen’s servant Nabo (Johnny Oliver), an African dwarf. Their awkward union escalates into a forbidden affair, and the Queen eventually gives birth to a black daughter, whom the disgusted Louis XIV has sent to a convent.

Thirty years later, a series of flashbacks tell the story narrated by the cast-off girl (Kelly Hendriksen), who we learn is now a nun about to take her final vow of silence. As an absolute monarch, Louis XIV had the power to erase the Queen’s story, a mistake Nottage, and now Jones, intend to undo.

“I spent a lot of time researching for this play,” she says. “We’re trying to rewrite the history books … It certainly makes a difference in how we look at the history.” Jones also noted this task requires the interpreters to take ownership of it all — “The good, the bad, and the ugly,” as she puts it.

Jones, who graduated from the University in 1977 with a bachelor of arts in theatre, previously directed Las Meninas at Grinnell College in Iowa. She is wholly responsible for a play-within-a-play approach that solved some initial casting challenges and instead allowed the main characters to be “acted out” by the convent’s nuns.

“She has created a whole different perspective to things,” says stage manager Jenna Papke of the play’s interesting premise.
“The cast has helped,” she continues, glancing fondly at her actors. “I think you should always cast accordingly, and I was sent some very beautiful people. There’s such an excitement and a freshness to everyone.”

Being both a political science and history major, Oliver could empathize with Nabo’s tribulations. “He tells stories because he misses his African home. It’s almost as if he has no history,” he says. “He shares this sense of comfort with the Queen because they make each other feel human.”

“Nabo is pegged as a barbarian or a savage, but he’s the most refined of the play,” Oliver says. “He’s angry, but he’s smart and cunning. The story proves that you can’t control human emotion through labels.”

Walker enjoys the challenging versatility of a character like Marie-Therese. “In the first act, she’s meant to be hilarious, but in the second, she’s just pitiful. She’s looking for love, but will settle for someone who treats her like a person.”

Walker, a theatre as social justice major, feels the play is an act of just that. “Everything was completely removed from history because of things like racism and sexism, but we now have liberty to go a bit over the top in exposing it all.”

Jones obviously feels the same. Even as she guides Walker and Spring through a comedic scene that requires them to bicker and stomp around like children, there is an elegant emotion to her direction. “Let everything you do be ballet,” she instructs, asking Spring to add a corset to his costume, which already includes frilly shoes and a wig. With a play like Las Meninas, told with humor and the smallest bit of sadness, Jones simply wants to perfect history, however imperfect it may be.

Las Meninas opens Feb. 24 and closes March 5, 2006. For ticket information, call the University of Arts ticket office at (612) 624-2345.