Hawkes is great in ‘Harvey’
Virginia Bloom, Echo Press Columnist
Wednesday, 7/18/01
You will have a great time out at Theatre L’Homme Dieu, where Harvey is currently playing. It will continue through today, Wednesday, and the weekend. John Hawkes plays the fey character, Elwood P. Dowd, which is exciting in itself. Many of us have followed John’s career and have been gratified to see it take off some time ago as he got bigger and more diverse roles in television and the movies. While we appreciate the whole cast and recognize Jack Reuler’s expert direction (more about that later) the evening is John’s, as indeed it should be, for Elwood P. Dowd is the central character in this play unless you think his friend, Harvey, should have a coequal role.
We get down to business right away. Bethany Anne Johnson, playing a sulky, uncertain teenager is harassing her mother about "Uncle Elwood" whereupon her mother reminds her that "Uncle Elwood does not live with us; we live with him." Which fairly well establishes the financial arrangement as well as the pecking order of the Dowd menage. Uncle Elwood is an embarrassment at times but he does own the mansion, which is a bit tatty around the edges. We get this impression from his sister, Veta Louise Simmons, who, when we meet her is frantically trying to impress the society editor of the local paper.
While we are making premature judgements about Veta Louise and her sullen offspring, Uncle Elwood appears and he wins our hearts almost at once. He is handsome, charming, comfortable with himself and in a perverse way makes more sense than his relatives. It doesn’t take long before we are rooting for him to win over all of them, including two not very bright psychiatrists and a fuddy-duddy judge played by Ralph Tillitt. The trouble begins when Harvey shows up…not that he is intrusive, but his being welcomed by Mr. Dowd shakes the family and the health professionals right down to their boottops.
Elwood P. Dowd is not an easy role to play…his being sensible and perverse…at the same time being captivating, but John carries it off perfectly. We gladly suspend belief as we watch him eyeing a pretty girl or comforting his confused sister. And he moves well; actually the whole cast does. The two helpers to the ninny psychiatrists have some physical encounters that must be brought off perfectly or they could have been disastrous.
Now while people were roaring in their seats we must note that Elwood P. Dowd has a real liking for the bubbly. He is always affably inviting someone to join him…and Harvey…at one of his favorite watering holes. You have to wonder privately what his liver must look like if he indulges this often. Not to worry. Elwood P. Dowd is a happy man, or he would be if his pesky relatives would leave him and Harvey alone. But they won’t. To them his rabbit friend is proof positive that he is dotty.
There is a case of mistaken identity that gives Kim Schultz a chance to display her own comedic gifts and which brought down the house. As a matter of fact, the big crowd out there Friday night was in stitches most of the time. I looked around and saw that the crowd was unbelievably diverse. A lot of young people; a lot of middle-aged people; and a lot of the elderly. What does that say? That Harvey’s appeal is universal and that tweaking the types of people who make up the case gives everyone a guffaw.
Just recently Jack Reuler had a front page at the Star Tribune devoted to his accomplishment, chief of which is his genius for making a local theater financially viable for years. Jack has been doing plays at Theatre L’Homme Dieu for years and we are lucky to have him.
And speaking of luck, Jack’s direction and John’s playing the lead turned out to be an unusually happy arrangement for all hands. Congratulations to all of you.
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