The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Leni Santoro

HIGHLAND LAKE – Friday, October 2, marked the opening of a new work at the North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL) in Highland Lake, “Self-Portrait at County Fair” written by Mike Geither and directed by Brett Keyser.

In the descriptive press release sent out by NACL prior to the opening, the show was described as a two-act play that is “funny, touching, and follows the traditions of realism, rather than physical or imagistic theatre that the NACL acting company is most known for.”

Defining “Realism” and relating it to reality is difficult. Realism ideally, one would suppose, means reality, but just as a body standing in direct light casts a shadow, so Realism, with its body of reality, casts a shadow of Non-realism that can take many forms, depending on whether or not it is the existence or independence dimension of Realism that is questioned or rejected.

In “Self-Portrait at County Fair” the audience is transported to “somewhere in the Midwest.” A week-long county fair is taking place. But inside that reality is another reality in which the audience members, both actors and paying customers, are voyeurs trapped inside both the reality and non-reality that is the crux of business for a carnie psychic who makes his living getting in touch with spirits from the other side of reality.

The questions that arise, and the secrets that are revealed and accepted or denied, lead the audience (both paying customers and the actors among them) to ask questions of themselves. Is what the psychic says truth, lies or something in between?

Tannis Kowalchuk, artistic director of NaCl plays Caroline, a desperately lonely widow. Hoping for a word from her dead husband, instead she is given a revelation from her childhood that she has so successfully hidden from herself that she questions its reality and the authenticity of the psychic.

Patricia, played by Sarah Dey Hirshan misses her little sister. How can all traces of her be gone? But even she, who wishes to be a psychic herself, questions when she receives the message when it comes.

And what of Andrew, whose mother seems to delight in embarrassing him all week long? Played by Glenn Hall, Andrew is perhaps the quietest searcher, but even for him the depths of reality can become dangerously deep.

If life were a river, as some people describe it, then the psychic (Miles) played by Ker Wells, is the oarsman of a boat on that river as it passes between the dimensions of Realism and Non-realism. Picking up the messages from those residing on one side and the other, he himself seems to tap dance between the embraces of the living and the dead, trying to maintain his own reality.

Going to see any show on opening night can sometimes be a gamble. Nothing is a sure bet, not in the world of theater, psychics or the daily lives we live. Everything is subject to the realities of food and shelter, but within the realities are the non-realities. They are not tangible, but that does not make them any less real. They are the hopes, the wishes, the dreams and the nightmares of existence.

In “Self-Portrait at County Fair” the author has presented all of these and channeled them through a medium whose “captive” audience exposes, one layer at a time, the light and the dark, the reality and the shadow. The director and the cast have taken the author’s words inside themselves and spit them out again for the audience to do likewise; light and dark, sun and moon.

Bravo to them all!

Continuing performances for “Self-Portrait at County Fair” are October 4, 9, 10 and 11; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and  Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are $15 and $10 for seniors and students. Call 845-557-0694 to reserve or nacl@nacl.org. NACL Theatre, 110 Highland Lake Road, Highland Lake.

To view more photos or to purchase prints from Self Portrait at County Fair visit the Chronicle on Zenfolio.