Ray Bradbury´s Incredible Time Machine

Hurry, hurry, hurry. Step right up and take a trip in a fantastic Time Machine. Whether you want to visit Green Town in the 1920´s, or the more distant Past, or even the Future, you need only open a Ray Bradbury book to be transported to another time and place. Or how about Mars or some other distant planet? It´s all there in any of his memorable stories.

Watching one of Bradbury´s classic stories turned into play is another time traveling experience. And you have that opportunity now at the Fremont Centre Theatre in Pasadena, California, where his latest trilogy, Ray Bradbury´s Yestermorrows, is playing.

There are three destinations, each one taking you into a different place. Directed by Alan Neal Hubbs, this is a Pandemonium Theatre Company Production.

First comes A Device Out of Time, a beautifully crafted story that begins with a young boy, Douglas Spaulding (Bradbury´s alter ego in many of his stories.), trying to get his even younger brother, Tom, to go with him to visit what he promises is a "time machine" housed in this eerie old house wherein lives the mysterious Colonel Freeliegh. Brothers Seth and Daniel Casanova play the adorable boys with boundless charm.

In the house, the boys find this relic of a man residing in a wheelchair. The old gentleman stirs when captured fireflies flicker in an old jar placed in his lap. The younger boy wants very much to see this so-called Time Machine. After all, he has paid his enterprising brother his ten cents for the show. But Douglas waves him silent. He knows this treasure must be finessed before it becomes activated.

With a bit of coaxing, the Colonel, played by gifted actor David Fox-Brenton, acts out stories from bygone eras to the amazement of both boys. The Colonel relates the harrowing tale of a famous Chinese magician whose act goes terribly wrong, and also tells a powerful story about seeing a herd of bison crossing the prairie like a thundering cloud.

When asked about the Civil War, the Colonel speaks to Douglas as though he is a young drummer boy at the battle of Shiloh, and tells him to keep the drum beat lively so as to inspire the soldiers to do their best. The conclusion of this first play is beautifully poignant.

The second play, Cistern, is a study of character and rhythm, performed by Georgan George playing the deeply troubled Anna, and Roses Pritchard handling the role of Juliet. Ms. George is astounding as we watch her slowly spiral down to the depths of madness. Her movements are almost a dance as she captures the undulating feeling of what a body floating under water would be like. "Beautifully dead" as she says to her sister as she relates this dark tale of two "imaginary" people existing in the cistern below the streets.

Ms. Pritchard had to maintain a disinterested pose as the ever-patient older sister until, to her horror, she realizes what Anna´s wild story really means.

The final play in the trilogy is The Meadow. It starts with a Night Watchman walking down the theater aisle, flashlight in hand, explaining about the destruction of all the cities in the world – from London to Timbuktu.

Michael Pritchard captures the passion of this lonely man, who spent forty years watching over these exotic locations, once filled with hundreds of exciting people in their various costumes and guises. He explains that it is all coming to and end if something isn´t done to stop it. And then we realize this place, this Meadow, is the backlot of a large movie studio and the buildings are facades being scheduled for demolition if something isn´t done.

The Watchman climbs to the top of the Notre Dame Cathedral set and sits amongst the plaster gargoyles until he gets attention from those below. Steven Robert Wollenberg embodies the essence of the powerful Studio Chief who joins the watchman up high and listens as the old guy laments that the studio is still filled with the shadows of those characters. He states that the movies link everybody in the world together. The play ends with the studio head making a fateful decision.

Each play contains the heart and soul of Mr. Bradbury who mentioned before the curtain rose that twenty-five years ago he was asked by the mayor of Pasadena, what would he like to see done in the city. The wise gentleman said, "Rebuild the Pasadena Playhouse." To this day, the playhouse stands as one of the cultural landmarks of the city.

Mr. Bradbury said he didn´t know he was a playwright until he was working on the screenplay for the motion picture, Moby Dick, in Ireland, and started going to the plays there. Actor James Whitmore asked if his friend would write him a play, and Mr. Bradbury penned The Meadow. This is the second time this work has been performed.

Catch all three plays until September 5, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 3 p.m. at the Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Avenue, South Pasadena, CA. Tickets: $20. Seniors $15. Students $10. Reservations: (323) 960-4451.

Online ticketing: www.Plays411.com/raybradbury.