Hartford Stage 'Mistakes Were Made'

By Jeffrey Borak, The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, Mass.

Nov. 11--Theater ReviewMISTAKES WERE MADE by Craig Wright. Directed by Jeremy B. Cohen; scenic design, Walt Spangler; costume design, Alejo Vietti; lighting design, Marcus Doshi; sound design, Obadiah Eaves; puppet design, Stefano Brancato. Through Nov. 22. Eves.: Sun. (no perf. Nov. 22), Tue.-Thu. 7:30; Fri., Sat. 8. Mats.: Wed., Sun. 2; Nov. 21 at 2. Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford, Conn. Tickets: $66-$36. (860) 527-5151; www.hartfordstage.org. 1 hour 24 minutes

Felix Artifex Will LeBow

Esther Susan Greenhill

Denise Stefano Brancato

By Jeffrey Borak

Berkshire Eagle Staff

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Third-rate Broadway producer Felix Artifex wants to be taken seriously. He wants to produce A-R-T. He's already produced "Medea" with Suzanne Somers in the title role and he's considering taking on Chekhov's "Three Sisters" with some modifications of the text, most notably eliminating Masha's final speech.

As we meet Artifex at the beginning of Craig Wright's messy comedy, "Mistakes Were Made," he has decided to go for broke. He is on the phone trying to convince a well-known Hollywood star to appear in the world premiere of "Mistakes Were Made," an opulent epic about the French Revolution, which the star indicates he will consider if the playwright, a modest man from America's

heartland, will significantly rewrite a minor role to accommodate the actor's gargantuan ego.

For Artifex, who is played with adroit skill by the considerably more-than-able Will LeBow in the play's East Coast premiere at Hartford Stage, the effort becomes an elaborate juggling act that begins ranging beyond Artifex's control.

As LeBow and "Mistakes Were Made" slog on determinedly over its 90 or so minutes, Artifex does his best to keep his project from falling apart as the playwright resists the actor's demands, the owner of the theater Artifex has booked for his magnum opus threatens to make the theater available to another producer for a musical version of "To Kill a Mockingbird," and a truck convoy making its way through the Iraq countryside with a load of 1,000 live sheep is taken hostage by a local warlord (don't ask).

Artifex tries to find relief in the midst of bedlam by confiding in a silvery koi named Denise (a puppet figure that is skillfully maneuvered by puppeteer Stefan Brancato) while also feeding her generously, despite urgent warnings by his secretary, Esther (Susan Greenhill), and in a brief phone conversation with his ex-partner, Dolores.

LeBow delivers a masterly performance that finds some human definition in a character who leans far more toward satiric archetype but his skills aren't quite enough to make us care very much about the play's outcome.

"Mistakes Were Made," which had a reading at Hartford Stage last season and at Williamstown Theatre Festival this summer, contributes little, if anything, to the let's-knock-Broadway genre. Wright's potshots at Broadway and what passes for art in the midst of its commerce have a wearing been-there-heard-that feel and his use of the conflict in Iraq is, at best, gratuitous.

Wright at least got his play's title right.

To reach Jeffrey Borak:

jborak@berkshireeagle.com;

(413) 496-6212

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