by Jess Hoffman
Sand Lake Center for the Arts is continuing its eclectic season with a play by Capital District native Brendan Mack about a murder trial and barnyard animals–a play that combines the wonder of children’s classic Charlotte’s Web with the gritty real world of mental illness and criminal justice. The play, titled simply Web, concerns the trial of Fern Arable for the murder of her infant son. Web moves between the events of Fern’s childhood (adapted directly from Charlotte’s Web, but told through the lens of Fern’s faulty memory and dissociation from reality) and her murder trial.
I am not usually a forgiving critic when it comes to adaptations of my most loved works of classic literature. Yet I can’t find much to complain about in the way that Web engages with its source material. It tells a fairly faithful abridged version of Charlotte’s Web, but suggests that the fanciful events as told in the children’s classic are the invention of a young Fern as a way to cope with loss and trauma, a coping mechanism that continues into her adulthood. The people involved in Fern’s trial become confused with the barnyard friends of Charlotte’s Web and the audience is left never fully knowing what is reality and what is Fern’s fantasy.
Web seems like the kind of show that is made or broken by its cast and their comfort in telling such a strange story. Luckily for SLCA, this production has an excellent cast and a stellar lead actress. Maggie Córdova plays Fern as a kindhearted, confused, and deeply troubled young woman whose view of herself and her world does not match up with the shared reality of those around her. In addition to its excellent protagonist, this production of Web has an excellent antagonist in Prosecutor F. J. Templeton and Templeton the rat, played by J. Hunter with enough seething malevolence to ensure that the entire audience hates him thoroughly, but enough sincerity in his character to ensure that he does not become a caricature. Katie K. Snyder plays Fern’s mother, June, with similar nuance, and her story evolves alongside Fern’s in a way that is shocking, troubling, and satisfying. Playing foil to the hardened and practical June is Fern’s father, Wallace, played wonderfully by Michael J. Madsen. In addition to playing the soft-hearted Wallace, Madsen doubles as the cruel and creepy farmhand Lurvey and plays that role equally well.
Most of the actors also double as barnyard animals; it’s a little off-putting under the best circumstances to watch a group of humans attempt to play entirely different species, but overall this cast makes it work. Katie K. Snyder’s mannerisms as she plays the sheep are particularly well-done. Suzanne Baker and Daryl Hansen as the goose and the gander oversell their animal characteristics at times, but when they do it is at least with good comedic effect. The one actor who seemed fully comfortable playing a barnyard animal was Adam Barnes, whose portrayal of Wilbur the pig was as natural (if not more natural) as his portrayal of Defence Attorney Will Barnette.
This production’s versatile set made the most of its limited stage space by using the upstage and sides of the stage as a courtroom while using downstage center as a barn, allowing the actors to move seamlessly from court scenes to barnyard scenes in a flash, as the script calls for. This production also uses a sound effect and unnatural movements from the actors to indicate when the action is switching between Fern’s childhood and the courtroom; but since the set served the different settings so well and the actors played their parts so well, these sound and visual cues proved totally unnecessary and trite.
Because the action switches between past and present so quickly, there is no time for costume changes as the actors shift from playing a part of Fern’s trial to one of Fern’s animal friends. Costume designer Ellya Winchester’s costume choices thoroughly suited the human characters, but the way each costume fit their animal counterparts seems to have been given less thought. I was amused and impressed by the white sweater Fern’s mother wears because it looks very much like something a midwestern mother would wear but also suggests the wool of the sheep character that Snyder plays. I would have loved to see more such costume pieces that so perfectly fit both the human characters and their animal counterparts.
The fanciful childhood story of Charlotte’s Web provides a fun and interesting angle to what is otherwise a fairly textbook courtroom drama, complete with all the standard tropes one expects from the genre. Someone makes an objection every few lines, the defense attorney and prosecutor maintain a bitter rivalry, and the mystery of what happened to Fern and her baby are suspensefully and satisfyingly unraveled in the courtroom before our very eyes. The script even seems to acknowledge its own clichés at times. But because of this cleverness in the script and the way that Web folds in its surprisingly apt subplot, I am more than willing to forgive a bit of courtroom drama banality. I expect that even those audience members who are skeptical of your average courtroom drama will find Web compelling; those audience members that enjoy a courtroom drama will be similarly enthralled by the thrilling and twisting and story told by Web. I recommend that anyone and everyone see this wonderful drama; Web will not disappoint.
Sand Lake Center for the Arts presents Web by Brendan Mack, directed by Michael McDermott at 2880 NY 43 Averill Park, NY. Runs from June 7-16, 2024. Assistant Director/Board Operator: Kathryn Capalbo. Stage Manager: Augusta Bargeron. Assistant Stage Manager: Joyce Reynolds. Technical Guru: Eric Shovah. Cast: Suzanne Baker as Janine Hart/The Goose; Augusta Bargeron as Protester; Adam Barnes as William Barnette, Attorney for the Defense/Wilbur, The Pig; Maggie Córdova as Fern Bonner; Jessica Córdova as Stenographer/Leslie Young/The Chicken; Geri de Seve as Judge Charlotte Clarke/Charlotte, The Spider; Dianne De Sandtis as Karen Anderson/Women, Ray Francis as Protestor/Visitor/The Dog, George Filieau as Homer Zuckerman/The Rooster; Daryl Hansen as Officer Henry Fussy/The Gander/Foreman; J. Hunter as F. J. Templeton, Prosecutor/The Rat; Kitt LaPaix as Dr. Dorian/The Ram/Fair Announcer; Michael J. Madsen as Baliff/Wallace/Lurvey; Jennifer Owens as Avery Arable/The Frog; and Katie K. Snyder as Mrs. June Arable/The Sheep. Set design by Adam Coons. Scenic art by Debra Michael. Light design by Jared Ovitt. Sound design by Kathryn Capalbo. Costume design by Ellya Winchester. Anthropomorphic movement/Choreography by Eric Shovah.
Performance dates are Friday-Sunday. Friday, and Saturday curtains are at 7:30pm and Sundays are matinees only at 2:30pm. Tickets are $22. Runs approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes with one intermission. Contains depictions of mental illness and discussions of infanticide and sexual abuse. Recommended for ages 14+. Tickets are available online at https://slcactp.square.site/product/web/140, or at the door for any performance. For more information visit https://www.slca-ctp.org/ or call 518-674-2007.