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Three lonely
hearts stumble their way through art scam
Jack Zink
An art forgery
scam is the frame of reference for The Credeaux
Canvas, but the story it brackets is a romantic,
sensuous drama about a trio of lonely hearts
seeking fulfillment in all the wrong places.
The New Theatre in Coral Gables
treats Keith Bunin's absorbing tale with style
and some daring, playing the author's poetic,
suggestive language off the characters' sometimes
misguided wants.
Jamie (Brian Louis Hoffman),
the disinherited son of a wealthy art dealer,
is stricken by his recently deceased father's
rejection. Roommate |
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Winston (Laif Adam Gilbertson)
is an art student with a knack for imitation. Jamie's
girlfriend, Amelia (Aubrey Shavonn), is a singer whose
career is headed in the wrong direction.
They're holed up in a rundown Greenwich
Village apartment trying to make ends meet when Jamie
comes up with a bright idea: Forge a painting to sell
to one of his father's gullible clients. For the scheme
to work, Amelia has to pose nude for Winston while
Jamie sets the hook in the client, Tess (Kimberly
Daniel).
Amelia and Winston promptly shed both
their clothes -- the painter in a clumsy effort to
help make his subject more comfortable. The graphic
full nudity adds a powerful sense of voyeurism for
the audience.
The chemistry that ensues between
artist and subject has nothing to do with paint. It
eats through Amelia and Jamie's relationship, which
in turn threatens the deal. The young trio will spend
more time trying to deal with their relationship issues
(both real and imagined) than the scam that provokes
them.
Shavonn emerges from the ensemble
to deliver the most interesting and complex performance
as a woman who throws her heart away while convulsed
in a series of moral crises. Gilbertson's art student
Winston may be just a little too self-absorbed, which
contrasts with Hoffman's over-the-top angst as Jamie.
As the buyer Tess, Daniel turns a supporting role
into a clever solo showcase.
The set by Michael McKeever is an
interestingly dumpy, dirty loft, lighted by Travis
Neff with particularly moody effects during the artist's
sessions.
Director Rafael de Acha mines author
Bunin's colorful metaphors and observations on the
human condition without belaboring any; the pace is
brisk and the tension strong right up to the bittersweet
finish.
Fuente:
Sun-Sentinel.com
Marzo
2003
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