Caldwell and Few in "Danny"
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea: an Apache Dance (ah-Pawsh, not a-Paa-chee) is a script for actors, first and foremost. Like the Apache dances of the Parisian underworld, John Patrick Shanley’s script requires a commitment to strenuous physicality, unrestrained fear, compulsive violence, and an overwhelmingly desperate need for love.
It is no wonder actors everywhere jump at the chance to tackle the 1983 script. Under the direction of Leslie Mitts Martin, actors Aaron Few and Brittney Caldwell make an admirable and, at times, successful attempt to capture the conflicted characters of Shanley’s urban world, but at other times the intensity and commitment of the Apache dance is lacking.
Few’s Danny, a volatile and emotionally unconnected truck driver, is taut and angry in the barroom of the first scene. He’s at his finest during the first half of the show where his character’s instinctive need to restrain his violent urges rides just under the surface. During the second half is where the tricky spots of the character arc come in and Few struggles to make the connections between the Danny of the first scene and the Danny in the final redemptive scene, where the violent compulsions at the base of this character evaporated, rather than folded into a new, more productive focus for them. Overall, though, his is an entirely engaging actor with a rawness to him I like.
Caldwell is also strong in the first half, her ability with quick-timed banter and her luscious physicality drawing full picture of Roberta. She swings back and forth from disengagement and in-your-face challenges with ease, making each choice crystal-clear to the audience. Her final two scenes, while utilizing a wonderful sense of spontaneity with the language, only lack the palpable desperation to get what her character needs from moment to moment. She shows great grace in even Roberta’s most unsympathetic moments, though.
Together, Few and Caldwell have a very good rapport. They listen to each other intently, watch each other unceasingly, and feed off of each other’s energy, which is one of the ways in which the production is very likeable. As a duo, though, I hope that they find a way to take the most intense moments of emotion and action just one or two levels above where they are. The commitment to the overwhelming truth and unrestrained passion of those moments is what makes Danny and the Deep Blue Sea an apache dance.
And that is, perhaps, where director Mitts Martin could elevate this “Danny” to a greater level: allow the actors to ratchet up the intensity to just beyond their comfort zones so that the quiet tender moments have that much more poignancy.
All in all, though, Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is an enjoyable tango of a show for mid-summer.
Danny and the Deep Blue Sea has two more shows: Friday and Saturday, August 5 & 6 at the Fresno State Lab School Theater. $5. 8 p.m. It runs just 1 hr and 15 minutes. (619) 813-1126 for more information.
