Just an Imaginary Rabbit

Today, I had the pleasure of seeing "Harvey" at the Contra Costa Civic Theatre in El Cerrito. Written by Mary Chase and directed by Kathleen Ray, it is a magical foray into the mind of a Mr. Dowd who has an invisible rabbit (white 6' 1.5" pooka) as a friend.

Harvey: An invisible rabbit and his whimsical pal, a frustrated social-climbing mother and daughter, a nutty psychiatrist, and love in bloom are all you need for a side-splitting comedy that is just as popular today as it was when it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945, and when it helped to launch CCCT in 1960.

The comedy saddened me. Surprise, surprise. Questions about life perspective arose in a strange billowy cloud, and I had no answers. Am I the naive, frustrated daughter whose sole ambition at this juncture in her young life is to find love, make money, impress strangers? Am I the social climbing mother/sister whose only concern is the neighbor and society column's judgment of her social status? Am I young, inexperienced Dr. Sanderson who can't tell the difference between a reasonable person and a person with reason? Am I the crazy, impatient orderly whose only desire is a sandwich to feed his hungry belly and who manhandles patients with mental illness?

None of those characters portray me in all my complex HAT-ness, but there are certainly character flaws that, when highlighted, I readily recognized in myself and in each person on stage. ITragic, and peculiar. In the end, even Dr. Chumley himself wanted to achieve whatever it was that Harvey offered to Dowd. And in the end, I too wanted some of that... peace, acceptance, awareness, generosity, graciousness, a positive outlook on life.

I enjoyed this show, and look forward to the next show at the CCCT, which will be "Lucky Stiff", directed by Amy Nielson

Lucky Stiff
Books and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens
Music by Stephen Flaherty
Based on "The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo" by Michael Butterworth
Directed by Amy Nielson

What do you get when you combine one dead guy, a nerdy English shoe salesman, six million bucks in diamonds, and a lot of dogs? The hysterically funny musical Lucky Stiff! Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the authors of Ragtime, and the animated film Anastasia exploded on the musical theatre scene with this madcap murder mystery farce that takes us on a whirlwind adventure through London, Atlantic City, and Monte Carlo, as the cast tries to figure out who did what to whom!

If you are interested, check out the '09-'10 season.