Profile: Two Beards Theatre Company by Donna Marie Miller, Austin Fusion Magazine, October 2013

Two Beards Theatre: Young Friends to Co-Producers

by Donna Marie Miller
www.austinfusionmagazine.com, October 16, 2013

Jacob Henry, Andrew Robinson (photo: Embree Weaver)

A boyhood friendship that began more than a decade ago ignited a business partnership between the co-producers of Austin’s newest artistic troupe, Two Beards Theatre Company.


The founders, Andrew Robinson and Jacob Henry, teamed up to create Two Beards this fall and their first show, “Mr. Marmalade,” opened Oct. 4-5 at the hip East Austin Salvage Vanguard Theatre. The performances, which ran through Oct. 12, impressed the local community, according to comments left on the theatre company’s website. [Click for review by AustinLiveTheatre.com]


The 2006 play, written by Noah Haidle, combines humor with shock appeal – a 20-year-old actress played Lucy, the articulate four-year-old who dreams up an imaginary friend, an abusive businessman plagued by anger issues and addictions to pornography and cocaine.


With the production, Robinson says he and Henry vowed to “wow” their audiences. To do this, Henry narrowed his set design color choices to just two from the Crayola 100-crayon box selection — red and blue. Lighting designer Dylan Rocamora added profound hues to the stage’s ethereal scenes. This created a deeper and richer “out-of-this-world” experience for theatregoers.


“Since both Andrew and I were raised here, we knew that we wanted a show that was kind of edgy and weird,” Henry says. “It’s a great script and a great story that fits Austin.”

Robinson and Henry have worked together since attending Westview Middle School and John B. Connally High School in Northwest Austin. Henry, who is a year older than Robinson, was enrolled in seventh grade when Robinson started sixth grade at Westview.

Click to read more and view production photos be Embree Weaver at Austin Fusion magazine

Mr. Marmalade by Noah Haidle, Two Beards Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard, October 4 - 12, 2013

by Michael Meigs

On my way to Mr. Marmalade, the first production staged by the Two Beards Theatre Company, I was momentarily disconcerted to find the parking lot overflowing already at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre. Then I remembered that Trouble Puppet was doing Connor Hopkins' The Head at the same venue.

Mr. Marmalade occupied the small studio theatre just to the right of the entrance, and when they didn't find my name among the reservations, they asked which show I was going to. I confirmed that I wasn't aiming at Connor's eerie puppet adventure into the limbic system, so they happily sold me a $10 ticket to their own weird and wondrous world. I hit the 8 o'clock show -- good thing, too, because the 10 p.m. performance with the free beer was sold out, probably in part to the celebratory Trouble Puppet after-show crowd.

Noah Haidle's little fable about the four-year-old with some very strange imaginary friends is a young grownup's nightmare or perhaps an acid trip version of the awakening fantasy life of childhood. Big-eyed, expressive and vulnerable, Cassie Petersen as Lucy is onstage virtually every moment, and she embodies the cunning device of the work: her character is simultaneously a child and an aching, confused woman-child struggling to enter adulthood. Lucy's is a childhood without the grace of innocence. Grownups neglect and patronize her, and she knows entirely too much about the horrible side of human relationships. Petersen makes you want to give her a great big hug.

Lucy's single mother Sookie (Adriane Showne) leaves her alone at home, going off on a date before the babysitter arrives. Emily the babysitter (Kristi Brawner) has no patience for the very verbal Lucy and mocks her imaginary playmates. The peripheral adult males (Tim Stiefler) are callous, distracted and predatory, qualities directly reflected by Mr. Marmalade (David Nguyen as the distant imaginary father/lover figure, certainly the object of this desperately talkative four-year-old's Electra complex).

The child's only confidant is also imaginary -- gentle, mistreated Bradley (Ronnie Williams), the employee and personal assistant to the imperious Mr. Marmalade. Though they could hardly be more different in physical aspect, he and Lucy are alter egos. Bradley has the sweet nature and desire to please that one would expect of an unabused child. Williams plays the character with a light step and ardent attention to Lucy.

Into this messy, unhappy world comes Larry the preschooler (Johnny Bender), who's even more depressed and tormented than Lucy. She talks through her anxieties and expresses them in play; Larry has turned inward and bears bandaged wrists from a suicide attempt. Bender gives Larry intensity but also a perpetual air of surprise. Their brief but charming encounter falls apart, exposing both of them once more to the very grown-up miseries inflicted by others, both imaginary and real.

David Nguyen as Marmalade has a contained power and concentration that makes him all that more terrifying when he's angered. Playwright, director and actor give this character a sociopathic charm, rousing Lucy's hopes and dashing them, courting her and then spurning her, fathering a child and then rejecting it. One feels a profound satisfaction when he gets his come-uppance, which is both gruesome and hilarious, twice over.

Sounds like a downer, perhaps, but in fact it's anything but. Director Andrew Robinson and the cast take advantage of all the paradox and whimsey, moving the action quickly and taking advantage of Hadle's adroit manipulation of the contradictions of the apparently real and the apparently imagined. There are many amusements here, arising directly from the characters, and one of the biggest laughs of the show comes toward the end when Lucy declares adamantly to her mother, "I've had a very difficult evening!"

Sets are minimal, as they must be in a studio shared with many other activities. The cutaway door at the center seems unnecessary and a bit precarious. This tale is one of imagination, however, and Petersen's earnest, honest performance brings us effortlessly along with her without the need of external support.


The eponymous two beards are director Andrew Robinson and Jacob Henry, graduates of Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Their undertaking is at least the third theatre venture in Austin that seems to have had its origins down there on the coast. For that we're fortunate; and this first presentation of the beards promises additional satisfactions and delights.

EXTRA

Click to view program for Mr. Marmalade by Two Beards Theatre Company

MR. MARMALADE by Noah Haidle, Two Beards Theatre Company at the Salvage Vanguard, October 4 - 12, 2013

          presents

 

October 4th @ 8pm
October 5th @ 8pm, 10pm* Free Beer at 10pm Show
October 11th @ 8pm
October 12th @ 8pm

Get Tickets at http://www.twobeards.org/tickets

Lucy is a four-year-old girl with a very active imagination. Unfortunately, her imaginary friend Mr. Marmalade doesn't have much time for her. Not to mention he beats up his personal assistant, has a cocaine addiction, and a penchant for pornography and very long dildos. Larry, her only real friend, is the youngest suicide attempt in the history of New Jersey. Mr. Marmalade is a savage black comedy about what it takes to grow up in these difficult times.
 

**Show contains mature content and adult themes**

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)