Jumpers defy gravity

Author: Robert McKay

"Jumpers," playwright Tom Stoppard's metaphysical circus show, went off like firecrackers across the Wright Memorial stage last weekend. It pitted Visiting Assistant Professor in Theatre Alex Draper '88, in the role of philosopher George Moore, against a horde of yellow-suited, acrobatic logical positivists known as "Jumpers." The Jumpers and the Radical Liberal Party they support spend their time inverting both their bodies and the theology-grounded moral universe that Moore pines for.

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The plot is set in motion when Moore's sex-starved wife, the aptly named Dotty (Allison Corke '08), is implicated in the shooting of Professor MacPhee (Michael Kessler '11) at a Jumper party in the Moore's flat the night before the two men are scheduled to face off in a debate on the question of God's existence. The work's action plays out in the aftermath of the shooting and progresses with a delirious, lopsided lope as the distracted couple work out their internal struggles with tenuous but explosive references to one another.

Draper and Corke tackled some extremely demanding scenes in which they had to convey a fiercely ambivalent relationship through the dialogue's often dizzying hail of philosophical parry and thrust. There were a number of emotional movements through which they had to expertly pilot their respective characters - they veered from rage and abortive seduction to an absentmindedness verging on the insane. They did an admirable job of it, though by the time the last matinee came along there were moments during which their through-line wavered, especially in the difficult, long bedroom scene. Draper's long philosophical monologues are some of the most difficult in contemporary theater, and he delivers them without losing the audience for even a moment. Along with Corke, he rose to the challenge of fusing together his character's intellectual and personal struggles.

Rounding out the cast was the vaudevillian ensemble of Jumpers who was led by Sir Archibald Jumper, Moore's droll and foppish boss, who is played with impeccable dapper smugness by guest actor James Matthew Ryan. The Jumpers are joined by various visitors to the flat, such as quirky Cockneys who could have been penned by a mad postmodern Charles Dickens. The earnest, philosophical hall-porter, Mr. Crouch (John Glouchevitch '10.5), doubled as goofy comic relief and the play's sanest and most humane character. Glouchevitch played him well as a straight man to the mercurial flat owners.

Inspector Bones (Jordan Tyrell-Wysocki '08, who also provided live hot-jazz fiddle music when not acting onstage) is the opposite of Crouch's even-keeled demeanor. He is pulled between two opposing and equally fanatical devotions - a fan's devotion to murder-suspect (and former chanteuse) Dotty and a cop's reverence for "the Full Majesty of the Law," which he invokes with ominously audible capital letters. Tyrell-Wysocki's overdrawn portrayal of the Inspector was appropriately grotesque, though he sometimes seemed so caught in the extremes of his own performance as to be out of sync with the other characters. It could of course be argued that this is thematic, but it should not be noticeable. Bones and Dotty certainly timed their interactions well, milking moments like the sudden appearance of MacPhee's corpse from the bedclothes, just as Bones stretched out his hand to present Dotty with an elaborate bouquet.

Finally, there is one supporting character who is onstage for the entire show. Stephanie Spencer '09 plays Moore's secretary, the stoically long-suffering working girl who seems to be counting the seconds until payday, until she takes an unexpected and perhaps unwitting turn in the murder mystery's ambiguous ending.

"Jumpers" contained some outstanding performances from Corke and Draper, and both its pacing and technical execution were admirable feats. Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre Vanessa Mildenberg's choreography, though it contained some (perhaps appropriate) amateurish round-offs by the tumbling philosophy majors, provided the necessary variety-show feel. Its comic effect was complimented by Professor of Theatre Mark Evancho's campy primary lighting and Resident Scenic and Lighting Designer Hallie Zieselman's elaborate moving set, the latter including a deus ex machina of Dolly seated on a giant crescent moon. The cumulative effect was one of zany, brainy bedazzlement. Bravo!