Taking as his inspiration Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, playwright Wyn Moreno has created a contemporary dysfunctional family dramedy that stands tall on its own merits in Strong Arm, the World Premiere latest from Orange County’s The Wayward Artist.

Meet high school baseball phenom Marshall Maddox (Dan Keilbach), rapidly acquiring a reputation for “toughness, mental focus, and a mother who pushes him to greatness every day.”

Indeed, no sports mom could better understand the challenges faced by an athletically gifted son with Major League prospects than former Wimbledon champion Elaine Maddox (Marika Becz), who having been forced by injury to give up on her own professional tennis dreams might now have a chance at glory if she can just keep pushing, pushing, pushing.

Unfortunately for Elaine, Marshall could have other plans in mind for the next four years with multiple top-tier universities, UCLA and LSU among them, dangling full scholarships in front of his eyes.

Equally concerned that Marshall might be considering something other than a multi-million-dollar major league contract is his agent Phil (Craig Tyrl), who may have had other star clients since Elaine in her glory days but probably none with such lucrative financial prospects as her son.

With Phil pressuring Marshall to go pro and Mom already thinking of him as a brand, it’s no wonder the eighteen-year-old feels the need for a break, especially if it’s a study break with his hot blonde ACT tutor Allie (Autumn Paramore), arriving today for a week-long visit along with Elaine’s coke-snorting jerk of a boyfriend (Joseph Dunham as onetime major league star Hank Felton), Marshall’s MD Aunt Mara (Kathi Gilmore), and Phil.

Not that the week ahead promises anything resembling relaxation, not with Marshall nursing an unrequited crush on the slightly older Allie, not with his mother’s very public displays of affection for a man he despises, and certainly not if Allie’s obvious infatuation with Hank should lead to sexual hanky-panky under Marshall’s own roof.

Chekhov fans will relish drawing connections between playwright Moreno’s creations and their 19th-century Russian counterparts and anticipating plot twists first devised back in 1895. (Marshall may not have a gun like Constantine but that doesn’t mean he’ll escape unscathed, and anyone hoping that Allie will return the teenager’s affection hasn’t met Chekhov’s Nina and Trigorin.)

 As befits a Seagull adaptation, Strong Arm is more about talk than plot, particularly in a first act that could stand a ten-minute tightening trim, but it’s authentic, witty talk that earns laughs before things take a dramatic turn.

What distinguishes Moreno’s play from other contemporary The Seagull adaptations it is also what makes it a winner in its own right, namely its professional sports milieu and its mother-son dynamic, in particular Elaine’s need to relive her life through her son in a way that Irina Arkadina never would have dreamed of with Constantine.

Under Mark Stevens’ astute direction, performances could not be more stunning, beginning with Becz’s commandingly complex star turn as a woman torn between maternal love and romantic lust, and Keilbach’s utterly believable, star-making performance as a young man on the verge of baseball greatness.

Dunham’s repressed anger and resentment as Hank, Paramore as a young woman with a taste for bad older men, Tyrl playing drunk to obnoxious perfection, and Gilmore as the sole voice of reason are all four absolutely terrific.

Strong Arm looks fabulous on scenic designer Kristin Campbell’s stylish living room set, design kudos shared by costumer Rachael Lorenzetti, prop master Paige Robitaille, and lighting whiz Colby Nordberg, with sound designer Lauren Zuiderveld’s scene-change underscoring spiced by the likes of John Mellencamp, Lindsay Buckingham, and Elton John and Moreno stirring in some realistic fight choreography along the way.

Sydney Fitzgerald is stage manager and Iliana Solorzano, Scott Smith, and Angelica Hernandez are assistant stage managers.

World Premiere plays are always a gamble, as likely to flop as to flourish. Strong Arm rises to the latter category, and you don’t need to know the difference between 1980s new wavers A Flock Of Seagulls, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, and a certain Chekhov masterpiece to find yourself engaged and enthralled.

Note: No biographical information about Strong Arm’s cast and creative team is provided either in its playbill or online.

Grand Central Art Center, 125 N. Broadway, Santa Ana.
www.TheWaywardArtist.org

–Steven Stanley
July 14, 2019
Photos: Jordan Kubat Photography

Tags: Anton Chekhov, Orange County Theater Review, The Wayward Artist, Wyn Moreno