POOR CLARE

Contemporary speak proves an ideal fit for Poor Clare, Chiara Atik’s screwball-comedy look at a 13th-century Paris Hilton who gave it all up for God and ended up a Saint.

You’d probably have to have grown up Catholic to have heard of Chiara Offreduccio, whose chance meeting with a certain Francis of Assisi had the privileged teenager leaving her family’s palazzo to devote herself to the poor (and get herself canonized as Saint Clare Of Assisi for her devotion).

You don’t, on the other hand, have to be any sort of believer to be captivated by eighteen-year-old Jordan Hull’s Clare, not when playwright Atik has the Medieval Valley Girl opining that “Going to The Holy Land, it’s like so much work and money!” or gushing to her younger sister that “Oh my god! You look so cute!” or wondering aloud to a 20something Francis “Like your whole thing, what is your whole thing, that you’re doing?”

If all this sounds rather more irreverent that what you learned in Sunday School, there is method in Atik’s cheeky look at a real-life saint, as Clare’s growing awareness of how the other 99% live in Italy circa 1211 AD proves rather uncomfortably close to the streets of L.A. circa 2021.

Fortunately, a spoonful of sugar helps some rather bitter medicine go down as the incandescent Hull and an all-around fabulous supporting cast, in particular Michael Sturgis’s irresistible Francis, elicit laugh after laugh from Atik’s audacious but effective script.

 The doubly droll Kari Lee Cartwright and Martica De Cardenas have great fun as gossipy servants Alma and Peppa. (“Did you hear Guido Conti is back from crusade? We threw a little homecoming for him last night. The stable guys all pitched in and got a boar!”)

Donna Zadeh delights as Clare’s fashion-conscious younger sister Beatrice. (“Okay, so for the skirt, I’m thinking like a gold thread, and then the cloth would be like….I don’t know, I’m thinking purple.”)

The always divine Ann Noble is the girls’ mother Ortolana, who try as she might can’t figure out why her older daughter has such a problem with the family fortune. (“You can be rich and pious. Look at the pope!”)

Last but not least, a deliciously droll Tony DeCarlo doubles as a 13th-century Beggar and as a soiled-t-shirt-clad “The Poor,” who seems to have wandered into Assisi straight out of L.A.’s Skid Row to remind audiences that things haven’t gotten any better in the past 800 years.

Alana Dietz proves the perfect choice to direct Poor Clare, eliciting some of the sharpest performances in town, especially those delivered by a big-things-ahead-of-her Hull, who stepped into a bear of a role with just a few weeks’ notice and nails it like a pro twice her years, and by Echo favorite Sturgis, a treat and a half as a pageboy coiffed Francis.

Designers Amanda Kenhans (set), Azra King-Abadi (lighting), and Klint Flowers (wig and hair) do their accustomed fine work, with special snaps to Dianne K. Graebner for a number of ornate Middle Ages gowns, some more modest servant garb, and Francis and Clare’s oversized hairshirts and robes, and to sound designer Jeff Gardner for some gorgeously evocative musical underscoring.

Poor Clare is produced by Kelly Beech, Chris Fields and Rachael Zambias and Alexa Yeames is associate producer. Lauren Smerkanich is assistant director.

Christopher Jerabek is stage manager and Trinity Catlin (who appears briefly as Super) is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Tal Fox. Sam Morelos understudies the role of Clare. Lucy Pollak is publicist.

As unexpectedly deep as it is consistently delightful, Poor Clare was in final previews in March of 2020 when live theater took an unplanned hiatus. Fortunately for vaxxed and masked Angelinos, the latest Echo Theater Company gem is at long last reopened for business. Expect to be richly rewarded for the nineteen-month wait.

The Echo Theater Company @ Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village.

–Steven Stanley
October 23, 2021
Photos: Cooper Bates

Proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours will be required of all patrons. Admittance is limited to ages 12+. All current CDC and local guidelines regarding seating and masks will be followed at each performance.

 

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