BWW Review: Nate Eppler's THE ICE TREATMENT Closes Actors ... · Here, basically, is the plot: Blondie has hired two actors to help her in fashioning a videotaped pitch for potential

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July 20 12:38 PM2016

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BWW Review: Nate Eppler's THE ICETREATMENT Closes Actors Bridge's 20thAnniversary Season with Knee-capping Fun

Tony Nappo, Rachel Agee and Amanda Card Compton in Nate Eppler's

The Ice Treatment. - photo by Shane Burkeen

Rachel Agee's bravura performance - which, arguably, any actor would love to add to a resume -as a fictionalized Tonya Harding-like personality is enough to guarantee that audiences willcontinue to talk about the world premiere production of Nate Eppler's latest work, The IceTreatment, for years to come. But there is so much more to the astounding show than just onescintillating portrayal: There's the playwright's uncanny ability to write dialogue and to createsharply delineated characters, the real-life inspiration for this fictional onstage treatment andthe wonderful work of actors Tony Nappo and Amanda Card Compton, who give astonishingsupport to the leading player while showing off their own versatility.

To say The Ice Treatment is one of the most compelling new works to debut on a Nashville stagein years seems like so much hyperbole and somehow redundant - particularly consideringEppler's Good Monsters, which premiered as part of Nashville Repertory Theatre's 2015-16season - but there it is. Without question, playwright Eppler and his beautifully constructedplays reiterate Nashville's role in helping to grow contemporary theater, and this exemplaryproduction closes out Actors' Bridge Ensemble's 20th season in spectacular style, giving voiceand providing credibility to the company's mission in grand and electrifying fashion.

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While the early to mid-1990s are given their due in The Ice Treatment - who can forget themedia firestorm and tabloid tumult that transpired as a result of the intense on-the-ice rivalrybetween Harding and the almost buck-toothed Nancy Kerrigan (here represented by "PrincessTeeth") that resulted in an off-the-ice incident that was fueled by the white trash antics ofHarding and her would-be henchmen? - Eppler's laser-like focus and his ability to create afantastical world we can only dream of, allows the story to span decades of human achievement,touching upon such varied world events as the space race between the Russians and theAmericans and the pop culture zeitgeist that spawned the current climate of reality TV and somuch more.

The Ice Treatment, however, is not a documentary of those heady days of pre-Olympic hype andknee-capping, of astoundingly huge audiences for Barbie dolls on-ice on TV, or any of your otherpreconceived (and perhaps skewed) memories of what happened when, where and to whom.Instead, it's something else altogether.

With Eppler at the helm of the Actors' Bridge production, audiences are given an especiallypersonal take on the story, one in which we see the leading player (here known simply as"Blondie" or "T.T."), warts and all. The playwright/director doesn't hold back in hisinterpretation of Tonya Harding and her intense disdain for Kerrigan and everything sherepresents now or then, nor does he pull any punches. That is not to say, however, that he treatsthe character disparagingly; rather, he shows us the multi-faceted aspects of the woman, whodeep within her heart of hearts, is not so unlike any of us. And in his masterful way, Epplerdraws his audience into the story, engaging and enlightening them as the story unfolds onstage.

Here, basically, is the plot: Blondie has hired two actors to help her in fashioning a videotapedpitch for potential producers of a new screen treatment of her story (which opens with the sceneof a blonde, eight-year-old girl urinating on the bedroom carpet of a raven-haired little girl, inan effort to mark her territory - in fact, the significance of the scene becomes apparent as theplay progresses) and hurtles onward, showing us the hard-scrabble life of the girl and heRLower-class family in wild and woolly Oregon. It's a heightened version, to be sure, of whatwe've come to know of Harding's life (or what Google and Wikipedia can tell you in a cursorysearch), with plenty of laughs, guffaws and audible gasps sure to be elicted in the process.

Agee's performance is unparalleled in recent theater memory. As one of the region's mostbeloved actors, she delivers the startling performance that is to be expected. But what sets itapart from her earlier stage assignments - and that which separates her from the mere mortalsto be found on local stages - is the immense heart that is on display from the very first momentsof the play, all the way to the closing scene in which she lays bare her soul (or Blondie's soul...it'ssometimes hard to tell where Blondie begins and Rachel leaves off, so compelling and socompletely mesmerizing is her performance). Agee's delivery of Eppler's stream ofconsciousness monologues is shockingly effective: She immerses herself in her character, not somuch acting each second of her life as actually living it onstage.

To say Agee's performance is one for the ages is no exaggeration or schoolboy hyperbole. It isnothing less than fact.

Amanda Card Compton and Tony Nappo, both versatile veterans of the stage, rise to theoccasion to deliver performances that will linger at the top of their burgeoning resumes for sometime to come. Fearless and unfettered, Compton and Nappo match Agee's intensity withflawlessly crafted characterizations, embodying all the characters who come in and out ofBlondie's life with adequate flash and fireworks.

Eppler directs his actors with an understated, yet somehow highly theatrical, flair that hewsdangerously close to the line of good taste and decorum, with the actors tottering ever so near tocrossing it. But they remain grounded and believable even in the trickiest of scenes and you'll behard-pressed to find an ensemble of actors delivering such nuanced performances onstage

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anywhere in the wide world of theatrical endeavor.

Credit Eppler's fascination for his subject matter and devotion to the integrity of his characterswith that particular achievement and give credit where credit is due to Agee, Compton andNappo for knowing just how far to go in their zeal in bringing the story to life.

Credit for the remarkably designed set and sound - a conglomeration of kitschy and funmid-1980s teen-scream-queen décor and music - goes to Mitch Massaro, who creates the pitch-perfect world in which the play is physically set. Illuminated by Richard Davis' exquisitelighting, with Shane Burkeen's wonderful projections design. Jessika Malone's props are idealevocations of the period, Mallory Kimbrell and Cassie Hamilton's puppets are cleverly utilizedand Christen Heilman's costumes help to convey the characters with an unstudied ease.

The Ice Treatment. Written and directed by Nate Eppler. Presented by Actors'Bridge Ensemble at the Black Box Theatre at Belmont University's Troutt Theatre,Nashville. Playing through July 24. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes (with one15-minute intermission). For details, go to www.actorsbridge.org.

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Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-basedwriter, editor and critic, who's beencovering the performing arts inTennessee for more than 25 years. In1989, Ellis (read more...)

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BWW Review: Nate Eppler's THE ICE TREATMENT Closes Actors ... · Here, basically, is the plot: Blondie has hired two actors to help her in fashioning a videotaped pitch for potential