The Reviews

I know I'm not supposed to care what the critics say, but they can positively or negatively impact the box office, so I do care.

Creative Loafing is the weekly free arts newspaper, Charlotte Obsverver is the daily paper.

Here you go. This is the Creative Loafing review, and since the Observer calling me an idiot in print was more than 7 days ago, I can't download it for free anymore. And I have no intention of paying $3 to download the opinion that I don't understand the play.

So you only get to read the good review. The play is good. It's not that good, but I don't think I've seen more than 5 plays in my life that were as good as this one is made out to be. But I'm still proud of it, and proud of my cast. And that's all that matters, right?

8-8 in America
Off-Tryon's harsh realities
By Perry Tannenbaum
Published October 12, 2005
Creative Loafing

Finesse and subtlety are nowhere to be found at SouthEnd Performing Arts Center, where Steven Dietz's relentless, obsessively researched docudrama, God's Country, is sounding a loud, harsh alarm. Off-Tryon Theatre Company's production, clocking in at two hours and five minutes plus intermission, doesn't soften (or shorten) the assault, which comes hurtling at us like a grenade laden with razor blades.

At the heart of the drama are two of the most disturbing protagonists I can recall encountering. We spend the most time with Denver Parmenter, a member of the inner circle in The Order, a white supremacist group responsible for the most successful crime spree in US history. Self-servingly, Parmenter has turned state's evidence against his cronies, who are on trial in Seattle - Dietz's home town -for the 1984 assassination of talkshow firebrand Alan Berg.Played superbly by Mykel Chambers, with a malevolent superior smirk nearly worthy of Hannibal Lecter, Parmenter indubitably still harbors the noxious prejudices he professes to renounce in his plea bargain. His credibility - and that of the government prosecutors bringing the people's case against The Order - reeks with corruption.Nor is Berg a comforting presence during his intermittent appearances. Tom Ollis renders the Denver radio personality as markedly rude and abrasive. If you're looking for a cuddly Jewish victim of abominable anti-Semitism, look elsewhere. Dietz portrays Berg as the lightning rod he was and, under John Hartness's fevered direction, Ollis doesn't flinch from it.

So the alarming message of God's Country is richly complex. Yes, we should take seriously the seditious threat of American Nazis. And no, hurling hatred or contempt at them is not the best way of dealing with the scourge.Yet we find ourselves inwardly cheering Berg's incendiary rants. Worse, we find ourselves tolerating the government's dubious prosecutorial tactics, willing to trust the word of one monster if it will serve to imprison others.

Naturally, there are chilling embodiments of the most repulsive racism egging us on, appallingly American in their flavor. Seventh-grader Anthony Zanghi has a memorable debut as a young sprout who gets indoctrinated with The Order's twisted creed. George Cole dons camo to give his skinhead portrayal a muscular, Marine mien. When he shouts out "8-8!" - a coded Nazi salute - you can almost imagine Hitler stirring from his grave.

Each letup in the stridency is a welcome oasis. Best are the poignant regrets of a Father (Phil Taylor) who realizes too late how his nonchalant racist slurs have helped shape his rabid son. There's also a humorous patch when two hayseeds (Brian Willard and George Weldon) spout their conspiratorial theories.

Off-Tryon's 11-person ensemble divvies up over 40 roles. Exposition is often delivered via narrative and reportage, further complicating the actors' tasks. Now that this hurly-burly is up on its feet, maybe all of the cast have their lines down cold.

AV projections for the show add some zip, hammering home reminders that we're confronting real people and threats, and Julia Strachan's costumes are invariably on-target.

So why doesn't the diabolical KKK wizard brandish a torch? And why are fearsome militia wielding weapons that look like they shoot water rather than bullets?

Make no mistake though: this remains gripping theatre. Dietz's carefully documented presentation stands in bold relief against the raving irrationality that flourishes in our midst. Let him quote Yeats. Because things really are falling apart.