{"id":2960,"date":"2020-12-29T16:41:46","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T22:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/?page_id=2960"},"modified":"2020-12-29T16:44:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T22:44:00","slug":"annapurna-review","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/annapurna-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Annapurna Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"2960\" class=\"elementor elementor-2960\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-cb8eb69 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"cb8eb69\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-5849e93\" data-id=\"5849e93\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d56dfe8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"d56dfe8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div id=\"article-section-header\"><section><div id=\"article-header\"><div class=\"article-header-title\"><h1 class=\"article-headline\">Review: Dramatic duel cuts to the bone in \u2018Annapurna\u2019<\/h1><div class=\"light-grey byline\">Written By:\u00a0<span id=\"noLink\" class=\"ttu\">Lawrance Bernabo, for the News Tribune<\/span>\u00a0|\u00a0<time class=\"timestamp\">Jun 2nd 2016 &#8211; 11pm.<\/time><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section><\/div><div id=\"article-section-body\"><div id=\"top-social-share\"><div class=\"addthis_inline_share_toolbox\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.duluthnewstribune.com\/news\/4046758-review-dramatic-duel-cuts-bone-annapurna\" data-title=\"Review: Dramatic duel cuts to  the bone in \u2018Annapurna\u2019 | Duluth News Tribune\" data-description=\"Why did the Duluth Playhouse put &quot;Annapurna&quot; on their schedule? Quite simply it was to have a pair of performers like John Pokrzywinski and Christine Winkler Johnson sink their acting chops into the play's final scene, which runs about an hour, a...\"><div id=\"atstbx\" class=\"at-resp-share-element at-style-responsive addthis-smartlayers addthis-animated at4-show\" role=\"region\" aria-labelledby=\"at-a8ca2bcf-3d7c-48a4-948f-bbcabaca5574\"><span id=\"at-a8ca2bcf-3d7c-48a4-948f-bbcabaca5574\" class=\"at4-visually-hidden\"><\/span><div class=\"at-share-btn-elements\">\u00a0<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"piano-inline-container\">Why did the Duluth Playhouse put \u201cAnnapurna\u201d on their schedule? Quite simply it was to have a pair of performers like John Pokrzywinski and Christine Winkler Johnson sink their acting chops into the play\u2019s final scene, which runs about an hour, and mesmerizes the audience into a breathless silence.<\/div><div class=\"article-body\"><div class=\"main-body\"><div class=\"p402_premium\"><p>Two obvious questions about the two-person drama that opened Thursday night at the Playhouse, would be, \u201cWhat does \u2018Annapurna\u2019 mean?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the play about?\u201d<\/p><div class=\"in-article-container\"><div id=\"in-article\">Exactly.<\/div><div>But the answers should come from the performance and not the review (plus, if I spilled the beans, there would be ants). Let me tell you in a single sentence what I knew about this play before I saw it, so we share the same vantage point.<\/div><\/div><p>In a barely inhabitable trailer propped up on blocks somewhere in the wilds of Colorado lives Ulysses, a poet and defrocked professor, who is gob smacked to discover his ex-wife Emma has arrived on the premises 20 years after they last saw each other.<\/p><p>Ulysses is isolated by choice, if not intention. A scruffy-looking Pokrzywinski\u2019s investment in the role is clear every time the muscles in his neck go so taunt you think his head is going to explode. His objections to Emma\u2019s presence evaporate as he proves to be a moveable object, but his wit remains sharp even if his will is not.<\/p><p>To say that Emma arrives with a lot of baggage is true in more ways than one, and it takes a while for everything to get unpacked. Winkler Johnson takes to cleaning the trailer with a purpose, as much as to avoid getting to the myriad reasons for her visit as to refrain from being made physically ill by her surroundings. Her performance is that of an emotional ecdysiast, giving a different shading to each level slowly revealed in turn.<\/p><div id=\"in-article-3-container\"><div id=\"in-article-3\">Performed without an intermission, \u201cAnnapurna\u201d begins with a series of short scenes followed by blackouts. My initial reaction was that Sharr White\u2019s drama was taking a while to find the right gear, but in retrospect these initial offerings are clearly designed to give us the lay of the land for that final scene when the heavy excavation gets underway with a vengeance.<\/div><\/div><p>White\u2019s explicit premise is that just because you leave someone does not mean you are not in a relationship with them the rest of your life. The edge of the play\u2019s humor is more paper cuts than gut punches. White saves the body blows for the epic climactic scene.<\/p><p>There are a few moments where I think the actors can take another beat or two, but director Julie Ahasay keeps the pace brisk, and the performances certainly captivate the audience.<\/p><p>Anne Gumpper\u2019s scenic design for the trailer\u2019s interior-most of the cabinets still have their doors-is guaranteed to make every other man cave immaculate in comparison. A mountain vista is projected on the rear wall while a sea of giant pages with cursive writing surrounds the trailer.<\/p><p>Bonus points are awarded for using \u201c20 Years\u201d by the Civil Wars as the evening\u2019s pitch-perfect musical coda.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review: Dramatic duel cuts to the bone in \u2018Annapurna\u2019 Written By:\u00a0Lawrance Bernabo, for the News Tribune\u00a0|\u00a0Jun 2nd 2016 &#8211; 11pm. \u00a0Why did the Duluth Playhouse put \u201cAnnapurna\u201d on their schedule? Quite simply it was to have a pair of performers like John Pokrzywinski and Christine Winkler Johnson sink their acting chops into the play\u2019s final [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2960","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2960"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2963,"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2960\/revisions\/2963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anngumpperdesign.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}