THE DAILY BRUIN ONLINE
4/22/2004

Review: Company delivers ‘Credeaux Canvas’ with thoughtful maturity

Bunin’s play explores topic of talent on Williams’ authentic little victory setKimberly-Rose (left) in “The Credeaux Canvas”

By Sommer Mathis
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
smathis@media.ucla.edu

These days, the first thing that strikes you as you wander into the tiny Little Victory Theater in North Hollywood is how authentic and confident John Williams' set design for the venue's current production, Keith Bunin's "The Credeaux Canvas," truly feels.

Williams' realistic recreation of a cluttered, tiny East Village apartment, right down to the bad carpeting and mismatched chairs, serves as the backdrop for a story of three struggling, 20-something artists (or artistic wannabes) who embark on an ill-fated money-making scheme. But the set also serves as an excellent example of the overall quality of the production, from the acting to director Paul Nicolai Stein's careful staging. On the whole, this inaugural play for the newly founded vs. Theatre Company is resoundingly strong, and much like its set, it is imbued with an authenticity belying the relative youthfulness of the players involved.
Although Bunin's intelligent and nuanced play is essentially a crime caper with a classic love triangle, the issues he explores are what make "The Credeaux Canvas" such an exceptional piece of theater.

The main topic Bunin seems to be preoccupied with is talent. Jamie (Matt Skaja) is an art school reject, his girlfriend Amelia (Kimberly-Rose) a struggling singer, and his roommate Winston (Johnny Clark) a semi-talented painter who still hasn't managed to achieve greatness. So when Jamie suggests that they all collaborate on a scheme to relieve a wealthy socialite of some of her money, this relatively talentless bunch decides that making a little scratch might be worth a few moral transgressions, especially when Jamie paints the widow (Marilyn McIntyre) as the worst kind of well-moneyed, tasteless art snob.

But there is very little in "The Credeaux Canvas" that goes according to Jamie's plan, and the conflict that results from its failures will lead to some life-altering changes for the three young characters. Not everyone, it seems, is meant to lead the life of an artist.

Though Stein errs occasionally by inserting a few bars of a swelling, overly emotional score to emphasize scenes that play as emotional on their own, his direction is steady handed for the most part. Skaja is able to let his characters intense melancholy simmer and occasionally boil over. Kimberly-Rose exudes a startling mix of confidence and vulnerability that lends itself well to Amelia's arc through the play. And Clark maintains a subtle performance when he could easily have tread into caricature. "The Credeaux Canvas" is a thoughtful, mature production from vs. Theatre Company.
-Sommer Mathis