There are a dozen Miracle Worker film and live performance video clips halfway down the webpage at http://www.mahalo.com/the-miracle-worker. Check them out. Compare them to what you have seen or will see at the Walla Walla Little Theatre's traditional rendition of the classic William Gibson play, The Miracle Worker. You will conclude that what happens between our Helen Keller and our Anne Sullivan is more than special: it is a stunning once in a lifetime experience of great live theatre.
Jessica Barkl delivers an emotional tour de force as Anne Sullivan, the teacher who overcomes her own and Helen Keller's physical and linquistic blindness. Every one of Jessica's nuances, gestures, slaps, fights, mannerisms, musings and articulations are subtle or measured or perfect. Walla Walla's theatres rarely stage an actor of this consummate skill. Part of Jessica's excellence is her unselfishness on the stage. She upstages no one. Every other actor in the performance shines because of Barkl's attention to them.
Particularly brilliant is Cassidy Meliah as Helen Keller. The physicality she brings to the role is at once tender and visceral. That a local 6th grader could bring such focus and believability to a role that is often overplayed is a Miracle in itself.
The first two performances of this play have sold out. As I write you have just five more chances to experience this wonderful play; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, November 27 and 28, Sunday, November 29 at 2 p.m. and December 4 and 5 at 8 p.m. Call the box office at 509-529-3683 or go to www.ltww.org for more information.
David Walk
10:53 am Nov 22, 2009
