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Life's big questions
By KAREN SHADE World Scene Writer
11/6/2007

'Rocket Man' explores mystery of being human
"Rocket Man" is the kind of play Julie Tattershall loves to do. For all its contextual and emotional probing, she seems most perplexed by a clear sign.

"I mean, what a way to start a play: 'This is my life -- make an offer'?" Tattershall said, still incredulous and sounding more as if she wanted an explanation.

Of course, watching a man clear out his attic to place its contents on his front lawn alongside most of his worldly possessions, all going to the highest bidder, hints at more than time and place. A transformation is in the works, and nothing excites a director like Tattershall more than a meaningful conversation with 40 people at a time.

Forget about blasting off to leave the Earth far behind. Tattershall, her cast and Heller Theatre are exploring the mystery of being human and the haunting effects of things left unsaid, plans unfinished and the small hope of second chances in Steven Dietz's 1998 drama.

Charles Whitson (left), Starr Hardgrove and Susan Apker perform in “Rocket Man,” a drama opening Thursday night at Heller Theatre.

JAMES GIBBARD / Tulsa World
"Rocket Man" opens at Heller Thursday night to begin a two-weekend run.

This is the second play Tattershall has tackled in a year by the playwright. In the spring, she and her cast impressed with the mesmerizing "Inventing Van Gogh," which lunged head-first through time and illogic between the infamous artist and the contemporary bitter painter paid to forge one of Van Gogh's famous self portraits.

That play dealt with life, death, creation and love.

"The best plays are about love," Tattershall said.

"Rocket Man," in that light, is similar. The director has become a fan of Dietz's work "because it leaves the audience with a lot of questions. It doesn't just hand you the play," she said.

At play's opening, newly divorced Donny Rowan is finished with the illusion that he has a significant degree of control over his life. Something has happened. In his attic, he packs things into boxes to sell with his other materials while neighbors pillage through his stuff outside without much thought to what the sign actually says.

At first, Donny appears to be going through a midlife crisis, but Tattershall said the play is layered in phenomena and recognitions that trigger people at any stage.

"Rocket Man" doesn't allow its viewer to drift on a floatation of sitcom-inspired yuks and feel-good affirmations. It goes all the way down into questions most people ask themselves at some point, Tattershall said.

"What kind of questions? Well, kind of the big ones -- 'What happens when we die?' 'What does it mean to be a good person?' 'How can we redeem ourselves?' 'Do we get second chances?' Those are the big things," she said.

"Rocket Man" isn't without its feel-good moments and humor, but it does force a major query of literature and social institutions: "How much control do we have over our life, or are we just subjects of fate?" she said.

Donny is shifting in that opinion. Just as the main character does in the play, cast members wrote their obits on the life they had lived thus far. Tattershall wrote one for herself. She said she was more affected hearing everyone else read theirs aloud.

"We all had the same questions and the same pulls and tugs that are in the play -- are we good enough, what have we done, what have we not done, and was it worth it?"

Ultimately, "Rocket Man" doesn't harp on any specific philosophy or religion, Tattershall said.

"I would say it's more about the expectations we put on ourselves and how unrealistic sometimes they are," she said. "And the most important thing that we should be do ing is trying to connect with each other in the deepest and most meaningful ways that we can."

The cast includes Starr Hardgrove, Charles Whitson, Julia Mills, Susan Apker and Miriam Mills.



Karen Shade 581-8334
karen.shade@tulsaworld.com

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