Ensnared by Guilt

The Langhorne Players perform Keith Bunin’s comic drama ‘The Credeaux Canvas’ in Newtown, Pa., Jan. 10-25.

By: Amy Brummer
   Get rich quick schemes always seem brilliant at first, but when the shine wears off, the flaws can be glaring.
   In Keith Bunin’s play, The Credeaux Canvas, a far-fetched plan to forge a painting pushes those flaws front and center. The scheme is put into action by Jamie, a young man whose father, an art dealer, has died without leaving him a penny. In an act of despair, he enlists the help of his roommate, Winston, who is working on his master’s degree in painting, to create an undiscovered nude by an obscure turn-of-the-century painter, Jean-Paul Credeaux.
   To ensure their secrecy, Jamie asks his girlfriend, Amelia, to pose for Winston, setting off a chain of events with consequences that stretch far beyond their deceptive plot.

"Curtis
Curtis Herr and Heather McDaniel, above, will appear in the Langhorne Players’ production of The Credeaux Canvas.


   The play, written in 2001, kicks off the season for the Langhorne Players, running Jan. 10-25 at Wright’s Meeting Hall in Chandler Hall, Newtown, Pa. It is a temporary change of venue for the company, which usually performs at the Spring Garden Mill in Tyler State Park. The mill is unable to accommodate performances during winter, but the company was eager to add this production to its established season, which begins in April.
   Because the play contains a nude scene that runs for 20 minutes, the producers did not want subscribers to feel pressure to purchase tickets to the show if it would make them uncomfortable. As the scene is a necessary plot construction, it is not only unavoidable, but pivotal to the turn of events. While Amelia poses nude for Winston, he also sheds his clothing to make her feel less awkward. As a result, the two are drawn together after stripping away their defenses.
   Though the scene is important, director Rich Stockwell, who has been with the company for 13 years, notes that it is secondary to what the play is really about.
   "It is not about nudity at all," he says. "It’s not even about the painting. It is about relationships. That is what most plays are about that we pick.
   "It could be a humorous one, it can be a serious one, but it has to be something that can make people think. They can find universal threads, and people are going to come out gratified by what they see, but it is not going to be an easy ride."
   As the play progresses, the actors’ relationships become more convoluted as they become consumed by the deception in their plan and their dishonesty with each other and themselves. Played by Heather McDaniel, a graduate of the London Academy of the Performing Arts, Amelia is the character who becomes ensnared by guilt as she struggles to follow her heart without selling her soul.
   "She has this idealism about falling madly and passionately in love with someone, and they are going to fall madly and passionately in love with her," Ms. McDaniel says. "It’s this romanticized idea of the starving artist, but part of it is that she is so naive and young.
   "The basis of the play is a forgery, and I think the undercurrent is that there are forged relationships. Both Jamie and Winston are lying, and she tries to go along with the lie of the scheme and the lie of the relationships, but she gets to a point where her conscience gets to her and she cannot go through with it."
   Amelia becomes the whistle blower in an attempt to purge herself, but this only yields further ugliness. She ends up devastating Jamie with her infidelity and shaming him in front of the collector, who Jamie has chosen as the mark.
   Already unstable and desperate, Jamie, played by Michael L. Price, realizes he has no cards left to play. This is the final blow for him, as he sees his hopes are as phony as the painting.
   Mr. Price, who returns for his 11th season with the company, was reluctant to take the role at first because he saw parallels with himself at an earlier age.
   "When I was younger, I had all of these great ideas that never panned out," Mr. Price says. "I think we all have. Unfortunately reality does take over, and we understand what our limitations are. But I don’t think anyone ever told (Jamie) or realized his potential. It is great that the world has dreamers, but reality has the tendency to slam the door in our face. I took paths in life that made me more successful, but Jamie never gets that opportunity."
   While Jamie is filled with delusion and mania, his roommate, Winston, played by Curtis Herr, keeps his emotions tightly hemmed under the guise of being a free spirit. He plays games with perception, allowing people to see him as they wish. What they read into his actions and words are only constructions of their own needs, and he refuses to take responsibility for himself.
   For Mr. Herr, who has been with the company for more than 16 years, the difficulty of the character was embracing that coolness without making the character hollow.
   "I’m dealing with what he is going through on a moment by moment basis, what he chooses to embrace and reject and close up and expose in himself," Mr. Herr says. "What is ironic is that he paints such beautifully exposed pictures, but he keeps himself so incredibly protected."
   The deeply intimate play ultimately exposes the characters for all of their flaws and conceits.
   As a trio, Ms. McDaniel, Mr. Price and Mr. Herr worked together last year in the Langhorne Players’ dramatic production of The Elephant Man. For their latest effort, they are joined by Ann Gundresheimer, who plays Tess, a sophisticated art collector they foolishly try to dupe.
   What starts out as a harmless scheme to make a fast buck ends up leaving them all emotionally bankrupted. The characters learn a harsh lesson about value and the importance of substance that reinforces what art collectors already know — investing in fakery will leave you with nothing.
The Langhorne Players will present The Credeaux Canvas at Wright’s Meeting Hall at Chandler Hall, 99 Barclay St., Newtown, Pa., Jan. 10-25. Performances: Fri.-Sun. 8 p.m. Tickets cost $12. For information and reservations, call (215) 860-0818.