As I sat down in my cozy seat in the Ricketson Theatre, shortly before the house lights dimmed, I grabbed my iPhone to turn it off. I see a “news notification” on the home screen. “Yikes!” I say to myself. Thinking it was important I read the headline: “Teabow Says He’s Taking It One Day At A Time.” I turn my phone off wondering who in the world thought that was important news?
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Back in late 1899, a period of time when Denver was slowly evolving into a more modern city, some news reporters decided to fabricate their own news. They met at the Oxford Hotel, had a few drinks, and came up with one doozy of a headline: "OLD WALL MUST GO! The Great Wall of China" is being torn down.
Thus begins Great Wall Story, a play that is based upon actual events. Set in time just prior to the turn of the twentieth century, this production mirrors current day news hype and media scandals. It begs the question, “What is news?”
Written by Lloyd Suh, Great Wall Story is set in old Denver. Scenes are presented with projected pictures of what our city used to look like. The Capital building. Union Station. An old saloon. As a Denverite, I recognized some locations, and sometimes the projections were ghosts of places that no longer stand.
Great Wall Story is at its best when it didn’t pander to my personal nostalgic connections to the city. This play shines when its century old events mirror our current headlines. For example, a character describes a time when his father shot and killed a man he had perceived as a potential threat. Sound familiar?
Finding themselves at a loss of reportable events, three newspaper writers devise a plan to spice up a slow news day. Mike Hartman plays news writer John King, a man of a certain age who enjoys a stiff drink and a good story. Jacob Knoll is newsman Al Stevens, a co-conspirator of the Great Wall hoax. Christopher Kelly portrays Jack Tournay, who discovers that his son Charles (Gabe Koskinen-Sansone) is whittling away at his father’s fraudulent news reporting.
The idea that The Great Wall is being demolished is significant enough to gain attention, and since China is such a distant and closed off place, the story is difficult for others to verify. The concocted news eventually travels to Chicago and New York, where it comes to the attention of Joseph Pulitzer, a news magnate of his day, (played with great charm and wit by John Hutton).
Amongst the competitive company of publishing moguls like William Randolph Hearst; Joseph Pulitzer wastes little time sending some of his people to Denver, including Harriet Sparrow to investigate. Merritt Janson, who is a formidable and charismatic actor, plays Harriet Sparrow. Janson is the only woman in this show, and she really grabs the bull by the horns with great confidence while maintaining her womanly ways. She is the strength behind this “one-woman show”.
Actor Larry Paulsen provides this production with a joyful momentum. He takes on six different roles in Great Wall Story, and he does each part in an independent and amiable fashion. My favorite moment was when Paulsen declares, “There ain’t no clear way to mark the past from the future!” It is a moment that invokes an existential question of life’s journey from generation to generation.
Great Wall Story would be great fun for proud Denver natives. My mother, for example would adore every second of it. But for me, if not for the competence of its charismatic cast, this play would become fodder for school field trips to a Denver history lesson.
I suggest that Great Wall Story is at its best when it provokes questions of time, place, and events. The idea that, we mark our lives from event to event, and that reading the news places markers in the slippery slope of our lives.
Great Wall Story plays through April 22nd at The Ricketson Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts. For tickets or more information visit www.denvercenter.org/buy-tickets/shows/greatwall/home.aspx.
