Freelance theatercritic Alex Brown contributed this review of Lost Nation Theater’s production of This Verse Business.
Television and stage actor Gordon Clapp is now appearing atMontpelier City Hall Auditorium as Robert Frost in a one-man show by A. M.Dolan.
In a brisk, funny hour and a quarter, Clapp performs thevery neat trick of making you forget there’s a script and making you believeyou’re spending an evening with the sharp, fiercely independent poet.
The play isan intimate construction, allowing us to feel we’re truly getting to know Frostand what makes him tick. While the deeper and darker sides of his personal lifearen’t on view, we get to see his humor, self-deprecation and keen ability toobserve.
Thanks to afine performance by Clapp, a strong script, and smart direction by GusKaikkonen, this production solves the primary problem of one-man shows. Manymonologues are plagued by unrelenting artifice when a subject recounts a lifestory sans any of its other characters, but this show feels natural and alive.
This Verse Business begins with Frost,onstage to give a poetry reading, apparently ad-libbing about the brightnessof a stage light. Clapp gives us a character with a little problem to solve anda relationship to the audience, his only ally against the tech crew. Frost’swit and bluntness shine through immediately. He has a reason to be onstage,and a way to connect with us.
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