‘The Ascetic’: Step into a mystical, surprising world

April 10, 2008 by Molly Gilmore
Originally published in The Olympian

When he first encountered "The Ascetic," actor-director Dennis Rolly of Olympia was excited and impressed.

He was participating in North west Playwrights Alliance's staged reading of the black comedy by Phillip Atlakson. And three years later, he's directing the play's West Coast premiere. The production is a joint venture of Theater Artists Olympia, the alliance and Prodigal Sun Productions.

"We got a phenomenal reaction from the audience," Rolly said of the reading in March 2005. "At those readings, the audience talks to the playwright and gives feedback on what they might like to see changed.

"Everybody had ideas, but I was going: 'This is perfect the way it is. This play needs to get produced,' " Rolly said.

He is far from the only one to appreciate Atlakson's work. "He's had a quite a bit of success writ ing screenplays and has also made some films," said Bryan Willis of the playwrights alliance. "These past few years, he's returned to playwriting and is making steady progress with various productions in New York."

He immediately wished to act in the play, but as things developed, Theater Artists Olympia asked him to direct. He discovered the play about a holy man of the type found on Eastern mountaintops had changed since that reading as Atlakson, a Boise resident, had been reworking it and offering workshop productions.

"I'm really tickled to be directing it," he said. "It's much more of a show than I thought I had on my hands. As we go through the rehearsal process, we're discovering how beautifully written it is, how intricately woven the story is. Things that are said in the first scene come back in later scenes and the climax of the play."

In the play, a husband and wife go to visit the mystic, who stands on a rock in the desert of Eastern Washington. The husband believes the mystic truly is a holy man, but the wife wishes to prove he's a phony. What happens is far from predictable.

"It's about the destruction of this couple's relationship," Rolly said. The wife persuades the husband to eat in front of the mystic, who supposedly has not eaten or slept in months. She seduces him in front of the mystic.

"Then the husband gets fed up and goes home and leaves her there," he said. "She's talking to the mystic and ranting and raving, and eventually she picks up a rock and hits him alongside the head with it. That's the end of the first act. It's really fun."

Fun isn't exactly the word that springs to mind.

"There are points in this play where I hope we do shock people - or startle them anyway," Rolly said. "When she hits him with a rock, it's a complete surprise."

Well, it won't be once it's in the newspaper.

He laughed. "That's why I didn't tell you about the second act."