Technical staff will leave you caught up in ‘Charlotte’s Web’

There's an old saying that if you come away from a show remembering the technical stuff, then there's something wrong. Rainbow Company's "Charlotte's Web" has me rethinking that theory.

The first thing that strikes you when you enter the Charleston Heights Arts Center is how detailed and literal Kris Van Riper's barn set is. Rainbow tends toward impressionistic designs, so I was curious why the barn looked so real. I got my answer when a group of storytellers (Julia Gambardella, Angie Hutchinson, Jack Magee, Marianna Paez and Lexi Phillips) entered and began with, "A barn is a wonderful place." The building is a celebrated character in the play, and Van Riper makes sure we understand why.

J Neal's sound suggests the beauty of what lies just beyond. Jody Caley's lights are equally magnetic when they suggest quiet, late-night bedtime and bright, bustling morning county fair. And Emily Anderson's deliciously creative costumes find a lot of clever ways to suggest insects and animals. (My favorite: the eerie, big-stomached spiders.)

The story, based on E.B. White's celebrated children's novel, chronicles the friendship between a dying spider (Emmy Bartling) and an about-to-be slaughtered pig (Grace Jacobson).

Van Riper has come up with an ingenious way to suggest how the spider's ability to spin magical webs saves the pig. Bartling has a likable, energetic manner in her early scenes, and it's quite moving (but life-affirming) when we see her begin to lose her energy and prepare herself for death.

In addition to Bartling, I particularly enjoyed, among the 25-member cast, Amelia Wignall as a very verbal goose; Madison Tucky and Adriana Villalobos as forever braying sheep; Violet Baldwin as a sunny-dispositioned animal lover; David Tovar as a scene-stealing bundle of mischief; and Kelly Hashiro, Sydney Lin and Sadie Belle Shore as three "spiderettes."

Director Karen McKenney seems to have particular trouble with the adult performers, though, nearly all of whom are stiff and one-dimensional. It's hard to figure out why.

But it's the beauty of the physical environment that's bound to especially hold your attention. The exceptionally talented technical staff members are here working at their peak.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat @aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.