Underneath the Lintel Press Reviews

Excerpts:

"BURLINGTON - It's not good to raise the ire of an overly dedicated librarian, especially by avoiding fines. Even if the book is 113 years overdue."

"Mark Nash is the eccentric librarian in Glen Berger's seriocomic play, "Underneath the Lintel," being reprised by Vermont Stage at FlynnSpace through March 20. Thursday's performance proved intriguing, entertaining and even touching."

"The mystery follows a Byzantine and quirky path that is fun and funny, and the answer can be seen as a metaphor for life. But, regardless of its meaning, it's downright funny."

"Nash, who ends a decade as Vermont Stage's artistic director at the end of this season, is an excellent actor and clearly enjoys this role. His performance adds a spiritual depth to his more comic performance of 2004, though there is no lack of humor."

"Thursday's house was packed, and the audience was unusually enthusiastic for a one-man show. Nash's acting skill prevailed."

UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL by Glen Berger is a wonderful one-character play that is perfectly suited to the intimate FlynnSpace. It tells the story of an eccentric Dutch librarian and his pursuit of a fine on a book returned 113 years overdue. His initial fussy annoyance at the book's appearance in the overnight slot gradually turns to an intense international search for the book's history that leads to his own self-discovery.

The script is beautifully written and is sometimes poetic.... (Read the Full Article Here)

The librarian who leads audiences on a mysterious 90-minute trek around the world in the play, "Underneath the Lintel," is on a mission. It's a strange mission, possibly a mission of complete insignificance, but it's one he plunges into with exactly the sort of enthusiasm you don't expect from a buttoned-down man of books.

Mark Nash, the artistic director of Vermont Stage, dives into the role with similar verve in the one-act, one-man production he first acted in at FlynnSpace seven years ago and revived this past week.... (Read the Full Article Here)

In his role in the Vermont Stage Company production of Underneath the Lintel currently running at FlynnSpace, VSC artistic director Mark Nash has found his art and life imitating each other in uncanny ways. Nash’s turn as a Dutch librarian whose obsession with an overdue book sets him adrift in the wider world coincides with the director’s imminent departure from VSC — bound for an as-yet-undefined professional future.

The parallels struck him from the first lines of the script, Nash says, especially when his character insists he tell his story now, “because tomorrow I’ll be gone.”... (Read the Full Article Here)