Underneath the Lintel: Rosebud’s fun, thoughtful summer show

Times Contributor 

 

Rosebud Theatre’s Studio Stage presents the one-man show Underneath the Lintel: An Impressive Display of Lovely Evidences, Wednesday to Saturdays at 5 p.m., until Aug. 24. The play is directed by Paul F. Muir.

Nathan Schmidt is the librarian, an endearing elderly man from the Netherlands, who’s come to present – “for one day only” – the evidences of his round-the-world trip, when he left the safety of his library to track down the patron who’d returned a book 113 years overdue.

From the beginning, the librarian ties the audience into his story, wandering among us before going onstage to laboriously set up his slightly-aged equipment — slide projector, cassette player, world map, chalkboard, large trunk – even before the house manager welcomes us and reminds us to turn off our cell phones. I was soon willing to tell myself I wasn’t there to see a play, but to hear an eccentric old man tell his true stories.

Underneath the Lintel is full of puzzles and hints and multi-lingual locations, and it could have been challenging to follow, but the librarian is like a patient teacher teaching his favorite subject. He explains carefully how each clue became the next step in his journey, and does it in such a way that we feel clever for following along. And like a skilled teacher, the librarian makes us laugh and cry and sigh, as we learn to love his topic as much as he does. Several times, when he explained his next clue, I heard people around me whisper “Ah!” in their own moments of discovery.

I felt we were all right on the edge of our seats, in fact, until a lady in the front row became ill. Schmidt paused his monologue but stayed in character, complete with accent, asking if the lady was all right and whether she wanted to leave. Then he resumed his role, amping up his volume and energy to make sure he’d regained our attention. Demonstrating sincere concern for the lady while continuing to act his role – that too was an “impressive display”.

For tickets to Underneath the Lintel, see www.rosebudtheatre.com or call 1-800-267-7553.