Author, poet and playwright Archibald MacLeish won the Pulitzer Prize three times. It’s evident why when you see Core Performance Manufactory’s production of two MacLeish one-act plays, running through January 27 at the Bath House Cultural Center on White Rock Lake.

Expressionist in style, delicate and lyrical, they offer satisfying, warm respite from a chilly mid-winter evening.

Ephemeral delight for the senses and the intellect

"Air Raid," the first and shorter of the two one-acts, creates so much dramatic tension in a short space of time, it leaves one breathless.

Almost a tone poem with multiple voices, it portrays the villagers’ actions in the Basque town of Guernica immediately before the savage bombing that Picasso immortalized in his world-renowned painting of that name.

It’s potent. It’s gut-wrenching. It’s powerful theater.

Core Performance’s ensemble respects the voice of the playwright implicitly. Shannon Kearns-Simmons’ choreographed movement, stylized in concept, balances the spare poetic language and provides a tragic counterpoint to the cut and dried urgency of the impending disaster. Taut, heart-wrenching images of moments and faces linger long after intermission.

Ingmar Bergman must be grinning

"This Music Crept By Me Upon the Waters," a romantic interlude, feels not unlike the Bergman’s classic film "Smiles of a Summer Evening" or any number of Ibsen or Strindberg short plays.

Several very civilized couples, vacationing on a Caribbean island, plan to share a most civilized dinner together; but they don’t plan on how the moon’s rise will affect each of them, disrupting the evening with unusual intoxication. "I never saw a moon more gluttonous; it burns like silence in a mirror," says one awe-struck character arriving late for the dinner.

Again, Core Performance’s ensemble handles the challenges presented in a thoroughly enjoyable, professional manner. Several actors appear in both one-acts—I found Carolyn Wickwire’s portrayals most compelling and nuanced.

Let the muse inform Art

A particular delight, the thread tying both plays together is the improvised jazz percussion under-scoring both plays in full view of the audience. A Kim Corbet and Floyd Kearns-Simmons-inspired creation using world beat and traditional Western instrumentation, the music never detracts from the performances but enhances their impact in a masterful, subtle manner.

For information and tickets, go to Core Performance Manufactory's web site or call them at  214.893.3009.

It is truly some evening’s enchantment.