Category: Off-Off Broadway Reviews

In the week before Easter Sunday, I’ve already taken a trip to Hadestown on Broadway.  I followed that plunge with another descent into the underworld.  The Harrowing of Hell is a play from the 13th century which has been adapted and modernized by director Dr. Jeff S. Dailey.  One of the first English language plays, its creation is unknown.  Found in three surviving medieval manuscripts, this work was likely a popular mystery play.  In the Middle Ages, Bible stories with accompanying music were an early form of theater performed in traveling pageants and churches.  (I’ll rebrand my blog Theater Reviews From My Pew to accommodate this particular entry.)

For this production, four distinct works are performed, the last of which is The Harrowing of Hell.  Period music separates each section which creates a contemplative feeling.  Given my love of all things medieval AND this week’s final season premiere of Game of Thrones, I decided to try a theater company I have never seen before.

The Fall of the Angels is the first play presented.  Dating from the 14th century, this story is part of the York Corpus Christi cycle of 48 mystery plays covering sacred history.  The text used here is a modernization of the original from the 20th century.  This selection conveys the creation of the world and the fall of Lucifer.  From high up on the stage, God condemns him with a cleverly simple effect of tossing a red sheet down upon his body.

Written by an African American in 1907, a poem entitled The Soliloquy of Satan, is performed next.  Satan (Christopher Yoo) tells the story of his fall from heaven.  The ensemble play demons, tortured souls and heavenly spirits.

Selections from the 2nd Century Gospel of Nicodemus describe the Harrowing of Hell.  On the night of Good Friday, Jesus broke down the gates of Hell to rescue the prophets and patriarchs imprisoned there.  The ensemble are monks outfitted in red robes as they recite quotations dating from a 19th century translation.

The fourth and final scene has Jesus (Benjamin Beruh) triumphantly descending into hell between his crucifixion and his resurrection.  Salvation has been brought to all the righteous since the beginning of the world.  That’s all the way back to a leaf wearing Adam and Eve.

In Middle English, the play’s opening lines are:  Alle herkneth to nou/ A strif wolle y tellen ou/ Of Jhesu ant of Sathan,-/ Tho Jhesu wes to helle y-gan/ Forte vachhe thenne hys,/ Ant bringen hem to parays.  The rhyming scheme is typical of this period.  For this production, the lines are translated to:  All hear harken to me now/ A contest will I now avow/ Between Jesus and of Satan,/ When Jesus down to Hell’s gate ran/ To find his comrades in a trice/ And bring them back to paradise.

Connor Chaney played God in the first section and performed the prologue and epilogue in The Harrowing of Hell.  His performance was big and very enjoyable.  The exaggerating gestures and booming vocals felt appropriate to a religious story meant to inspire and, likely, frighten uneducated souls during the Dark Ages.  Mr. Yoo’s masked Satan was fun and Mr. Beruh’s Jesus was calmly heroic.

I appreciated the opportunity to experience this historical artifact as an intellectual curiosity.  The production, however, is very off-off Broadway.  The actors are quite young and, in a few cases, their inexperience shows.  (Did I see stage fright?)  With a shoestring budget Terry Prideaux’s all black set construction framing the burning fires of hell accomplished an appropriate mood.

www.theharrowofhell.com

theaterreviewsfrommyseat/hadestown

Over the last five years, I have seen four versions of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will.  Mark Rylance was a mesmerizing Olivia on Broadway.  The combination of two well-regarded theater companies, Classic Stage and Fiasco, presented a less successful production last year.  Bedlam did two versions in repertory with the actors switching roles.  One was called What You Will (or twelfth night) with both a simple set and costumes bathed in all white.  This same aesthetic is on display with Duende Productions in their inaugural show of this oft-performed classic.

White is a smart choice to define a canvas where gender identity is fluid.  The twins Sebastian and Viola are separated in a shipwreck.  Disguised as a man named Cesario, Viola falls in love with Duke Orsino who is in love with Countess Olivia.  Olivia thinks Cesario is a man and falls in love with the disguised Viola.  Adding to that love triangle, several characters conspire to convince Olivia’s pompous steward, Malvolio, that she is interested in him.

Written as a “twelfth night” Christmas entertainment, the original would have included music.  In this production, Feste the Clown (Olivia Vessel) strums original music on her guitar and there are good songs throughout.  “If music be the food of love, play on.”  The play is performed in only one act, a very long time to remain seated on relatively stiff off-off Broadway folding chairs.

For its first production, Duende’s Founding Artistic Director Amy Gaither-Hayes wanted to create a bare staging to bring “the focus back to the language.”  I’m not sure this intention is truly unique but the eight actors in this play were committed to the bard’s words with very simple props and minimal costume changes.  Lines are certainly played with such as the humorous reference to “fishmonger, hugger-mugger crap.”

The energetic cast appears to be relishing the opportunity to dive headfirst into their broadly conceived characterizations.  There is a lot of scenery being chewed here.  (Check that.  The scenery is non-existent so it must have been chewed already!)  When this play’s famously hilarious scenes do occur, those decisions ensure funny will indeed happen.

The cast is visibly sitting throughout this production on the sidelines.  As was the case with last season’s Fiasco interpretation, the cast is often laughing much louder than the audience.  That effect can be fun but can also seem like a distracting and forced laugh track.  Whichever your opinion, when Jim Ireland’s fun-hating, puritanical Malvolio is on stage, you cannot help but be mightily amused.  This tattling, power hungry schemer’s comeuppance is one of the show’s high points.

Seth Rue nicely fills the double bill of Sir Toby and Sebastian, distinguished by different accents and wearing a hat (or not).  Everyone has memorable moments.  I especially enjoyed Richard Busser’s intense Duke Orsino, Alexandra Bonesho’s captivating speech when Antonio is accused and Kaileela Hobby’s delightful Viola.

Ms. Hayes directed this production and also starred as Olivia and played Valentine.  Her performance was, I presume, intentionally more subdued than the vigorously emotive acting by the rest of the cast.  As a result, this version of Twelfth Night seemed a bit out of balance.  That is not uninteresting, just different.

The other, more unfortunate problem is that cleverness trumped clarity.  If you’ve never seen Twelfth Night before, I am not sure this is the right place to jump in without prereading a synopsis.  With only one act, some of the language is seriously rushed.  Conceptual creativity is usually entertaining.  When it overshadows storytelling, however, the mission cannot be considered completely successful.

I look forward to Duende’s next effort.  For its first outing, the team assembled some impressively talented (and well-matched) performers that were seemingly given ample freedom to bring their characters to life.  With more focus on the core storytelling, the creative flourishes will be even more appreciated.

www.duendeproduction.org

theaterreviewsfrommyseat/twelfthnight/classicstagefiascotheater

The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated by the Chinese (and other Asian cultures) in late September or early October.  With a full moon, this family gathering has the feeling of thanksgiving, a gathering together of loved ones.  When this particular family finally completes emigrating to Hawai’i, they cannot wait until fall to get their mooncakes and rejoice.  For them, June is the First Fall.  From that moment on, they begin their tradition and the family’s festival is always held on this much earlier date.

At the beginning of Yilong Liu’s play, Don is seated on an airplane and a woman is talking to him.  The scene is a dreamlike memory.  Don is returning home to Honolulu’s Manoa Valley after a ten year absence.  He now lives in New York.  With the passage of time, memories crystallize and cannot be shaken.  Memories are scattered throughout this endearing study of culture, family and personal growth.

Don’s sister Jane (Stefani Kuo) and her boyfriend Scott (Karsten Otto) live with her father David (Fenton Li).  Scott works in his restaurant.  David left China to find a better life when his children were very small.  Years later they were reunited and this house in America became their home.  When it was time for college, son Don heads to the mainland, far away from the burden of expectations.

While the situations explored in this play are not unique, the relaxed pace gives this material a fresh smell.  Jane hangs her sheets outside rather than using the dryer as sun-dried sheets are soothing.  She wants her brother to have clean linen to sleep on when he arrives.  As we will learn, Don does need soothing.  And healing.  And closure.  And a push forward.

Don is a gay man who fled his home as so many others do.  New York City can be welcoming but cold.  Don’s long awaited return ignites memories of his dead mother.  Chun Cho plays her ghost in the many memory scenes.  Her performance is a perfect mix of eccentric foreigner, naturalistic mother and spiritual sounding board.  The play nicely evokes the important imprints left during one’s impressionable youth.

June is the First Fall features a good cast of actors.  As Don, Alton Alburo’s is a believably confused, irritably defensive young man who still needs to toughen up.  Stefani Kuo and Karsten Otto played the couple with the easy chemistry of a playful romantic relationship.  The family patriarch, as one would expect, is the person whose opinion matters most.  Fenton Li thoughtfully inhabited him.  His personal beliefs and cultural influences believably conflicted with the the love of family and the wisdom of age.  As performances continue, this comfortable familial vibe should grow even richer.

In the relatively small New Ohio Theater, the creative team has done an excellent job.  With evocative scenic design (Jean Kim) and creative lighting (Cha See), this family’s healing materializes in the home, on a plane and during a hike through the valley.  Michael Costagliola’s sound design noticeably contributed to the various locales which were employed in telling this tale.

June is the First Fall addresses the ghosts of the past which linger in our heads.  In a pivotal scene, we hear:  “I know there are times that we all feel like we are trapped in a loop.”  Are there paths to grow and move on rather than feel held back with no escape?  Well directed by Michael Leibenluft, this story is smoothly paced to unravel this family’s secrets and hopes and learnings. 

www.newohiotheatre.org

When taking a seat in the Paradise Factory Theatre downtown, the stage backdrop suggests a large scrapbooking canvas.  Pictures of children and the wilderness.  Happy, peaceful images.  They are layered and have texture.  Some of the edges are uneven around the borders reminiscent of photographs from long ago.  Boldly titled in capital letters, WHORE will be heading down the path of memoir told with the passage of time.

Suzanne Tufan is the writer, performer and producer of this piece, her first full length play.  The story is one woman’s journey of survival and transformation.  From the age of five until adulthood, Ms. Tufan is chronicling a history scarred by an overbearing father.  He is portrayed as a conservative man who is deeply into astrology and meditation.  The wearing of lipstick (and other infractions) seemingly connotate WHORE in his mind.

That oppression is the fundamental conflict pursued in this therapeutic exercise of analysis, healing and creative expression.  The tone is an odd yet interesting combination of gleefully childlike and bitterly hardened.  As an actress, she learns to use music and dance for creative expression.  That outlet is also employed here in her original songs and expressive movements.

Unfortunately the story feels very sketchily drawn.  Intentionally shocking blurbs like discovering masturbation at seven years old are hurled before quickly moving on.  At nine, she begins to have fantasies about boys peeing on her.  A throwaway comment or thematic revelation?  I thought about that line longer than the play did.  Relationships which obviously have had some major impact are discussed but not explored in any depth whatsoever.  As a result, the play seems like an outline rather than a multi-layered scrapbook.

Lindsey Hope Pearlman’s direction efficiently moves this story along and, critically, gives the material some gravitas.  Ms. Tufan is a tremendously winning stage presence.  There simply is no storytelling beneath the headlines written and performance indulgences.

Did her father believe she was a whore?  Was he puritanical or just mean?  Did her mind create this drama from a guilty conscience?  Is this personal story meant to shine a light on society as a whole?  An astrological wheel chart is repeatedly consulted, illuminating nothing.  Which are the five most important moments?  Why not explore them for more than a nanosecond?

If you can imagine it (or understand the reference), Whore feels like The Donna Reed Show updated into the present.  There is a lot more sexual frankness and sharing for sure.  The main character just smiles throughout and keeps us far away from seeing a lifelike person.  While that may have been a stylistic choice, it separates the actor and the audience rather than connecting them spiritually.    In a theatrical monologue which aims for richly revealing, we instead see a talented actress shoehorning her skills into an ineffectively told memoir.

www.paradisefactory.org

A month ago I saw Austin Pendleton portray a teacher on Broadway in the fine play Choir Boy.  Now he is the elderly Professor with a much younger third wife.  They are visiting with Sonia and Uncle Vanya in this adaptation of Chekhov’s play.  Right from the start, the cast informs that LIFE SUCKS. is about love and longing, true to the spirit of its source material.  The Professor notes “it’s also about the audacious, ludicrous and protean nature of the obstreperous and ever-feckless human heart.”  Vanya points out “he has a penchant for sesquipedalian elocution.”  Fans of word play will lick their chops listening to some of this dialogue.

Aaron Posner (My Name is Asher Levy) spins an effective comedy out of these familiar characters and situations.  Families are hard wired to totally upset each other.  Lovesick dreamers are bound to be hurt with disappointment when feelings are not mutual.  LIFE SUCKS. attempts to answer the question, “Is love real – or a manmade construct like religion… or football?”

There are plenty of laughs throughout this production.  The actors play characters who know they are in a play and often break the wall to speak directly to the audience.  In a scene titled “3 Things I Love,” permanent house guest Babs (Barbara Kingsley) adds to her list:  “the crisp clink of cubes of ice in a really sturdy glass.”  The rampantly desirable Ella (Nadia Bowers) asks the audience “how many of you would like to sleep with me if you could?”  Some hands were raised.

Nearly everyone seems to be in love with Ella, including Pickles (Stacey Linnartz) who is somehow related to the family and “an acquired taste.”  The script defines her as a “relentlessly positive utopian lesbian.”  She takes things a bit literally.  After one of the Professor’s acerbic barbs she comments “it’s sometimes hard to tell if you are complimenting us or insulting us.”  His sardonic reply:  “Isn’t it?”

In between jokes, there is all the Chekovian self-absorption, self-deprecation and self-torture one could hope for.  This playwright knows it is always fun to “watch privileged, arrogant people argue endlessly” about meaningless esoteric minutiae.  Swiftly directed by Jeff Wise (Happy Birthday, Wanda June), LIFE SUCKS. is fun theater.

Each member of this cast nicely bears all of the angst boiling inside their characters.  As Dr. Aster, Michael Schantz exudes all the charm needed to woo an unsatisfied Ella.  Too bad for Sonia he’s so desirable and uninterested.  Maybe that’s why she hates her body, her face and “the lie of literature.”  Aster tries to advise his dear friend Vanya (Jeff Biehl) who is slathered in despair.  The basic message to us all:  “if you don’t like your life then do something.”

My message to you:  if you want to chuckle and watch a well-cast set of actors give the Chekhov clan another enjoyably silly update, then do something.  Head downtown to The Wild Project and buy a ticket.  We’re all gonna die eventually.  Why not have a laugh or two before then?

www.wheelhousetheater.org

theaterreviewsfrommyseat/choirboy

theaterreviewsfrommyseat/happybirthdaywandajune

Based on a novella by Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez, El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba is being presented in Spanish (with English supertitles) by Repertorio Español.  A veteran of a Columbian civil war, the Colonel lives with his wife in a small village under martial law.  They are impoverished and very hungry.  Every Friday he waits for the postmaster.  A letter is supposed to arrive with his pension from the war.  No mail has arrived for fifteen years, hence the story’s title which translates as “No One Writes to the Colonel.”

Director Jorge Alí Triana adapted this story with Verónica Triana.  The play opens inside the couple’s humble home.  It is still winter and the rains are persistent.  The Colonel’s spouse has asthma and is losing patience with his waiting for a check that never arrives.  She sums it up:  “we’re rotting alive.”  The action begins with the funeral procession for a recently deceased local musician, the “first natural death in a long time.”  The situation is gloomy.

The colonel’s son was murdered at a cockpit and there is a shrine to him on the wall.  His rooster is the only possession still owned by his parents.  Do they continue to feed the bird while they remain hungry?  There is an expectation that a winning rooster will be worth more money in a few months after training to be a prizefighter.  Pride for his son is certainly a factor in this decision.

This melancholic tale is beautifully told in this production.  The set designer Raúl Abrego uses simple objects and minimal fuss to create clearly defined scene changes.  A table turned one way is for the home.  Turned ninety degrees and the scene is an office.  The rainy season thematically weighs heavily down on an environment of constant repression.

Every actor in this production delivers a naturalistic performance.  As the Colonel, Sebastián Ospina’s quiet dignity and proud stature makes his unbending patience believable and heartbreaking.  Zulema Clares is Esposa (the spouse).  The years of disappointment and the struggles of day-to-day living can be seen in her every move, word and cough.

Thoughtful details enhance the viewing pleasures.  When the doctor (Luis Carlos De La Lombana) comes for a visit, he carries an umbrella and looks back towards the ground.  At first, I thought there may have been something on the floor by the audience he was carefully avoiding.  After the house call, he leaves the same way but carefully steps around the puddles he spotted earlier.  Not only is that an interesting choice, it also helps frame survival in a society with curfews under martial law.  Here is one man who is more fortunate and with an important career.  He manages to better traverse the rains pouring down all over his people.

Woven through this evocative piece is the lovely bond which holds a marriage together.  Despite their differences and a lifetime of disappointments, the deep relationship is evident and unspoken.  These are forgotten citizens discarded in a world filled with corruption and bureaucracy.  Mr. Marquez, a politically liberal writer, wants us to see societal unfairness.  This play and these performers offer a moving tribute in a truly memorable staging.

www.harlemstage.org