Category: Off-Off Broadway Reviews

The setting is a winter day in a small Ohio town.  The time is the present.  In Scott Organ’s new play, a question lingers.  Where did the time go?  17 Minutes reflects on an America that has tragically accepted a new normal.  There has been a school shooting.  Again.  Another larger question?  Who is to blame?

Virgil Morris (Brian Rojas), a plain clothes detective, is interviewing Sheriff’s Deputy Andy Rubens (Larry Mitchell).  How much do you know?  Andy is not sure what has happened since “you guys whisked me away so fast.”  This earnest protector has been working at this school for years.  A diligent lawman, he locks his gun in a safe every evening.  He only has one key.  His gun is regularly cleaned.  Every single day he checks the clip to make sure it is functioning.

On this particular day, he is standing outside by a door when he hears three bursts from an automatic rifle.  Then he hears three more bursts.  The time is 8:11 and students are in the building.  He radios in the emergency.  “There’s a shooter,” he says, and “I’m going in the south doors.”  Andy never goes through the door.  “The SWAT guys pulled me out of there before I got the chance.”

This interview is tense and concerning.  Andy does not yet know there are fatalities.  A serviceman who served in Iraq, he is well-trained for combat.  From the time of the call to the eye contact made with the SWAT team, seventeen minutes have passed.  What happened during that time?  Andy was assessing the situation.  Meanwhile, America’s new normal was in progress.

In a series of seven scenes which take place over a two month period, we observe the impact of these seventeen minutes.  The blur that Andy experienced.  His wife Samantha (DeAnna Lenhart) worries about him, their life and their future.  Harassing phone calls.  The threat of losing a job and a pension.  What happened during those seventeen minutes?

Andy meets with his partner Mary (Shannon Patterson).  She was also at the school that day.  Andy couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from.  Was it like Las Vegas?  From the roof?  What did Mary do, he asks.  She ran toward the sounds.  She disarmed the child and became a reluctant hero.  In other words, she did the job a school paid her to do.

17 Minutes gets behind the scenes of these stories to consider the aftermath of horrific events.  What does the father of the shooter respond when asked, “Why do you still live here?”  Michael Giese plays the role no one can imagine having to endure.  “Is there anything in this life I could have done differently?  That day?  And the answer is, of course, yes.”

The play’s finest scene takes place while a memorial is being held.  Cecilia (Lee Brock) is pissed and wrecked.  She asks the questions we all do.  Her proximity and personal trauma, however, is much more raw than the rest of us.  Who is to blame?  The school system?  The shooter? The parents?  The government? The founding fathers?  Andy?

Seth Barrish’s direction is nicely paced to allow the contemplative nature of this play emerge.  The poignancy feels real.  How do we all come to terms with these commonplace American occurrences?  “How could there be meaning in one child gunning down dozens of kids?”

Scott Organ’s 17 Minutes is well-staged and performed.  Larry Mitchell effectively plays Andy as an everyman and a nobody.  We are asked to put ourselves in his shoes.  They are uncomfortable.  Ms. Patterson and Ms. Brock shine in their portrayals of Andy’s partner and Cecilia, a mom.  There is a fortress of strength in these women that is admirable.  Behind the gates, there is also heartbreaking reality and exhausting resignation.  That’s completely recognizable as our America today.  17 Minutes is a fine addition to our national dialogue about our country’s abject failure of courage.

17 Minutes is running at The Barrow Group until February 15, 2020.

www.barrowgroup.org

Lisa (Anna Stefanic) opens the door to her home and switches on the light.  A naked man is sprawled out on the floor with food.  He “bellows a pained roar.”  She shrieks, fumbles her groceries and quickly douses the offending brightness.  When she turns the light back on, a paper shopping bag has been placed on the man’s head.  “God damn it, Davey” she says.  The damnation of that moment will carry through the very funny Soul Survivor.

Why is Lisa’s brother Dave naked?  “My clothes were fire ants.”  He is obviously strung out on something.  His sister may be used to taking care of him but this time survival is going to be much more challenging.  “They’re coming tonight.  Coming for us,” Dave warns ominously.  Turns out brother Dave (TJ Vinsavich) has sold his own and also Lisa‘s soul to the devil.  Ding dong, the doorbell rings.  “Hi, we’re here to take your souls.”

From the start, playwright Dante Piro takes the form of a modern but eccentric Charon ferrying his victims across the river Styx.  This journey, however, is anything but gloomy.  Soul Survivor is a broad comedy which piles on one ludicrous scene after another.  Amazingly, the boat never capsizes despite the increasing burden of topping the previous segment.  The plot is soundly structured but the goofy shenanigans played for laughs are the reason to climb on board this raucous trip to hell.

Liriel and Sable are the Soul Collectors who ring the doorbell before busting in to collect what is due.  These ladies are fairly new at their job and not completely effective.  The plot dynamics continue.  Dave cannot find his sister’s soul.  Where did he put it?  How was he able to sell her soul anyway?  She made him a mix CD when they were younger.  Lisa put her heart and soul into creating “Davie’s Rockin’ B-Day Jamz.”  There’s a lot of Fugees in that mix.  “Fugees rule.”  Lisa’s been wandering around soulless ever since.

Meanwhile, Kyle from hell is checking in on the soul collectors who are taking too much time completing their mission.  Lisa is working hard to distract them.  The demons are introduced to the wonder that is vodka.  “Wowza” is the reaction.  There’s nothing like that down in hell.  They only drink “pus, acid, bees if you’re lucky.”  The dialogue is quick and sharp but also silly and ridiculous.  That’s the formula for laughs here.

Will Lisa and Dave be escorted to hell or can they find a loophole in the signed contract?  Thank goodness Lisa’s earnestly nice boyfriend Owen (Mark Weatherup Jr.) comes into the picture to help.  “I’m a paralegal, babe.  This is the only time I’m cool.”  Chandler Matkins makes a spirited entrance as Teddy who suspects the demons from hell are incompetent.

The laughter never flags but if you look closely, themes bubble under the surface.  The importance of familial bonds.  The incompetence of big bumbling bureaucracies.  How your life choices will be weighed when you are gone.  Why scissors are useful but potentially dangerous weapons.

Energetically directed by Molly Brown, this inspired buffoonery consistently delivers on its humorous premise.  The cast is uniformly excellent.  If your soul is going to be condemned, the journey to Hades will be a helluva lot more fun with soul collectors Aleigha K. Spinks and, especially, Samantha Nugent as your guides.

Need a recipe to shake off some of the winter blues?  The cold?  Take a trip to hell via Soul Survivor.  It’s notoriously warm there, and full of piss and vinegar.  Laughs are guaranteed.

Soul Survivor is running at The Players Theatre in Greenwich Village until February 2, 2020.

www.theplayerstheatre.com

www.hiraeththeatre.com

Or is a conjunction used to link alternatives.  Life is a conundrum which offers no definitive paths or guarantees of fulfillment.  That is the territory explored in Johnny G. Lloyd’s cleverly shaded Or, An Astronaut Play.  An individual can choose to be a teacher or a doctor.  A policeman or a politician.  The odds of success for achieving those dreams are varied depending on station or circumstance or even dumb luck.  This play is about how life works, or is supposed to work, or doesn’t.  Or, maybe it’s really just an astronaut play.

Tom (Harrison Unger) is the stereotypical embodiment of the straight, white American male.  He’s obviously not the brightest bulb but he is getting a promotion at work.  He shares a cubicle at SnackyCakes with his live-in girlfriend Claire (Tay Bass).  When the play opens, he is taking a quiz online.  Claire comments, “people still do those?”  After answering some basic questions such as picking a favorite color, Tom gets his answer.  His recommended career is astronaut.

“That’s big news, isn’t it?”  Tom believes the choice of astronaut makes sense as “I always liked space movies.”  Instead of going to work, he enrolls in astronaut school.  He meets Daria (Caturah Brown), an intense, focused student who is black.  She works in the Admissions office to pay her tuition.  She has been dreaming of becoming an astronaut for twenty years.

Claire is very upset about Tom’s spontaneous new direction but decides to follow his pursuit.  She’s clearly not sure what path her life should take but strongly desires human connections.  What will happen to their relationship if they are sent on separate missions?  The fourth member of this class is Paul (Jonathan Cruz).  He is self-defined as a hobbyist and a dabbler.  Is his passion to travel to outer space more or less committed than his time doing origami?

Unfortunately for the trainees, the school is downsizing and only one candidate will be chosen for a mission ranging from five to one hundred years.  Will Daria, clearly the intellectual standout, fulfill her childhood ambition?  Will Paul finally proceed down a solid path forward.  Does Claire want to be an astronaut or just gaze at the pretty stars?

Tom knows that there are “twenty, or thirty, different things I could do.”  A good looking young white man with inborn expectations of success can “literally do anything.”  So why pick astronaut?  “This is the first thing that chose me.  That’s how life works, right?”  While this play is nominally about a space race, larger questions about life, fairness, ambiguity and privilege orbit around these characters.

What makes Or, An Astronaut Play so intriguing is its tone and structure.  The lightness of the dialogue suggests a witty little trifle filled with dashes of absurdism.  The themes are not heavy handed but instead float in the vast void for the listener to absorb.  Asked but not answered:  “when you’re adrift how will you pretend everything is ok?”

Izmir Ickbal’s effective and sleekly science fictional set design and Bailey Costa’s lighting design nicely frame this story and its various locations.  As directed by William Steinberger, the clear use and movement of four chairs makes the many scene changes transition smoothly.  All four actors deliver fine performances.  Each evolves quickly and often in a quirky manner.  The tone is consistent – funny and thoughtful – with an underlying punch of knowledge gained through life experience.  Twenty somethings realizing there is no one path in life.  Is there any path?  How your brain manages that crisis of information may determine happiness and, or, fulfillment.

In our universe, there seems to be more than adequate space for us all.  In the crowded gamble that is life on Earth, the competition is harsher, or, perhaps, systemically rigged.  Mr. Lloyd’s play is enjoyable to follow from the fun asides to the more serious observations.  The tone is neither too jokey nor too serious.  Balanced like life, I guess.  Adding in an excellent ending, Or, An Astronaut Play is a Venus-sized theatrical piece which provides Jupiter-sized pleasure.

Or, An Astronaut Play will be performed at The Tank through January 26, 2020.  Patrons are strongly advised to dress lightly as the small theater can get very, very warm.  A coat check is provided and highly recommended.

www.thetanknyc.org

An Archive Apprentice directs you to a door.  A special knock and Pizza Rat appears.  As you descend the stairs, a scientist is listening to the wall through a metal can.  We will find out about that later.  A few instructions are provided (please add one about the uneven floor).  The small group enters a 360° immersive environment.  The UP CLOSE Festival encourages interaction and participation for its target audience, namely five year old children and up.

The start of this entertainment is slow and people mill about noticeably confused as to where to go and what to do.  There are cast members who communicate ideas such as separating sound bottles into categories which are good and bad.  There is a chessboard on the floor.  Bodega Cat is teaching the game of dominoes.  In the performance I attended, the adult to children ratio was not ideal so the awkwardness loomed large.

After an excessive amount of time, Pizza Rat (Marisol Rosa-Shapiro, delightful) introduces herself and welcomes everyone to the Ark.  The New Ohio Theatre is housed in a building which had previously been an archive.  “Memories of old New York live in here.”  Those thoughts, she informs, live in artifacts, walls and the magic that each of us brings.

In its second year, the idea for the festival is to bring the spirit of famed Greenwich Village activist Jane Jacobs to the theater.  (She led the fight to save Washington Square Park amidst a proposed superhighway development.  Her history should have been further explained if she is the inspirational centerpiece of this exercise.) The structure of this production is designed to present short form, immersive works which honor the neighborhood’s past.  The results are decidedly mixed.

Sanctuary/Garden begins as a sit down circle reminiscent of a kindergarten classroom.  The storytelling begins with tales of the Lenape natives who populated this area.  Three volunteers will stand and pretend to be corn, squash and beans.  A tree “sees” the changes in the city over the years.  This massive development is shown via a paper puppet projection.  All of a sudden it’s 1987,  people are getting sick and we don’t know why.

This section has a feeling reminiscent of the old television series, The Magic Garden.  Concepts are very basic and quickly presented.  The ideal target age seems less than five.  Then the AIDS crisis is referenced which surely is part of the neighborhood’s history.  With no context or elaboration, that tidbit likely flies over the children’s heads and the next short vignette begins.  Why was it mentioned?

219 Thompson Street is based on a locally famous chess war.  Two owners had competing stores across the street from the other.  One was a former protege. Then, all of a sudden, Sylvia Rivera, the founding member of the Gay Liberation Front is referenced in passing.  Why?  Volunteers in hats demonstrate chess moves.  The performers in this section were fun and over-the-top in their boisterousness.  Their efforts did not hide, however, that it was hard to discern the story being told and, more importantly, why it was told.

The most successful short work is the final piece, The Society of Historic Sonic Happenings written and directed by Adrienne Kapstein.  Until 1966, the experimental wing of Bell Labs was generating ideas in a building nearby.  Five scientists dedicated to lost, hidden and forgotten sounds take us through a journey to “hear” the neighborhood’s past.  This section is a nicely orchestrated combination of whimsical and focused.

Five performers introduce the sound capturing concepts and the immersive (and enjoyable) game we are about to play.  Each of them created individual characters and personalities.  I was happily assigned to Theo’s group.  Akash Seeramreddi gleefully portrayed the over-excited intern type and was quite fun with his unbridled enthusiasm.  Many adults do not participate as small groups play the game.  I understand this show is designed for kids but some interaction with that large, discarded group seems necessary.

Finally, Pizza Rat gets everyone back together again.  We are asked to name our favorite pizza.  A woman near me yelled, “Hawaiian.”  A cast member remarked, “that’s the one with pineapple,” and noted, “that’s a bit controversial.”  I laughed.  The UP CLOSE Festival could use more moments like that little surprise to be engaging.

The idea to celebrate a neighborhood’s fascinating and colorful past is a great one.  Oral traditions and interactive storytelling can be informative and instructive.  At one point a scientist tells us that the Bell Labs team invented transistors.  No explanation is provided.  In a show designed for children, too many historical factoids zing past.  In its execution, the thematic purpose of this show is too muddled to be recommended.

The UP CLOSE Festival will be performed at the New Ohio Theater through January 4, 2019.

www.newohiotheatre.org

My fourth trip this month to the world of Ebenezer Scrooge shows just how monumentally important this story is to our culture.  Sure, How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer are indelible holiday entertainments.  On a more human scale, however, this morality tale resonates powerfully when read or given a fine production.  Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – A Play With Music is a stunning achievement which masterfully makes the author’s words come to vivid life.

This show is being performed on a tour of historical landmarks.  The performance I saw was held at the Al Hirschfeld Gallery in the Mansion/Museum owned by Margo Feiden.  An optional buffet dinner complete with delicious mince pies preceded the show.  Exploring this historic house built in 1845 was a special treat filled with Mr. Hirschfeld’s wonderful works of art.

The setting was the house’s ballroom added in 1899.  Ms. Feiden introduced the play and the performers in her home.  She imagined that when Mr. Dickens visited New York, he  likely would have stopped into this prominent household.  He did indeed make a second trip to New York City in 1868.  That is an interesting ghost story to accompany a famous ghost story.

Jeffries Thaiss and Eric Scott Anthony co-conceived and wrote this version.  Mr. Thaiss plays The Actor and Mr. Anthony is The Musician.  The presentation is a 75 minute two man show.  The feeling is one of a book blossoming into three dimensional life.  Words are faithful to Dickens’ text.  Scenes which do not appear in typical productions here provide memorable moments.

One such scene is where Scrooge visits a ship with the Ghost of Christmas Present.  Two bar stool type chairs represent the entire set.  When Scrooge is floating above the sailors, Mr. Thaiss places the two chairs together and stands high on them.  The visual, combined with the prose, is transporting.  This is A Christmas Carol performed with the words as the star and The Actor as the brilliant communicator.

Mr. Thaiss plays every part in this show.  His many voices and facial manipulations make each characterization clear.  He flips from stool to stool when in conversation.  Does he believe that his former business partner really came to visit him from the afterlife?  After all, Scrooge says, “you may be an undigested piece of beef,” a classic quote from the original tale.

In his performance, I saw Zachary Quinto, David Bowie and also a close friend of mine which enhanced my enjoyment of Mr. Thaiss’ exceptional physicality and, importantly, his ability to capture my attention.  Having seen this tale four times this month, I was concerned about repetition.  This one was the most complete version.  Furthermore, I appreciated the included section about social injustice describing the boy’s ignorance and the girl’s want.  Sitting in a mansion with less than twenty people nicely punctuated that particular moment.

Mr. Anthony ably supported this performance as The Musician.  He strums the guitar adding a score to the storytelling.  He makes terrific sound effects to embellish the action.  There is a playfulness between these two performers that keeps the mood light and fun.  He also adds Christmas carols to the show.  At one point, he sings “Oh Holy Night.”  The rendition is beautiful.

When I was listening to that song sitting comfortably on a couch in a historical Greenwich Village mansion, I heard the last line as if for the first time.  “Oh night divine!”  This version of A Christmas Carol is well worth seeking out.  Scrooge asks the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come, “Why show me this if I’m past all hope?”   Because we all need a little reminder now and again about goodness, generosity and the true spirit of Christmas in this crazy world in which we live.

The next two performances of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol – A Play With Music will be performed on December 29th in an 1837 Greek revival building on Staten Island.

www.achristmascarolplaywithmusic.com

If you’ve seen Drunk History on television you will understand the vibe of this show.  Imagine you have an elderly uncle who is of Czech descent.  He has a marvelous collection of marionettes.  After a few shots of Becherovka he invites the family down into the basement for an impromptu retelling (and updating) of a Christmas classic.  That is the best way to describe A Christmas Carol, Oy! Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Ramadan.

I visited Prague in 2018 and saw Don Giovanni at the National Marionette Theatre.  The art form is centuries old.  As the program notes, the typical puppeteering family owned a portable theater including a stage and about twenty marionettes.  The four primary backdrops would be a room, a village, a royal castle and a forest.  They would transport these materials from one venue to the next on wheelbarrow.  Seeing a live version of this history is certainly fascinating to experience.

One performer would produce all of the voices and be the main puppet operator.  That is the format followed in this production.  Vít Horejš founded the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre in 1990 using two-century old puppets which he found in the Jan Hus Church on East 74th Street.  For the Bob Cratchit character, he uses a puppet from his mother’s identical set that he played with as a child.  The backstory of this production is rich with memories of Old World traditions.

As the title suggests, however, New World inclusiveness is the attempted update in this holiday offering.  Lyrics in the opening song, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” are rewritten to celebrate other faiths and cultures.  The idea of opening up Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol to be religiously diverse is inspired.  Mr. Horejš even makes jokes about his update.  During a dreidel scene he remarks “you have to save that multi-cultural holiday stuff” for”centuries later.”

Tongue in cheek line deliveries and self-aware humor fill this show winningly.  Scrooge’s nephew Fred is wearing a fashionable outfit and repeatedly proclaims, “don’t you just love it?”  Marley is represented by a cleverly designed chain puppet.  During an interchange with Scrooge, he admonishes “I didn’t come from the grave to argue over tenses.”

The marionettes are made by Miloš Kasal, Václav Krcál and “unknown Czech folk artists.”  As a result, certain cast members fill in as best they can.  Twins in the Cratchit house have beards.  Their mother tells them to take them off.  “We can’t,” they say, since they are made out of porcelain.  Good spirited quirkiness is evident throughout the show.

Politics play a role as well.  Dickens’ tale is famously reflective about the society he observed.  Today, Mr. Horejš notes, “being poor is not ‘in’ anymore.”  He elaborates: “what’s wrong with bundling up some subprime mortgages?”  Or “building hotels and casinos and defaulting on the loans?”  Bah Humbug!

The idea for this show is terrific but the execution is wanting.  Two women assist filling in the gaps with holiday songs sung in Czech, English, Hebrew, Slovak, Spanish and Swahili.  Valois Mickens and Katarina Vizina are fun sidekicks.  Everything moves too slowly, however, from set changes to dialogue.  Admiration falls by the wayside and the experience becomes a bit of a slog to endure.

In the basement space of Theater for the New City, there is a strong sense of being with your Czech uncle on Christmas Eve.  He brings out his toys and ad libs this renowned story.  Since your family is now more diverse, he throws in other references to be more inclusive.  Hanukkah is far more represented, however, than Kwanzaa and Ramadan, despite relatively equal billing in the title.  This inexpensive and unique diversion will definitely take you back in time to a theatrical history that is remarkably still alive.

A Christmas Carol, Oy! Hanukkah, Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Ramandan will be performed at the Theater for the New City until January 5, 2020.

www.theaterforthenewcity.net

www.czechmarionettes.org

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