TheaterReviewsFromMySeat

Steve Cosson is the writer and director of The Undertaking.  He is also the Artistic Director of The Civilians, a company whose mission is to create “new theater from creative investigations into the most vital questions of the present.”  They are the troupe that premiered Anne Washburn’s phenomenal Mr. Burns, a post-electric play.  In The Undertaking, the vital question being explored is death.

In an office, Steve (Dan Domingues) is recording Lydia’s (Aysan Celik) thoughts for a play that he is writing.  This process of interviewing various individuals about topics ranging from death, illness and the fear of dying, is the framework.  Some of it is morbidly funny.  While the two actors play interviewer and interviewee, they also break out into other people who have been recorded, including an ovarian cancer survivor and Everett Quinton, the off-Broadway star of the Ridiculous Theater Company.  From these interviews, the piece morphs into a therapy session for Steve, who is considering his mother’s life in a nursing home and his own mortality.  Even added into the mix are visual clips and an analysis of the Jean Cocteau film, Orpheus.  New knowledge:  rubber gloves are the gateway to the afterlife.

An inventive premise makes The Undertaking interesting.  The therapy section lost me a little as it went on, although admittedly that could be a personal reaction.  Perhaps the comedic possibilities could be amped up even further; think Sofia Vergara as Lydia insisting that the interview is a “dialogue” as she helps Steve through his process.  Overall, The Undertaking is an unusual, creative piece well-staged in the upper east side’s 59E59 theater.  The audience skews older here which made the experience even more surreal.

www.thecivilians.org

www.59E59.org

A young woman from the mill-town Hindle returns home to her parents after a weekend getaway.  Wakes Weeks began as religious festivals but then became secular (bank) holidays where factories would close down up to ten days.  Those who could afford it might spend their time at Blackpool, a local English seaside resort akin to New York’s Coney Island.  Written by Stanley Houghton, Hindle Wakes essentially is the aftermath of “spring break” circa 1912.

One hundred years ago, this play was an enormous hit in England, subsequently made into four films, two in the silent era.  A Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University banned its students from all theaters performing the play.  The Guardian wrote that Hindle Wakes “not only scandalized playgoers, but persons who had never been inside a theater and who were never likely to visit one joined in the general outcry.”  When the play landed on Broadway that same year, it failed largely due to a negative New York Times review.  During a 1922 revival, the paper changed its mind and said “it is now, as it was then … a shrewd, and nourishing and artful comedy.”  Ninety five years later, the Mint Theater has mounted Hindle Wakes for the first time in New York since then.

What was going on in the minds of young men and women, and also their parents, back in the day?  Our playwright, Stanley Houghton, wrote over a dozen plays, many of which called for women’s sexual and economic freedom.  One hundred years later, this play remains topical.  Directed by Gus Kaikkonen, a frequent Mint collaborator, the production values (set, costumes) are top notch and the cast is excellent.  Even the maid, in a bit part, is perfect.  This play takes place over two days following a spring break dalliance in 1912.  What was on the playwright’s mind back then?  What do these characters think and why?  Simple and straight forward, a serious comedy with big ideas, Hindle Wakes is a rediscovered classic.  My advice: run to see this one.

www.minttheater.org

Set in the Imo State of present day Nigeria, Ngozi Anyanwu’s play The Homecoming Queen has been given its world premiere in the smaller, more  intimate Stage 2 space of the Atlantic Theater Company.  The result is equally a feeling of community and of eavesdropping on one house whose daughter, the bestselling author Kelechi, has returned home from New York after fifteen years away.  Her father is still alive, proud but obviously much older.  There is a lot to talk about and also not talk about, as in many families.  Kelechi’s anxieties are front and center; she’s taking pills to help herself cope.

The play itself is excellent with a structure that goes back and forth in time as the story unfolds.  We see these characters peel back their histories.  The best friend from childhood.  The new house girl.  The “chorus” represented by four women who are the townsfolk, neighbors, gossips, historians and singers, namely, the community.  Directed by Awoye Timpo (Associate Director of last year’s great Broadway revival of Jitney), the effect of surrounding the audience with these ladies ingeniously centers the listener to a place.  You never completely lose sight of them which nicely conveys the density of this area’s population (thanks, Google).

No plot spoilers here.  Kelechi, our Homecoming Queen is played by Mfoniso Udofia, a playwright (last season’s Sojourners and Her Portmanteau) who confidently returns to acting in this emotionally fulfilling role.  Excellent work throughout this cast, notably by Segun Akande as Obina, the childhood friend who has found success in his homeland.  In a week where the President of the United States was quoted as having referred to African nations as “shitholes,” the need for theater to continue to shine spotlights on all peoples and their stories remains vitally important.  A beautifully realized piece, The Homecoming Queen is most welcome in my worldview.

www.atlantictheater.org

I rarely hate something so completely as to want to run out of the theater to save my mortal soul.  In this 90 minute exercise of pretentious drivel, I had to (had to!) peek at my phone to see how much more boredom there was left to endure.  I was about 65 minutes into Ballyturk.  65 minutes more than needed and a full 25 minutes to escape.  Do I leave now?  That was the tension created by this play.  If you are a fan of Beckett and Waiting for Godot, perhaps you may find some sort of diverting forgettable thrill.  For everyone else, save your cash.

Promised as “gut-wrenchingly funny,” this Irish import was written and directed by Enda Walsh, the Tony winning book writer for the exquisite musical Once and the co-creator (with David Bowie) of the stylized mess called Lazarus.  Third time for me is not a charm.  For those readers still on the fence:  two men in a Ballyturk flat go about their lives seemingly playacting.  Dancing around to records, flouring themselves, getting dressed, being silly, having conversations which may or may not be real, imagined or past events.  None of it is funny, really.  Antic, yes.  Gut-wrenchingly hilarious, no, without any question whatsoever.

Unfortunately for Ballyturk, a visitor of sorts arrives who has one of the longest and singularly most boring monologues in the history of theater.  While that is an exaggeration for sure, the comment is much funnier than anything in Ballyturk.  The surprise last minute ending was at least interesting; inviting an opportunity to consider what this crap was all about – even if by this point, you could care less.

www.stannswarehouse.org