Tag: Play

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The Great Society

In 2014, All the Way won a Tony Award for Best Play.  Robert Schenkkan masterfully chronicled LBJ’s ascendance to the presidency from JFK’s assassination through the passage of the Civil Rights Act and a triumphant landslide reelection over Barry Goldwater in 1964.  The Great Society is a sequel which covers his second, less fondly remembered, term in office.

Brian Cox (HBO’s Succession) portrays Lyndon Baines Johnson in this version.  Brian Cranston won a Tony for his earlier profile of this down home Texan and masterful political manipulator.  He was able to showcase the glory years as well as the man’s craftiness.  Mr. Cox presides over a time of race riots and Vietnam.  The mood is definitely darker and LBJ is edgier and much less self-assured.

The 36th President of the United States is, however, far from timid during this period.  Mr. Cox opens the play with some commentary intended to underscore the man’s outlook.  On bull riding, LBJ ponders “why would I do that?”  The fairly obvious analogy being drawn is how brilliantly LBJ rode the bulls of Washington to move his agenda forward.

In 1965, LBJ is straddling the fence between securing poverty bills or voting rights.  Vietnam looms as a small thorn which will metastasize shortly.  He is managed by General William Westmoreland (Brian Dykstra) to increase the number of American troops.  “I don’t want to be the president who lost Asia.”

All during this time, America is embroiled in enormous social conflicts.  The murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson (Christopher Livingston) leads to the Selma marches and police violence.  One of the organizers asks an unanswerable question: “how can LBJ send troops to Vietnam but not to South Alabama?”  This play has a plethora of historical drama at its disposal.  Therein lies the problem.

The Great Society is overstuffed with facts and characters.  All the material is interesting especially if you are a history buff.  There is a Spark Notes sketchiness to this play, however, which makes fascinating figures such as Martin Luther King (Grantham Coleman) and Hubert Humphrey (Richard Thomas) look like like unremarkable sidekicks in LBJ’s bombastic solar system.  No one in his orbit emerges as a three dimensional person.

Projections add additional facts and photographs to emphasize what is being dutifully dramatized on stage.  David Korins’ benign set design appears to suggest a courtroom with jury boxes.  I attempted to determine why certain characters were seated on stage at various times.  All of my theories lead nowhere.  Different people just watch as LBJ summons them in and spews them out.  The master manipulation is super fun and uneventful at the same time.

Not that there isn’t a reason to consider the significance of LBJ’s socially progressive agenda in light of current events.  The Supreme Court just weakened the impact of the Voting Rights Act.  Large swaths of American citizens do not understand the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and its import.  Hard hitting dialogue registers and forces you to sit up in your seat.  The federal government leaves “black children in the streets to starve” as they kill “yellow children with jelly bombs.”

This play remembers that civil rights was not simply a north versus south story.  Chicagoans held protests with signs which read “Who Needs Niggers” and “Negroes Go Back To Africa.”  The scene recreating this event is presented so artificially that it generates no emotion on the stage or off.  The subject matter is never boring but the direction by Bill Rauch is not helpful.

Many actors have multiple roles.  The storytelling is not confusing but it is very basic.  I saw a group of high school aged young adults in the theater.  This play gives a nicely detailed recap of LBJ, the war in Vietnam, our country’s racial tensions and the often disheartening compromises required to make legislation happen.  Nothing is new but the overview could bring some needed backdrop to the next generation.

The most memorable performance comes from David Garrison as the unctuous racist George Wallace and Tricky Dick Nixon.  (The wiretapping surveillance of Nixon by LBJ was a particularly interesting factoid.)  Bryce Pinkham is a fine Bobby Kennedy, refreshingly portrayed as a real wheeling and dealing politician rather than an iconic demigod.

As the man himself, Brian Cox plays LBJ a tad smaller than ideal.  Mr. Cranston was a firebrand in his depiction.  Mr. Cox is naturally covering the tougher years when this leader ran into a wall and his political career died.  That weariness is beautifully realized before it’s time for another scene.  And another.  And another.

I enjoyed sitting through The Great Society despite its many flaws.  The play is too long and crammed with too many scenes which are only mildly interesting.  The documentary tone and brisk pacing saps this incredibly rich story of needed depth.  Any drama which makes you focus on an eighteen month period where troops in Vietnam grew from 24,000 to 375,000 young men is worth thinking about.  Any drama which makes you understand how power corrupts is worth a listen.  This one is for people who want a quick overview of a tumultuous period in American history.

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Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Playwrights Horizons)

In his intensely mesmerizing new play, one of Will Arbery’s characters calls liberals “empathy addicts.”  There are no liberals on stage in Heroes of the Fourth Turning.  Catholic conservatives from rural Wyoming have stormed a Manhattan theater.  They are not attempting conversion as much as  communication.  The dialogue is so brilliant that it draws you into this little world for a sane glimpse into a group not often sympathetically (or even respectfully) represented in plays.

Laura Jellinek’s set design contains a lone house at dawn.  There is a forest nearby and a mountain in the distance.  The lights are dim.  Justin (Jeb Kreager) is sitting quietly on the porch when he hears something.  He picks up his rifle and shoots.  He retrieves a deer and dumps it on his porch for gutting.  Stains of blood and murder set the tone.

Justin’s home is the location for an after party.  The Transfiguration College of Wyoming has just installed a new President.  This is a private Catholic College, similar to one the playwright attended.  His father is the current President of that school.  If you want a peek into a world that is laser focused on propagating its beliefs – especially if they disagree with yours – and you want that view to be adorned with some of the most satisfyingly artful and intelligent prose, then this play is a must see.

Gina  is the new President but she has not yet arrived at this party and it is getting late.  Emily (Julia McDermott) is her daughter who has an unexplained illness, walks with crutches and manages to exist in a state of perpetual goodness.  She’s devout but counts as friends one who works at Planned Parenthood and another who is a drag queen.  It is easy to love her and her contradictions.

Teresa has come back to the school to celebrate one of her teachers and this particular accomplishment.  She lives in Brooklyn.  The world around her is filled with evil liberals.  She reminded me of a terrifically articulate Ann Coulter type.  She smokes and does cocaine.  Her exquisitely delivered staccato diatribes are nothing short of spectacular.  Zoë Winters performance is mind-blowing.  It is easy to dislike her but she’s got spunk for days.

She argues that abortion and the Holocaust are the same thing.  Abolishing slavery has led to anti-slavery where “they” are trying to “oppress us.”  Almost militant in her convictions, I could never be friends with someone this far off my spectrum of reasonableness.  Sitting in a theater and absorbing her beliefs without any opportunity to argue or turn the channel forces listening.  She’s whip smart and polished.  This play gives her voice a serious pulpit.  The theatergoer can take it all in and think.

The Fourth Turning of the title is a pseudoscientific theory which believes that every generation goes through four cycles.  Teresa explains this and believes it wholeheartedly.  We are currently at the fourth period which is also known as crisis.  Who’s fault?  If you guess Obama then you would be correct.

Kevin is the fool of the play.  He’s drinking tonight and desperately trying to find a girlfriend.  He is filled with self-loathing.  Teresa calls him a “soy boy.”  Portrayed by John Zdrojeski, he is a young man who graduated from this college.  He’s young and caught between his commitment to faith and obsession with internet porn.  He questions his behavior when going to church, speed praying by rote and then going off to brunch.

The character of Kevin is filled with heart and soul, along with supremely entertaining inner conflicts.  They erupt volcanically in an enormously self-deprecating way.  Mr. Zdrojeski is superb in his depiction of this deeply flawed yet highly sympathetic character.

When Gina (Michelle Pawk, excellent) finally arrives to pick up her daughter, the debates escalate even further.  Rather than simply showcase a pile of brainless conservatives, Mr. Arbery has created five individuals who reside along the spectrum of conservatism.  Gina is looking past the Trump presidency.  “He’s a gaseous windbag and I pray for his soul.”  He was, however, the choice that had to be made.

Danya Taymor beautifully directed this cyclone of intermingling arguments and interpersonal relationship drama.  Heroes of the Fourth Turning is dense with language and concepts.  Somehow Ms. Taymor makes this celebratory evening at Justin’s house crackle with realistic life.  This production is one of the year’s finest.

Fans of debate will find this entire play filled with scintillating verbiage.  You may or may not agree with the content and that’s the point.  Asking a New York audience to sit for two hours with no intermission and listen to a non-stop barrage of conservative philosophizing may seem audacious and ill-advised.  Not at all.

Perhaps this play is the first pylon in the creation of a new bridge in which opposite points of view are actually heard.  I’ll certainly never align with most of the opinions of conservatives and the inherent hatred which permeates organized religion.  Like the author, I grew up in such a household.  I’ve stopped hearing them.  Will Arbery’s play, however, made me listen and appreciate his mission to write this astonishing literary achievement.

www.playwrightshorizons.org

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The Hope Hypothesis (Voyage Theater)

Is playwright Cat Miller in possession of an oversized blender?  For her play The Hope Hypothesis, she tosses in Alice in Wonderland, a Kafkaesque tale, absurdist comedy, a spy thriller, soap opera histrionics and a deep state government mystery all together.  She turns the dial to frappe because that’s the most fun setting.  Out pours a surprisingly refreshing and very delicious treat which successfully manages to be equally dark and light.

There were two inspirations for this story.  A New York Times article chronicling comprehensive bureaucracy in the Islamic State.  The second was the experience of a friend who was almost deported despite being married to an American.  Amena is the Alice of this play.  Down into the rabbit hole of America’s immigration system she will fall.  Whether or not she finds a Mad Hatter is debatable but the Mock Turtle and Tweedledum certainly make an appearance.

Amena (Soraya Broukhim) arrives at an American government facility.  She approaches a Teller.  He asks for her identification, including a birth certificate.  She doesn’t have one.  He, therefore, is unable to help her.  Get one and come back another day.  She then, oddly, pulls out a birth certificate.  The ISIS country flag shocks the Teller.  Amena has aroused suspicion and badly fumbles her explanation.  The Teller pushes the panic button.  Whoosh, down the hole she goes.

Amena is confronted by two FBI agents.  The lead questioner (William Ragsdale) has little regard for due process.  The other is a dolt (Greg Brostrom).  Amena’s emotionally fragile boyfriend Brendan (Charlie O’Rourke, excellent) comes searching for her.  The Teller and his supervisor (Connor Carew) are also questioned.  The pot is stirred.  Paranoia is stoked.  The climate is fear and uncertainty.  The plot evolves cleverly and convincingly, always making sure to have time for amusing asides.

The Teller doesn’t appreciate the term “H.R.”  He doesn’t like to be thought of as a “resource.”    His 22.5 months in this job is going to be his stepping stone to the Presidency of the American Federation of Government Employees.  An underachieving nincompoop, he thrives by throwing others under the bus.  “You forfeit due process when you align yourself with an enemy agent,” he proclaims.  Wesley Zurick is slinky and hilarious playing this delusional nobody.

Laughter is in abundance in this production.  Ms. Miller has directed her own play.  The care and attention to setting the right tone is critical for success.  Her characters have to play the absurdity straight as an arrow in order to deliver memorable throwaway lines like “there was a problem with pills.”  That one comes out of nowhere and elicits a huge guffaw.

The actors effectively embrace their caricatures but each of them leave the necessary room for realism.  That allows for a healthy balance between comedic trifle and sly commentary on America’s current climate.  Scenes which unravel throughout this play can be ridiculously melodramatic like a silly soap opera.  The intermingling of characters and locations provide ample opportunities for escalating lunacy.

Like a good thriller, however, things frequently turn quite serious as well.  When a person loses hope, they either destroy themselves or others.  Or both.  That is the hypothesis of the title.  Ms. Miller’s use of sarcasm could not be a more perfect fit for our times.  We are in the land of quid pro quo and border wall cages.  Facts are just opinions.  A little levity to shake us free of the oppressive feeling of hopelessness is most welcome.

The action is set in three rooms of a governmental facility.  An exceptional set design by Zoë Hurwitz beautifully transitions between teller window to interview room to employee break room.  The scene changes are fast and creatively executed.

Will Amena successfully navigate the dark forest that is the U.S. immigration system and find her escape back to normalcy?  When Carol (Mary E. Hodges) arrives to this particular tea party, the rule of law seems to guide next steps.  This is Trump’s America, however.  The land where skin color defines good versus evil.  Truth and hope are in short supply.  What’s the best part of this play?  A good beginning, a great middle and a satisfying conclusion.

The Hope Hypothesis manages to take a current, very serious topic and turn it on its head for laughs. Audaciously commingling styles is what makes this production stand out.  I left the theater impressed and happy.  Then I turned on the news.  Oh well, at least there was some hope (and considerable entertainment) to briefly distract me from the world at large.

The Hope Hypothesis is presented by the Voyage Theater Company and will be performed at the Sheen Center through November 15, 2019.

www.sheencenter.org

www.voyagetheatercompany.org

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for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf (Public Theater)

Sometimes an impression leaves a lasting memory.  When I began attending Broadway theater in the mid-1970’s, the group school trips focused on the big musicals.  During this period of consuming Shenandoah, Annie and A Chorus Line, there were other marquees which drew my attention.  One was for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.  Another was Elizabeth Swados’ Runaways.  With this revival, I have finally managed to experience these unique and intense theatrical pieces.

The  year before I started blogging, Runaways had a short summer Encores! Off Center revival.  I loved the show and was surprised that it didn’t seem dated.  The subject was children who had run away from their homes and were living on city streets.  Both for colored girls and Runaways were elevated to Broadway via Joseph Papp and the Public Theater.  The institution that nurtured A Chorus Line also – and significantly – brought bold new voices to uptown audiences.

Ntozake Shange wrote her play based on personal experiences and observations.  The Lady in Orange “convinced myself that colored girls had no right to sorrow and I lived my life that way.”  All of the seven ladies are represented by a color.  Yellow is still developing: “being a woman and being colored is a metaphysical dilemma I haven’t conquered yet.”

This piece was written as a “choreopoem,” a collection of individual poems with frequent music and dance.  There is a true bonding of sisters.  Brown wants to sing a black girl’s song which has been “closed inside so long, she doesn’t hear the sound of her own voice.”  The sheer volume of gorgeous prose and deep introspection is staggering.  The work was written “for colored girls who have considered suicide / but are moving to the ends of their own rainbows.”

Originally performed in bars and other downtown spaces, this play managed to hit the mainstream (at least in New York).  The Broadway run was 742 performances and included a Tony nomination for Best Play.  How rare a feat?  This was only the second play written by an African American woman to be produced on the aptly named “Great White Way.”  It was produced seventeen years after Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.  This trailblazing work lives up to its reputation.

This collection of poetry covers many topics from living in Harlem to rape and abortion.  Men and relationships are dissected to release their pain.  The Lady in Red’s blistering monologue “a nite with beau willie brown” recalls the arc of one young lady from thirteen to twenty two.  In the original production, Trazana Beverley won a supporting actress Tony for her rendition.  Jayme Lawson’s interpretation in this show stopped my breath.

The singular finest moment in a tempest of excellence, pain and partial healing belongs to the Lady in Green (Okwui Okpokwasili).  This poem is called “somebody almost walked off wid alla my stuff.”  Her stuff is metaphysical.  The title is repeated throughout this monologue.  Each time Ms. Okpokwasili lands that line, her eyes widen, boring through the listener.  Her realization explodes as her percolating outrage is laid out raw.  The writing and acting is riveting.

There is a lot of movement in for colored girls.  The Lady in Orange tells us that “We gotta dance to keep from cryin’.”  This section is named “no more love poems #1.”  Ms. Shange is perhaps communicating her own personal chrysalis.  She could not stand being “sorry & colored at the same time.  It’s so redundant in the modern world.”

I found myself thinking for colored girls was both a psychological breakthrough for the author and a remarkably brave outreach to her sisters.  The seven women listen to each other’s stories and provide noticeable support and nods of recognition.  One says that she is finally being real and “no longer symmetrical and impervious to pain.”  Fans of lyrical language and expressive emotions have plenty to savor in this groundbreaking work of art.

I happened to see the performance of this play on the one year anniversary of Ms. Shange’s death.  At the curtain call, there was a pause of silence in her honor.  A fitting tribute in the theater where her work transitioned from beloved to famous.  After all these years, I am thrilled to have finally encountered this long overdue revival.  It reminds me why the Public Theater was and is vital to our theatrical community.  It implores us to listen to voices which are not our own.  And, most importantly, for colored girls shows how one person’s life can inspire and help change the world.

for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf is running at the Public Theater through December 8, 2019.  I strongly advise not ordering seats on the stage.

www.publictheater.org

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The Michaels (Public Theater)

For the past decade, Richard Nelson has written eight plays which take place in the small town of Rhinebeck, New York.  The Michaels is my fourth visit to this community.  He writes Americana in a most intimate way.  Prototypical families filled with people who are thoughtful, decent, loving and worried.  The dramas are intimate in scale amidst the big wide world.  Events which influence and shape our lives are present but are not the sole focus.

The four Apple Family Plays were a sold out sensation at the Public Theater.  That Hopey Changey Thing took place during the 2010 midterm elections.  Sweet and Sad was set at the tenth anniversary of 9/11.  The next year, Sorry had the backdrop of the 2012 Presidential election.  The cycle wrapped up with Regular Singing in 2013 on the fiftieth anniversary of JFK’s assassination.  I missed them but they were a significant enough phenomena that PBS filmed them.

The Gabriels:  Election Year in the Life of One Family took place through the 2016 Presidential campaign.  This three part drama started with a funeral in Hungry.  The second play was What Did You Expect?  The final entry, Women of a Certain Age, opened on the night Donald Trump was declared the winner.  The play did not include the final results but the backdrop of an economically and morally fading America was omnipresent.

Two splendid actors, Maryann Plunkett and Jay O. Sanders, have appeared in all eight productions including The Michaels.  The characters may be different but their recurring appearance binds together Mr. Nelson’s thematic use of Rhinebeck.  The town becomes a familiar terrain used to dissect and ponder this time in American history.  There is a feeling of classic to this entire group of plays.

The Micheals is subtitled Conversations During Difficult Times.  In Rose’s kitchen on October 27, 2019, a group of women (and one husband) gather to recount past glories.  Rose (Brenda Wehle) is a semi-retired modern dance choreographer.  Irenie Walker (Haviland Morris), one of her celebrated dancers, has come to visit.  Once again, a meal will be prepared and cooked.  Conversations will gently swing from yesteryear nostalgia to today’s worries.

Rose’s daughter Lucy (Charlotte Bydwell) is a dancer who is practicing to perform a series of pieces from her mother’s repertory with her cousin May (Matilda Sakamoto).  The circle of life is ever present.  Nurturing is accompanied by stern warnings.  Kate, a retired schoolteacher, is a new friend who is preparing dinner.  Lucy was once her student.  The small town vibe hovers around these individuals.

Mr. Nelson considers major life moments in a beautifully understated way.  As a result, there is a richness to the dialogue which seems organic and very familiar.  Escape is the slightly unspoken word.  Rose has had a big career in the dance world of 1970’s New York.  She moved away.  What is best for her daughter and niece?  A romantic opportunity presents itself to another character.  This riddle creates heartbreak.  Should one be practical and responsible no matter what the alternative choice?

The Michaels is soft spoken and, like the quiche being prepared, takes time coagulating into the depths of its character’s emotions.  Deliberately paced, the onion peels back during this little reunion.  Pivotal life changing events are on the horizon for both the young and old.

This entire cast is directed with effortless naturalism by Mr. Nelson.  Each persona is a fully inhabited individual wading through life but stopping at this moment to do so with each other.  No more plot description is needed.  Letting this play unfold is one of its great joys.

Returning to Rhinebeck reminded me how little connectivity exists with my own family.  There is goodness in these people which, therefore, makes you want to visit with them.  They help me traverse the highs and lows of my own American journey.  Richard Nelson is a playwright who will always be worth your time.

The Michaels is being performed at the Public Theater through November 24, 2019.

www.publictheater.org

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Snow White (Children’s Theatre, Minneapolis, MN)

The wedding of Corey and Emily was the planned celebration for this trip.  Earlier this year when visiting the Minneapolis Institute of Art, I witnessed an excited group of children and adults energetically buzzing about.  The Children’s Theatre Company performs in a space attached to this museum.  I heard their work was terrific.  They won the Regional Theater Tony Award in 2003.  A visit to see an exceptionally entertaining Snow White confirmed all of the hype.

Entering a vast room, the seating arrangements clearly follow the troupe’s mission.  When picking up tickets, we worried about blocking the view for a child.  The box office told us the show was designed with a four year old in mind.  The risers were indeed high enough and everyone seemed to have a great and full view.  (If only Broadway was equally thoughtful, Linda Vista).

Mikail Kachman’s scenic design was large and menacing but also warmly inviting, like the tale.  Tree roots reached up to the ceiling.  The trunk stretched along the stage.  Limbs and leaves were painted on the floor and were also hung high from the ceiling.  The lighting (Rebecca Fuller Jensen) was atmospheric.  Sunlight was peeking through the forest.  One child remarked that she saw a rainbow on a tree trunk.  Indeed she did.  Good eye.

The story of Snow White is so well known thanks to Disney’s first full length feature cartoon in 1937.  This version was much closer to the original Grimm story.  The darker sections could be frightening to children such as when the evil queen’s huntsman is chasing poor Snow White through the forest.  Ingeniously, Greg Banks’ adaptation and direction created a beautiful balance between faithfulness to the story while clearly delineating a world of make believe.

Joy Dolo and Dean Holt begin the performance.  As Snow White, Ms. Dolo is ready to start.  Mr. Holt is Four, one of the seven dwarfs.  Where are the other six?  Not here yet.  Oh well, they begin hoping for a late arrival of the rest of the cast.  That never happens.  This Snow White is a two person play.  Since the fourth wall is broken early, there is a lightness to the playacting.  The darker elements are indeed a bit creepy but the children are trusted to absorb a fictitious tale.

Both performances are stellar.  The actors switch roles as the story demands.  When the dwarfs return home from the mine, Mr. Holt has to play all seven of them.  I could return to see this production just to watch him turn a hat, change voices and use body language to amusing effect.  That one’s Grumpy!  That one’s Dopey!  Dean Holt is impressively hilarious and physically astonishing with his almost cartoon-like physicality.

Joy Dolo was just as effective in her interpretations.  Tie a simple skirt around her waist and she is Snow White.  Put a shawl over her shoulders and she is the evil queen asking the mirror who is the fairest one of all.  This is an evil queen for the ages and Ms. Dolo seemed to bare her fangs with exquisite delight.  Not a shred of goodness to be found in this wicked one.  Both performers are ably supported by musician Victor Zupanc and his memorable assortment of sound effects.

As I was leaving the show, I was overjoyed by the subtle messaging in Greg Banks’ production. The children could recreate this wonderful play with simple props and pieces of fabric lying around the house.  The storytelling and make believe came first.  That is the magic of superb theater.  The tale itself, not the often overproduced spectacle which can overwhelm and bury the heart of a show.

Even more compelling, this production embraces a fairy tale world that is gender and race neutral.  Snow White can be black and also play the prince.  Four can not only morph into seven dwarfs but can also be Snow White when the storytelling requires.  That both performers marvelously play nearly every character – and none of this is ever confusing – is something for theater lovers to get a kick out of.

Princeton University Press published a version of the first two editions of Grimm’s Original Folk and Fairy Tales in 2014.  That book is still sitting in a pile at home.  With all its darkness and interesting spins on life and friendship, Snow White has inspired me to finally crack open this collection of 156 stories.

This Snow White is everything theater for young people should aspire to:  smart, entertaining and supremely engaging.  That is how live theater will thrive into the future.  The children seemed enthralled.  The adults were even luckier to have tagged along.  Bravo!

Snow White will be performed at Minneapolis’ Children’s Theatre Company through December 8, 2019.

www.childrenstheatre.org

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Victor (Axis Theatre)

A gorgeously haunting ghost story is summoned up in the memoir Victor by Edgar Oliver.  The ghosts are many.  A man named Victor.  The way of life for marginalized New Yorkers from decades past.  Memories of people loved and lost.  Regrets and joys in abundant proportions.

Mr. Oliver is a member of Axis Theatre and has worked with Director Randy Sharp before in the company’s productions and his previous solo pieces.  There is a relaxed, mysterious and lyrical easiness to this performance which is beautifully realized in the always atmospheric environs in Axis’ Greenwich Village space.

A friendship story both intimate and flamboyant, these two men first crossed paths when Victor was 39 and Edgar was 28.  Their lives joined together around an East 10th street rooming house.  During the last sixteen years he lived there, Mr. Oliver was the only resident.  Fascinating observations witnessed of the denizens of the lower east side are recalled.  They provide a glimpse back to a world of a seedier (and perhaps more romantically interesting) period in our city’s colorful history.

Edgar considered Victor a “real man.”  He loved women but was, what they might say today, gay friendly.  Edgar worshiped this bald, barrel chested, muscular man with his huge biceps.  Victor reminded him of the cartoon character Popeye.  Two cans of Popeye brand spinach, a present from Victor, are still in Edgar’s possession.

Victor loved movies and vodka.  They enjoyed watching them together.  They’d often drink or smoke pot on the stoop.  This melancholy remembrance is filled with detailed imagery, both softly reflective and vividly prismatic.  As an actor, Mr. Oliver is a riveting presence.  He floats around the stage with an ethereal fairy-like grace.  His words are poetic and punctuated with reminiscences both pensively reflective and revealingly personal.

Mr. Oliver is eulogizing a friend who spent many years as a homeless man.  Why didn’t he stay with Victor one day until the film From Here To Eternity ended?  He asks a lot of questions of himself and enriches his tale with a view only achievable in one’s later stages in life.  Edgar remembers Victor, the man he obviously idolized, fondly.  He wonders what he’s meant to the various men he loved through the years.

A effectively simple set by Chad Yarborough contains black boxes in different heights suggesting an ominous and vague city outline.  David Zeffren’s lighting design bathes Mr. Oliver in a moody glow which references the black and white movies Victor and Edgar loved to talk about.  Paul Carbonara composed the perfect amount of melodious original music for three musicians which nicely elevates this unique memoir.

At the end of this show, linger in the lobby for a few minutes to view the memorabilia collected by Mr. Oliver.  There are many writings Victor would drop in his mailbox through the years.  The Popeye cans of spinach are on display.  Is this a summation and consideration of regret in a life lived marginally on the outskirts of mainstream society?  Or is this a life brimming with creative expression?  An alternative approach to existence, survival and the search for connection, love and meaning?

Victor is a wonderful theatrical experience no matter which interpretation captures your fancy.  Artists who lived during this period are and will be continuing to decline in number.  Catch Edgar Oliver’s imaginative retelling.  Feel the spirit of a soon-to-be forgotten slice of New York history which attracted and accommodated all sorts of quirky, colorful and memorable citizens.

Victor is being performed at the Axis Theatre Company through October 26, 2019.

www.axiscompany.org

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Nothing Gold Can Stay

Robert Frost wrote this poem in 1923.  “Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.  Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour.  Then leaf subsides to leaf.  So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day.  Nothing gold can stay.”

Chad Beckim’s play of the same name similarly addresses decline.  In this case, Eden is a small town in Maine.  Grief makes its presence felt in a number of ways.  Most tragically, this family will experience its own taste of America’s opioid epidemic.  Knowing someone who’s family has experienced this first hand should have made this material resonate emotionally for me.

Clay is off to college and his long-term girlfriend Jess is not.  His mother (Mary Bacon) takes her in while he is away at school.  Jess is having difficulties at home with her new stepfather.  We hear about a lurid “underwear twirling” incident.  She manages to get a job in a chicken processing plant and things go south from there.  They chat face to face on their computers to stay connected.  You can sense their worlds are slipping apart.

Clay has a tough as nails sister named Tonya who has a neglectful baby Daddy.  Jess’ brother Jamie is an EMT in training.  He is demonstrating father skills and has joint custody of his daughter.  Both of their unseen partners are described as assholes of one sort or another.  Will the stated opposites Tonya and Jamie (who are clearly not opposites) attract?

The play is written in short episodic scenes which felt clinical.  Obviously with this subject matter, there is going to be some serious tension.  Jokes are placed bizarrely throughout.  The audience laughs as intended but any sort of dramatic momentum is derailed.  Unseen girlfriend Amanda is “as useless as a white crayon.”  Funny, yes.  Inconsequential to the plot and throws off the mood?  Most definitely.

The acting is strongest by the the two supporting siblings played by Peter Mark Kendall and Adrienne Rose Bengtsson.  There is heft and depth to their characters.  They are people stuck with bad relationships and regrettable decisions.  However, the complex individuals underneath the messy situations register loud and clear.  We feel compassion and empathy towards them.  The performances are confident with strongly drawn portraits of living, breathing survivors.  Every scene containing at least one of these two characters is the strongest parts of the play.

The more challenging acting assignments are reserved for the underwritten central roles of Jess and Clay played by Talene Monahon and Michael Richardson.  Their relationship is very basic.  I was reminded of the old after school television specials.  A very topical drama leading to a lesson to be learned.  In this case, there will be healing before going back to playing Uno.

I suppose the play may be more concerned about the collateral damage caused in families forced to confront this epidemic.  The two young people should probably be a little less bland to sell the all-consuming tension they create.  Perhaps their blandness is the point being made here.  This adversity could happen to anyone.

Nothing Gold Can Stay was efficiently directed by Shelley Butler.  Scenes and locations were clear within a one room set.  The story is a sad one and much sadder than “dropping an ice cream cone.”  Chad Beckim’s play warns of the small town dangers for a misguided, disheartened and disillusioned young American generation.  “This place is like a spider’s web.  You stay long enough, you’ll get stuck.”

Nothing Gold Can Stay is presented by Partial Comfort Productions at A.R.T. Theatres and runs though October 26, 2019.

www.art-newyork.org

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Linda Vista (Second Stage)

Two men are moving boxes into apartment 217 in the San Diego community of Linda Vista.  They are long-time friends.  Dick Wheeler is middle aged and has been divorced for two years.  He wallows in negativity.  This reboot represents his new lease on life.  Wheeler may not be a fully realized curmudgeon but he’s on his way.  He is a supremely hilarious character in Tracy Letts’ very funny dark comedy.

Is Wheeler ready to take on a next phase in life?  He says so.  “New friends are better than old people.”  Loyalty is not a trait he values as it “leads to camping with Hitler.”  Our anti-hero is also a progressive thinker.  Can he find a middle ground with Trump voters?  He cannot as they are “too stupid” and believe “humans walked around with dinosaurs.”

The barbs fly frequently in many directions.  He thoroughly rejects the restaurant industry’s propensity for putting foam on a plate.  “Does someone in the kitchen have rabies?”  The humor is crotchety and cranky, like him.  Regarding hippies:  “I’m afraid of joy killers eating chick peas out of my skull.”  The zingers go on and on.

Wheeler used to be a photographer for a Chicago newspaper but agreed to move with his wife when children arrived.  They relocated to be near her family.  That long ago life decision is one of the the storm clouds hanging over his head.  “A lot of couples have offspring to distract them from their shattered dreams.”  Now he works as a repair man in a camera shop.

Linda Vista is both a look back on life’s regrets as well as a commentary about living in today’s world.  How does a snarky, self-flagellating, doughy underachiever reconnect with the world?  His friends Paul (Jim True-Frost) and Margaret (Sally Murphy) will set him up on a date.  Jules (Cora Vander Broek, terrific) arrives as a free but guarded spirit.  The double date?  A karaoke bar.

Ian Barford is outstanding as Wheeler.  It is not possible to like him but occasional glimpses of goodness shine through the sarcasm.  He meets a young woman in a bar in an awkward and very funny display of creepiness in today’s #metoo era.  Chantal Thuy is exceptional as Minnie, a wisecracking, vulnerable, strong and misguided person.  I expect she’ll have similar life regrets when she reaches fifty years old.

The last two characters in this situation comedy are Anita (Caroline Neff) and Michael (Troy West).  Wheeler works with them at the small shop.  These scenes showcase why the movement to eliminate inappropriate workplace environments took hold.  Mr. Letts has written an enjoyable comedy with ample edginess.  The plot, however, occasionally strains credibility through its 2:40 running time.

Now for some unfortunate news.  As in every Second Stage production I have seen in their new Broadway venue (the Helen Hayes Theater), there is preshow seat drama.  The first five rows are ridiculously crowded together.  People were discussing their unhappiness with the ushers and some moved to open seats at the back of the house.  Neck pains should be expected if you sit in the front row.  When will they finally take a row out?

The bigger crime is Todd Rosenthal’s set and Dexter Bullard’s direction.  Both were fine if you can actually see the whole play.  More than a few times characters were positioned so far stage left that we could not see them at all.  This was not obstructed view seating.  The ticket price was not different than center orchestra.  Here’s an idea, directors:  try sitting in multiple locations during rehearsals to see if the blocking works for all the theater patrons.  Nifty and considerate!

Originally presented by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Linda Vista is a very entertaining comedy.  As the ornery Wheeler, Ian Barford scores big in the laugh department but he’s sad and pathetic too.  The character is large and so is the performance.  I highly recommend this play as long as your seat is better than mine.

www.2st.com

www.steppenwolf.org

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Slave Play

Take your seat and stare at the mirrors on the stage facing the audience.  An image of a large white plantation home is reflected from the front of the mezzanine.  Slave Play is the name of Jeremy O. Harris’ mind-blowing and audacious work which has moved to Broadway after a successful run Off-Broadway last season.  The play, the production and the performances are phenomenal.  This is theater for people who demand excellence, embrace discomfort and revel in brilliant character writing.

In order to experience this devastating satire, it is likely best to go in, like I did, with little knowledge and a vague assumption about what the titular word slave will mean.  I have no intention of spoiling the extraordinary surprises which unfold so let’s simply ponder the opening scene.

Kaneisha enters with a broom and does some light sweeping.  She can feel the music in her and begins dancing.  She is a black slave stereotype of the era.  Jim enters next carrying a whip.  He is the overseer on the plantation, not the master.  He thinks it is devilish to move one’s body like that, “dancing like a raccoon in heat.”  He is a white southern stereotype.  Will there be a whipping of this “negress?”

The politics of sex, power and race take center stage in Slave Play and never leave until the emotionally raw final scene.  Mr. Harris is using American history (or a fantasized, comedic version) to consider and illuminate interracial relationships.  Can a white man and a black woman ever be free of the Kaneisha and Jim dynamic?  No matter how hard you laugh – which will happen very, very often – the edges here are bitingly sharp and thought provoking.

When the play ended, there were two camps.  The majority seemed blown away by the masterful and thoroughly riotous dissection of our contentious racial issues and their long-lasting impact.  The not tiny minority, notably older white couples, gave the impression that they desperately had to flee the theater as quickly as possible during the curtain call.  If you like shows which are, so to speak, white-washed trifles of easily digestible and inoffensive history, Slave Play is not for you.

For everyone else, this experience is both mentally challenging and wildly entertaining.  Mr. Harris has written eight roles, all of which are infused with unique personalities, beliefs, attitudes and vulnerabilities.  Robert O’Hara directed this masterpiece which effectively lands every joke and dramatic sting.  Mr. O’Hara’s own play Barbecue similarly mined stereotyped racial profiles with comedy, tension and surprises.

The entire cast is stellar.  Joaquina Kalukango and Paul Alexander Nolan portray Kaneisha and Jim.  The elements of farce are spot on while the gut wrenching realness of true love and inbred wiring are painful to observe.  There is a lot of observation in Slave Play.  Clint Ramos’ playfully simple set design works its magic throughout the production.  The mirrors always face the audience.  This is you.  This is all of us.

Annie McNamara’s mistress of the plantation is nothing short of a tour de force.  Her scene with Sullivan Jones is a comedic pairing for the ages.  They will make you howl with laughter as you squirm in your seat.  As Dustin the not really white guy, James Cusati-Moyer nails an exceptionally written monologue in a play overflowing with them.  The entire cast is superb.

Time will tell if Broadway audiences will embrace this remarkable work.  When was the last time I saw a play this rich with such well-written characters across the board?  Hard to say but this one feels like a classic.  Boundaries are pushed.  Themes hit hard.  As they should.  Sex, race and power struggles are no laughing matter.  Thanks to playwright Jeremy O. Harris, that statement is incorrect.  Bold and adventurous theatergoers should grab a ticket to this one-of-a-kind fantasia.  There is so much more to this play than even mentioned here.

www.slaveplaybroadway.com