Tag: Play

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Doktor Alici (Münchner Kammerspiele, Munich, Germany)

On vacation and visiting Munich, what might be an interesting piece of theater?  The Münchner Kammerspiele company was founded in 1906 and became the city’s municipal troupe in 1933.  In 1926, they moved into their Schauspielhaus, a surviving, nicely renovated art nouveau theater built in 1901. Written by Olga Bach, Doktor Alici is based on Professor Bernhardi by the Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzler.

First performed in Berlin, this 1912 play was billed as a comedy even though it explored anti-semitism.  Hitler referred to Schnitzler’s works as “Jewish filth” and they were banned by the Nazis.  Ms. Bach has updated the conflicts explored in Professor Bernhardi to our current times.  Instead of Jews, this play addresses Muslims.  Add in English supertitles to a “comedic” play about racism which is historically significant and staged in a cool German theater… what’s not to love?

Doktor Alici (Hürdem Riethmüller) is the police president.  The year is 2023, two months before the Bavarian state elections.  The set is eerily dystopian.  A house lit in bright neon colors.  A telephone pole with wires on a colorless street.  It is storming and rain is coming down hard.  Bizarre figures enter the stage.  Is this imagery surreal?  Futuristic?  Simply dark and quirky?

In the home of Doktor Alici, there is a statue of woman.  She is standing with outstretched arms and has a baby sucking her teat.  The piece is deemed obscene as its shape is similar to a crucifix.  The implication is that this Islamic woman is mocking Christianity.  She is under attack by members of the Occident Party (a 1960’s French far-right militant political group) for some controversial decisions she has approved.

Adding to the intrigue is a double crossing member of her staff who is pushed to throw her under the bus.  “You have a heart but you’re no do-gooder.  Your boss is a risky situation.”  Making matters even more tantalizing, Doktor Alici is a lesbian and her “niece” is an immigrant.  Rain continues to pour throughout this story.  The weather is “simply abnormal” these days, adding climate change to the mix of social and political commentary.

Five individuals have been arrested and detained on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack.  One of the suspects is not physically well.  The Müller report about his medical condition is being withheld.  The man in question is more than seventy years old.  He is a very successful businessman and has children.  The play clearly plunges headfirst into today’s headlines.

Humor is often employed and is sharply effective.  Regarding public opinion:  “75% of people (of the 500 we asked)” believe…  The Turkish police are called “enemies of the people.”  As the plot progresses, considerations for using the legal system are discussed.  “We know the outcome.  Why tax the legal system?”  There’s even mention of withdrawing a firearm’s license.  A crystal ball into democracy in 2023?

Doktor Alici subtly excoriates the world we live in today.  Vividly directed by Ersan Mondtag, the murky imagery increasingly ratches up the tension.  Rain will pour with increasing vigor.  The stage design by Nina Peller was exquisitely moody and dark, both claustrophobic and cartoonish.  The creative elements nicely framed a play which considers our imperfect societies, our nauseating politics and our history-repeating behaviors.

The whole production, including the memorable performances, makes Doktor Alici a worthwhile theatrical experience.  For an American, watching German artists creatively commenting on current affairs adds to this uniquely enjoyable drama.  The creepiness of the story’s plausibility visible underneath the artistically rendered imagery is the “wow” factor.  A link to a brief clip of this show provides a glimpse into the exquisite mood and unforgettable visuals of this highly recommended play.

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www.muenchner-kammerspiele.de

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Macbeth (Red Bull Theater)

In May 2014, three Wisconsin girls walked into the woods.  Twelve years old, they went out for a walk after a sleepover.  When they reached the woods, the birthday girl stabbed her best friend nineteen times.  They intended the murder to be a blood sacrifice to a fictional internet character known as Slender Man.  This macabre tale is one of the inspirations for Director Erica Schmidt’s unforgettable version of Macbeth.

In another notorious murder, two teenage girls who had dreamed up an elaborate fantasy world were about to become separated.  They beat one of their mothers to death during a walk in the woods.  Preteen girls emerged from the woods in Salem back in 1692 having seen witches and devils.  One of the Slender Man girls was eventually diagnosed with a psychological disorder called “shared delusional belief.”  An obsession with the occult coupled with the strong bonds of fantasy and isolation shared by teenage girls has resulted in unspeakable horrors.

That shared charge between these awful teenage girls and the witches in Macbeth stoked the imagination of Ms. Schmidt.  Shakespeare’s witches have occult visions in the wilderness.  What if seven teenage girls meet up after school and find themselves carried away by Shakespeare’s words?

From the program notes, the director even heard echoes between the bard’s fictional words and frighteningly real language.  Lady Macbeth has a line, “one, two, why then, ’tis time to do’t.”  A West Virginia girl posted on Twitter that “we really did go on three” after she and another girl stabbed their friend in 2012.

Dressed in school uniforms, this Macbeth is both extraordinarily violent and bizarrely hilarious.  The girls are partying in the woods with wine in their red solo cups.  The language is updated:  “bow down, bitches.”  School references are thrown in:  “thou art the best of the cutthroats” and “where did you get that, the science lab?”  Malcolm says “Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up/ The cistern of my lust, and my desire.”  Our young lady adds in her droll editorial, “it is too much.”

The audience reactions are varied to this vividly realized nightmare.  Some seemed repulsed by the gleeful gore.  Some found the proceedings shockingly hilarious.  I landed in both camps.  Ms. Schmidt accomplished her mission.  Her Macbeth is all the more gruesome and disturbing when filtered through the exaggerated lens of real events.  Stabbings as fun (or what you will).

The seven young actresses are incredibly effective and fully committed to this mad vision.  This is clearly a Macbeth for those who know the play.  Clocking in at just over ninety minutes (and perhaps appropriate for a generation raised on Spark Notes), the words fly out with extreme speed.  Much of the time they feel rushed on the way to the next grotesquerie.  In between some of those moments, I was slightly bored.  This version exists for its outrageous style not its nuanced storytelling.

Featuring the famous line “out, damned spot,” Macbeth is considered a tragedy.  When put through the sinister lens of mean girls gone bloody, this production amps up the tragic to cataclysmic levels.  Savagery is everywhere.  Even delusional schoolgirls are susceptible to our species most detestable impulses.  Our entertainments keep getting more and more violent.  All the world’s a stage, I guess.

www.redbulltheater.com

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The Pink Unicorn

Playwright Elise Forier Edie is often asked how much of The Pink Unicorn is true.  She answers “all of it” and “none of it.”  All of the events depicted happened to someone, including herself.  A high school refused to allow the formation of a Gay and Straight Alliance Club.  Transgender children and their families are shunned, harassed and threatened for allowing freedom of expression.

Written as a one woman confessional, Trisha Lee takes us through her unexpected journey as a mother.  Sparkton, Texas is a small town where everyone hangs the American flag on the fourth of July and goes to church on Sunday.  Her daughter decides that she wants to go to her new high school as a person without gender.  Jolene becomes Jo and adopts the pronoun “they.”

While this subject matter continues to rise in popularity, rarely does it seem as honest and generous of spirit as it is here.  As written, the play creates a believable story arc for this complicated mother/child relationship.  Alice Ripley’s heartfelt and earnest performance adds layers and layers of emotional depth.  By the end, there is a freedom expressed that is not simply obvious.  Trisha Lee is still imperfect but that’s exactly what she should be.

Along the way, Ms. Ripley (Next to Normal, Side Show) gets to wring quite a few laughs out of her observations.  Jo owns a pet tarantula that she wears on her shoulder “like a furry epaulet.”  On the male/female scale, there is Marilyn Monroe on one end and Charles Bronson on the other.  “Where I’m from, talking to the ACLU is the same thing as talking to Satan.”

Jo has been raised without her father who died in an accident.  She has an imaginary Pink Unicorn named Star Dancer.  She confuses Mom.  She’s not hiding that she’s gay.  She’s trans.  If she were drunk or pregnant, her mother would know what to do.

To Mom’s credit, she holds her pocketbook decorated with butterfly appliques and tries to understand and even learn something.  LGBTQ are “all different evidently.”  Listening to a woman walking through the uncharted foreign territory of gender neutrality and pansexuals is intended to be comforting, eye opening and, I presume, calmly reassuring and instructive to similarly perplexed parents.

In this play, a priest delivers a sermon in Trisha Lee’s church.  The author wrote it “pretty much word for word” as spoken by the pastor in her former church.  He invoked the Holocaust and likened supporters of the LGBT community to Nazis.  As a Christian woman, both author and her protagonist wrestle with lines from the Bible and the people who conveniently pick and choose which ones they believe.  Yes, it remains stunning how the religious community has completely abandoned “do not judge and you shall not be judged.”

Out of the Box Theatrics is a small company founded in 2015 dedicated to producing new and classic works from a fresh perspective in site specific locations.  The Pink Unicorn is being staged in The Episcopal Actors’ Guild, upstairs above the Church of the Transfiguration.  The guild’s history is one rich in support of the acting community and those in need.

The play would definitely benefit from a few less metaphors (especially those concerning animals).  This intimate venue is an ideal way to spend some time with Trisha Lee.  The story is timely, important, nicely told and prompts thought.  Spending more than an hour and a half enjoying Alice Ripley deliver this monologue in a room with two dozen people is the icing on a joyously hopeful rainbow cake.

www.ootbtheatrics.com

www.actorsguild.org

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All My Sons (Roundabout Theatre)

Arthur Miller’s first successful play was All My Sons which had its Broadway premiere in 1947.  Over the next decade he wrote Death of a Salesman, The Crucible and A View From the Bridge.  Familial relationships and social responsibility are integral to his works.  His criticism of the American dream managed to have him questioned by Congress’ House Un-American Activities Committee.  Free speech has always been vaguely conceptual.  You just have to agree with who’s in power at the time.

All My Sons takes place in August 1947 after World War II has ended.  Chris Keller (Benjamin Walker) has returned with evidence of injury in his gait.  His brother Larry has been missing in action for more than three years.  Mother Kate (Annette Bening) believes in her soul that her son will come home.  Occasional news stories about such miracles fuel her belief.

Kate is a classic believer.  She’s convinced “there’s God so certain things have to happen.”  One particular line illuminates her character and simultaneously criticizes people like her at the same time.  “Don’t be so intelligent – some superstitions are very nice.”  Sadly misguided and heartbroken, Kate can also be quite nasty when it suits her.

Father Joe (Tracy Letts) is a  recognizable Miller patriarch.  A flawed individual who justifies his actions in support of his family.  Or is it primarily for himself?  During the war, a bad decision at his factory had his partner and next door neighbor sent to prison.  Joe was exonerated.  One family collapsed, the other thrived financially.

Ann Deever (Francesca Carpanini) was the daughter of the guilty man and has since shunned her imprisoned father.  She had a relationship with Larry before the war.  Brother Chris has invited her to visit.  Wounds will be opened.  A storm is brewing at the beginning of this play.  A tree planted in honor of Larry snaps.  Over three acts, people and dreams will be broken.

Jack O’Brien has staged a truly impressive revival of this play.  The play is wildly melodramatic which, in a less assured production, could make this seem preachy and perhaps even naively nostalgic.  Not here.  The actors are all excellent.  Their relationships – whether familial or neighborly – are effortlessly believable.  The tension builds and builds and builds, slowly and continually.  I did not see a moment that was not perfectly rendered.  All My Sons is a time capsule of yesterday and also a hazy reflection into a mirror of our society today.

In the most difficult role, Mr. Walker’s Chris has all the necessary gullibility and goodness embedded in his soul.  His slight limp reflects his desire to cover up his emotions and man up.  The performance is thrilling for its ability to equal the intense but realistic dramatic levels achieved by Ms. Bening and Mr. Letts.  The individualized tragedy of this family swept up inside the American dream has been beautifully and intelligently realized.

All My Sons certainly takes a hard look at the greed of capitalism and war profiteering.  In that regard, this seventy year old play remains fascinating and very topical.  The characters are from a different era of course.  What is the same, however, is the self-preservation mechanisms employed by humans to survive and excel, however that is defined.  That’s the dream we wish for all our sons and daughters.  It’s the collateral damage that’s so hard to face.

www.roundabouttheatre.org

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The Bigot

There are two apartments across the hall from each other in The Bigot.  In the messy one on the right, Bill O’Reilly’s book Killing Reagan is perched on the couch.  Bottles of pills are sitting on a tray.  On the left is a much neater, more modern home.  Two young lesbians have just moved in after a brief courtship.  They are celebrating their anniversary of two months, two days, six hours and twenty three minutes.

Jim (Stephen Payne) is a cantankerous old grump who is the character of the title.  When his son Seth (Dana Watkins) comes by to check in on him, the Fox channel is blaring.  Jim is currently going through dialysis and is having a rough time of it.  No kidney matches have yet been identified.  In the first scene, we learn that his son has not been tested for a match yet.  Why not?

How is Jim a bigot?  Oh, in the usual ways.  “It’s not a conspiracy theory if it’s true?”  In a debate about slavery, Jim offers that it was necessity of the time to advance commerce.  Later he will touch on the Muslims and the Jews.  Most of this character development is fairly generic stuff that we’ve now seen and heard many times before whether on stage or off.

The couple across the hall are health care workers having met in an emergency room.  Paula (Jaimi Paige) is the romanticist, effusively optimistic and relentlessly kind.  Aysha (Faiven Feshazion) is the practical, opinionated, organized half of this couple.  Throughout the play they consult their watches and continue to count the minutes since they first met.

When Seth converses with his Dad’s friendly neighbors, he asks if they might not mind looking in on him once in awhile.  With the unrestrained glee of a woman striving for sainthood, Paula throws herself headfirst into the task.  The bigot Jim has no time for lesbians and tells Seth, “those two carpet munchers get me so worked up.”  The bigotry is neither funny enough to be comedy nor seriously disturbing enough to be dramatically repulsive.  Most of the jokes land with a thud.

From this set up, the plot careens from contrivance to contrivance.  Can our lesbians crack the hardened shell of this bigot?  Will father and son continue to bark at each other rather than heal their openly visible relationship wounds?  Will a kidney transplant become available or will Dad die?

Each person in this cast works hard to create believable people with more than one or two dimensions.  All of them are successful in that regard.  The play’s time period spans one month.  The story arc and the character’s progressions are forced and unbelievable.  Gabi and Eva Mor have written this play from their personal experiences.  They encountered discrimination.  Like the character of Paula who is referred to as the “gay Mary Poppins,” they remain hopeful for a better future.

Intolerance is perhaps the defining descriptor of the decade in which we live.  The Bigot wants to shed a light on how we might be able to crack the code toward better communication and understanding.  The plot twists here are too numerous and far-fetched.  As a result, the play just muddles through as a mash up of Archie Bunker and an underwritten Lifetime movie.

www.thebigotplay.com

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BOUND (Theater for the New City)

Marigold Page is a Tohono O’odham woman.  She is also an activist working with her tribe to resist a wall being built across their Nation.  She meets John Morales-Rio, a Native land surveyor working in the southern U.S. and Mexico.  He is smitten and charms her into a spontaneous picnic.  Why this particular career?  His family has a history of protecting their lands and ensuring that the most sacred sites are protected for generations to come.  John tells Marigold, “I feel BOUND to it.”

Writer and Director Tara Moses is a citizen of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma.  American Indian Artists, Inc. (AMERINDA) works to foster intercultural understanding of Native culture.  Located in New York, this multi-arts organization is the only one of its kind in the United States.  Amidst our current political circus regarding our border with Mexico, BOUND makes us contemplate boundaries in a refreshingly interesting way.

The Gadsden Purchase of 1853 was signed by Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna and James Gadsden, the U.S. Ambassador to that country.  The westward railroads were being built and the land was coveted for such development.  No one seemed to care that the new border would split this particular tribe across two different countries.

John has been hired to assist an oil company now looking to develop a pipeline through their long-bequeathed lands.  His intentions are well-meaning.  By participating in the process, perhaps the most sacred sites can be spared.  Both John and Marigold are finding it harder to get to work these days.  The additional border security adds significant delays traversing through the boundaries of their Nation.

This play fluidly alternates between the current day struggles of John and Marigold back to the conflicts experienced by White River and Tall Woman in 1853.  Both generations are played by Dylan Carusona and Elizabeth Rolston.  The characters are not deeply written but both actors manage to imbue them with charm and sense of purpose.

While a good portion of BOUND focuses on the Native American experience, Ms. Moses intersperses her story with historical reenactments.  Scenes with key historical figures such as President Franklin Pierce and his Secretary of War Jefferson Davis give historical perspective.  The economic hunger of America as a young, aggressive nation hell bent on colonization is dramatized.  The oil industry’s encroachment is represented as the same story all over again.

Other scenes from today’s headlines are equally highlighted.  Snippets from television reporting are recreated such as the coverage of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s pipeline protests.  The Border Patrol repeats what we’ve all heard before:  “many of them are drug cartels, murderers and rapists.”  As the White Chorus Man, Nicholas Stauffer was especially effective in successfully inhabiting these different characterizations.

“No one is illegal on stolen land” may be the belief (or the dream) but reality seems to suggest otherwise.  Centuries of warring native tribes had to come together when a new, better armed and financed tribe came to conquer.  Capitalism is represented as an evolutionary step after tribalism.  Countries became greater than tribes.  Are we now in a period where corporations and money are becoming greater than countries?

BOUND, the play, is full of ideas.  The material itself contains fairly average dialogue but it did inspire some thoughtful contemplation.  Is the history of white European colonists in North America any different than those who drew imaginary lines and split tribes haphazardly in the Middle East?

For a very small scale play presented in an East Village basement on a shoestring budget, I felt engaged.  That is commendable.  When a cultural institution is engaged in making the world see their truth through a different lens, that is meaningful theater.  BOUND could certainly be a better play than it is today.  As a white European second generation descendant from immigrants, I have to agree that America could certainly be more compassionate than it is today.

www.theaterforthenewcity.net

www.amerinda.org

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The Poor of New York (Metropolitan Playhouse)

When referring to the indigenous vultures on Wall Street, the phrase “roguery is concentrated there” would seem a kinder vernacular than others I have heard.  In 1857, successful playwright Dion Boucicault’s The Poor of New York premiered.  The play begins in 1837 during the time of a financial crisis in the United States.  Based on actions made in the banking system by then President Andrew Jackson, a major recession followed which lasted into the mid-1840’s.

At the start of this very interesting artifact, Gideon Bloodgood’s bank is failing and he’s preparing to skip town.  A sea captain named Adam Fairweather is about to embark on a long journey.  He wants to deposit his family’s entire fortune for safekeeping while he is gone.  The slime ball banker fraudulently accepts his deposit to add to his coffers before he bolts to Europe.  The Captain gets wind of his imminent collapse and returns that same evening to get his life savings back.  An argument ensues and the Captain drops dead.

Act II  (and the rest of the play) is set amidst the financial crisis of 1857, twenty years later.  This one involved economic decline and the bursting of a railroad industry stock bubble.  (Isn’t it fun how we learn from our past mistakes?)  With the migration of people westward, banks were willing to loan huge sums to railroads, some of which existed only on paper.  The slavery versus abolitionist debate was heating up.  The job market in the north imploded.

The Poor of New York doesn’t delve into the financial shenanigans of mid-nineteenth century America from a national perspective.  Instead, the plot centers around one evil banker and the family he destroyed.  This is a tale of a rich man who showers his daughter with every extravagance.  Alida Bloodgood is described as having a heart “as hard and dry as a biscuit.”  As played by Alexandra O’Daly, she is delightfully haughty.

All of the poor folk in this story are well intended, benevolent souls with nary an opportunity to pull themselves out of abject poverty.  What’s worse is that they remember the days of comfort making their misfortune even more painful.  The Metropolitan Playhouse explores American theatrical heritage to illuminate contemporary culture.  The Poor of New York opens a window to the 1% as portrayed 160 years ago.

Directed and designed by Alex Roe, this production has been given an inventive staging.  I have not seen a manually operated turntable so artfully and effectively incorporated into storytelling since the Mint Theater’s 2011 production of Rachel Crothers’ A Little Journey.  This tiny off-off Broadway space becomes an office, a street, a tenement and a home.  As always with this company, entrances and exits are dramatically executed and also make sense.

Popular songs from the 1850’s are performed by the cast during scene changes which fill out thematic elements.  They include “Oh! That I Were a Man of Wealth,” “Money is a Hard Thing to Borrow” and an amusing ditty called “I Really Must Be in the Fashion.”

Although very dated in style, the play effectively hits its targets.  The actors often speak their thoughts to the audience to help move the plot along.  As performed by this solid cast, this historical period piece comes alive.  A popular hit at the time, Mr. Boucicault rewrote the details for other productions such as The Poor of Liverpool, London or Manchester.

Paul Fairweather, the sea captain’s son, seems to be the moral center of this play.  In a nicely understated way, Luke Hofmaier inhabits this man who is desperate to take care of his family while retaining his dignity.  Teresa Kelsey (Mrs. Fairweather) and Jo Vetter (Mrs. Puffy) memorably portray the older women who use kindness and generosity of spirit to survive each day.

The men have the juicier roles whether they are the good or bad guys.  David Logan Rankin plays the self-dealing Badger as an inky conniver.  He is tremendously fun to watch as his character evolves.  Bob Mackasek’s Bloodgood is a perfectly detestable banker.  The Fairweather’s family friend Jonas Puffy sells chestnuts on the street.  Beaming with a positive attitude despite the circumstances, John Lonoff is pitch perfect in the role.

As regular readers of my blog know, I tend to be partial to plays from the past especially when they are entertainingly realized.  Not everyone may be as forgiving to the random asides spoken out loud from these somewhat stock characters.  For a glimpse into America’s theatrical past and its uncanny mirror to our continuing legacy of financial malfeasance, The Poor of New York is highly recommended.

www.metropolitanplayhouse.org

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17 Border Crossings (New York Theatre Workshop)

Thaddeus Phillips has traveled all over the world.  With his wife Tatiana Mallarino, the show’s director, he has been working on this particular piece for five years.  17 Border Crossings debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2015 and has since been played in twenty five countries on five continents.  They have revisited their work, taking into account the tenuous nature of borders in our current geopolitical climate.

Mr. Phillip’s scenic design is simple and effective.  He uses a chair, a table and a fifteen foot bar of light to communicate his story and share his observations.  In a promising start, he discusses the history of passports.  Apparently you can microwave your passport for ten seconds so the chip which tracks your movement will be disabled.  That discussion is one of many which comes up briefly and is quickly abandoned for the next chapter.

There are seventeen specific crossings chronicled in this play.  The first one occurs on a train in 1999.  He is traveling from Hungary to the newly formed Serbia.  Playing all the roles, he is a ticket collector and another passenger.  That passenger has five suitcases tightly wrapped in blankets, plastic and duct tape.  At one point the stranger throws them out the window.  Obviously someone is expecting them.  What’s in there?  Why?  Never mind, time to move on to the next crossing.

This type of play structure results in a few interesting tales being lost amidst the acting exercise.  Mr. Phillips is a very winning stage presence, comfortable with believable accents in many languages.  When I heard “the eleventh crossing is from Egypt into Gaza” I had mixed feelings.  This particular crossing was in a tunnel (where trade happens) so I was certainly interested in the location.  I also realized, however, that there were still six more crossings yet to be presented.

The unlikely stars of this show are the lighting and sound designers.  David Todaro’s bar of light can suggest a train car or a police car.  The light bar moves up and down as the stories are told in endlessly inventive ways.  When you add Robert Kaplowitz’s crisp and vivid sound effects, the promise of what this show could be is clear.

On a vacation with his family, they are playing on a beach.  His son is pretending to drive a boat while he and his wife bury “treasures” in the sand like water bottles and keys.  The son is so excited and keeps asking “are we there yet?” so he can jump off the boat and start searching.  We then hear about a man and his son fleeing Syria into Greece  After a harrowing sea journey, the father is asked “are we there yet?”  Mr. Phillips commends the father’s courage to reply that their journey was just beginning.

Moments that attempt to bring depth and meaning are far too infrequent.  They are also skimmed over so fast that nothing meaningful has time to stick.  Why is this tale being told?  Is this a travelogue or a commentary on the world?  Without a point of view, 17 Border Crossings is neither.

www.nytw.org

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Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus

Leaving Broadway’s Booth Theater after seeing the often very funny Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, “Radio Song” by R.E.M. came to mind.  The particular lyric:  “the world is collapsing/ around our ears/ I turned up the radio/ But I can’t hear it.”  The song was a call to action for artists and DJs to communicate more important messages to the masses.  In this comedy, Taylor Mac has created a similar rallying cry to artists about the pervasive savagery within our world.  “Do we pause or spur it on with centuries of applause?”

Having never seen or read the Shakespeare play, I decided to watch the Julie Taymor film Titus in preparation.  The film is overlong; intermittently fantastic, campy, violent and boring.  I am glad that I watched the movie before sitting down for this sequel.  While not a requirement, additional background adds some understanding (and fun) to these shenanigans.

Julie White plays the renamed Carol, a fairly small character in the original tragedy but part of a major scene.  Knowing her backstory adds to the merriment onstage.  She opens the play with an absolutely hilarious monologue which sets the tone for the raucous grotesquerie that follows.  In the smallest part, Ms. White nearly steals the show from her costars Nathan Lane and Kristen Nielsen.

When the curtain rises, the aftermath of war is everywhere.  Gary (Lane) was a clown but now has been assigned to the cleanup crew.  Dead bodies have accumulated.  He comes from a long line of clowning:  “it was inherited, like religions.”  Ms. Nielsen’s Janice is an experienced maid.  This current mess is “not my first massacre.”  She tutors Gary in the fine art of body disposal.

Santo Loquasto designed this set which is a character unto itself.  Dead bodies and limbs are everywhere.  Look, that one was really a stud!  The slaughtered women and children are hidden under a large tarp.  We don’t really need to see that.  Or do we?  Through this bawdy exercise, judy (Taylor Mac’s preferred pronoun) is going to make a lot of political points about the brutality of mankind and our passive acceptance.  R.E.M.’s “I turned up the radio” morphed into “I sat in my theater chair.”

Perhaps judy could not hear enough voices screaming out in the artist community.  A very successful performer who often performs in drag, judy was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for A 24-Decade History of Popular Music.  That extravaganza skewered the heteronormative narrative of America’s history.  Never-ending violence and oppression of all minorities were confronted in an anarchistic political convention replete with sequins and titillating humor.  That 24 hour show was an extraordinary achievement.

Filled with gallows humor, Gary contains many, many laughs.  In a metatheatrical way, judy has created the genre of a “fooling.”  Both the play and the characters who inhabit it are clowns putting on a show.  As directed by George C. Wolfe, the best individual moments slay.  The messaging is clear and appropriately in-your-face.  Unfortunately the proceedings occasionally get bogged down like a battalion tramping through a muddy quagmire.  The play loses focus and momentum at times.

The three performers work hard to bring this outrageousness to life.  Mr. Lane’s Gary is certainly a fool.  As a man, of course he is the most important person and naturally should be in charge.  Ms. Nielsen’s maid is darker, edgier, angrier and the more accomplished.  She is pissed off about her station in life.  The performance fuses her trademark acting style and line deliveries with a ludicrous situation.  Her character is probably the heart of the play; the window through which people see how the 1% impose themselves on society.

Then there is Julie White who shows us all how to get nominated for a Tony Award.  Obviously all of this talent has enabled Gary to be mounted on Broadway despite its downtown sensibility.  In a big traditional venue, Taylor Mac has put our society and our artists on trial.  judy cannot hear you.  Listen.  Laugh.  And, hopefully, be inspired to create art that speaks to today’s atrocities.  Dead bodies are simply a case of history repeating itself.

www.garyonbroadway.com

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Hillary and Clinton

On a Sunday night in January 2008, Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager Mark are in a hotel room.  The New Hampshire primary is two days away and the poll numbers look bad.  Mrs. Clinton complains that “the vultures are circling.”  Barack Obama has offered her a position as his running mate if she drops out of the race.  Hillary and Clinton, the new play by Lucas Hnath, is a fictionalized character study of this famous woman and what makes her tick.

We all know the general plot outline.  Hillary is running for President and will not succeed.  We will see her failed candidacy and her troubled marriage to Bill, the 42nd President of the United States and her philandering husband.  A story of ambition and drive in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, Hillary and Clinton is a thrilling dive into the head of this woman.  Covering a topic that has been exhaustively played out over and over again, it is hard to imagine how Mr. Hnath has mined comedic gold from this material.

Famously Bill flies into New Hampshire at his wife’s request, wreaking havoc in his wake.  He is not sure she should continue running for President telling her “don’t let them see you as a rotting corpse.”  She doesn’t have his personality, instead she is “cold, stubborn and guarded.”  With him playing attack dog by her side, they will be stronger. “Everyone wants a mommy.  Everyone wants a dog.  With us, they get both.”

While Hillary and Clinton deals with politics, the play is not a political one which takes sides. This is a play about a woman who does indeed come off as guarded.  This playwright conjures a glimpse inside her brain.  That view is neither flattering nor negative.  Better than that, it is believably detailed.  You feel sorry for her.  Her defensive fortress is understood.  When the pit bull appears baring her fangs, you recoil again.  This ninety minute play is so effective because we all have our long-held opinions about these people.

Barack Obama is the fourth character in this play but the tension he creates happens long before an appearance on stage.  Having placed third in the Iowa caucuses, Mrs. Clinton is reeling.  Her anointment to the highest office in our country is not so definite as she and her campaign would like to believe.  We’ve heard this all before and still it is impressively riveting stuff.

The action takes place in a laboratory-like shell of a hotel room nicely designed by Chloe Lamford.  As usual, Laurie Metcalf is terrific as Hillary.  The performance is emotionally rich and does not resort to mimicry at all.  At one point she is seated with Bill standing behind her.  I actually thought I saw Hillary’s face not Ms. Metcalf’s.  As her husband, John Lithgow is wonderfully annoying portraying the man whose glory days are well behind him.  This play makes a case for this couple as quintessential American opportunists but also as ravenously greedy, self-absorbed, power hungry loners.  Is there no hurdle they cannot climb?

After last year’s fantastic revival of Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, Joe Mantello has once again brought an intimate character study to remarkable life.  Zak Orth is unforgettable as the beleaguered campaign manager Mark.  Peter Francis James’ portrayal of President Obama is instantly recognizable and interestingly edgy.  All of these people are political sharks.  It’s just through different personality lenses that we see them.

Lucas Hnath is a supremely gifted playwright and the writing of this piece is so good that there is not one lull in the action.  Whatever your political persuasion, Hillary and Clinton is highly recommended.  The marquee states that the play is “primarily a comedy.”  If you are a political junkie and actually pay attention to presidential politics and the interminable slog through the primaries, this grand entertainment should equate to an Electoral College landslide.

www.hillaryandclintonbroadway.com

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