Triangle Offers Homage to a Centennial NYC Tragedy April 23, 2011
Posted by famenycmageditor in Arts, Theatre.Tags: 59E59 Theaters, Americas Off Broadway, Ashley C. Williams, “Big” Tim Sullivan, Dennis Wit, Donna Davis, Joe Gately, Michaela McPherson, Off Broadway, Ruba Audeh, Triangle, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
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March 25, 2011 marked the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. The inferno was the most deleterious industrial catastrophe in NYC history and ranked the fourth highest in casualties from an industrial accident in US history. It was also the most mortiferous tragedy in Manhattan until 9/11. The sweatshop blaze, located in the Asch Building on 23-29 Washington Place, resulted in the deaths of 146 workers, most of whom were Jewish and Italian immigrants. Because of locked doors, people jumped to their deaths and created outrage with the community and politicians alike. But the fire’s lasting legacies were not just the deaths, it was the legislation passed to improve factory safety standards and the creation of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.
Currently, the Americas Off-Broadway series offers a production that exhumes the ghosts of that tragedy and the lives it affected with Triangle. Triangle is a 120 minute drama that recounts the adulterous liaison between “Big” Tim Sullivan and actress Margaret Holland against the backdrop of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the events that followed. When young, beautiful Margaret goes to audition for Big Tim at his headquarters, he is already known as “The Boss of the Bowery.” Along with being a one of the prominent politicos of Tammany Hall, he was also the kingfish of various criminal enterprises which included prostitution, gambling and extortion. Margaret, a highbrow, progressive woman, becomes seduced by Tim’s immoral, yet captivating demeanor. Tim immediately recognizes Margaret’s beauty and casts her in his productions out of state. While Margaret continues to tour on the acting circuit, she and Tim fall in love and have an illegitimate daughter named Mary Catherine. But the Triangle Factory fire forever changes Margaret, Tim and Mary Catherine. Margaret tirelessly works as a reformist, causing a strain on her relationship with her growing daughter, and blames Tim for taking kickbacks. Guilt spurs Tim into using his political muscle to aide the reformers and sponsors legislation limiting the maximum number of hours women were forced to work despite his failing health from syphilis.
One aspect I find with Off-Broadway productions is that they are generally hit or miss. This production teeters somewhere in the middle. At best Triangle is a nondescript tribute to the legacies of the women and men who perished in Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, focusing more on the love affair between Tim and Margaret instead of the immigrant men and women who toiled and died in the fire. It reminded me of Spike Lee’s Summer of Sam, a think piece that provided a glimpse into the lives of people placed in a stressful situation. The acting in Triangle impressed me more than the story itself, and when the play did focus on the fire specifically, it showed flashes of brilliance. Ruba Audeh is superb, playing dual roles as a young Jewish girl and a former Triangle Shirtwaist worker turned hooker – her scenes are some of the most telling, emotional moments of the play and will painfully stick with you like burnt clothing on skin. Donna Davis and Dennis Wit are very engaging as Cathleen Murphy and Izzy Weissman, a common law couple on Big Tim’s payroll. Their banter and narration throughout the production not only offered comic relief, but prevented the show from dragging. They, along with Audeh, are without a doubt the most memorable characters and performances. Joe Gately, Ashley C. Williams and Michaela McPherson round out the cast giving fine performances as Tim Sullivan, Margaret Holland and Mary Catherine.
Triangle’s final performance at 59E59 Theatre is May 1. It is my conclusion that parts of this show were greater than its sum. Overall, Triangle is a satisfactory play that produced solid performances, but the jury is still out on whether this drama did or did not deliver on its commitment to honor the victims of the fire.
Photos: Carol Rosegg
Intonations of Love April 16, 2011
Posted by famenycmageditor in Arts, Theatre.Tags: 59E59 Theaters, Andrew Pastides, Comedy, Ian Barford, John Kolvenbach, Laura Latreille, Love Song, Off Broadway, Zoe Winters
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Love is an all-encompassing entity. It can be displayed through all five senses. You can hear the sounds of love coming from a bedroom or pining through a radio. You can see it dancing in someone’s eyes or in their gestures. There is a different aroma that follows a couple in love – even food taste different when the person preparing it is in love. In contrast, a person lacking love in their life is as anemic as a person living with diabetes. And this is where the audience finds Beane, the tragic, young protagonist of John Kolvenbach’s brilliant romantic comedy Love Song, when the play begins.
To say that Beane is an eccentric would be an understatement. He lives alone in an apartment void of furniture; his worldly possessions include a cup, a spoon, a couple of pairs of socks, two button down shirts and two slacks. Beane is a shadow and likes it that way. Like the boy in the bubble, he encloses himself in an orb to survive, but for Beane his oxygen is filled with misery. He desires no interactions with humans, if he desires at all. Outside of work, the only people Beane sees are his sister Joan and her husband Harry, an upwardly mobile couple too busy with work for Beane or even themselves for that matter. Then along comes Molly, a hellcat/burglar that robs Beane and incidentally develops a weird infatuation for him as does Beane for her. Suddenly, the light in Beane’s dreary world has been turned on. His whole outlook on life changes, which does not go unnoticed by Joan and Harry. In fact, Beane’s new attitude is contagious and assists in reigniting the romance in Joan and Harry’s life. Molly is like the Sazón that adds essential flavor to a dish of arroz con pollo – there is only one problem with her – she is as real as the Easter Bunny. Once Beane’s secret is out in the open, he must decide whether to move forward or shrink back into the existence he once had.
Love Song is one of the best character studies I have ever witnessed. It is Punch Drunk Love on LSD – a wild, trippy ride into the dimensions of love, loneliness and lunacy – three paths that can sometimes run side by side or collide into each other like a messy intersection. Playwright and director John Kolvenbach aims for the heart and hits his target dead on the mark. I adore this comedy; it is great theatre plain and simple. The cast radiates even brighter than the light Beane has been trying to avoid all his life. Laura Latreille and Ian Barford are a scream as Joan and Harry. Their chemistry was extremely organic. Zoe Winters is the most convincing imaginary girlfriend I have seen and Andrew Pastides makes quite an impression as Beane. Love Song is playing a limited engagement at 59E59 Theatres until May 8 as part of their America’s Off Broadway series. There are many tales of love in the world, but this one that should not be missed.
Photos: Jeff Larkin
What Happens In Jersey… March 21, 2011
Posted by famenycmageditor in Arts, Theatre.Tags: 59E59 Theaters, Andrew Broussard, Laura Hankin, Lauren Roth, Off Broadway, Play Nice!, Ridgewood New Jersey, V.C. Andrews
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What is it about Jersey that gets such a bad rap? Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Jerry Lewis, Joe Pesci and Bon Jovi all came from the Garden State. Before Sin City opened its first casino, Atlantic City was a gambler’s playground for years and with its beach and boardwalk, it played host to the Miss America Pageant for decades. But despite these facts, New Jersey is constantly the butt of tri-state jokes and poorly depicted in the media, i.e. Jersey Shore. Then came a fictional story set in an attic in Ridgewood, New Jersey, touted as a gothic fairytale, and my hopes that New Jersey would be seen in the public eye as more than a fist-pumping toxic dump was restored. Unfortunately, Play Nice! did little to enhance New Jersey’s public image nor did it fully live up to its potential as a gothic fairytale.
Play Nice! focuses on Isabelle, Luce and Matilda. On the surface, their lives seem ideal, but behind the doors of their home their reality is quite different. Each of the kids are forced endure their fare share of abuse from their mother, who is an obese alcoholic. Determined to prove to her neighbors that she deserves to live in this affluent bedroom community 20 miles from New York City, the children’s mother demands perfection in and out of the home, which is only partially furnished to enhance her façade. The bulk of Luce and Isabelle’s time is spent in the attic escaping into their world of make believe where there mother, the Dragon Queen, cannot reach them. Matilda is relegated to be the maid and her mother’s verbal whipping girl. The play’s dark plot primarily takes place in the attic – very V.C. Andrews’ gothic, but that is where the similarity stops. On Thanksgiving Day the mother is poisoned after having her afternoon tea and the children must utilize their active imaginations to simulate the events leading up to the poisoning.
Play Nice! is a journey in which pretend can uncover truth and stretches the idea of what a fairytale can be. It also challenges one’s typical perception to the term gothic. My issue with this dramatization was the venue in which it took place. I believe the stage, especially an Off-Broadway one, might not do this story justice. Ridgewood, New Jersey is a very well-to-do village, but with exception to the mother’s references to this idyllic town, the audience does not get to experience it. The pretend sequences between Luce and Isabelle once he runs away from his mother are well acted, but the lack of background diminishes the somberness of their reality. Play Nice! will end its limited run at 59E59 Theaters on March 27. While it is not necessarily my cup of tea with regards to a play, I firmly believe this story would work well if not better as a film and would happily pay $8.50 to see if my theory is right, as well as to see a few scenes of New Jersey shown in a better light.
Photos: Richard Termine
The Great Bubble Burst December 16, 2010
Posted by famenycmageditor in Arts, Theatre.Tags: 911, Afghanistan, History of War, NYU, Off Broadway, Skirball Center, Terrorism, The Great Game: Afghanistan
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I’m going to say it plain, as Americans we live in a bubble of our own creation. Before September 11, 2001, how many of us could say we knew anything about Afghanistan, much less locate it on a map. But after the events of that tragic day, our bubble popped (like it did 60 years before on Pearl Harbor). Afghanistan, Iraq, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Islam became the enemy. Afghanistan was portrayed as a poppy growing, heroin producing, woman hating, tribal fighting, terrorist harboring disaster zone that needed to be cleansed and saved from itself. But how many leaders…how many superpowers…how many extremists have tried to save Afghanistan from itself, while really serving their interest and not that of the indigenous people? This question is powerfully and intelligently explored in The Great Game: Afghanistan, now playing at NYU’s Skirball Center until December 19.
The Great Game: Afghanistan is a series of short plays told over three productions presenting audiences with a stark account of this country’s turbulent history from 1842 to the present day. Broken into one installment per evening or an all-day marathon, The Great Game: Afghanistan breathes new life into the term miniseries. The first installment titled Invasions and Independence covers the time period of 1842 to 1929. The first play, Bugles at the Gates of Jalalabad, was written by Stephen Jeffreys. Four buglers outside of Jalalabad keep watch for William Brydon, the lone survivor of the Massacre of Elphinstone’s Army in 1842, while on the other side of the stage, Lady Florentia Sale who was kidnapped in 1842 during the First Anglo-Afghan War reads from the diary she kept while in captivity. The buglers and Lady Sale recount the British invasion of Afghanistan to impede the Russians and protect India (the crown jewel of their empire), the bribes to tribal warlords which eventually stopped, as well as the gory details of how the Afghan fighters hacked the British army and camp followers to pieces during the massacre. But the sub-plot of the play is one of intolerance and underestimating the Afghan people. Bugles at the Gates of Jalalabad closes with the telling of Afghan heroine Malalai, a young woman who helped to rally Afghan soldiers during the Battle of Kandahar. The second play Durand’s Line was written by Ron Hutchinson and details a fictitious conversation between Amir Abdul Rahman and Sir Mortimer Durand before the signing of the 1893 Durand Line Agreement which refers to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan and established a line for the British that the Russians were not to cross. The segment then speeds up to 2010 with Campaign by Amit Gupta. While trying to create an exit strategy for the British out of Afghanistan, a politician from the UK coalition government tries to coerce a Pakistani intellectual to assist him in manufacturing propaganda that centers on Mahmud Tarzi, considered one of Afghanistan’s greatest intellectuals and modernist. The final play of Invasions and Independence also features Mahmud Tarzi. Now is the Time, by Joy Wilkinson, shifts back to 1929 and focuses on Mahmud Tarzi, his daughter Queen Soraya Tarzi and son-in-law King Amanullah Khan as their escape out of Kabul is threatened when their Rolls Royce gets stuck in the snow.
The second installment of plays is titled Communism, the Mujahideen and the Taliban and covers the time period of 1981 to 2001. Communism, the Mujahideen and the Taliban begins with Black Tulips by David Edgar, which backtracks the Soviet war in Afghanistan from 1987 to 1981 from the USSR’s point of view. While constantly reminding new soldiers that “They had been invited to Afghanistan,” various Soviet officers give newly deployed soldiers a pep-talk as to why their intervention is necessary. Wood for the Fire by Lee Blessing zeros in on two CIA operatives as they work with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence to supply the Mujahideen with weapons and terrorist training to oppose the Soviets. In Miniskirts of Kabul by David Greig a British journalist imagines a meeting with President Mohammed Najibullah while he is on house arrest in the UN compound in Kabul in 1992. They discuss the Spice Girls, women being allowed to wear miniskirts, his beliefs and why he refused to go into exile once his regime had collapsed. Communism, the Mujahideen and the Taliban ends with The Lion of Kabul by Colin Teevan showcasing the history Marjan, the one-eyed lion in the Kabul Zoo as told by a Taliban leader as a female UN director and her interpreter wait to find out news about two UN aid workers. Upon learning the workers have been killed, the UN director reluctantly allows the Taliban to render punishment to the men responsible for the aid workers’ deaths, which happens to be feeding them to Marjan.
The third segment of The Great Game: Afghanistan is Enduring Freedom which spans from 2001 to the present day. Enduring Freedom opens with Honey by Ben Ockrent and focuses on a CIA agent who tries to enlist the help of Ahmad Shah Massoud right before his assassination on September 9, 2001. The title of the play refers to the “honey pot” Massoud was promised for his assistance. After Massoud is assassinated, footage of the World Trade Center attack on 9/11 is shown. Following the 9/11 attacks The Night is Darkest before Dawn by Abi Morgan centers on an Afghan widow that returns to her village to re-open her deceased husband’s school and recruit her niece as a student. On the Side of the Angels by Richard Bean is the penultimate skit and features an aid worker who is forced to get involved in Afghan politics after a girl is betrothed to an older man to settle a dispute. The play comes full circle with Canopy of Stars written by Simon Stephens. It centers on two British soldiers guarding the Kajaki Dam; they exchange views on military intervention in Afghanistan right before a battle.
The Great Game: Afghanistan and its myriad of carefully crafted skits reveal that the true game played in Afghanistan was an exhaustive, expensive game of chess in which the pawn became such a powerful player that it began to usurp control from the strategists setting the rules. The realities of the effects of war and the manipulation behind it become all too real after watching The Great Game: Afghanistan. Whether viewed in its entirety or in segments, this play gives its viewer as much as it takes away. It represents what is great in theater; it expands your consciousness and challenges your perception of the world we live in. Upon walking into this production your views about global terrorism, 9/11, Islam may be clear, but by the end of the play your perception may be a little muddled. The Great Game: Afghanistan is the equivalent to walking into a snow globe that pops while shaking. Before the shaking all your ideas are calm, resting in the annals of your mind, but afterwards the certainty of your thoughts are scattered and can never be collected back into the bubble. It my sincere hope that The Great Game: Afghanistan will return to NYC soon so that all New Yorkers will have the opportunity to witness this stimulating work. The actors, who play multiple roles, are intense; their dedication to the entire production exquisitely shines through in every play. In the times we live in, The Great Game: Afghanistan is a must see –it is a mental marathon, but one well worth running.
Photos: John Haynes
The Art Of A Great Bamboozle December 1, 2010
Posted by famenycmageditor in FAME, Theatre.Tags: C.S. Lewis, Fellowship for the Performing Arts, Max McLean, Off Broadway, The Screwtape Letters, The Westside Theatre
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This season the essence of C.S. Lewis is alive and well on stage. One incarnation of the atheist turned Christian apologist, novelist, lay theologian and academic was in the form of the man himself in Freud’s Last Session, a drama depicting a fictional meeting between Lewis and Sigmund Freud. The other appears in an adaptation of The Screwtape Letters, one of his most popular works, by the Fellowship for the Performing Arts. The book, published in 1942, is a series of letters authored by Screwtape (a senior demon in the dominion of hell) to his nephew Wormwood (a junior tempter just recently sent into the world). Screwtape’s annotations offer the young demon a guide on how to lead a man down the path of damnation towards “Our Father Below” (the Devil) and away from “The Enemy” (God).
Playing at the Westside Theatre, The Screwtape Letters is a 90-minute mental gobstopper. As the play opens, His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape is addressing The Graduation Banquet at the Tempters College for Young Demons. As the spirits of Hell feast on the numerous human souls they have swayed from “The Enemy,” Screwtape reminds the neophytes that although the substance of their supper does not have quite the same zing as true evil-doers like Hitler, there are plenty of humans willing to take the slow methodical road to the underworld by committing smaller sins. His chilling speech is an eerie reminder of the phrase, “We are in the last days,” an expression my aunt would always say when adding her two cents about the news. But it was not until I witnessed this scene that I realized the last days did not mean the 20th or 21st century, in fact, my aunt was referring to every day after the infamous apple bite. Following the banquet scene, the rest of the production is carried out in Screwtape’s office, which is constructed of bones.
Besides his scowling, transforming minion Toadpipe (played by Beckley Andrews), Screwtape is the only character that appears on stage. Wormwood, “The Enemy”, “Our Father Below”, Slobgob, “The Patient” (The young man Wormwood is attempting to beguile) and “The Woman” (The Patient’s love interest) are all unseen characters that are vividly resurrected through Screwtape’s salacious soliloquy. The Screwtape Letters is a timeless piece of work that needed to be reintroduced to the public more than ever before. Indeed with the global economic state, constant threat of terrorism and conflict and the slow disintegration of man’s respect for nature and his fellow man, there is not one human being that can afford to miss this production.
Max McLean co-wrote and co-directed this adaptation and brings the letters to life in glorious fashion. As Screwtape he is evil personified. The disdain he exhibits for humans and God as well as the lusty pleasure he receives from devouring souls is completely convincing and compelling. I was gobsmacked by the God smack that was delivered to my state of consciousness. In fact, amusement is only one of the functions of this show, the other (and I believe chief) reason for this production is to present a thriving, thorough account of how man can be so easily led down the primrose path. Screwtape, Wormwood and those who work for “The Enemy” are spirits, humans, as Screwtape puts it, are “amphibians—half spirit and half animal.” It is the animal half he instructs Wormwood to target when tempting “The Patient’s” spirit. He outlines how pride, religion, pleasure (a device created by God) can be viable tools for manipulation. He details how prayer can cause immediate action by “The Enemy” and a demon’s best time to strike is during quiet times of reflection. But the most significant disclosure Screwtape shares with his nephew is the law of Undulation which is, “the repeated return to a level from which they (humans) repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks.” The satirical commentary ends with Wormwood losing “The Patient” to “The Enemy” and becoming worm bait for Screwtape and Toadpipe.
Revelations 20:20 is an idiom I say when referring to the clarity that is gained by hindsight. Watching The Screwtape Letters brought to life on stage offered more of a revelation than I ever anticipated. The audience learns that every transgression counts. In the end, all of Screwtape’s devices to entice us with vices leads to one well-known (but often forgotten) conclusion, the Devil and his sycophants are liars whose misdirection is the most direct passageway to becoming tasty morsels at Hell’s buffet. Hats off to Max McLean for reminding us that we are all soldiers in the war for our souls, The Screwtape Letters ends its New York run on January 9, FAMERS make sure this show is the only trip to Hades you ever take.
Photos: screwtapeonstage.com/gallery
Mistakes Is a Good Thing November 29, 2010
Posted by famenycmageditor in Theater.Tags: Barrow Street Theatre, Craig Wright, Dexter Bullard, Michael Shannon, Mistakes Were Made, Off Broadway
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Mistakes Were Made could be an apropos slogan for the Democrats considering the colossal clobbering they received on November 4 in Washington, but in this case Mistakes Were Made happens to be the title of a riotous play written by Craig Wright, directed by Dexter Bullard and showcasing the extraordinary talent of Michael Shannon.
Shannon plays Felix Artifex a man with big dreams and even bigger failures. He is a B-List (teetering on C-List) Off-Broadway producer whose character can best be described as one part good guy and three parts BS artist. Felix is obsessed with three things: bringing Mistakes Were Made to Broadway, contacting his estranged wife and feeding is fish to the point of peril. The audience is introduced to him sitting in a cluttered office filled with scripts, board games and posters of past pedestrian productions. Believing that Mistakes Were Made will emancipate him from the lackluster life he has led, the slippery slope Felix rides to utter insanity, then clarity begins with him on the phone trying to convince the Hollywood actor du jour to star in Mistakes Were Made, a play based on the French Revolution. When the actor begins to edit the script, Felix goes into schmooze mode feeding the actor a line of malarkey longer than 5th Avenue in order to get what he wants. He then does the same to playwright who refuses to change the play. With all the lines of his telephone blowing up, Felix slides deeper into an abyss of bombastic blunders as he tries to cajole then bully the young writer into altering his original vision all while desperately attempting to reach his wife and back out of a business deal gone awry.
The only thing keeping him sane is the reflective talks he has with Denise, his fish, while overfeeding her. He shares with her his dreams of making Mistakes Were Made a smash hit and of the mediocre career he has led which will surely be rectified with this show. The fish is the perfect reflection of his personality. Her ambition to eat every pellet of food will ultimately lead to her destruction as Felix’s half-truths will lead to his debacle. His constant reference to the title Mistakes Were Made is suitable considering he is making so many on his road to glory. Eventually his zealousness leads to an epic explosion of his dreams and the death of his beloved Denise. As he sinks to the floor in utter despair, I could not help but focus my eyes on the Sorry board game resting underneath a shelf. Perhaps that game exquisitely sums up his attitude about the events that have transpired. As the play closes Felix begins to earn the redemption he so desperately seeks as he ventures to repair the damage that he caused by calling the playwright to extend an olive branch.
So I ask can mistakes be a good thing. Absolutely when it involves Michael Shannon, he holds this riveting character study on his shoulders with the same ease as Atlas lifting up the world. Shannon makes Felix a shyster with a soul. His desire to become greater and repair past errors is relatable and commendable and the manner in which he does it is amusing as hell. Fueled by great dialogue, Mistakes Were Made is hands down the wittiest show I have seen all season. It is a comical glimpse of what happens behind the scenes of a production before it hits the stage. Mistakes Were Made will be playing at the Barrow Street Theatre until January 2, any theatergoer that misses this show will themselves have engaged in a folly that is unforgivable.
Photos: Ari Mintz
What Lies Underneath September 26, 2010
Posted by famenycmageditor in Theatre.Tags: Axis Company, Down There, Gertrude Baniszewski, Off Broadway, Sylvia Likens
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In 1965 a teenage girl and her polio riddled sister entered the Indianapolis home of Gertrude Baniszewski. As the landscape of America radically shifts with the Vietnam War, civil rights movement and the Beatles, the reality of this 16-year-old girl also dramatically changes, she is systematically tortured for three months by the woman who was suppose to take care of her and her sister. Baniszewski also enlists neighborhood kids and her own children to assist in the torture. On October 26, the young girl died of a brain hemorrhage, shock and malnutrition; her name was Sylvia Likens.
Just in time for Halloween, Axis Company resurrects the spirit of Sylvia Likens and the events surrounding her death in Down There. From the moment you receive the program (a blank white sheet with the words “down there” written in lowercase and outlined in red crayon) the awareness that the production will not be a regular night at the theatre becomes heightened. Down There is playwright Randy Sharp’s chilling, dark multimedia showcase of an individual’s spiraling descent into madness and violence. Although the play is based on the torture and murder of Sylvia Likens, the plot mainly centers on Pat Menckl (Gertrude Baniszewski). A sickly, unhappy woman, Pat Menckl and her boyfriend Frank appear to be on the edge of destruction and the hint of abuse is apparent in the opening scene. Her kids Jim and Paula and Rickie and John (the other teenagers entrusted to her care) are the poster children for dysfunction. This thrown-together family unit appears to be experts on the trickle down theory – Frank humiliates Pat who demeans Paula who degrades John. The only time the audience is presented with some modicum of family harmony is when forced smiles are presented as Casey Kindens (Sylvia Likens) and her sister Joyce are dropped off and later when Casey becomes the object of their abuse.
Pat is woman who has clearly grown up and lived “the hard way.” Her frail figure, red lipstick and vacant eyes look more macabre under the naked spotlight and she wears her dysphoria like a church frock. Casey’s bubbly, talkative personality not only clashes with Pat’s “misery loves company” approach, but seems to set Pat on her path of terrorism. She seems hell-bent on breaking Casey’s spirit and showing her the harsh reality of life. The violence Casey endures in the basement of the Menckl home is not graphic, but the suggestions of torture coupled with visions of Casey’s innocent smile on the monitor and her voice as she recites a note she is forced to write her parents explaining her bruises, haunt the audience with the reality of Casey’s demise.
The cast is comprised of Axis Company members; they deliver fright better than any modern horror flick. Laurie Kilmartin portrayal of Pat combines all the elements of a villainess – she is Mrs. Bates, Mrs. Voorhees and Cruella De Vil rolled into one. Lynn Mancinelli gives a convincing depiction of the Casey, her naivety and her eagerness to make the best of her situation is as compelling as her smile. David Crabb and Brian give the scariest performance in this production as Rickie and John. The willingness to participate in Casey’s torture and the fiendish pleasure they take in doing so tingles the skin with itches that cannot be stratched. Britt Genelin and Jim Sterling are equally as troubling as Paula and Frank. They give stark portraits of unbalanced people. The set displays a dreary home and the mute Joyce, played by Regina Betancourt, becomes part of the bleak backdrop. Her somber disposition and unwillingness to speak adds another layer of torture to this production.
Morbid and uncomfortable to witness Down There leaves the audience without a cathartic experience or sense of understanding as they rise from their seats. Other than the fact of pure lunacy, the reason for their heinous acts remains a mystery. But what is clear is that sometimes what lurks below a smile and display of normalcy can be a beehive festering with evil – a thought more disturbing than the boogeyman under the bed but necessary to know. Down There will be playing at Axis Company, located at 1 Sheridan Square, until October 30.
Photos courtesy of Axis Company
Under the Sea July 11, 2010
Posted by famenycmageditor in Theatre.Tags: Children's And Family Shows, John Tartaglia, John Tartaglia's Imaginocean!, Musicals, Off Broadway, Puppet Show
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There is something about a puppet show that seems to resonate with the child in all of us. Regardless if you are seven or 70, live in a penthouse or a one bedroom walk up or are mother and father of 10 or singles looking to relive your childhood for just a brief moment, a puppet show equalizes all playing fields with smiles and laughter. And pure joy is what awaits anyone that spends 50 minutes in the undersea world that John Tartaglia creates.
John Tartaglia’s Imaginocean! is a delightful sub-aquatic excursion that brings the three dimensional world of the deep to life with a musical that is treat for children and adults. The main characters in this romp of currents and discovery are a fish named Dorsel, his sister Bubbles and their friend Tank. Through their quest for treasure these friends find more than money, they meet new friends and learn lifelong lessons.
The freshness of John Tartaglia’s Imaginocean! comes in the form of black-light, which makes the color puppets pop and become animated. The audience feels as if they are below the depths of the sea with the fishy friends and experience every laugh, song and dance in a much livelier way than other puppet productions. Filled with good music and good times, John Tartaglia’s Imaginocean! is one of off-Broadway’s best productions for a family. This show is smart, innovative and cool, I have no doubt it will continue to swim in a wave of success.
Stomping Through the Decades July 10, 2010
Posted by famenycmageditor in Arts, Theatre.Tags: Dance Collective, Off Broadway, Performance Theatre, Stomp
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Thumping, bumping, jumping, banging, crashing, ripping, prancing, dancing and running literally, Stomp has been entertaining audiences at the Orpheum Theatre since 1994 and is one of the theatre world’s longest running productions. It is also one of the world’s most recognizable productions.
Stomp is an anomalous theatrical sensation that unifies its cast and the audience through rhythm, energy and movement. This non-traditional dance collective was created in the U.K. by Steve McNicholas and Luke Cresswell after first working together in 1981. In the summer of 1991, a decade after their initial union, Stomp premiered at Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms. From 1991 through 1994 the original cast, which had been expanded to 30 members, brought this unique multi-dimensional experience to audiences in Sydney, Hong Kong, Barcelona and Dublin, and also began its run in New York. Currently, Stomp is still running in the U.K. and Manhattan and has tours in the U.S., Europe and Japan.
After 19 years abroad and 16 in New York City in particular, Stomp continues to wow audiences with its dynamic brand of performance theatre. Last weekend I decided to start of my July 4th celebration by finally seeing this production for myself. Sure, after all the buzz Stomp has created over the years I have seen excerpts of performances on television, but nothing is like seeing the real thing live. I was not prepared for the stunts I saw. Talk about spectacle …Macy’s 4th of July fireworks looked like a Lite-Brite exhibition compared to the electrifying commotion displayed on stage.
The walls of the Orpheum Theatre were littered with a hodgepodge of discarded items included traffic, subway and street signs, huge plastic garbage cans, fans, pipes, mannequin tops and bottoms, fans, hub caps, ski boots, car grills and computer keyboards. The components, dilapidated and carefully hung on the walls, appear to regain their value and look more like a collage about movement and the way humans interact with inanimate objects than a bunch of junk. The show runs without an intermission and is a mind-bending ride of pure adrenaline. There is no dialogue, recognizable musical score or traditional choreography. But there is plenty of synchronized velocity. The show has a rotating cast and unlike some productions the sum of the cast’s vivacious exchange on stage is greater than its parts. Using their feet, hands, pipes, sinks, plastic bags aluminum trash cans and lids, newspapers, matchboxes, brooms and Zippo lighters, the cast turn random objects into a symphony of beats even getting the audience involved. Through clapping and snapping of fingers and hands, the swapping of energy comes full circle and the cast and audience becomes one.
At its core, Stomp is about fusing diversity and commonality. The dancing and music that is created possesses a very tribal feel and through the rhythmic and comedic elements in the show the audience realizes that no matter where we come from, we are all from the human tribe. A revolution then and a revolution now, Stomp is still one of the most unique theatre experiences on off-Broadway. Entertaining on multiple levels, great for families as well as couples and singles, Stomp is a shot of fun made for everyone. After experiencing it for myself, I completely understand why this pulsating production has had such longevity. If all these sci-fi films are correct and space is the final frontier, I predict Stomp and its many incarnations will still be around clanging on hulls of old spacecrafts and bouncing on crevices of the moon.
Photos: Junichi Takahashi and Steve McNicholas courtesy of Stomponline.com
Gawk and Awe May 8, 2010
Posted by famenycmageditor in FAME, Theater.Tags: Daryl Roth Theater, Experimental Theater, Fuerza Bruta Look Up, Off Broadway, Performance Art
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Dozens of strangers corralled into a wide dark space unsure of what will happen next. Strobe lights are overhead as the DJ spins electro-tech sounds. I’m no stranger to clubs (in fact they are my second home) and this definitely feels like one. There is barely anywhere to sit and I began to think to myself, “I thought I was going to see a show.” But before I could get lost in my thoughts, it began.
A man dressed in a white suit begins to run on a treadmill. He accumulates speed as simulated wind and rain try to block him. In a flash a loud shot rings in the air, my heart briefly stops. He is shot and pauses, but the action is just beginning.
Fuerza Bruta Look Up is an explosion of performance art. From start to finish it is a marathon of aerial acrobatics and constant movement, even the audience gets to participate. As a member of the audience you move from one end of the theater to another following the show as the cast moves from one form of movement to the next. You become part of the experience as the cast joins the audience to revel, break boxes of confetti over willing audience members’ heads and dance as water is sprayed from above. And if you enjoy watching women in baby doll frocks slosh around in water, Fuerza Bruta Look Up has that too.
It does not matter how you feel when you enter. The vibes are so kinetic that you will leave soaked with bolts of energy to carry you through the rest of the night. Fuerza Bruta Look Up is an out-of-the-box celebration that can be enjoyed by young and old. It is provocative and absolutely the best fusion of art, nightlife and theater I have ever witnessed. It is carnival on steroids. Look up, look left, look right, but I guarantee you will not look away.
Photos courtesy of fuerzabrutanyc.com
