TENNESSEE WILLIAMS 1982

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
1982
Two one acts
A RECLUSE AND HIS GUEST (World premiere)
And
THE REMARKABLE ROOMING-HOUSE
OF MME, LE MONDE (New York Premiere)
A Playhouse Creatures production
At Walker Space
DIRECTED BY COSMIN CHIVU
Running till March 13

REVIEWED
BY
BINA SHARIF

A RECLUSE AND HIS GUEST Is set in a remote time and most probably in a far removed Northern
Town. We encounter a tall person, gender not yet defined, (But we soon finds out that she is a woman) who is wearing layers of raggedy furs to protect herself from the howling winds and cold weather while she roams around in the midnight forest. Her name is Nevrika and she is hungry and
lonely. She encounters a character near a dark alley who calls her a,"WHORE"  and accuses her of
committing ,"Unnatural acts"  While indulging in them himself  and asking her to come back the next day so he can have more of it.
Nevrika, (Brilliant Kate Skinner)  ends up in a baker's shop and steal some stale bread and asks the village people if they know of a man without a wife who needs to be taken care of and finally come to live in a barn like decrepit
house with  the recluse named Ott, (Excellent Ford Austin) Who gradually warms up to her very tender and patient affection.  There is a beautiful little scene where she bathes him and he actually
attend the town's Spring Festival where they enjoy dancing and drinking but then an accident happens, not of any serious consequence but brings the paranoia of the recluse back in full circle
where he doesn't want her any more.  Its a very touching and poignant play with the poetry of Tennessee's earlier plays.  Actually at times she reminded me of Blanche who is always searching for love and kindness of others.  At one point she says to Ott, "Would it offend you if I told you that I am in love...that I love you?"  The words are so moving, so Tennessee Williams.

After she is being asked to leave Nevrika is back in her winter furs and says,"All my travels have lead me, in a wandering way." To the ice in the harbor I will feel the cold for a while and then- I will sleep...I will not have to wait long for it."
Mind you the play was written in 1982 and Tennessee passed away in 1983. "And then I will sleep..."
This line made me feel that Nevrika was more Like Williams than the recluse.
his play is accompanied by live Cello, (Paul Brantley, also the production's composer.
Lighting design in both plays by John Eckert is mesmerizing.
The play is brilliantly directed by Cosmin Chivu.

THE REMARKABLE ROOMING-HOUSE OF MME.LE MONDE

The set remains the same, the action completely changes.  The play takes place in an attic in London The play turns into incredible violence
and abuse of a cripple, Mint (Jade Ziane ) avery demandingly physical role where the actor has to slide down the staircase not once but a few times.  He is paralyzed from the waist down and there are ropes here for him to hang on to which are extremely cumbersome.  Its an attic of a rooming house run by MME LE MONDE, (Kate Skinner) though she appears towards the end of the play but is wonderful and so very different from the other play.
Mint is constantly raped by her son (Declan Eells) and the Hall( Patric Darwin Williams)  an Industrialist, greedy and extremely uncouth old class fellow of Mint who tortures Mint constantly and prevents him even from a cup of tea which he consumes himself teasingly torturing the victim.
The main character of this play, Hall in a brightly tangerine colored suit is ok but suffers from inadequate British accent.  But nevertheless its a great effort on Cosmin Chivu's part to bring us these
late and unknown plays by one of the master of theater to say the least.  Its always a great pleasure to hear Tennessee Williams poetry even if its laced in Violence some time.
Both plays are amazingly staged and directed and very well acted.

DRUNKEN WITH WHAT

THEATER: artsinternational

DRUNKEN WITH WHAT
A TARGET MARGIN THEATER PRODUCTION
Directed
by
David Herskovits

Reviewed by BINA SHARIF

DRUNKEN WITH WHAT is a study of Mourning Becomes Electra by O'Neill which is
based on the reworking of themes from Greek Tragedy, ORESTEIA By Aeschylus.
In the ancient times the word tragedy was dedicated and blamed on fate. "Tragedy was considered a flaw in nature and thus its result was predetermined by Kismet/fate.  But in modern times the word, "tragedy" has a different take on things and can be analyzed more as a motivational psychological theory.  But in O'Neill's Mourning Become Electra on which Drunken With What is based is for sure
a Greek Myth in which fate asserts a major blow.

Drunken With What as Mourning Becomes Electra has characters parallel from Greek play, Oresteia.
General Ezra, the father--Agamemnon
Christine, the mother--Clytemnestra
Orin, the son--Orestes
Lavinia, the daughter--Electra
And what a brave undertaking by David Herskovits to reintroduce the epic trilogy to the new audience who might not have read or seen O'Neill's Opus.

Though Drunken With What is compressed and many scenes have been taken out of the original
play, it makes perfect sense in the telling of the story.
The play takes place in New England after the Civil War where Lavinia, the dutiful daughter is waiting for the return of her father, General Ezra.  She is also in love with Captain Adam and is horrified to find out that her mother Christine, ( Brilliant Stephanie Weeks) is having an affair with him as well.  Consumed with jealousy she confronts her mother leading to mad anger, adultery and murder. When the General comes home, Christine Poisons him and Lavinia and her brother who is also very fond of his mother, (Incest perhaps? )  Try to take revenge.
Revenge, a major theme of all Greek tragedy always wins but actually no one wins at the end.

Drunken With What is directed very well with no fuss on the set and props.  A minimal setting forwards the story in a clear and coherent manner.  Actors are all very good though I couldn't hear Lavinia, (Eunice Wong ) very clearly first but she became better eventually.
I also enjoyed Mary Neufeld as Seth, the narrator/gardner.
Overall it was a reaffirming experience of a great classic

BINA SHARIF
Editor/Publisher of a theater blog;  artsinternational.blogspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
binasharif@earthlink.net
www.facebook.com
Cell:212-260-6207

O, EARTH AT FOUNDRY THEATER

THEATER REVIEW

FOUNDRY THEATER Presents
O, EARTH
Written by Casey Llewellyn
Directed by Dustin Wills
At HERE Theater till Feb 20

REVIEWED by BINA SHARIF

O, EARTH is a Surrealistic riff on,  Thornton Wilder's "Our Town."
The set has a little mountain of real dirt on one side and a solitary ladder on the other.
The floor of the whole stage is also covered with dusty dirt.
The lights are pretty haunting and ghostly.

We encounter a man with a shovel presumably, Wilder (Martin Moran) digging into the mound
looking for some lost object, (Time ) perhaps? The play tries to cover the time from 20th Century
to 21st Century and the cultural changes which took place in American life.

Then we encounters a stage manager (Donnetta Lavinia Grays) Avery funny black actress narrates for us the story of white folks in that town while she herself feels invisible moving the ladder from one side of the stage to the other.

There is also a love story taking place between Emily (Kristen Sieh) a young woman who is un-satisfied with her life in this town where according to her nothing is happening and nothing is there to hold onto.  She has a boyfriend, George (Jess Barbagallo) who is a transgender and loves baseball as well as Emily.  We also meet Simon Stimson, (Martin Moran) a closeted gay man who drinks a lot to find comfort in his loneliness.

All these characters are very familiar from the play, "Our Town" and then suddenly the play, O, Earth
changes into the present time where we are watching TV and  Ellen DeGeneres (Moe Angelos) appears.  Her wife Portia de Rossi (Emily Davis) is also there first in the background complaining to Ellen that she feels very lonely and then in her actual kitchen having wine with
Emily who by now must have left her isolated town as well as her transgender boyfriend George behind.

The play changes its course from this moment on and becomes more like a TV talk show where
 the ghosts of Marsha P. Johnson (Julienne Brown) and Sylvia Rivera (Cecilia Gentili) EARLY TRANSGENDER ACTIVISTS appear and complain about not being properly represented at the moment.  The play refers to the effect that the gay marriage being legal right now is not good enough
and other issues such as transgender should be paid more attention.

At this time the play scatters and becomes less engrossing and sounds like a political protest
and its dramatic tension withers but some of the earlier elements are very effective.
The set is fantastic, the lights are moody and haunting, the actors do a good job, I particularly
liked Emily Davis who played Portia de Rossi staring into the void and drinking.
Donnetta Lavinia Grays as the stage manager was also very effective.

Bina Sharif
artsinternational.blogspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
www.facebook.com
Cell: 212-260-6207