ARTS INTERNATIONAL
Editor/Publisher, Bina Sharif
ARTS INTERNATIONAL covers THEATER, FILM, VISUAL ARTS, CUISINE, AND LITERATURE

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS

THEATER                A scene from, "THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS"                  

REVIEW, "THE SERVANT OF TWO MASTERS"
At Pollonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Pl till Dec 4, 2016

By Bina Sharif

Carlo Goldoni's 18th-Century farce "The Servant of Two Masters" which is produced by Theater For
a New Audience is extremely festive.  The play begins in darkness. Two men descend upon the stage with flashlights and discover some masks in a trunk lying in the middle of a warehouse or a desolate performance space and immediately after that the whole proscenium lights up with stars all over the skyscape which is then replaced by a deep blue sky studded with clouds. I just loved the stage design.

From the very beginning the style of the play,  commedia dell' arte which is improvisational in nature and involves the audience in an intimate manner is established and the whole house is in stiches.

The title charcter of the play, Truffaldino (Steven Epp) who gets into trouble and creates great confusion for every one else comes from a poor background and decides to enlist for two jobs, two masters.  First is Beatrice (Liz Wisan) who is in male disguise and has arrived in Venice pretending that she is her brother who had been killed in a duel. Her brother was engaged to the daughter of a merchant in Venice named Pantalone (Allen Gilmore).  Clarice (Adina verson)  is actually in love with another man, Silvio (Eugene Ma) and Beatrice's arrival puts Clarice in an un-happy situation
till Florindo (Orlando Pabotoy) Beatrice's lover also arives in Venice.

Smeraldina, the maid (Emily Young) falls in love with Truffaldino creating a bit more complexity
in a hectic houshold.  Emily Young turns out to be a very capable actress who has slightly different
style of performance which fits in the show nevertheless.

Every one in town had believed that Beatrice's brother was killed in a duel but he was actually killed by Florindo whose arrival excites Truffaldino to take advantage of the situation and serve the second master as well anticipating double salary. The plot is somewhat confusing but if there is no confusion then there is no commedia dell' arte.  The fun of this kind of theater is all the turns and twists which leads to a happy ending justifying a true comedy.

The production directed by Christpher Bayes is hillarious and frantic in an enticing way.
The show belongs to Steven Epp who is just amazingly equipped to be a buffoon and forever ready and willing to ad-lib without an ounce of hesitation and deliver most of the very contemorary jokes, (Many about the current election) and the audience is just ready for it.  The laughter is just non stop.
After a gruelling election people can't digest anything else but humor and Steven Epp provides that.
He is a very funny actor to say the least. Another wonderful performance is given by Allen Gilmore
in the role of Pantalone.  Most of the cast does a decent job.

The play has been adapted by Constance Congdon, translated by Christina Sibul.
The play is further adapted by Christopher Bayes and Steven Epp.

Since the play has many jokes about the election it becomes a source of innocent fun, escape and relief for the theater goers who might have been trying to shun the reality. Timing of the play is perfect.
Do not miss this delightful show.

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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

THEATER REVIEW

"ZORA NEAL HURSTON,"
  a theatrical biography by
   LAURENCE HOLDER
DIRECTED BY WOODIE KING,Jr.
At Castillo Theater.

Celebrating the 125th anniversary of the birth of Zora Neal Hurston, a prolific
novelist, playwright, outspoken and bold woman and personality in 1920s and 30s.
The play was produced by American Place theater in 1998 under the direction of
Wynn Handman who is the consulting director of the current production.
Elizabeth Van  Dyke  and Joseph Lewis Edwards recreates their original roles they played in 1998.

"Zora Neal Hurston" Is one of the most brilliant portrait of a historical literary figure
presented here by Superb Elizabeth Van Dyke.  In the very opening scene she is almost
at the end of her career and a heart broken woman who had been misunderstood and had many challanges and oppositions.  Its no joke to make a career as an outspoken black woman in 1920s and 30s.  The character in the begining of the play is going back to her hometown of Eatonville, Florida
and is waiting at a bus stop.

Within minutes her vigor and fighting spirit and her enormous ability to tell a story revives itself
and she narrates her past in vived details. She has humor and enegy even in some painful tellings of the past events.
 All the credit goes to a powerhouse of an actress,  Elizabeth Van Dyke.  She has a great stage presence and a melodious voice with the tinge of sadness, singsong, depth of feelings and  ability to recall a memory no matter how painful and then to turn that pain into instant joy.
 The actress goes through a long journey in just an hour and a half which keeps us,  the audience in total rapture.
I,  for sure loved her.  Its a very difficult endeavor to hold the audience's attention while one is portrying a historical figure whom many of the audience members might have known.
Though I never met Zora Neal Hurston but for me Elizabeth Van Dyke was her in a very human and majestic way because she made me forget that she was just an actress.

Joseph Lewis Edwards who plays, Herbert, Langston Hughes, Alain Locke and Richard Wright,
Poets and novelists and her contemporaries is another gem of an actor.  He was throughly believable
in all the roles and was charming as hell and also a wonderful singer.  I wanted more and more of his presence on stage.
Both actors had through understanding of the real people they were portrying.  Not an easy task to say the least but that's what a great actor does and these actors were just perfect in their roles.

The play is powerfully directed by Woodie King, Jr.

Laurence Holder is one of the most Important and brilliant writers of our times.  I have always enjoyed his work.  Earlier this year I saw, Sugar Ray, (Sugar Ray Robinson) in a site specific production at the restaurant where the boxer had a bar in Harlem.  It was just an amazing experience
which stayed with me till now.  I appreciate these kinds of historical plays which are extremely
educational experiences into the past of African American literature, their song, their struggle and
their achivements under all odds for a foreigner like me. I was very touched with this bold and sensitive production.

Zora Neal Hurston was known as the, "Queen of Harlem Renaissance"
And for all the right reasons.  She wanted to collect and preserve the language,
folklore, dance and song of the deep south which she did preserved in her Anthropology
research under the tutelage of Franz Boas at Barnard College.  A brilliant sory teller and
in courageous opposition of Jim Crow laws and black integration, she annoyed many black
intellectuals. In her later years she tumbled into obscurity because of false charges of child
molestation.  Her famous autobiography, Their Eyes Were Watching God, " and, 'Mules and Men"
a story collection of folklore are great achievements.