DOWNSTATE AT Playwrights Horizon

 DOWNSTATE by Bruce Norris; Directed by Pam MacKinnon

                                    

                                       Francis Guinan and K. Todd Freeman              

Bruce Norris, who won the Pulitzer for Clybourne Park, has come up with an entirely different

subject matter which is quite disturbing as well as gripping throughout.  In the very first scene we

 encounter a very angry and anxiety stricken young man Andy (Tim Hopper ) and Em (Sally Murphy)

 Andy's wife confronting a wheel chair bound older man Fred (Frances Guinan )

We soon realize that Fred is one of the four men convicted of sex crimes against the Minors and Andy is

 one of the victim who thirty years later has found Fred in a group home with three other room mates

 who had been convicted and been sentenced already but now live under the supervision of their parole

 officer Ivy (Susanna Guzman)  who is very strong and caring about their wellfare.

The other three men are, Dee (K. Todd Freeman ) Gio (Glen Davis ) and Felix (Eddie Torres ) . They are

 all convicted of sexual crimes against minors except Gio who served for statuary rape.

These men are not allowed any smart phones or internet leaving a vey claustrophobic life and express

 lots of anger about their situation. In conrast Fred is very calm and in control. He listens to Andy and

 his wife as if nothing dangerous ever happened, but it did and Amdy had been traumatized all his adult

 life.

Fred was a Piano teacher and Andy was his student and Andy's pain is coming across from the stage to

 the audience while Fred still plays Chopin in a very peaceful manner.

Dee on the other hand doesn't believe that he committed a crime. He thinks he had a love

 relationship with a minor who was totally in love with him and used to write him letters during his

 prison stay telling him how much he missed him. Ivy tries very hard to convince Dee that he needs to

 deal with his denial of reality and not hide behind the fake notion of love. K. Todd Freeman, as Dee is 

 very emotional and strong about his belief. He is also the one who takes care of Fred with lot of concern

 about his disability.

Glen Davis as Gio who works at Staples and brings a co-worker, Effie ( Gabi Samels ) home, while he is

 not allowed and they indulge in drugs in defiance and doesn't express any remorse about his past while 

 Eddie Torres as Felix is extremely expressive about his guilt and remorse and try to seek redemption in

 religion, bible is his redemption.

All these characters are extremely disturbing to watch. The play  is about guilt, repentence, redemption

 but there are no simple answers and the playwright deals with all the complexity of these issues which

 are very hard to take with a sense of a razor sharp eye and leave it upto us how to feel about these very

 disturbed and disturbing characters who evoke our disgust and sympathy at the same time.

Pam Mackinnon 's direction is srong and sharp.

                                                      Sally Murphy and Tim Hopper

Reviewed by Bina Sharif (ATCA)

Editor/Publisher:artsinternational.blogspot.com

email:binashariff@gmail.com cell: 212-260-6207

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BOSWELL, A PLAY BY Marie Kohler

                                                                    BOSWELL

                                                           by Marie Kohler

                                                             Josh Krause and Brian Mani

Director: Laura Gordon; Costume Design: Misti Bradford; Scenic design: Jody Sekas;

Lighting Design: Katy Atwell; Wig Artisan: Emily Christoffersen;

In a small theater packed with artifacts of the time, depicting 1763 when Boswell, a Scottish-biographer, diarist and a lawyer visited London and met one of the greatest conversationalist, Dr, Samuel Johnson who was a poet, an English writer who wrote the dictionary of the English language and was also an essayist, moralist, critic, lexicographer and a man of letters.

Boswell was a young ambitious man who had great curiosity and he, made notes of every experience in his every day life diligently and that's how he ended up composing the biography of Johnson called, The life of Samuel Johnson, a rare book which had real quotations of Johnson and it was of a different style of biography because it was based on Boswell's journals and his memory and his conversations with Samuel Johnson.

In Boswel,  a contemporary fictional researcher, Joan (Phoebe Gonzalez ), a graduate student travels from Chicago to Scotland in 1950 being aware of the newly unearthed, scripts, letters, diaries in(1920-1950) to check  out the new material. 

The set by Jody Sekas serve many locations and have many maps, books, old trunks filled with papers, notes, manuscripts, pure gold for the researcher, and also serves as a salon,  meeting places of great literary scolars of London such as Oliver Goldsmith, most famous actor of his times, David Garrick and a reat friend of Samuel Johnson, Burke and Henry Thrale and his wife Hester.

It also serves as an Inn where a certain lady Fiona (Miriam A. Laube, who also plays three different  roles) Has a treasure of gold for Pheobe to dig in. They bicker quite a bit but it's an intersting,  intelligent, and mildly acidic bicker.

Boswell is played by very charming and likeable Josh Krause. He is also very well liked by the ladies he meet and for sure is a ladies man but doesn't shy away from making copius notes of everything he hears.

After 11 years of their friendship, Boswell and Dr, Johnson travell together to Scotland and Boswell ends up writing his journal of a tour to the Hebrides on which the biography, The life of Samuel Johnson is based.

 Brian Mani is excellent as Samuel Johnson and he even looks like him. Majestic and bigger than life,

the greatest conversationalist and wit who ever lived. His costume is also very effective. In-fact all costumes are brilliant. All actors did a wonderful job. The play is very well directed by Laura Gordon. The transition between scenes is smooth and subtle. Boswell is MHK production's award winning play.

It was a great delight to see this play acted with intelligence, skill and wit.  Boswell is MHK production's award winning play.  It's one of the very best play I have seen recently and I have always loved Dr, Samuel Johnson and Boswell and their amazing contribution to the history and literature.  

                                                 

                                                      Miriam A. Laube and Phoebe Gonzalez

Reviewed by Bina Sharif (ATCA); Editor/Publisher:artsinternational.blogspot.com email:binashariff@gmail.com     Cell: 212-260-6207;  Facebook; Instagram

"WHERE WE BELONG" AT PUBLIC THEATER

 "WHERE WE BELONG, " AT PUBLIC THEATER

"WHERE WE BELONG,"

Written and performed by Madeine Sayet who was named for Jeets Bodernasha whic means flying bird who was the speaker of Mohegan, the language spoken by indigenous people.

Madeline Sayet's ancestors were those people and this play is autobiographical.

The actress is extremely fluent and has incredible energy as a narrator of her search to find a place where she would absolutely be comfortable with the most urgent feeling of belonging. That search takes her to England, the land of language, Shakespeare's language. She feels like a flying bird herself landing at many airports, restless, curious, desiring to find a final destination for the Indigenous people who for centuries have been disappearing, being displaced and out of sight.

She feels that the language will perhaps be the saving grace for her people. She enrols in a PHD programe in Shaespeare at the Royal Shaskpeare company where she acts and directs some Shakspeare plays such Tempest and relates with  the character such as Caliban.

Eventually she doesn't complete her studies,  though she finds satisfaction in Shaespeare because she thinks he is anticolonialist. She is a researcher  and very critical of colonialism and is disappointed when she visits British museums where she learns that the museum preserves the remains of at least 12-000 human beings from all over the world.

The play is directed by Mei Ann Teo and the production design is by Hao Bai with a glamorous lighting

which actually doesn't really serve the purpose of the show whic is more like an intellectual recitation

which could have been done a bit more with stillness under one focused light instead of lots of movements which distracts from the seriousness of the piece. Though Madeline Sayet is very energetic,

she somehow lacks emotional depth which prevents her to be intimate with the audience in her extremly important and painful search for belonging.

Nevertheless it's an important show and very informative about the history of Indigenous people.

Reviewed

by

Bina Sharif

ATCA, (American Theater Critics association) member

Editor/publisher: artsinternational.blogspot.com

Co-host: HI Drama

email: binashariff@gmail.com

Cell: 212-260-6207

facebook, Instagram

" 300 el x 50 el x 30 el. BAM'S NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL. FIRST FEATURE FROM BELGIAN FESTIVAL

 300 el x 50 el x 30 el, ( pronounced  300 el by 50 el by 30 el )

 Is the amazing story of an entire village faced with an oncoming flood.

 There is an on stage film crew which takes the audience behind it's closed and broadcast

 the villagers private lives which the audience members watch on screen.

This play/performance art is nothing like any one has ever seen before, especially the New York audience and the performance is mesmerizing from the beginning to the end.  Just the set depicting many cabin like houses in dire need of fixing and the flood is being anticipated on top of it. Beside the oncoming flood and the feeling of devastation, the set implied, at least to this viewer the decay, the waste and the metaphorical horrors encountering us soon about the demise of human behavior under threat of all kinds especially of the enviornment.  There are no words in this play and still the Belgian theater collective FC Bergman with their incredible visuals and an extremely praise worthy set, depict so many emotions such as ever present human fear, anxiety, loneliness, extreme isolation, terror of oncoming disaster and humor and hope as well.  I could never take my eyes away from the set, the performers and even the film crew. They were fast and furious with their energy and stamina and craft.

This show has travelled all over Europe and it was a great chance for me to see it. I wish it ran for a longer period of time because it's worth seeing twice or even three times.

The show becomes a volcano of human energy and stamina when many, many other performers join the group with intense dance like movements witch accompanies the furious fever's highest pitch and  the scary enthusiasm of the flood's approach.

This show is fascinating, unique, engrossing and very funny at times.  I shall think about it for a long time to come.

BRAVO FC BERGMAN COLLECTIVE .

REVIEWED

BY

BINA SHARIF

ACTA 

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binashariff@gmail.com

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"A KID LIKE RISHI'S" AMERICAN PREMIERE

"A KID LKE RISHI" by Kees Roorda; Directed by Erwin Maas; 

                                    produced by Origin Theater Company

"A Kid Like Rishi," is a Duch docudrama about a racial profiling police killing in the Hague.

While a 17-year-old Rishi Chandrikasing was waiting for a train at The Hague Holland Spoor

station was shot by a police officer who suspected him for assaulting a homeless person who was

 never questioned. Actually he wasn't even identified. Rishi died immediately of a gunshot to the

 head. This play was also inspired by Kees Roorda (playwright), because of a personal racial

 profiling incident about his partner Rob who is black and was unfairly refused entry to the U.S.

That very experience with racial profiling never left Kees Roorda and compelled him to want to

write about the killing of an unarmed 17-year-old Rishi Chandrikasing in 2021.

"A kid like Rishi" is being produced by the Origin Theater Company.

The play is set in a long room with a big wooden table in the center. Audience sits on all sides of

the room. There are couple of microphones set up on the table and throughout the play some

scenes are projected on the walls. Three amazing actors play multiple roles.  When the play starts 

a judge, (Sung Yun Cho, superb) declares the verdict. and the verdict is, "The district court in the

Hague deems legally and convincingly proven that the defendant intentionally inflicted grievous

bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim".  But the defendant, a police officer is not

convicted even after this kind of verdict.  One can only imagine what kind of uproar and protest

 must have gone on after this horror which sounds quite familiar in many other parts of the world

where many murders are because of race and the victim's skin color.   The play presents certain

 witnessess, such as Rishi's mother played by Atandwa Kani in a heart breaking performance, - a

brilliant, sorrowful and passionate rendition of any mother who loses her young, innocent son in

 an instant, never ever to see him again.  Then there is a witness account given by a neighbor

(again played by Sung Yun Cho, who is amazing in all the roles.  Kaili Vernoff also brilliantly and

boldly portray a few parts, such as a journalist, a police shooting instructor,  all accounts gathered

from courtroom interviews and transcripts. They all perform in English translation by Tom

Johnston while the original duch transcripts are projected on the wall.

The scenography is by Guy de Lancey and it is extremely effective.

Some things, the accounts by the police, and of the bystanders are vague and murky. The most 

important fact in this case is that the victim was unarmed.  The police referes to him as a, "young

black man in a white coat."  He is shot dead instantly.  Imagine, after this kind of verdict, the

defendant, a police officer is not convicted. This is an acquittal.  Horrifying, to say the least.

'A Kid Like Rishi" is superbly directed by Erwin Maas.  It's not an easy play to direct but he is

 brilliant in his great effort, and with an extremely successful result.

This play and the whole creative team left me in awe and tears. I have been constantly thinking,

thinking about "A Kid Like Rishi" and his mother and his family and his friends amid the awful

justice system in the world.

Bravo to Origin Theater Company for bringing this important play to New York. 

Reviewed by

BINA SHARIF

ATCA

Editor/publisher: artsinternational.blogspot.com

email: binashariff@gmail.com

Mobile: 212-260-6207

NO MAN'S LAND: PRESENTED BY EPIC ACTOR'S WORKSHOP IN NJ

 NO MAN'S LAND

REVIEW by BINA SHARIF 

A STAGE PLAY: Based on a short story by Mojaffer Hossain and adapted for the stage by Golam Sarwar Harun.  Shamita Das- Dasgupta is the script adviser. The play is in Bengali with English supertitles. The play is part of the 15th South Asian Theater Festival staged in new Brunswick Performing Arts Center.

NO MAN'S LAND (Also the title of one of Harold Pinter's amazing show) is about a nameless, disabled, abandoned and presumably a homeless woman ( Brilliant, Gargi Mukherjee ) who one day suddenly appear laying on an isolated rock in the middle of a desolate area called, No Man's Land between the borders of India and Bangladesh without a soul in sight to help this un-fortunate woman and all of a sudden the soldiers from both sides appear in a furious state and start to fight with each other.

They bicker, curse and insult each other,  involved in their own age old bureaucracy and apathy without ever showing an ounce of concern for the poor woman who is lying outdoors, a victim of nature's forces such as heat and cold and thunderstorms and hunger. There is absolutely no caring or concern for the

nameless woman struggling with the elements, fighting for life without an ounce of humanity shown by

any one of them.  Eventually the media shows up, there are Ngo's who are there in the name of human rights but actually only have concerens of their own. The play is about humanity's indifference and callousness towards the destitute who are eventually completely ignored and finally forgotten.

One wonder after being a witness to all the atrocities piled up on certain human beings as if they were wounded animals who howel and howel for attention,  for pity,  for help but are totally ignored as if they are completely invisible. Everyone who is present in that No Man's Land,  who ever comes to watch the tragedy made into a spectacle has complete lack of concern for the un-fortunate and forgotten woman.

It seems like their collective humanity for the downtrodden and so called, unimportant people is imprisoned behind bars never to be released again.

In one of the most stunning scene in the play, a raging storm with fury descends upon the woman and everyone else. Storm is a combination of thunder, rain and hails pouring down from heaven and the scene is staged with incredible imagination and craft with amazing lighting by(Sunanda Mitra) and brilliand actors who with lengthy and light blue  colored fabrics make the rivers rise creating the most dangerous flood which brings the ultimate tragedy. When the storm is showing it's signs of ultimate rage and destruction, a young girl dressed in beutifuly bright red color with gold rim in her native clothes (Beutiful Roopkatha) representing life, light and hope and she is the only one of the whole crowd who pleads with her mother for the abandoned woman's safety. She wants her mother to take her away from the rock and inside their home for safety. The little girl is so aware and sensitive about the ultimate tragedy of a human life if she is not removed from the dangerously roaring thunder storm. This scene is so touching, so moving and so sadly demanding help but still no one pays attention. It's heart breaking.

The situation of political and social fall out in that part of the world is not new. Its Centuries old story

of conflict, wars, in-humanity,  hunger,  poverty,  indifference and colonialism and it's unfair divisions

and random borders, a source of permanent battle making the suffereing of ordinary human beings

 unbearable.

I loved this production. Its wonderfully staged, brilliantly lit and barvely acted. The whole ensemble

is great and some  are excellent such as Sajal Mukherjii, Golam Sarwar Harun (In three roles who adapted the story, acted in it and did a great job as the co-director) Gargi Mukherjee who is superb as the

abondoned woman on the rock and also plays multiple roles and her grief as the nameless, sick woman is heart piercing. She has Madea like quality, a wonderful actor and also the co-director. The most brilliant and so touching and sensitive is the young star in the making, Rupkatha Datta who feels the pain of the woman and wants to take her home, make her warm, feed her and take care of her. I just adored her presence in the show. I just wish that I could speak Bengali so I could get all the delicate references in the show but English supertitles did help.

This production will not be so superb without the original score by Birsa Mukherjee Chatterjee. It's so melodious and haunting. It goes deep into your soul and you hear it constanly long after the show is over.

This Epic Actor's Workshop chaired by Dipan Ray has always interested me a great deal in the past.

I have attended the Asian Theater Festival a few times and I have never been disappointed. It's very diverse, with theater groups from India, Bangladesh, United States participating and the audience is the biggest Asian theater goers in their most festive clothes and jewellery,  just to be with them is a source of joy and brightness.

All actors have done a superb job  and the crew is very talented. I love the set as well by Prapaditya Mulick, Jayanta Majumdar and Saumitra Bagchi.  Perfect set for this kind of a play, minimal and hugely effective.

Visuals in this production gets the highest marks and the sound projection, by Ameeya Mehta and Arindam Shome is excellent. Supertitles are by, Prabir Mitra and Ujjal Mukherjee are helpful, but they move too fast for some one like me who doesn't speak Bengali.

Bravo to the whole company, cast, crew, and extremely energetic chair person Dipan Ray who year after year has given us such gems especially the the rare and precious Asian gems in the theater in the USA.

Bina Sharif: Editor/Publisher: artsinternational.blogspot.com

ATCA (Member of American Theater Critics Association)

email:binashariff@gmail.com

Mobile; 212-260-6207

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KIKI & HERB SLEIGH AT BAM.

                                              KIKI & HERB SLEIGH AT BAM

               

Kiki & Herb by Justin Vivian Bond and Kenny Mellman is back and it's a roaring 2 hours of songs, music, anecdotes and comedy performed with great joy, enormous energy and plenty of booze and the show is a non stop amazingly hillarious teller of stories in the most enjoyable manner.

These two characters, Kiki &Herb are beloved by fans of Bond and Mellman all over the world. They stopped performing for almost a decade and now are back delighting their followers who never forgot them and are thrilled to have them back. The enormous energy is not only on stage but in the audience who are riveted at every turn, every song and every gesture made by Kiki and Herb during the entire evening.

Not a dull moment from the beginning to the end.  When Mr. Mellman walked in with his glittering jacket and take a seat at the piano singing lyrics of Billy Joel's "Miami 2017 (Seen the lights Go Out on Broadway) and then Kiki, the singer enters and the howls of excitement welcome her. She sings with a meldious voice, move around on stage like a wounded tigress and sings and drink her heart out.

In between the singing Kiki sits on a high chair, have a table next to her with a bucket full of ice and a big bottle of booze of some kind and tell us amazingly funny  stories about the birth of Jesus Christ, how as a child she was taken to an institution where she meets an other toddler, Herb and they practice music in a padded room. Kiki tells us that she is in her 90's and had met everyone important on this palnet, including Sylvia Plath who had the habbit of putting her head in the oven and one day there was no one around and it was too late. Then Kiki gets up and sing many songs, the most effective was, "Crucify, " by Tori Amos, Kiss's "I was made for loving you, " Radiohead's "Creep" and "Jesus Loves MeThis I Know." My very favorite song Kiki sang towards the very end, "Send In The Clowns." by Stephen Sondheim. At one point Kiki looks at the audience with great affection and says, "If I could love I would love all of you." This sentence had such pathos of the awareness of suffering and survival which all human go through but the cabaret act is very much about the happiness of approaching Christmas and being able to celebrate together after the most awful year of isolation. There is also mention of HIV/AIDS epidemic and World AIDS Day which falls on Dec 1, the day I attended the show.

Bond's Kiki also have great critiques of religion and society, At one poing Kiki raises the question about Immaculate Conception as if Mary  was asked for consent or not. No matter what Kiki says can't be annoying at all, actually it's highly amusing and that's because the perfection of their craft together. Mellman and Bond have been performing for a long time and their style, their emotions, their singing is priceless even when Kiki drops the mike and an audience member comes on stage and picks it up for her because she is supposed to be more tha 90 years old and can't bend down so easily. Hillarious and intelligent with incredible wit and sophistication. Their stories seem more real than any real story I have been told. There is courage, conviction, honesty and talent involved. Lots of talent. Bravo.

Reviewed by Bina Sharif

for, artsinternational.blogspot.com

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