The New York Daily News
June 23, 2005
Five must-see plays
Plays that merit the spotlight
If you look at what creates most of the headlines about theater, you might
imagine the only plays that get produced in New York are musicals,
specifically ones based on successful films.
But there is a surprising amount of serious theater in New York now. Apart
from “Doubt” and “The Pillowman” on Broadway, there are exciting dramas in
theaters all over the city, from the West Village to the upper East Side to
what has become Off-Broadway’s busiest thoroughfare, 15th St. just off Union
Square.
Here are five Off-Broadway plays definitely worth considering.
In some ways, the most remarkable play in New York at the moment is “Private
Fears in Public Places,” by Alan Ayckbourn. What is significant about the
production (at 59E59 Theatres until July 3) is that Ayckbourn himself – one
of the leading English playwrights of the last three decades – directed it.
The cast is from his own Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in the north
of England.
Like many of Ayckbourn’s works, “Private Fears” is a quiet comedy. Indeed,
the lives it describes are full of sadness. In one case – a man whose
longtime gay lover has died – the sadness is deep. In others, it is the
sadness of people who live in isolation, even from those closest to them.
They are, of course, English. So this sadness is buried beneath civility and
gentle humor.
Ayckbourn’s actors convey these complex feelings with a combination of
subtlety and intensity that makes the play’s many little dramas as funny as
they are disturbing.
This is particularly true of Melanie Gutteridge as an upper-class woman
whose relationship with an unemployed ex-soldier is souring. Class (in both
senses) is something hard for American actors to convey as effortlessly as
she does. But she also projects a touching stoicism.
As the boyfriend, Paul Thornley has some marvelous drunk scenes, no less
gross for being beautifully understated. As the bartender who serves as a
shrink to him (and whose own grief we discover only late in the play),
Adrian McLoughlin has a deeply touching dignity.
Paul Kemp and Sarah Moyle are hilarious at conveying the repressed longings
of a brother and sister, both single. So is Alexandra Mathie as a born-again
Christian who finds unexpected objects for her sexual needs.
Similar prowess is on display in another theater at 59E59, in Stewart
Permutt’s “Unsuspecting Susan,” performed by Celia Imrie, best known for her
role in the “Bridget Jones’s Diaries” movies.
Imrie plays a very upper-class Englishwoman whose world has raced out of
control. High comedy leads to queasy tension. Imrie balances the humor and
poignancy of her character elegantly.
Most of the characters in Austin Pendleton’s “Orson’s Shadow,” at the Barrow
Street Theater, are also English, but since they are all in the theater they
operate at an emotional and decibel level far above those in Ayckbourn’s
play.
All but one are public figures. The play concerns an actual incident in
1960, when Orson Welles, his Hollywood career in shambles, directed Laurence
Olivier in Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros.” It is the moment when Olivier is leaving
Vivien Leigh for his co-star, Joan Plowright.
On the one hand, the dialogue Pendleton has given them is deliciously
theatrical, but at times, especially in the glimpses we get of Leigh’s
breakdown, the emotions are raw and harrowing.
Interestingly, the cast is also “foreign.” Most of the actors are from
Chicago.
Jeff Still has a commanding presence as Welles. John Judd makes a
fascinating adversary for him as the oddly insecure, wheedling, combative,
ultimately poignant Olivier. Sean McNall is superb as the witty but
stammering critic Kenneth Tynan, who has to act as their referee.
Jennifer Van Dyck handles Leigh’s hysteria with tremendous authority, and
Susan Bennett has an impressive strength as Plowright. Ian Westerfer plays a
gofer with panache.
Richard Kalinoski’s “Beast on the Moon,” at the Century Theater (111 E. 15th
St.), is about a woman who survived the 1915 Armenian genocide and has
arrived in Milwaukee five years later as a mail-order bride.
The play moves from tragedy and turmoil to a profound sense of promise, a
journey director Larry Moss captures powerfully. Lena Georgas plays the
bride with affecting delicacy. Omar Metwally, who received a Tony nomination
for his work in “Sixteen Wounded,” is equally impressive here, blending
bewildered vulnerability with Old World masculine assertiveness. Louis
Zorich has wistful charm as an older version of the man.
Just down the block is “Manuscript,” by Paul Grellong, the first actual play
to appear in the Daryl Roth Theatre (101 E. 15th St.). The play about three
friends, two of whom want to be writers, is an extended exercise in fooling
the audience.
But the three young performers catch all of its unexpected turns niftily,
especially Marin Ireland, who makes an unscrupulous woman oddly fetching.
Pablo Schreiber and Jeffrey Carlson are both skillful as college friends.
Producing theater in New York has never been more of an uphill battle, but
all these Off-Broadway productions prove that victory is possible.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress