Glass. Kill. What If If Only. Imp.

Caryl Churchill is not in love with the sound of her own voice. (Many playwrights are, along with many people in every walk of life.) While Churchill has a tremendous amount to say, her writing is spare and suggestive. And with this spare language, practically gossamer, yet incredibly vivid, Churchill is entertaining, insightful, and compassionate. And political. Her brilliance lies lightly on the stage, yet it shines. 

Proof of Churchill's wisdom and skill is currently on display at the Public Theater through an evening of four one-act plays focusing on oh so many things, but mostly the challenges of being human. They are not overtly related to one another but full of echoes and emotional quotes, and the evening coheres into one multi-layered play.

Deidre O'Connell
Photo: Joan Marcus

The Public Theater website has a brief description of the plays:  "A girl made of glass." "Gods and murders." "A pack of ghosts." "And a secret in a bottle." Those descriptions are insufficient yet completely sufficient. The plot is not the point. Life is the point. 

Adelind Horan, Ayana Workman,
Sathya Sridharan, Japhet Balaban
Photo: Joan Marcus

James Macdonald, who frequently directs Churchill's plays, is a full partner in the brilliance of the works. The design elements are perfect for the plays and beautiful and impressive in themselves. Miriam Buether designed the scenery, Enver Chakartash designed the costumes, Isabella Byrd designed the lighting, and Bray Poor designed the sound. 

John Ellison Conlee, Adelind Horan,

Deirdre O’Connell
Photo by Joan Marcus

The cast includes Japhet Balaban, Ruby Blaut (alternating with Cec​ilia Ann Popp), John Ellison Conlee, Adelind Horan, Maddox Morfit-Tighe, Deirdre O'Connell, Sathya Sridharan, Junru Wang, and Ayana Workman. They’re all fabulous.  Special kudos to Deirdre O’Connell for her breathtaking performance as a god who is really annoyed at being blamed for human misbehavior, particularly since she doesn’t even exist. 

How lucky we are that Caryl Churchill is still writing. The first time her work blew me away was in 1979. Over 45 years later, she is still amazing and somehow always new.

Wendy Caster

Blind Injustice

That the American justice system is worse than broken--dangerous, dishonest, racist--is not news. Some innocent people have been coerced into confessing, others have accepted plea bargains rather than risking decades in prison, and still others have been convicted at trials based on corrupted evidence. Witnesses may lie to protect themselves; they may be forced by police to lie; or they may just be wrong. It has been estimated that 6% of the people in prison are innocent. With an estimated 1.8 million people incarcerated in the US, that comes to approximately 108,000 innocent people imprisoned.

Photo: Erin Baiano

As horrifying as those statistics are, they have the weakness of all statistics, which is that they do not contain emotions, or people, or families.

The brilliant opera Blind Injustice, which received its New York premiere last month in an electric MasterVoices production, is full of emotion and people and families. Based partially on the book of the same name and focusing on six innocent people who were exonerated after spending years or even decades in prison, the opera mixes fact and fiction, often using exonerated people's actual quotes in the vivid libretto by David Cote (dramaturgy by Robin Guarino). The exonerated people are Nancy Smith, Derrick Wheatt, Eugene Johnson, Laurese Glover, Clarence Elkins, and Rickey Jackson.

Photo: Erin Baiano

Scott Davenport Richards's extraordinary scores utilizes jazz, blues, and hip-hop to allow the full expression of emotion of the people depicted. There is something particularly satisfying in seeing these characters being able to express themselves full-voice, full-heart, and loud. I can't think of a better medium for telling this story.

Everyone involved with this production was at the top of their game. The volatile combination of feeling pain from the content and sheer pleasure at the artistry gives the audience the sort of emotional cognitive dissonance that may be felt at the very best art.

Photo: Erin Baiano

I found the audience response representative of this experience in a particular way: people gasped twice. The first time was when the 120 MasterVoices singers, seated in the section of the audience behind the stage, stood to sing. I knew that they were there, and I was thrilled. For the people who didn't realize that they were there, it must have felt magical. The second time they gasped was when one of the exonerees was asked how long he had been in prison, and he answered, "thirty-nine years."

I hope that Blind Injustice is picked up by opera companies everywhere. Audiences deserve to experience the artistry and need to hear the stories.

Wendy Caster

 

The Price

I am not a fan of Arthur Miller's. But I like to revisit works to see if I've missed something. Having recently reread Death of a Salesman and seen the The Village Theater Group production of The Price, I haven't changed my mind. In fact, watching The Price reminded me of how grateful I am for the relatively recent model of the 90-minute show, pared down and subtle, sleek and deep.

Janelle Farias Sando, Bill Barry
Photo: Joe Pacifico

Not all shows should be short. Some truly require and fill the time they take. Death of a Salesman is one. Purpose, currently on Broadway (see it!) is another. The Price is not. It is repetitive and blunt and repetitive and, oh yeah, repetitive as it shleps along its two acts. Paring the show down to 90 minutes could only help.

Mike Durkin
Photo: Joe Pacifico

Fitting snugly in the "adult children deal with the past" box, The Price centers around a crowded attic of stuff (nicely designed/assembled by the Village Theater Group). The main question is, how much is this all worth, financially and emotionally. The characters are two brothers--estranged, of course--and one's wife, along with Solomon, an antique/junk dealer who is going to buy everything in the attic. He is a real character, late 80s, Yiddish accent, tremendous presence but physically frail. He is comic relief, voice of reason, and plot device all is one. The four people interact in various combinations, and, yes, secrets are revealed and relationships are tested. Meanwhile, Solomon keeps trying to buy the items as cheaply as possible. 

This is an all-too-familiar play structure, but Miller did write it years before the gazillion other plays in which secrets are revealed and relationships are tested. There's a reason this structure has lasted; dysfunctional families are endlessly interesting to watch when the play is well-written. The Price provides some interesting scenes and interactions; if only there were fewer of them!

The Village Theater Group is a brand-new entity and well-worth watching I think. While I had complaints about this production (the pacing didn't help any), there was much to like and reasons for optimism for future productions. 

The main strength is the cast, in particular Bill Barry as the non-favorite son who has not made much of his life. (Miller's belief that being a police officer is a form of failure is a little offensive, though I buy that this family might feel that way.) Barry is excellent. The role is an emotional roller coaster, and he acts the dips and climbs and twists and turns with total believability. Everything he does is real, and the performance centers the play beautifully.

Mike Durkin is strongly effective as the dealer, as is Janelle Farias Sando as the wife. Cullen Wheeler, as the successful brother, is  miscast. He seems to come from a different reality. 

Other than the pacing, director Noelle McGrath gives the play a fair and thoughtful hearing. The design elements are all good.

It's 2025 and theatre has been "dying" for at least a hundred years. Yet, in a truly weird moment in history and in the midst of a terrible economy for the arts, co-founders Daniel J. Condon and Andrew Beregovoy have added a new theatre group to the mix. I wish them well. 

Wendy Caster

Garside's Career

In Garside's Career, written by Harold Brighouse before the first World War, Peter Garside is a skilled mechanic and avid Union member in 1914 Midlanton, England. He has just completed a university degree, an unusual achievement for a member of the working class. The Union and Garside's friends recruit him to run for Parliament, and why not? In addition to his degree, he possesses excellent oratory skills, prodigious energy, and much charisma. Garside wins, and off he goes to Parliament to fight for unions and the working man. Just one problem: his ambition and ego are every bit as big as his talent and charm.

Daniel Marconi and Amelia White

Photo: Maria Baranova

This is the Mint at its best, finding a worthy forgotten play and bringing it to life with top-notch direction, acting, and production values. In these days of shows being revised, rethought, and adapted (and occasionally destroyed), watching a thoughtful, respectful, excellent production of a smart, interesting, heartfelt play is a special treat. Thanks as always to the Mint for giving us so many of these special treats.

Sara Haider, Avery Whitted, Melissa Maxwell

Photo: Maria Baranova

Interestingly enough, Garside's Career represents a certain set of values in a way that undercuts those values, without, I think, meaning to do so. [here be spoilers] While clearly in favor of unions and fairness and hard work and being true to one's neighbors and friends, the play presents money and status as so seductive that Garside succumbs in about 30 seconds. He ends up in debt and neglects his role in Parliament to chase money. Eventually, the Union and his friends force him to resign from Parliament. He goes into a huge big-boy tantrum, furious at anyone who would interrupt his pity party. After a week of this, his old girlfriend, a solid, hard-working, unimaginative woman, reappears, ready to take him back. First she calls him on his shit, then she sets conditions. All she asks is that he give up everything that makes him him: ambition and ego, yes, but also talent and creativity. She wants him back in the world of mechanics, and, chastened, he agrees. So, he throws away everything he could do and be. Yes, he messed up, big time. But baby with the bathwater! With the support of his wife-to-be and the rest of the community, he might be able to learn to use his talents for good. More to the point, he will never stick to these agreements. Sooner or later, he will explode back into himself. Probably sooner. [end of spoilers]

The fact that I cared enough to argue  with a play that is over a century old shows the value of the Mint's work. Yesterday's plays have much to say to us today. And first-class productions are always welcome.

Wendy Caster

After Endgame

Photo by Josh Goleman. Design: Armistead Booker

When playing chess never move your pawn to F4 since it makes your king vulnerable and, as Kevin James Doyle advises, "If you're playing anyone even decent at chess, they're going to know you don't know what you're doing — and they're going to destroy you."

Doyle, a comedian, actor and chess instructor, starts After Endgame with this anecdote, a 70-minute conversation on chess, comedy and the deceptions present in life and the games we play. While knowledge of chess allows you to engage in a match before or after showtime on the boards that dot the tables surrounding the stage, the performance aims to amuse all, especially the neophytes.

Besides offering basic game strategies, Doyle entertains by interweaving the history of chess with his own experience as a teacher who’s completed more than 6,500 lessons with students as young as 3 and as old as 94. Jokes about why he can’t play a pedophile on “Law & Order” (What parent would hire Mr. Kevin as a chess teacher afterward?) are mixed with stories about master chess players such as American Paul Morphy to the 1956 Game of the Century that established a 13-year-old Bobby Fischer as an emerging presence when he sacrificed his Queen to beat the twice-his-age Donald Byrne.

Photo by Josh Goleman

Along the way, Doyle recounts what happened when a rich investor sponsored his trip to Singapore, where he taught chess to the local elite and their offspring as he sought financing for a chess-inspired business. The basement bar extends the lesson with a Chess Museum of sorts that features images of past games and champions that Doyle curated with director Cory Cavin and set designer Charles Matte.

After Endgame is playing at the SoHo Playhouse’s Huron Room (15 Vandam St., NYC) through March 8, and then on March 30 and 31 at The Lyric Hyperion (2105 Hyperion Ave., Los Angeles). [See the After Endgame trailer]

Cymbeline

The delightful NAATCO-Play on Shakespeare all-femme, all-Asian-American production of Shakespeare's Cymbeline only runs through Feb. 15. If you are a fan of first-class theatre that is beautifully directed, fabulously acted, well-designed, and extremely funny, go. Seriously, Go! Tickets run from $25 to $55. Who says theatre has to be expensive? (Click here for more information or to buy tickets.)

NAATCO's description of the show: 

In a world shattered by tyranny and poisoned by misogyny, Cymbeline tells the story of a young woman's flight from despair to heroism as she rediscovers her lost siblings and brings order to a kingdom ruled by chaos. Performed by an ensemble of eleven women, Cymbeline is a story of hope and rebirth in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

 

I just don't have the time right now to actually review the show, but I wanted this up asap. I hope you get to see it!

Wendy Caster