The Director

This multimedia work plays in and out of the conceit that it is a recreation of interviews with the victims of a lecherous (and pedophiliac) director. At first, the play bored me: Jessica Davis-Irons' choice to have Shooter, a stoner, watching TV in the corner throughout all the scenes (even before the play) seemed to be grasping at straws, and an early scene where four stoned friends just listen to one of the interviews in the darkness was way too heady to follow. But Davis-Irons finds an interesting blend of recorded feeds (none of which reveal the face) along with actual actresses delivering monologues to creep us out, even though the show ends too abruptly for it the androgynous dolls and dream sequences to sink in. What sells this show, though, are Sadie's confrontations with her lesbian friend and her jealous boyfriend: Lauren Shannon plays a confused but brazen Sadie, and her empathy for the director is both creepy and heartfelt.

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Jack Goes Boating

photo: Monique Carboni

I liked all four characters in this peculiar romantic comedy, currently at the Public, and I liked all four actors. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Beth Cole credibly play a pair of loveable, damaged losers - he's a bit dim-witted and undermotivated, while she's neurotically defensive and oversensitive - and John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega radiate a lot of warmth playing a married couple who push the two gently together. The first act is overlong and too lazily paced besides feeling tentative in tone - by intermission you can't be sure whether the second act is going to lighten up or turn dark - but when the characters have quirky moments that are well-defined, the play does offer some distinctive, sunny pleasures. It may not be so exciting to watch these two couples negotiate intimacy - one just starting to know each other, and the other with a few years of marriage under the belt - but there is at least an unforced, believable spark in their interactions. That's not nothing.

Also blogged by: [Aaron] [David] [Christopher]

Jack Goes Boating

photo: Monique Carboni

Phillip Seymor Hoffman is such a great actor. He is able to draw knowing laughter from from a line or a moment that any other good actor might miss. Playing the loser with a heart of gold, Hoffman subtly endears himself to the audience over the course of this gentle wistful romantic play. Though it takes a while to really get going, by Act 2 I was genuinely involved in this story about a couple with a dysfunctional relationship playing matchmakers for their shy co-workers. With its short succinct scenes, location hopping and general likability look for this to pop up on the indie film circuit in a couple of years. PSH will star with hmmm..... Jane Adams, Rosie Perez, and Bobby Cannavale.

Also blogged by: [Patrick] [Aaron] [Christopher]

Jack Goes Boating

After an enjoyable, albeit slow, first act, all I could think was how misleading the poster for Jack Goes Boating is. Yes, Jack is a shy and awkward limo driver (excellently portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman), and yes, the girl that he's fallen for (Beth Cole) seems to be hiding something beneath her fear of intimacy. But none of that makes the show dark: if anything, the scenes where Jack's best friend, Clyde (John Ortiz), teaches him to swim are heartwarming and bright, as if to remind us that there are still good people in the world. And although he confesses that Lucy (an appropriately bouncy Daphne Rubin-Vega) isn't as perfect a wife as she seems (he can't get over an affair she had with a man he calls 'The Cannoli'), he's perfectly happy to lose himself in the purple haze they all like to smoke. I don't mind the loose ends; the purple haze of the play is enjoyable enough, and though we don't learn anything about the darkness just under the surface that Peter Dubois teases us with, I'm content with the sweet aftertaste of a well-done production.

Also blogged by: [Patrick] [Christopher] [David]

Hotel Oracle

I should've expected no less from a show that calls itself "a play about pergrinations and post-its," but Hotel Oracle is an overintellectual, near inaccessible work that isn't nearly as funny as it thinks it is. The show is early in its run, so I assume the shaky lines and overacting will slowly correct itself with director Stephen Brackett's help. But the writing isn't likely to shed any more light on this vague play about faith than what's already there: the end story is that you know you're in trouble when even the characters call out for deus ex machinas and for a little bit of sense. The show also suffers from Lost-like syndromes; the characters in the first part, "Hotel," start acting differently after the intermission, "Oracle," but it's not due to subtle changes -- it's due to flashbacks that obfuscate more than explain, and some sloppy writing.

Also blogged by: [David]

Tall Grass

Tall Grass is a collection of three aimless one-acts claiming to be black comedies. Killing off the majority of your cast doesn't make it a black comedy, and Brian Harris's wishful channelling of Christopher Durang is a torpid failure: these over-the-top characters have no soul, and the scenes are but a series of last-minute twists. What's worse is that after the limited surprise of the first play, "The Business Proposal," the rest are painfully obvious. The abstract set doesn't work either: a couch suspended in mid-air doesn't impress me, especially since it isn't used until the final play. Eward O'Blenis and Marla Schaffel at least get to act a little in that last segment, playing older versions of their previous charicatures; Mark H. Dold -- you're wanted as the body double for Will Forte on Saturday Night Live.

[Read on - WARNING! SNARKY!]