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| Contact sports meet Mad Men in the Ike-era action-thriller The Jammer |
The
first full week of 2013 has a massive amount of theater starting up,
from 19C intersex diarists to the original robot uprising. But I
can't pass up the chance to shine my spotlight on a period
drama—about roller-derby! Set in 1950s NYC, The Jammer
investigates an underground pro circuit with hard-boiled style. Men
and women competing in contact sports for fame and cash! The script's by
Rolin Jones, whose The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, a
witty '04 adventure about a girl and her robot, was shortlisted for
the Pulitzer.
The Jammer
where: Atlantic Stage 2
first night: Wednesday, Jan. 9
And here's what else starts a run off-Broadway this week:
where:
Irish Rep
first
night:
Wednesday, Jan. 9
A
period piece set in 1920s England, where two young women are
incarcerated in an asylum for having illegitimate children. This
Beckettian absurdity was the debut effort by Charlotte Jones, a Brit
who won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Humble
Boy
a few years later.
where:
City Center Stage II
first
night:
Friday, Jan. 11
The
redoubtable Women's Project returns with this dark comedy set in the
deserted exurbs of the Great Recession. It stars America Ferrara, who
won an Emmy as Ugly Betty, as a woman trying to keep the hearth
burning in the face of foreclosure, even if that means moral
compromise.
where:
The Wild Project
first
night:
Thursday, Jan. 10
Subtitled
“John Fucking Proctor”, and summarized on the website as
“Pregnant Catholic school girls destroy American theater”. I'm
not sure you need to know anything else to tempt you to get tickets!
where:
59E59
first
night:
Tuesday, Jan. 8
A sort of staged lecture
on urban life around the globe. The performer traveled from the slums
of New Dehli & the markets of Marrakesh to the skyscrapers of
Tokyo and the megalopolis of Buenos Aires. Now he returns to
America's cultural capital to share his observations.
where:
various stages in NYC, Brooklyn, & Queens
festival
run:
Jan. 3-19
PS
122's annual winter series showcases over a dozen experimental works.
It's a great primer on the state of the avant garde. I can already
recommend one peice, Inflatable
Frankenstein
by Radiohole. Another, There
There,
has been drawing good buzz for its subversive take on Chekhov.
where:
Rattlestick Theater
first
night:
Thursday, Jan. 10
A
black comedy set on a campus in Middle America from the Amoralists,
that over-earnest company of hungry artists on the make. Curiously,
it's also the latest play by Lyle Kessler, a stalwart of the 1970s
scene, whose greatest success (Orphans)
will soon be revived on Broadway starring Alec Baldwin.
where:
Walkerspace
first
night:
Saturday, Jan. 12
I
can't nail down much about this drama. Publicity materials suggest
that it's set on a parallel Earth, at a campus where a love triangle
starts to spark. TFINWIW
marks the debut of the Kindling Theater Company, a troupe of
20-somethings.
where:
The Duke on 42nd Street
first
night:
Friday, Jan. 11
An intro to Shakespeare's
comic villain for children & an entertaining reversal of Twelfth
Night for their parents. This comedy is part of Tim Crouch's I,
Shakespeare series, which also takes the perspective of Caliban,
Banquo, and even Peaseblossom. Crouch himself did charming work in
his “hypnotist” act, An Oak Tree, Off-Broadway several
years ago.
where:
Pearl Theater
first
night:
Thursday, Jan. 10
The
Pearl presents a one-man show based on Ian McKellan's own monologue
on Will's power to transform actors and transport audiences. A Long
Island longshoreman provides his own take on Shakespeare,
representing speeches in the context of his own second career as an
actor.
where:
Theater Row
first
night:
Wednesday, Jan. 9
Co-winner
of the Best of Edinburgh award (with Mies
Julie,
now closed). I really like the playwright, David Greig, who wrote the
book for this hybrid drama/musical based incredibly loosely on
Shakespeare. It follows an ill-advised love-match on a lost weekend
of weddings, bondage, car chases, and more zaniness.
where:
St. Ann's Warehouse
first
night:
Wednesday, Jan. 9
Already
nearly sold out, this work comes to Brooklyn from Moscow's Theater
School of Dramatic Art. Expect it to shoulder bruskly past your
preconceptions of theatrical design and performance. Advance word
paints a show of breathtaking originality and scenic ingenuity. The
subject is quintessentially, morbidly Russian: the legacy of Soviet
Jewish artists under Stalin.
where:
Here Arts
festival
run:
Jan. 9-15
Here
Arts curates this festival of the avant-garde, heavy on the musical
end of theatrical performance. It all sounds tempting. One work
(Aging Magician) is a collaboration between Rinde Eckert and Julian
Crouch; another (Timur and the Dime Museum) stages a galactic
punk-opera that name-drops Bjork and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
where:
Theater Row
first
night:
Wednesday, Jan. 9
Two
dramas about robotics playing in rep. The first is a rare glimpse of
Rossum's Universal
Robots,
a 1920s Czech Expressionist drama famous for coining the word
“robot”. It also popularized that hoary trope of a robot
uprising. The second show is a contemporary drama that has a wealthy,
lonely bachelor buy a fembot.
where:
The Public Theater
festival
run:
Jan. 9-20
The
third of this week's festivals, UTR
presents fare that's only conventional in comparison with the others.
With acts such as the Nature Theater of Oklahoma and the Debate
Society as well as Iranian deconstructions of Shakespeare and the
ever-popular Belarus Free Theater, this Public Theater-curated fest
has bona fides that're just as edgy as Prototype
and COIL.
where:
59E59
first
night:
Thursday, Jan. 10
Inspired
by a 1977 Italian film, this pocket drama stages a Roman romance
against the backdrop of fascism. A harried housewife and a mysterious
bachelor meet cute on the day that Hitler visited Mussolini in '38.
This revival is the show's second airing, after a test run at the
Flea a year ago.
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