Shakespeare notebook: As You Like It

Elisabeth Ahrens, center, lets her hair down as Rosalind
in the all-female Queen's Company's As You Like It

As You Like It

The Queen's Company at Walkerspace

written by William Shakespeare

directed by Rebecca Patterson

A pair of stumps and a tree in silhouette could set the stage for half a dozen of Shakespeare's plays. So it's the action—and not an elaborate, conceptual design—that defines Rebecca Patterson's all-female production of As You Like It. Each time someone leaves the dark, paranoid court for the Forest of Arden, their violent impulses dissolve. The constant stream of converts lends a harmonious atmosphere to the sylvan utopia of bumpkins and exiles. Folks have time to kill in this forest, and they spend it debating the nature of the world while noting the process of time. Patterson has edited the script, minimizing its raucous clowning and cutting a difficult, equivocal hunting scene. Her stripped approach suits AYLI well, bringing out its philosophical spirit as well as a communal theme.

Patterson balances her abstract design with a realistic style of performance. Her actors speak the verse as dialogue, not poetry, which stifles any impulse to overact. As Rosalind, Elisabeth Ahrens delights in the ardor of her partner Orlando but can't help teasing him for his exuberance. Opposite her, Virginia Baeta is so passionate about love that it's no surprise he doesn't see his paramour is right there disguised as a boy. Unfortunately, the duo don't have enough chemistry to kindle their love-play into flames. As for the cast as a whole, they play off each other comfortably, and their enthusiasm for playing Shakespeare—and not just the female roles—makes up for any rough skill. Rather than overplaying their parts, they let the dialogue enhance their simple characterizations. Just as the set could serve for Shakespearean dramas, the company could easily mount a full repertory of classic English comedies.

No surprise, then, that the one major flaw in AYLI involves specificity. Patterson and designer Anna Licavita costume the court as if it were the corrupt government in a Reagan-era banana dictatorship. Like most attempts to reset Shakespeare's plays in another time and place, '80s Latin America fits uncomfortably around this play. The Miami Vice outfits, floofy cupcake nighties, and aviator sunglasses are funny but add nothing that the actors and script haven't already shown us.

Much better are beats in the second half when the action pauses for characters to rock out to '80s pop music. The Queen's Company loves using this entertaining, idiosyncratic device to express passionate, inexpressible moments like “love at first sight.” The quirky joy of these moments epitomizes the company's approach to their mission. The company casts only actresses in classic plays, but a political agenda is subtextual and secondary. Their motivation, rather, seems to be more artistic: why shouldn't women play these great roles? The programming sticks to comedies, by Shakespeare and others, plays which rarely depict sexual activity except in the most abstract way. That fact, plus the tropes of disguise and rebellion against parents, the exceptional fake beards, and the earnest cheese of those musical interludes all give their work the undertone of a romantic fantasy enacted by girls at a pajama party.

Theater: New Shows (March 20-26)

 Clybourne Park is much better than this photo would imply
photo credit: Joan Marcus

 

Ironically, I missed last week's post because I had to prep for vacation―paid work and parenting trumped blogging―but now that I'm away on holiday, I have time to look at what's new! Mid-March has lined some fun new shows ups, including the Broadway revival of Clybourne Park. My Pick of the Week is a radical experiment so faithful to the spirit of David Foster Wallace, its title has parenthetical digressions.


Clybourne Park
where: Walter Kerr Theater
first night: Friday, March 23
The best American drama of the last five years finally moves to Broadway, with its original New York cast reprising their roles. It's savage and smart in all the fun ways that you wish every show could be. Act 1 shows Truman-era neighbors fret over the sale of one home to a black family; act 2 sees a white couple buy the same house, auguring a wave of 21C gentrification.

Elephant Room
where: St. Ann's Warehouse
first night: Thursday, March 22
A trio of performers play low-rent illusionists in a slapstick perf-art piece about the magic of theater. According to the press release, ER "mixes the glory of a Styx reunion tour with the transcendental power of a 200-year-old Zuni shaman and a dash of trailer park ennui.” Not sure what that means but it's worth an evening to find out!

Li'l Abner
where: Theater Row
first night: Tuesday, March 20
Half a century before Spidey swung onto Broadway Al Capp's classic strip about political corruption and hillbillies in love got turned into a musical. It rarely gets a revival, so buffs of musical comedy should check out this concert-style performance.

Magic/Bird
where: Longacre Theater
first night: Wednesday, March 21
On the court and in cultural debate, Magic Johnson shared a fierce rivalry with Larry Bird; off the court they were pals. Unconventional material but ripe for drama, and playwright Eric Simonson is a stalwart of Chicago's scene. Plus, Off-Broadway talent Deirdre O'Connell is part of the cast!

The Morini Strad
where: 59E59
first night: Tuesday, March 20
A certain type of realistic, bourgeois drama revolves around the brokering of a valuable object (the finest case of this is The Cherry Orchard, of course). In this case it's a Stradivarius violin, the sale of which threatens the friendship between a former child-prodigy and a temperamental restorer of instruments.

Out of Iceland
where: Walkerspace
first night: Saturday, March 24
A New Yorker takes a tumble in Iceland and lands on a cowboy's couch; she also has conversations with a troll named Thor. This new play portrays Iceland as a mystical land, setting to a modern fairy tale like one of Haruki Murakami's dream-realities.

A (Radically Condensed and Expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (after David Foster Wallace)
where: The Chocolate Factory
first night: Thursday, March 22
Six actors, fed their lines via earbuds, improvise a performance of DFW's nonfiction works. The ensemble includes two great young actresses, Jenny Seastone Stern and Lisa Joyce. If all that weren't enough to draw you out to Long Island City, the show's by director Daniel Fish, one of those essential NYC artists who seems to do more work in Europe than here at home.

Tis Pity She's a Whore
where: BAM Harvey Theater
first night: Tuesday, March 20
Possessing one of the great titles in the dramatic canon, Whore audaciously sets an incestuous affair against a decadent Italian court, with the siblings looking a lot more noble than the aristos. The company is Cheek by Jowl, a British company whose cool, stylized approach to classics earns applause, but I find it remote.


Last chance!
And God Created Great Whales
where: 45 Bleecker

The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos
where: The New Ohio Theater

Evolution
where: Cherry Lane Theater

Hurt Village
where: Signature Center

Love, Loss, and What I Wore
where: Westside Downstairs

The Real Thing
where: The Secret Theater

Spring Tides
where: The Secret Theater

The Twenty-Seventh Man
where: The Public Theater

Off-Broadway: Painting Churchs & other revivals

Painting Churches

The Keen Company at Theater Row

written by Tina Howe

directed by Carl Forsman

Critics tend to thump for new plays over revivals, so I want to take a second to applaud the fine revivals of plays by American women right now. Edson's sharp Wit plays at MTC, which Vogel matches with How I Learned to Drive at Second Stage, and now Howe gets a nod from the Keen Company with Painting Churches. All three prove their stageworthiness by themselves. But it's good to see plays that were successful in their initial run get remounted. The productions serve to canonize the works and their writers, strengthening a modern tradition (which is larger and less rigid than a school or genre) of women writing great work. And it brings these plays from the '80s & '90s to a subsequent generation of theatergoers. I doubt these three shows are an incipient movement, but wouldn't it be cool if they heralded revivals of Fornes, Wasserstein, Congdon, and many others?

Of the three, Tina Howe's 1983 play is less dramaturgically flashy than Wit or Drive, presenting its three-actor family drama in a standard format of linear episodic realism. Its subject, a bohemian daughter who paints a portrait of her daffy parents, (wealthy Bostonians who have friends named “Spence Cabot”), offers minimal tension. Howe's style is elusive & challenging, subtly shifting dramatic focus along with audience sympathy from one character to another. A dreamy neoclassical set (Beowulf Boritt) captures her impressionistic tone, while the casual delivery of the actors (Kathleen Chalfant, John Cunningham, and Kate Turnbull) slowly plumbs deep pools of loneliness. Carl Forsman, however, directs the play with a forthright realism, perhaps a mistaken attempt to counterbalance Howe's limpid warmth with comedic whimsy. But Howe's lovely and humane play pulls loose from Forsman's anchoring, proving itself a sturdy script worth the revival.

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Painting Churches plays at Theater Row, closing on April 7. Tickets?

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Theater: New Shows (March 6-12)

A tough week for audiences, since they have to choose which shows to see and which to miss. The cast of The Best Man makes it a must-see; the creativity of Now. Here. This. does the same. My pick of this week, The Maids, says more about my taste than the line-up. The Red Bull takes a break from 'Jacobethan' drama to produce Genet's radical absurdism.

The Best Man

where: Schoenfeld Theater

first night: Tuesday, March 6

The last time Broadway saw Gore Vidal's backroom political potboiler, Gore and Bush were locked in a dire campaign. The social and economic situation in 2012 is worse than in it seemed in 2000, so we're rewarded with a much stronger cast, including James Earl Jones, John Larroquette, and Candice Bergen.

The Deepest Play Ever: The Catharsis of Pathos

where: The New Ohio Theater

first night: Friday, March 9

The title lets you know what you're in for: a deeply silly take on dramatic self-importance. The focus of the parody is Brecht, as protagonist Mother LaMadre drags her wagon across the apocalyptic battlefields of the fifth World War, hunting zombies and books. Sounds like a good show for a spring evening!

Give Me Your Hand

where: Irish Rep

first night: Wednesday, March 7

A middle-aged Irish duo take the audience on their afternoon tour of the National Gallery in London. It's billed as a “poetical stroll”, which doesn't sound very dramatic. But since the script's by an Irishman as well, Hand may pull out several colorful observations on famous art and celebrated artists.

Lifeline

where: Abingdon Theater

first night: Friday, March 9

A nice guy rents his basement apartment to an unstable neurotic, resulting in an Odd Couple friendship that goes sour as the tenant's problems mount. Sounds like standard stuff: a bit of comedy, a dollop of drama. The show will hinge on the leads' chemistry and the writer's rejection of conventions.

The Maria Project

where: 59E59

first night: Tuesday, March 6

The utilitarian title tips its hand: The Maria Project is a stage documentary. Its subject is one Maria Salazar, a Hispanic woman who went missing over fifty years ago. The staging mingles music and film footage with the performer's story, as she tracked Salazar through her own family history.

The Maids

where: The Red Bull at St. Clement's

first night: Tuesday, March 6

The Red Bull gives NYC the chance to catch Jean Genet's too-rare absurdist comedy about class, identity, language and other favorite themes of puzzling French art. A sparking cast—just three talented women—has me tempted, while the promise of a uniquely intimate staging for a small audience wins me over.

A Moon for the Misbegotten

where: The Pearl Theater at City Center

first night: Tuesday, March 6

Fans of classic American drama have already caught a few of Eugene O'Neill's early work this winter. That should prep them to revisit Moon, a work from the playwright's colossal late period. This elegiac piece is a sort of spin-off from Long Day's Journey, as the older Tyrone brother finds salvation.

Now. Here. This.

where: Vineyard Theater

first night: Wednesday, March 7

A blend of anecdotes, monologues from plays, original music, philosophy, this piece is hard to classify. But those who saw its workshop production at the Vineyard claim that the disparate Now. Here. This. (great title, by the way) add up to something special. Just don't go expecting a conventional evening.

Regrets

where: MTC at City Center

first night: Thursday, March 8

Britain's theater mavens have been thumping the tub about this play's writer, Matt Charman, for a few years. But he hasn't made it in New York yet, so who is he? His debut is a period drama set at a quick-divorce residency in 1950s Nevada, and pits a young man against McCarthy-era paranoia.

Spring Tides

where: The Secret Theater

first night: Friday, March 9

A closet door opens onto a beach, where a pregnant woman finds a sword-wielding nun battling a monster. The conceit sounds like Narnia, or Alice in Wonderland, but the show's surrealism may be more slippery, since reality and fantasy start to mingle and fuse. Plus, to repeat, a sword-wielding nun!

Last chance!

As Wide as I Can See

where: Here Arts Center

Assistance

where: Playwrights Horizons

Blood Knot

where: Signature Center

Call Me Waldo

where: Abingdon Theater

CQ/CX

where: Atlantic Theater at Signature

Early Plays

where: The Wooster Group at St. Ann's Warehouse

How I Learned to Drive

where: Second Stage

Russian Transport

where: The New Group at Theater Row

Theater: New Shows (February 27 - March 4)

photo credit: David Hou

As if in response to the prayers of Senator Santorum, theater gets religion in our godless city this week. Skip the Lloyd Webber musical on Broadway and try the demon-puppet of Hand to God. Or ditch the divine altogether and see Once, a lovely romance based on the 2007 Irish cult film about a busker and an immigrant.


Eternal Equinox
where: 59E59
first night: Thursday, Mar. 1
Bohemian artists in a love triangle with an athlete! In 1924, a mountaineer pays a visit to the Bloomsbury set, where he tests a couple's open-minded approach to sex and adultery. Equinox made an impression on LA audiences with its frank sexuality and emotional heft, good ingredients to any period drama.

Flight
where: DR2
first night: Friday, Mar. 2
The background info on this show sounds awfully high-minded: “a man's search for truth, love, and his identity” etc.; a dying mother is also involved in the soulful analysis. But none of that info tells us much about the dramatic engine, a sign that, despite its claim to be “touching”, Flight may not be compelling.

Hand to God
where: Ensemble Studio Theater
first night: Wednesday, Feb. 29
This satire earned a massive audiences in its autumn run. A Texas Sunday school uses puppets to teach kids about Christ. But one puppet gets possessed by Satan himself, leading to anarchy in the congregation both in church and at home. Sounds like a cross between The Twilight Zone and Robot Chicken!

Jesus Christ Superstar
where: Neil Simon Theater
first night: Thursday, Mar. 1
By our count, this is the third Jesus to bow on Broadway now: he's spieling parables in Godspell and making a cameo in The Book of Mormon. So which should you see during Lent? This one's definitely the show biz-iest, with its “Jesus as Rock God” approach and direction from Jersey Boys' Des McAnuff.

Much Ado About Nothingwhere: The Secret Theater
first night: Thursday, Mar. 1
The squabble between Beatrice and Benedick hides mutual affection; the passion between Claudio and Hero masks uncertainty. Shakespeare's witty comedy always gives pleasure, so pull the script off your bookshelf to skim on the 7 train out to the aptly-named Secret Theater in Long Island City.

Once
where: Jacobs Theater
first night: Tuesday, Feb. 28
A Broadway transfer for this acoustic musical based on the lovely film of 2007, which won an Oscar for Best Song. An Irish busker and Czech immigrant develop an complex, true-to-life romance over the course of a week. Netflix the original film and then seek out this generous, emotional adaptation.

The Real Thing
where: The Secret Theater
first night: Saturday, Mar. 3
Tom Stoppard gets meta (more so) with this fictionalized autobiography―he left his wife only after the protagonist, a middle-aged, left-wing playwright, had done so! Happily, Thing has plenty of emotional heft, which Stoppard's plays often lack, as well as the wit and intelligence that are his hallmark.

Teresa's Ecstasy
where: Cherry Lane Theater
first night: Sunday, Mar. 4
Rather than chase Jesus around Times Square, try this drama about sex and religion. A professor researching a saint of the Spanish Renaissance makes a stopover to serve her husband divorce papers. Will she realize that a quest for the divine doesn't necessarily lead away from the pleasures of the flesh?

Thirds
where: Theater Row
first night: Friday, Mar. 2
Too often, estate dramas (where the conflict hinges on who gets what) soften the pettiness and viciousness that could make the show fun. Thirds, however, may get the inheritance right: one of three sisters begins to wall off her section of the house with actual brick and mortar!


Last chance!
The Broken Heart
where: TFANA at the Duke

The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G
where: Theater Row

The Navigator
where: WorkShop Theater

Poetic License
where: 59E59

Professor Bernhardi
where: Marvell Rep at TBG Arts Complex

Richard III
where: BAM Harvey Theater

The Road to Mecca
where: Roundabout at American Airlines Theater

Rx
where: Primary Stages at 59E59

Shatner's World: We Just Live in It
where: Music Box Theater

The Threepenny Opera
where: Marvell Rep at TBG Arts Complex

Yosemite
where: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Sci-Fi Theater: The Navigator

Workshop Theater Company
written by Eddie Antar
directed by Leslie Kincaid Burby

Witness an everyman whose GPS starts offering stock tips, career advice, even solutions to his domestic stresses. The Navigator wears its Rod Serling influence broadly, by delivering the requisite twists, of course, but also a belief in the little guy and a touch of moral homily. It's even got a timely note in the hero's financial stresses. But it's no simple teleplay: a casting fillip adds theatricality with the GPS played by a live actor, Kelly Anne Burns, cool with her android twitches and robo-voice. She's paired with Joseph Franchini, whose ordinary Joe performance has a neurotic simmer that recalls Jack Lemmon. The deeper themes of how 21C Americans relate to our technology get brushed lightly, but they don't need much since the play views people with such warmth. This light comedy, just over an hour long, stands out as one of the most charming pieces of off-off-Broadway theater all season.

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The Navigator plays at the Workshop Company Theater, closing on February 26. Tickets?

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Off-Broadway: These Seven Sicknesses

The Bats at the Flea Theater

written by Sean Graney, after Sophocles

directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar

The most innovative staging in New York right now remounts one of theater's oldest bodies of work. Adapting Sophocles' complete plays, These Seven Sicknesses reimagines some of the most fundamental conventions of theater. Instead of shushing the audience under darkness while seven tragic acts play out solemnly onstage at the Flea, the cast mingles with the audience before the curtain, chatting, relaxing, and offering to fetch wine from the bar. At intermission, they serve dinner (a delicious eggplant curry) as well. By breaking down the conventional separation of stage and house, Sicknesses sets the audience up immediately for a evening of Greek theater that's unorthodox without being alienating.

Beware Greeks bearing eggplant curry?
photo: Laura June Kirsch

The performance itself follows suit with a lively low-tech staging. There's no bearded chorus chanting in unison to a be-togaed Oedipus. Instead, director Iskandar establishes a fast pace under the easygoing atmosphere: while the chorus sings a swinging blues, Oedipus shows his smarts by solving a Rubik's cube. Adaptor Graney has a loose poetic style that includes a great ear for idioms and a winning application of stock phrases. More importantly, he evokes ancient mythical elements without getting stuck in expository mode. As the evening moves from play to Sophoclean play, it brings back characters, places, props; Antigone (Katherine Folk-Sullivan, offering the most nuanced performance in the enormous, energetic cast), the Bow of Hercules, the Trojan War make multiple appearances. And so (naturally) does Greek theater's ubiquitous Messenger, who skims in on a sidewalk scooter, dressed like a telegram deliveryman, with news of another tragic offstage disaster.

Over the course of the evening, as the shades of the dead warn their daughters and sons of yet another impending tragedy, the tone darkens slowly like twilight falling. But Sicknesses never loses its sense of imagination. Even in its final act, Iskandar comes up with new theatrical devices for staging Sophocles' plots. His directorial brio matches the energy that Graney brings to Sophocles' work. Every few minutes brings another delightful moment: a clever line-reading, a cunning costume, a fantastic fight scene, a slab of warrior beefcake. The show works superbly from beat to beat, which makes the 5+ hours runtime (including intermissions for dinner & dessert) speed by. It slips in political commentary, offering perspectives on power and stances on waging war without obtruding into the mythic setting. Sicknesses is, quite simply, the sort of mounting of classical work that rekindles a passion for modern theater. It's also a fun party.

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These Seven Sicknesses plays at the Flea, closing on March 4. Tickets? 

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