Category Archives: Off Off Broadway

The Eternal Space

Off Off Broadway, Play, Uncategorized November 22, 2015 1 Comment

New York’s original Pennsylvania Station is a poster child for lost opportunity.  The majestic Beaux Arts building was allowed to fall to ruin before being razed in the early 1960s and replaced with a modern monstrosity filled with florescent lighting and fast food joints.  Playwright Justin Rivers uses the demolition of this lost landmark to serve as a backdrop for exploring an unlikely relationship that develops between a teacher/activist and a construction worker.  The resulting production, The Eternal Space, is nothing short of glorious.

I have talked with Mr. Rivers and he is exactly the sort of person I hoped I’d meet when I became a Drama Desk member.  He has a clear vision of what he wants to express while remaining open to the creative ideas of others.  This wise and secure approach to the artistic process enabled him to assemble an astonishing team of professionals on stage and behind the scenes.  Skillful director Mindy Cooper makes the most of every one of the piece’s 85 minutes.  Jason Sherwood cleverly designed a series of architectural surfaces on which Brad Peterson projects stunning photos of the slowly dissolving station.   This allows the genuine and moving performances by Clyde Baldo and Matthew Pilieci to be set off by scenery so vibrant it becomes the third character.

While I imagine this production will particularly appeal to city dwellers who dread the thought of a big box store or luxury condo on every corner, The Eternal Space covers more universal subjects of love and loss that anyone can relate to. The story evolves more like a piece of music than a typical play.  Themes return in the dialogue but as if performed on a different instrument.  On several occasions I was taken by surprise, only to think a moment later, “well, yes, of course.”   The experience is (appropriately enough) much like a delightful slowly unfolding journey by train.

The Eternal Space is at The Lion Theater at Theater Row through December 6, 2015.  For tickets and information visit http://theeternalspaceplay.com.

Underland

Off Off Broadway, Play, Uncategorized April 13, 2015 Leave a comment

You aren’t likely to confuse Underland by Alexandra Collier with any play you’ve seen before.  Its “Lost-y” WTFness is more typically associated with television and movies.  It is a credit to director Mia Rovegno that it works mechanically and, for the most part, narratively.  It was not at all to my taste, but I applaud 59E59 for making such a daring selection for their season.

Collier makes great use of the mood and isolation of the Australian Outback where the play is set.  From the opening moments it is clear something otherworldly is happening to the entire population, though some townspeople are more aware than their neighbors.  Collier moves her players skillfully to make the most of the small stage.  Burke Brown’s lighting and Elisheba Ittoop’s sound help create an appropriate menacing tone for the action.

The fantastical dialogue doesn’t always flow.  Daniel K. Isaac fares best as Taka, a Japanese businessman who gets sucked into town through a tunnel in Tokyo.  His character is enhanced by some subtle and imaginative “business” which sets him apart from the residents.  Many of the other actors are weighed down by the thick tenor of their lines.  The performances of Kiley Lotz as Ruth, an awkward school girl, and Jens Rasmussen as Mr. B, a domineering PE teacher, are so overblown they could be starring in a silent picture.  And the talented Annie Golden is burdened with mercurial speeches that are so drawn out they shoot beyond mood-setting and right into numbing.

Just as there is something lurking in the town’s quarry, there is something just below the surface of this piece.  For me, it stayed buried.  But to lovers of all things mystical and unexplained, attendance is likely to be an appropriately haunting experience.

Underland is being presented by the terraNOVA Collective in Theater B at 59E59 through April 25.  For tickets and information, visit http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=199.

Verité

Off Off Broadway, Play, Uncategorized March 13, 2015 Leave a comment

Apparently Jo Darum — the lead character in Nick Jones’s satiric play Verité — is unfamiliar with the so-called “Chinese Curse”: May you live in interesting times.  After a rather unorthodox publishing house offers Jo $50,000 to pen her memoir, the housewife and mother decides she must start living a life worth writing about.  The results are by turns funny, unexpected and chilling.

In less assured hands, Jo’s surreal journey would be too preposterous to be engaging.  Thankfully the appealing Anna Camp’s experience includes turns in Pitch Perfect, True Blood and Equus, giving her all the tools necessary to make us connect emotionally with the play’s enthusiastic if naive heroine. Unfortunately, while some of the scenes crackle, the dialogue is too thin in places to fully support the bizarre premise.  At one point Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Winston, who may or may not have gone to high school with Jo,  is given a speech that resembles those dreadful scenes at the end of Perry Mason in which all is revealed in a Jamesian level of detail.  The woman next to me literally started snoring.

Director Moritz von Stuelpnagel’s skill is tested by the unusual dimensions of the Claire Tow stage.  The newest space at Lincoln Center is shallow and long, so those at the end of each row crane their necks while seeing too much of the actors’ backs.  Despite this challenge, Mr. Stuelpnagel and his cast deftly handle the rapid changes in tone.  Sharp pacing, terrific timing and clever sound cues are clearly in evidence.  Furthermore, the LCT3 is to be praised for offering this offbeat experience for $20 and bringing a diverse audience into their theater.

Verité runs through March 15 at the Claire Tow theater in Lincoln Center.  For tickets and information, visit http://www.lct.org/shows/verite/