Review: “Seven Spots on the Sun”

War cripples people’s bodies and souls and it’s unclear if it is possible to truly recover from its horrors. Seven Spots on the Sun, written by Martín Zimmerman (On The Exhale), fearlessly faces the cruelties of war, presenting both a criminal and a survivor as human beings, tangled in their own delusions and dreams. After all, both of them are victims of political games and personal ambitions.  

Photo by Russ Rowland

In a fictional Latin-American village, locals are recovering from a civil war that just ended. Exhausted and beaten up, three villagers (Claudia Acosta, Cesar J. Rosario and Socorro Santiago) and the priest Eugenio (Peter Jay Fernandez) are eager to forget themselves in dance as soon as they manage to squeeze some music out of the radio. Their joyous celebration is interrupted by a government announcement of amnesty to the criminals of war.

The village doctor, Moises (Rey Lucas), standing in the corner of the room quietly until this moment, grabs a hammer and smashes the radio. This is how we meet him, a compassionate, intelligent man, losing himself to overpowering anger. He ran a hospital with his wife, nurse Belen (Flora Diaz), during the war. The atrocities they saw were despicable and deeply affected their relationship.  Can the revenge wash off his grief? Will life ever be as sweet as the pineapples that Belen liked and which became their own code for love?

A young couple in a different village, Monica (Flor De Liz Perez) and Luis (Sean Carvajal), are also coping with the war and its consequences. Carvajal plays a gradually fading soldier with such nuance that the audience can feel the full density of a year spent at war squeezed into 80 minutes of the show. Monica has an enormous character arc, which De Liz Perez carries on her fragile shoulders with no visible effort.

Seven Spots on the Sun largely consists of self-reflecting monologues delivered by Monica and the priest, Eugenio, to the audience. The other narrator is “The Town” -  three actors resembling a Greek chorus. The interference of the transcendental circumstances, mainly the suddenly acquired healing ability by the doctor, brings another element of ancient epos to Seven Spots on the Sun, the human hero with godly powers. But Moises is still very much a human, able to heal children’s bodies but unable to heal his own ripped sole.

The magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez meets the poetical symbolism of Milan Cundera in Seven Spots on the Sun, and is topped with occasionally graphic and realistic scenes of passion and violence, directed by Weyni Mengesha. Spanglish is heard throughout, which doesn’t affect the understanding of the play and creates a cultural and geographic paradox of a sort. Since the place is not pinned on the map and the events are fictional, one might think that we are in some bilingual region. And the thinner the border between English and Spanish becomes, the stronger becomes the need to define the border on the ground.

Perhaps, I am digging too deeply and the use of Spanglish in Zimmerman’s play exists purely for decorative purposes, for creating the “atmosphere” of a Hispanic town, so to speak. Bilingual speakers probably won’t think about this twice, and for some this would be the familiar language they hear daily.

The joined forces of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, supporting emerging playwrights since 1994, and The Sol Project, a young and ambitious company dedicated to producing works by Latinx playwrights, lead to a truly fruitful collaboration. Seven Spots on the Sun is only the 2nd production of The Sol Project, the first one, The Alligator, was quite a wild ride as well.      

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Seven Spots on the Sun runs at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, through June 4th. The running time is 80 minutes with no intermission. Performances are Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 8:00pm; Saturdays at 3:00pm and 8:00pm; and Sundays at 3:00pm. Tickets are $51 ($26 artists, $16 students) and are available at rattlestick.org or by calling 866-811-4111.

Seven Spots on the Sun is written by Martín Zimmerman and directed by Weyni Mengesha. It is produced by Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in collaboration with The Sol Project. Production team includes: Arnulfo Maldonado (Set Design), Amith Chandrashaker (Lighting Design), Tei Blow (Sound Design).

The cast is Claudia Acosta, Sean Carvajal, Flora Diaz, Peter Jay Fernande, Flor De Liz Perez, Rey Lucas, Cesar J. Rosado, and Socorro Santiago.

Review: “Baghdaddy” is back, more timely than ever

The true story of the “alternative facts” that instigated the Iraq War, told by a cast of eight in the comedy musical “Baghdaddy”

As you enter St. Luke’s Theater, located in the basement of the church, you find yourself in the meeting of a support group for those who started the Iraq War. You are offered a nametag and coffee with doughnuts. As the show begins, the group leader (Brandon Espinoza) assures you that the newcomers can relax, as they won’t be asked any questions.

photo by Ambe Williams

The “regulars”, overcoming resentment and denial, tell us the story of how each of them instigated the Iraq War. By using an Iraqi defector, self-proclaimed engineer of the biological weapon of mass-destruction, as the only eyewitness, the group of spies and scientists provided a reason for the US government to invade Iraq.  

It might be difficult to imagine how a topic so serious could be made into a musical with a huge emphasis on humor. It is even more difficult to believe that the story told by the author of the music/book and director, Marshall Pailet, and the lyricist/book writer A.D. Penedo, is mostly true with just a few liberties and artistic condensation. The musical had its initial run in New York in 2015. The current run has a new chilling sound to it, demonstrating how fatal “alternative facts” can be.

It all starts in Frankfurt, where an Iraqi named Curveball (Joe Joseph) claims that he has proof of Saddam Hussein building mobile bio-weapons and asks for asylum. He is brought to the interrogation room with a junior detective of the BND, Germany’s national intelligence agency, Richart Becker (Brennan Caldwell). Cool as a gherkin, Richard is eager to do anything to become “Das Man”, which he states in his 90s-infused boys band-style song of this name. Insecure and in fact lonely, he becomes an easy target for the smooth talker, Curveball.

“The pinnacle of professionalism”, the CIA is brought into the picture, represented by the analysts Berry Stanton (Larisa Oleynik) and Jerry Samuel (Ethan Slater). The rap “Berry and the Badboy” features them doing The Robot in clouds of red and purple smoke while backed by vocals of the entire company. The fax from Germany, the golden ticket to the corner office, is like an oil spill to the wild fire of Jerry’s professional ambition. She quickly moves the intel up the chain of command where it meets the resistance from Tyler Nelson (Jason Collins), the bureaucrat who follows the rules to the letter.

Eventually the report from Curveball makes it to the desk of the weapon inspector, Martin Bouchard (Bob D’Haene), who is fascinated by the sounds of bacterial names and obsessed with the idea to reclaim his past glory. So the chain of fatal connections links and the work begins, picking up steam in the “Hydrangea Reports” number illustrating how the international investigation operated.  

With just two more members of the ensemble playing multiple parts, Brandon Espinoza and Claire Newman, Baghdaddy plays out the entire series of events of 2001-2004, leading up to war. Pailet and Penedo use a lot of rap and 90’s pop along with Middle Eastern tunes for the soundtrack. Some of the smart and sharp lyrics might seem provocative, but they never fall off the edge of good taste and are always true to the characters. The energetic and often self-ironic choreography by Misha Shields and charged performances of the entire cast keep you on the edge of your seat for the entire time.

If you are seated in the back of the house you will spend the entire show on the edge of your seat trying to see the stage better anyway, as the venue was clearly not intended as a theater. If you are seated on stage, among the few other audience members, you will get a completely different angle. But regardless of you seats, you will see some part of the action better than others. The director Marshall Pailet tries his best to use the entire space, including the catwalk in the middle of the orchestra and even the back of the house.

Set design by Caite Hevner mostly consists of a single table, but you will be amazed in how many ways this piece of furniture can be used. Lighting Design by Jennifer Schriever plays a crucial part in creating the atmosphere of certain spaces, like the nightclub “Furliner” where the company indulges in mad debauchery to the musical’s signature song, “Who’s Your Baghdaddy”.  

The unobtrusive design and the engagement of the space could be developed further, but who cares about this if you have a bomb of a script and an explosive cast in front of you. The humorous approach of Baghdaddy doesn’t belittle the scale of the tragedy of the Iraq War. Quite the contrary, the harder you laugh in the beginning at the delusional careerists in government service, the harder hits the realization of what it can lead to. Especially now, when every single one of us can become a progenitor of unproven or even straight-up made up facts.

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Baghdaddy plays at St. Luke’s Theater, 308 W 46^th Street through June 6th. Running time is two hours with one intermission. Performances are Monday at 7pm, Thursday at 7pm, Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 7:30pm. Tickets are $39.50, $69.50, $99 (premium) and can be purchased by visiting telecharge.com or by calling 212-239- 6200. For more information on Baghdaddy visit baghdaddymusical.com

Baghdaddy is written by Marshall Pailet and A.D. Penedo. Directed by Marshall Pailet with musical direction by Rona Siddiqui. Orchestrations by Charlie Rosen choreography by Misha Shields, based on a screenplay by J.T. Allen.

Creative team includes: Kaite Heavner (Set Design), Jennifer Schriever (Lighting Design), Summer Lee Jack (Costume Design). Baghdaddy is produced by Charlie Fink and co-produced by Jan Brandt, Abigail E. Disney and Tim Disney.

The cast is Brennan Caldwell, Jason Collins, Bob D'Haene, Brandon Espinoza, Joe Joseph, Claire Neumann, Larisa Oleynik and Ethan Slater. 

Review: “Ski End”, a ramp into open space

Prepare to get suspended in a null-gravity state for an hour and a half. Ski End, produced by Piehole and directed by Tara Ahmadinejad, starts as a slow, meditative emersion into the collective fantasy of what it is to run a ski shop in a small town in Vermont, played out by five 30-something city kids. As they find themselves trapped in the actual abandoned ski store, they start exploring the narration possibilities, building up the play inside the play, and using the equipment that survived the flood.       

photo by Matthew Dunivan

The puddle in the middle becomes a lake, a clothing rack becomes a bus stop, and a model of the ski ramp becomes a mountain. The space, however seems to be just a part of the chamber of rooms, going “way-way back”. The set, designed by Alexandra Panzer, has a back wall, which doesn’t reach the floor so whoever appears from behind it, is first introduced by their legs. This is in fact how we meet the five visitors, just looking at their legs walking “on the other side” and listening to their recorded voices.

It is just to say that we meet the room first, which seems to have a mind of it’s own. As the city kids, still standing behind the wall, fiddle with the switches and buttons, the lights go on and off, objects move and clouds of smoke appear visible to just us, the audience. The room even has it’s “servant”, a real estate agent (Alexandra Panzer) dressed in 80s attire by Olivia Gibian. She could be easily mistaken for a ghost, or may be she is one?        

Everything seems ephemeral in the Ski End. The narration slips away the moment you think you figured out what’s going on and the space appears to have no defined borders. The Projection by Matt Romein kicks in at some pint, expanding the space to some king of digital “mirror-world” to which our characters escape for a minute from time to time. Occasionally the cast bursts into a beautiful a cappella chant or starts a ballet on skies.     

The actors move and talk just a little bit slower than one would in real life, which is much slower than it’s normally seen in the theatre. The shifting of roles and improvisational turns is rather fast. It seems to be using the principal of free association, revolving around skiing, running a small business in the age of online stores, climate change and other topics. Even when the other inhabitants of the ski store break in from the outside world, the play only gets “realistic” for a brief moment. The final spiral of Ski End shoots you right into space, where you float in the dark above the 17-year-olds’ fears and hopes.

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Ski End plays at New Ohio Theatre, located at 154 Christopher Street, through May 19th. Running time is 95 minutes, no intermission. Performances are Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30pm with an added show on Wednesday, 5/17 at 7:30pm. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at NewOhioTheatre.org or by calling 212-352- 3101. $20 student tickets are available. For info visit NewOhioTheatre.org.

Ski End is written by Piehole and directed by Tara Ahmadinejad. The production team includes Alexandra Panzer (Scenic Design), Oona Curley (Lighting Design), Joey Wolfslau (Sound Design), Olivia Gibian (Costume Design), Matt Romein (Projection Design), Deepali Gupta (Songwriter), Ann Barkin (Production Stage Manager), Skylar Fox (Technical Director/Production Manager), Elliot B. Quick (Producer/Dramaturg), Bailey Williams (Producer) and Lauren Whitehead (Dramaturg).

The cast is Toni Ann DeNoble, Allison LaPlatney, Alexandra Panzer, Emilie Soffe, Ben Vigus, Jeff Wood, Kijani-Ali Gaulman, Maite Martin and Nicole Suazo.