Review: “Suddenly”

The Tel-Aviv based Cameri Theatre combines puppetry, live action and video streaming to tell a series of touching stories about human experiences.

Suddenly, a Knock on the Door is the name of the short story collection by the Israeli writer, Etgar Keret. It is also how Suddenly begins, a PuppetCinema show brought to BAM’s Next Wave by The Cameri Theatre of Tel-Aviv.       

Suddenly. Photo by Ed Lefkowicz.

"It's either a story or a bullet between your eyes" - demands a stranger (Simcha Barbiro) and points a gun at the writer's head, not a very relaxed setting for storytelling. The situation gets only more intense when two other "assassins" (Yuval Segal and Neta Plotnik) sneak into the apartment under the pretense of conducting a survey and delivering pizza. Caught in this absurd and dangerous situation, the writer (Nadav Assulin) is not unlike Scheherazade from One Thousand and One Nights, forced to keep his abusers entertained in order to prolong his life.

This scenario is the framing device to act out about half a dozen vignettes with puppetry. As the three mysterious figures engage in the stories, they enthusiastically make suggestions, stand in for characters, and even assist a puppeteer (Gony Paz) and two cinematographers (Ilya Kreines, Dani Halifa) in moving mini sets and props around.

Window frames and shutters become building facades and staircases, settings for the Puppet Cinema. Two cameras alternate live-streaming action on a big screen above the stage. The video itself might be looked at as an experimental film combining puppetry and real people. But it is the “behind the scenes” process unfolding on stage from which you cannot look away. The attention to detail in the design is incredible and endearingly relatable.      

Actors, two camera operators and a puppeteer, all dressed in black, romp amidst the grove of light stands, playfully bringing to life the stories about human vulnerability. You might only see the character below his thighs (one of the puppets is actually just two legs) but thanks to the inventive staging, clever framing and, of course, the poignant writing by Keret, the entire human soul opens up in front of you.

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Suddenly played at BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Pl, on December 6-9, 2017. The running time is 1 hour with no intermission. Tickets are $25.

Suddenly is based on stories by Etgar Keret, adapted by Zvi Sahar and Oded Littman. It is produced by The Cameri Theatre of Tel-Aviv. Directed by Zvi Sahar. Set and costume design by Aya Zaiger. Music by Gai Sherf. Lighting design by Ofer Laufer.

The cast is Nadav Assulin, Simcha Barbiro, Yuval Segal, Neta Plotnik, Gony Paz (puppeteer), Ilya Kreines (Cinematographer) and Dani Halifa (Cinematographer).

Review: “Diaspora”

In a new play by Nathaniel Sam Shapiro, a Birthright trip of American Jews interweaves with a mass suicide on Masada two thousand years ago.

Hannah (Serena Berman), one of the participants of the Birthright trip, admits to her BFFs, that visiting a Holocaust museum made her horny, and later jumps on her group-mate yelling: “We need to continue the Jewish people! Come in me!” Nathaniel Sam Shapiro, the author of Diaspora, rightfully acknowledges the alternate purpose of Birthright, a free “heritage trip” to Israel with matchmaking, but he takes it a bit too far. A disproportionately large part of the 90-minute production is spent by Jewish American youth discussing sex, contraceptives, and crushes.

The cast of Diaspora. Photo by Mati Gelman

In parallel to the young Americans’ trip to the mountain, Masada, the tragic events that took place on this historic sight on 73 CE unfold. Romans sieged Masada fortress, forcing 960 Jews to commit suicide. Shapiro is controversial to the official government vision of the mass suicide as an act of bravery. He condemns it as “decision made by a few powerful men” in his program note and ultimately makes two women who hid and escaped the mass suicide the new heroines of the story.                

Rethinking a state’s political identity is no easy task; so is figuring out yourself in your early 20s. But clashing the two plot lines together seems forceful, especially in the scenes with rapid cuts between the past and present. The cast portrays both the participants of the trip and the citizens of the besieged Masada. Thin strips of video screens above the stage help to identify the time period and the character. Color-coded projections by Caite Havner and the rusted ledges reminiscent of the fortification walls (scenic design by Maruti Evans) elevate the entire production. They create a beautiful frame to the otherwise confusing and uneven production.  

Costumes by Oana Botez are puzzling. Dressing Americans in all denim would be more appropriate for a 90s sitcom poster. Two actresses are wearing skirts so short that I physically felt how uncomfortable they must have been moving around. The over the top, caricature performances of modern day characters are contrasted with the “dignified” behavior of the ancient Jews. Actors, directed by Saheem Ali, deliver the majority of monologues, and even dialogues, facing the audience as well as staring at the back wall of the theater. The occasional “physical” scene comes as a relief from stillness but is often overdone. For example, some kind of “massage orgy” between the 1^st century hero of Masada, Eleazar (Joe Tapper), and two of his accomplices, rabbi Binyamin (RJ Vaillancourt) and Reuben (Quinn Franzen).    

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Diaspora plays at The Gym at Judson, 243 Thompson Street, through December 23, 2017. The running time is 1 hour 45 minutes with no intermission. Performances are Tuesdays at 7, Wednesdays at 3 and 7, Thursdays at 3 and 8, Fridays at 3 and 8, Saturdays at 3 and 8, and Sundays at 3 and 7. Tickets are $55.50 - $79.50 and are available at diasporatheplay.com or by calling 866-811-4111.

Diaspora is by Nathaniel Sam Shapiro. Directed by Saheem Ali. Set Design by Maruti Evans. Lighting Design by Eric Southern. Sound Design by Miles Polaski. Costume Design by Oana Botez. Projection Design by Caite Hevner. Stage Manager is Angela Perez.

The cast is Serena Berman, Connie Castanzo, Ava Eisenson, Quinn Franzen, Tom McVey, Maggie Metnick, Joe Tapper, and RJ Vaillancourt.

Review: “Tania in the Getaway Van”

The Pool, pop-up theater company brings a 70s-flavoured feminist play by Susan Bernfield to the Flea. 

As the audience assembles in the Flea’s Siggy Theater for Tania in the Getaway Van, 1970s commercials are projected on the wall upstage (projections design by David Bengali). Young white women with perfect hair giggle and smile seductively, advertising deodorants, Kool-Aid, hosiery and cake mix. The news announcements about the kidnapping of Patty Hearst pop up from time to time but get cut off as if somebody is switching channels.

Madeline Wise, Caitlin Morris and Courtney G. Williams in Tania in the Getaway Van, photo by Ilyce Meckler

Patty Hearst, or rather her “brainwashed” alter ego, Tania, is a hero for 11-year-old Laura (Caitlin Morris). Frankly, the moments of impersonating the famous victim of Stockholm syndrome are the only time when the kid is vibrant and interested in life. Tie-dye t-shirt, braids and bandana covering her eyes, Laura hides in the closet pretending to be the granddaughter of a publishing magnate. At the age of 19, Patty was kidnapped by the radical left-wing group known as SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army) and after months spent in captivity, turned terrorist herself and changed her name to Tania. 

           

Laura might not know what “feminism” is, but she has an embodiment of it in front of her, namely her mother, Diane (Annie McNamara). At the age of 36 and with three kids on her hands, she decides to go back to school and get a job, an ambition unheard of amongst her circle of San Francisco Bay Area housewives. Restless and sputtering with waves of self-liberation, Diane seems unsympathetically neurotic at first. It is tempting to side with the mellow Laura, embarrassed by her mother’s eagerness to get to the core of things and people.

It is gradually revealed that Laura is uncomfortable with herself in the first place. Torn between her role model, Patty Hearst, and the images of women with perfect hair from TV shows she watches daily, Laura enters puberty confused and unhappy. Her friend Stacey (Courtney G. Williams, who also doubles as Katelyn in act two) seams to take life easier. She rushes to Laura’s house to share the news that her boobs finally started growing and views stewardesses as a higher cast of women.

The kids’ babysitter, Carol (Madeline Wise) also wants to be a stewardess, of which she sings a cappella in a spotlight of her private thoughts. Each girl sings her inner monologue at some point, which helps the show with its playful and fast moving dynamic.        

Tania, propagating women empowerment, starts strong but falls flat in the 2nd act, which takes place in 2012. Diane, now 73 and a politician and Laura, a 47-year-old professor at Columbia, sit at the table of an outdoor café in Manhattan, drinking wine and calling each other amazing. Later, Diane’s assistant, Katelyn, joins them and they talk, seemingly forever, about the fruits of women liberation movement and the effect of it on their lives.

Both McNamara and Morris give it one hundred percent and are convincing as snarky, privileged women. But their lengthy dialog wanders in circles and confining them to a restaurant table kills the performance’s energy. Casting Courtney G. Williams as both Stacy and Katelyn is a bit confusing. I don’t mind double casting when it comes to the episodic roles, but since Stacy is an important character, I couldn’t stop thinking that it is the grownup version of her sitting at the table.

Tania, the most important off-stage character, is gone from the second act. Even the supposedly oppressed Ms. Marinkovich, who drove her car into a creak in 1975, gets mentioned. It was a wakeup call for Diane back then. According to 47-year-old Laura she never received hers. Hearing it from a woman who has it all is a little pathetic.          

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Tania in the Getaway Van plays at Flea Theater, 20 Thomas St., through December 16, 2017. The running time is 1 hour and 35 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $25 and $35. The performance schedule varies, for more information visit thepoolplays.org.

Tania in the Getaway Van is written by Susan Bernfield. Directed by Portia Krieger. It is produced by The Pool. Music by Fan Zhang. Projections design by David Bengali.

The cast is Annie McNamara, Caitlin Morris, Courtney G. Williams, and Madeline Wise.

Review: “Illyria”

A new play by Richard Nelson takes an endearing look at the origins of The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park.

Have you ever wanted to peek behind the curtain of New York’s beloved Shakespeare in the Park, by the Public Theater in Central Park? Illyria, written and directed by Richard Nelson, currently running at The Public gives us an opportunity to do just that. Set in 1958, the young theater company led by Joe Papp (John Magaro) battles both inner and out dragons while trying to keep the festival running.  

cast of Illyria, photo by Joan Marcus

The city parks department insists that the festival should start charging money from the audience, calling the current policies “a communist thing”. But as Merle Debuskey (Fran Kranz), the press rep, explains to the rest of the group, the officials’ strategy is to make the festival slowly fade away. Ticket fees mean different contracts with unions, which will make Papp lose money and audience in the long run.

From the auditions to the curtain of the final show of the season, the theater strives to survive. Although a tightknit group of friends, the company experiences inner turmoil and disagreement, fired up by Papp’s straightforward personality and manipulative inclinations. But you have to lean closer and hold your breath in order to hear everything said in the room. Nelson writes and directs in a very “close-to-real-life” manner. Multiple people might say their lines simultaneously, voices are soft, and some actors might spend the entire scene with their backs to the audience. 

Consider the cozy architecture of the U-shaped Anspacher Theater at The Public and the voyeuristic approach may limit your approach to hear and see, but it works in a way. It draws you in, offering hot gossip of the theater world of New York in the 50s. That is if you hear it. Just be aware that the person scratching his face behind you or a phone vibrating three rows down will most likely drown out a line or two. Yes, the talking is that subtle.

The scenic design by Susan Hilferty consists of a number of mismatched desks, wooden chairs, benches and rugs, which the cast reassembles between scenes. Two out of three scenes involve eating, giving actors a chance to move around, while setting up tables, pouring drinks, etc. These acts of everyday life are beautifully executed, with small gestures and details that build the very fabric of human interactions. Illyria is a refined piece of theatre and might disappoint those who came for rapidly escalating passions and a cathartic payoff.

It is not entirely clear why Nelson downplays the conflict, perhaps because in the 50s Papp and his friends and colleagues didn’t entirely understand the significance of their project. His wife, Peggy (Kristen Connolly), starts to realize it towards the end of the play. “The festival is not about the money”, - she says. “It’s not about owing anything to the audience or them buying something. It’s like a dialogue, person to person, human being to human being”.        

    

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Illyria is playing at Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St, through November 26, 2017. The running time is 1 hour and 40 minutes with no intermission. Performances are Tuesday through Sunday at 7:30, Saturday and Sunday 1:30. Tickets start at $75. A limited number of free tickets is distributed in the lobby of The Public beginning 90 minutes prior to each scheduled performance. An additional number of free tickets is offered through TodayTix. For more information visit publictheater.org.

Illyria is written and directed by Richard Nelson. Scenic Design by Susan Hilferty and Jason Ardizzone-West. Costume Design by Susan Hilferty. Lighting Design by Jennifer Tipton. Sound Design by Scott Lehrer.

The cast is Rosie Benton, Will Brill, Kristen Connolly, Blake DeLong, Emma Duncan, Naian González Norvind, Fran Kranz, John Magaro, John Sanders, and Max Woertendyke.