Indecent

Indecent

Cort Theater

April 28, 2017

Photo courtesy of Indecent

In Indecent collaborators Paula Vogel and Rebecca Taichman explore the power of the creative voice to change lives.  It tells the story of The God of Vengeance, a Yiddish play written by Sholem Asch in 1907.  The play traveled to major cities in Europe and then came to the United States.  New York was the only city where the play was censored.  It opened on Broadway in 1923.  The production was shut down due to its offensive subject matter.  Indecent is a tender, passionate, revealing, and inspirational telling of the journey of that production and the people involved.

Sholem Asch’s wife is most excited about her husband’s provocative new play The God of Vengeance.  She is particularly enthusiastic about the superbly written love scene between two female characters.  When Asch reads the play with the leaders of the Polish Yiddish theatre, they are appalled.  In their mind, not only is the lesbian scene highly inappropriate, but the fact that the main character, a Jewish family man, runs a brothel and disrespects the Torah is blasphemous.  Only one man in attendance, Lemml, finds the play life-affirming.  Together Asch and Lemml take the play to Berlin, where it is highly received.  Lemml stage manages successful productions of The God of Vengeance across Europe and then to New York City, where the lives of everyone involved change forever.

Photo courtesy of Indecent

The choice by playwright Paula Vogel to tell the story through the eyes of the stage manager is brilliant.  This character has the objective reminiscence of events as well as a deep personal connection to the progression of the story.  Richard Topol portrays Lemml, the Stage Manager, with multiple layers.  He grows with the advancement and acceptance of the production of The God of Vengeance, and never lets go of his belief in its value.

Photo courtesy of Indecent

The cast is an amazing ensemble.  They all play numerous roles, at times transforming in a moment in front of our eyes.  Some of Paula Vogel’s scenes are written in both English and Yiddish.  The brilliance of the collaboration between her and Director Rebecca Taichman is how the scenes shift from one language to the other.  The characters go from speaking fluent English to struggling with their words as non-English speaking Polish immigrants.  This illustrates the challenge the characters face when they arrive in the United States.  Their desire to succeed in a country where they cannot easily communicate is not hindered by this obstacle.  When their production moves to Broadway, the cast is arrested and the show is shut down, even after the lesbian scene is cut out of the play.  The disclosure of the specific indecency in the theme of the production is thought provoking and relevant to our present day moral identity.

Photo courtesy of Indecent

What remains beyond success and failure?  What lives on after a work of art is viewed, experienced, and then discarded.  This is what Indecent asks us to think about.  The creative impulse that motivates art to reflect the truth is what keeps the action of this play moving forward and the audience completely engaged.  Go see it.

Domenick Danza

How to Transcend a Happy Marriage

How to Transcend a Happy Marriage

The Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater

April 15, 2017

Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater

Transcend: to go beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge; being beyond comprehension.

In How to Transcend a Happy Marriage playwright Sarah Ruhl explores what lies beyond the boundaries of societal definitions of relationship, marriage, and family to find a quality of love, acceptance, and happiness that is greater than the expected.  Through magical realism, she skillfully transports the audience into the experiences of the characters and induces an intense level of reflection on their journey.

Jane (played by Robin Weigert) tells her husband, Michael (played by Brian Hutchison), and her best friends George and Paul (played by Marisa Tomei and Omar Metwally) about Pip, a temp at her office who hunts and slaughters her own food and is living with two men in a polyamorous relationship.  The curiosity of the two couples is aroused, so they decide to invite Pip (played by Lena Hall) and her two male companions (played by David McElwee and Austin Smith) to a dinner party on New Year’s Eve.  This encounter sets these two happily married couples on a journey of no return.

Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater

In Act I you get a visceral sense of the characters’ discomfort with themselves when the movement, costumes, and dialogue seem stiff and choppy.  This sense is heightened when juxtaposed against the flow, smoothness, and ease of their invited guests.  Act II delves deeply into the psyche of George (Marissa Tomei’s character) as she struggles to transcend the defined boundaries she has accepted for herself.  The bond Ms. Tomei creates with her fellow actors (Robin Weigert, Brian Hutchison, and Omar Metwally) is strong and genuine.  They all resist and grapple with the truth as they allow their characters to look at their lives from a new perspective.  Ms. Ruhl finds the poetry and music in these characters tumultuous experiences that brings intellectual and emotional understanding of their growth and change.

Marissa Tomei & Lena Hall
Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater

The parallels between the character of Pip and Roman mythology’s Diana, goddess of the hunt, moon, and birthing, and associated with wild animals and woodland, is superbly constructed.  The triad Diana made between the water nymph Egeria, and the woodland god Virbius is reflected in Pip’s polyamorous relationship.  Through these mythical images and the psychological and carnal impulses they arouse, the characters unearth deep-seeded realizations about the lives they have settled into.  In an emotional moment at the end of Act II, Jane blurts out that in order to bring children into the world you have to release your inner animal, and you then spend the rest of your life hiding that animal side from them.  This is one of the many profound insights the characters are propelled to face.

If you are a fan of Sarah Ruhl’s work, you will definitely find this play worth seeing.  The cast is excellent, the directing (by Rebecca Taichman) is unified, and the writing is authentic.  How to Transcend a Happy Marriage is playing at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater through May 7.

Domenick Danza

Oslo

Oslo

The Vivian Beaumont Theatre

April 8, 2017

Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theatre

Oslo is the untold story of the painstaking journey toward the 1993 Middle East peace agreement.  The play masterfully reveals the process by which representatives from Israel and the PLO  were able to see past their differences in order to stay in the present and change the future.  Playwright J.T. Rogers states in the program notes that “Oslo is the story of a hidden history that lies behind a public history.  But to be clear, it is my version of this story.  The events in the play all happened, but locations have been condensed and the chronology of events has been compressed… Though every character in this play is named for a real person, the words they say are mine.” 

Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theatre

As the United States led peace conferences between the PLO and Israel moved along unsuccessfully, Norwegian sociologist Terje Rod-Larsen (played by Jefferson May) holds a strong belief that if his negotiation strategies could be applied, they would succeed.  He works closely with his wife, Mona Juul (played by Jennifer Ehle) to arrange an “unofficial” meeting between representatives from the rival entities in their home city of Oslo, Norway.  When the men come together, they admit that they have never spoken to their enemy face to face.  The initial meeting is highly successful, and leads to a second and third.  Through Terje Rod-Larsen’s negotiation strategies, they build trust.  As the stakes get higher, their trust is tested, yet their mutual and desperate desire for peace keeps them dedicated to moving forward. 

Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theatre

Even though the ending of the play is historic fact, J.T. Rogers script keeps you riveted as to how the characters are going to achieve their goal.  His scenes are full of heated debate driven by deep-seated emotion.  His characters are a blend of truth and stereotype, full of charm, determination, and passion.  Director Bartlett Sher molds this masterwork by building tension and suspense, then turning it into playful banter that explodes into serious discourse and eventual agreement.

Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theatre

The tight collaboration between playwright and director allows the multitude of detail in this complex historic struggle to unfold clearly and concisely.  The true genius of the piece is how the dramatic thread pulling the action together and moving it forward are the characters of Terje Rod-Larsen and his wife, Mona Juul.  While all the characters are unified in their striving for a peace and a future for their families, the determination of these two characters goes unaddressed.  Their belief in the power of negotiation process and how it must be unobstructed by favoritism and special interest is verified by the outcome.  The ending of the play offers hope for those who choose to see it, believe in it, and utilize it.

Seeing Oslo is a MUST!  It is playing at the Vivien Beaumont Theatre in Lincoln Center.  The cast is superb.  The production is stupendous. 

Domenick Danza

A Doll’s House, Part 2

A Doll’s House, Part 2

Golden Theatre

April 1, 2017

Photo courtesy of A Doll's House, Part 2

What happens to Nora Helmer after she leaves her husband and children, closing the door behind her?  Playwright Lucas Hnath tells his rendition of that story in A Doll’s House, Part 2.  The play digs deeply into the institution of marriage, the value of opening old wounds, and the futility of walking away.  Directed by Sam Gold, the production has a stark coldness that effectively triggers emotional response and intellectual discourse.

There is a knock on the door.  Nora (played by Laurie Metcalf) returns after fifteen years.  She is greeted by Anne Marie (played by Jayne Houdyshell), the housekeeper who raised the children in Nora’s absence.  When Torvald (played by Chris Cooper) arrives home from work unexpectedly, Nora is forced to face him without much preparation.  She is there because Torvald neglected to give her a divorce, and Nora now finds herself in desperate need for that legal document to be filed.  Torvald refuses.  Anne Marie recommends that Nora seek the assistance of her daughter Emmy (played by Condola Rashad) in convincing Torvald.  Against her better judgement, Nora agrees.  Her discoveries are difficult, yet her determination is unwavering.

Laurie Metcalf & Chris Cooper
Photo courtesy of A Doll's House, Part 2

The scene between Nora and her daughter is stunningly written, directed, and performed.  Mr. Hnath sets up the character of Emmy as a mirror image of Nora.   She sees her younger self as headstrong and idealistic.  Condola Rashad masterfully propels the action of the scene deeper with impeccable timing, eye contact, and subtle gestures that reveal the character’s intellect and independence.  Laurie Metcalf matches this skill as she allows her character to face her deepest fear and speak without regret.  Mr. Gold uses level and body position in this scene, as he does throughout the production, to illustrate the power struggle between the characters.  The scene where Chris Cooper and Laurie Metcalf face off is riveting and direct.  Jayne Houdyshell rises up as she refuses to have Nora compare her actions to the choices Anne Marie has made.

Playwright Lucas Hnath

Mr. Hnath makes very bold statements in his well-structured and skillfully crafted play.  When Nora returns, she speaks at length about the detriment of the institution of marriage.  This resonates with irony and humor against the political changes in legal marriage over the past few years.  Torvald explains how instead of leaving the marriage after her “epiphany,” she should have stayed to work it out with him.  By expressing this we see how Torvald has grown over the years.  With this concept of marriage as a challenging negotiable partnership juxtaposed against the one earlier expressed by Nora, we get an alternate view of Ibsen’s independent heroine through the lens of the adaptability of the characters she left behind.  In the closing scene we are compelled to ask ourselves where to look for evidence of the changes we seek in the world.

Presently in previews at the Golden Theatre, A Doll’s House, Part 2 opens on April 27 and runs for a sixteen week limited engagement.  It is relevant and absorbing.  See it for yourself. 

Domenick Danza