Waiting for Godot

 Waiting for Godot
Theatre for a New Audience
Polonsky Shakespeare Center
November 11, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience

Theatre for a New Audience’s production of Waiting for Godot is dark, gritty, and haunting.  Under Arin Arbus’ direction, the poetry in Samuel Beckett’s writing emerges as the rhythms in the dialogue rise and play out between the characters.  Ms. Arbus creates honest moments of companionship and  comfort, as well as truthful instances of distress and suspense.  The cast delivers masterful performances, pulling the audience deeper and deeper into their endless waiting and mounting despair.

Estragon (played by Michael Shannon) and Vladimir (played by Paul Sparks) are waiting for Godot.  They know they are in the right location, by the tree.  Maybe it’s the wrong day.  How many days have they been there?  They think they see him coming, but it is Pozzo (played by Ajay Naidu) and his servant Lucky (played by Jeff Biehl).  Estagon and Vladimir pass the time with them, then Pozzo and Lucky leave.  A boy (played by Toussaint Francois Battiste) arrives with a message from Godot.  He will be there tomorrow. 

Michael Shannon & Paul Sparks
Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience.

Tomorrow arrives.  Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for Godot.  The tree has one new leaf.  Time is
passing.  Pozzo and Lucky return, but they are blind and dumb.  They do not recall having been there the day before, and neither does the boy when he returns with the same message from Godot.  Estragon and Vladimir debate what to do, then they wait. 

When you first enter the theatre, Michael Shannon is sitting on the stage as Estragon.  The theatre space fills with a strange quiet and heavy anticipation.  The waiting has already begun.  Time feels suspended through a lot of this production, giving the audience a visceral sense of one of Mr. Beckett’s themes in the piece.  There are also numerous biblical references connecting the characters and the waiting to a greater sense of existence. 

Jeff Biehl, Michael Shannon, Ajay Naidu, & Paul Sparks
Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience

Paul Sparks and Michael Shannon are phenomenal together.  They have impeccable timing and a genuine bond that keeps the audience fully engaged.  Mr. Sparks’ Vladimir is highly physical, fidgeting and rapidly moving around the entire playing area, while Mr. Shannon’s Estragon is sedentary, weary, and unsteady on his feet.  

Ajay Naidu is energetic and antagonistic as Pozzo.  Jeff Biehl is discomfiting and mesmerizing as Lucky.  Their presence throws the rhythm and pace of the play into another realm.  All your attention goes to Toussaint Francois Battiste both times he enters as the boy.  Mr. Battiste embodies a different energy from the other characters.  He is the only one who has seen Godot.  He embodies a calm and certainty that the others are lacking. 

Samuel Beckett’s play has elusive and provocative existential and philosophical images and levels.  This production will engage you emotionally and leave you thinking.  Waiting for Godot is playing at Theare for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center through December 3. 

Domenick Danza

Des Moines

 Des Moines
Theatre for a New Audience
Polonsky Shakespeare Center
December 23, 2022 

Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience

Denis Johnson crafted his play Des Moines with mesmerizing dialogue that captures interest and builds intrigue.  His characters are on the edge, dark, and simmering.  The Theatre for a New Audience production is riveting.  Director Arin Arbus uses Mr. Johnsons rhythms and silences to lure the audience and involve them in the action.  Once engaged, there is no release, just a plunging spiral, fueled by unwavering hope.

Michael Shannon, Johanna Day, & Arliss Howard
Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience

Dan (played by Arliss Howard) is home from work at the Car Barn, where he drives a taxi.  He and his wife Marta (played by Johanna Day) share the news of their day.  A woman, Mrs. Drinkwater (played by Heather Alicia Simms) came by Dan’s work to inquire about a ride he gave her husband to the airport.  It was her husband’s final cab ride.  His plane crashed and he was killed.  Mrs. Drinkwater asks Dan about her husband’s last words, then shows him her husband’s wedding ring, which she accidentally leaves with Dan.  Marta tells Dan that Father Michael (played by Michael Shannon) will be stopping by, which reminds Dan that he saw Father Michael outside a gay bar at closing time, wearing woman’s make-up.  When Father Michael arrives, Marta breaks the news to Dan that the Doctor told her she has two to four months to live.  They decide to go out for a drink, leaving Father Michael with Jimmy (played by Hari Nef) who is in a wheelchair due to complications during sex change surgery.  When Mrs. Drinkwater arrives to pick up her husband’s wedding ring, the drinking begins.  When Dan and Marta return, the drinking accelerates.  They all sing Karaoke, baring their souls in a drunken frenzy.  Morning comes.  They all stand tall to face the day ahead.  

Arliss Howard & Hari Nef
Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience

This cast of actors each create truthful, multi-layered characters, who are all driven by deep need and propelled by boundless energy.  The action builds as these drives connect, uniting them on their journey of facing insurmountable personal challenges.  Each actor has a clear sense of what keeps their characters moving forward.  This is what sustains the audience’s investment in the heightened action.  There is sorrow, but no grieving  There is conflict, but no animosity.  They spiral into darkness, then slowly and steadily rise with hope.

The Theatre for a New Audience production of Des Moines is masterfully conceived and skillfully directed and performed.  Denis Johnson has written a truly unique piece of theatre.  You become one with these character in their bizarre mingling and faithful persistence.  The play is compelling and thought provoking.  This production has been extended through January 8 at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in downtown Brooklyn.  

Domenick Danza

Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune

Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune

Broadhurst Theatre

June 1, 2019

Photo courtesy of Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune

Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon are astounding in Terrance McNally’s Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune.  Director Arin Arbus finds the perfect rhythm to build the tension and intimacy between the characters.  Mr. McNally’s play is just as impactful today as it was when it was first produced in 1987.  This is because of its subject matter: the connection between two people in need.  A story like this is timeless and will forever touch the soul of an audience.

Audra McDonald & Michael Shannon
Photo courtesy of Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune

Frankie (played by Audra McDonald) is on her first date with Johnny (played by Michael Shannon).  He is the short order cook at the diner where she works as a waitress.  They go to a movie, stop for ice cream, then go to her one-room walk up apartment.  That is where the play begins, in Frankie’s apartment, where her and Johnny are is the throws of passion.  He adores her.  The more she showers her with complements, the higher her guard goes up.  As they share details of their lives, they find they have a lot in common.  They are both originally from Allentown, Pennsylvania.  Both their mothers deserted them at a young age.  They both hide the scars they carry.  Gradually, Johnny wears down Frankie’s protective shell.  When the sun comes up in the morning, they have to face the reality of their lives with a different sense of themselves and one another.

Arin Arbus, Michael Shannon, Terrance McNally, & Audra McDonald
Photo courtesy of Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune

The timing and chemistry between Ms. McDonald and Mr. Shannon are crisp and fluid.  There is a lot of humor in their continual badgering.  The pay off is the connection they create.  It is honest and genuine.  There are heightened moments of fear, followed by profound moments of calm.  The production is beautifully orchestrated.

Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune is paying at the Broadhurst Theatre.  It is Terrance McNally at his most intimate.  The production is tenderly directed and stunningly performed, proving that amazing things can happened under the "light of the moon."

Domenick Danza

Long Day’s Journey into Night

Long Day’s Journey into Night

Roundabout Theatre Company

American Airlines Theatre

April 16, 2016

Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night is presently in previews at the American Airlines Theatre.  The production has the high level of quality we have come to expect from Roundabout Theatre Company.  Under the bold direction of Jonathan Kent is a stellar cast lead by Jessica Lange and Gabriel Bryne.  Combine that with incredible sets and magnificent costumes and what you get is an event worthy of this American classic.

Act I opens with laughter as the Tyrone family start the day with breakfast, happy that Mary (played by Jessica Lange), has returned from a short absence.  As the morning progresses, their true family dynamic begins to surface.  Mary is clearly in denial about the possible illness of her younger son, Edmund (played by John Gallagher Jr.).  Her husband, James (played by Gabriel Bryne), freely voices his disappointment with their older son, Jamie (played by Michael Shannon), who responds with a palpable, cold indifference.  All three men look at Mary with concern that she is too quickly falling back to the problem that caused her previous absence.  In Act II the seriousness of Edmund’s illness and Mary’s drug addiction is revealed.  In Act III and Act IV we find out the source of the despair of each member of this family.  By the time the day’s journey ends, the level of their hopelessness is evident and overwhelming.

Gabriel Byrne & Jessica Lange
Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Act III is when Jessica Lange rises up and commands the stage.  She illuminates Mary Tyrone’s past as she tells her maid (played by Colby Minifie) about her school days in the convent, the adoration of her father, and when she first met and fell in love with her husband.  We gain a sentimental insight into the idealistic beliefs and disillusioned life that causes her denial.  She heartbreakingly shares the events that brought her to addiction.  Her loneliness, suffering, and desperate need for relief from pain are deeply understood.  Just when you are convinced her husband is a self-centered miser, Gabriel Bryne imparts a truthful exposition of the experiences that triggered James Tyrone’s disappointments and motivate his behavior.  Michael Shannon stumbles in drunk during this scene and tears open Jamie’s defensive façade with a brutally honest confession to his brother.  The caring and compassionate side of his character is revealed and the need for his hard, outer shell is understood.  John Gallagher Jr.’s Edmund does not stop fighting back, yet carries a strong sense of victimized defeat.  It is in his authentic portrayal that Eugene O’Neill’s deeper themes are accurately represented.    

  

The cast of Long Day's Journey into Night
Jessica Lange, Gabriel Bryne, Michael Shannon, & John Gallagher, Jr.
Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Roundabout Theatre’s production of Long Day’s Journey into Night runs through June 26 at the American Airline Theatre on 42^nd Street.  With a running time of four hours, including one fifteen minute intermission, it is definitely a long journey, yet with masterful performances that provoke and develop true human pathos from Eugene O’Neill’s dense text, it is a journey worth taking. 

Domenick Danza