Orlando

Orlando
Pershing Square Signature Center
Signature Theatre
April 27, 2024 

Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

The Signature Theatre production of Sarah Ruhl’s Orlando is a fantastic romp through the centuries.  Adapted from the Virginia Woolf novel of the same title in 2000, Ms. Ruhl chose to tell this story through narration, most of which comes directly from the original novel.  She utilizes a chorus of six actors, playing gender fluid characters, to keep the action moving.  With Taylor Mac in the lead role, the humor becomes equally matched with truthful moments of discovery and conflict.

Orlando (played by Taylor Mac) wants to be a poet.  The Queen (played by Nathan Lee Graham) adopts him, and makes him her own.  When Orlando falls in love with a Russian Princess (played by Rad Pereira), they run off together, or rather skate down the frozen River Thames.  The Princess abandons Orlando, who then meets the Archduchess (played by Lisa Kron), and experiences lust.  He quickly tires of her, and proclaims he want to return home.  After retiring to his bed, he emerges a woman. 

The cast of Orlando
Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

On the journey home, Orlando discovers both the freedom and limitations of being a woman.  She meets the Archduchess again, only to find that she is a man.  He pursues Orlando, but does not succeed at wooing her.  Centuries pass, and Orlando yearns to be wed.  She meets Marmaduke (played by TL Thompson).   After they fall in love, they discover they are both male and female simultaneously.  Centuries pass again, taking Orlando into the twentieth century.  The present moment is filled with confusion that leads to understanding and acceptance. 

TL Thompson & Taylor Mac
Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

Will Davis stylistically directs this piece with a sharp eye on consistency, and a precise sense of timing, rhythm, and pace.  Scenic design by Arnulfo Maldonado creates a sparce, imaginative atmosphere that is heightened by Oana Botez’s costumes.  The stage is empty most of the time, with detailed set pieces rolled on as needed, and magnificent drops flown in.  The costumes are also pieced together in an impressionistic manner, creating the illusion of the numerous time periods, while allowing for fast changes.

Orlando is playing at the Pershing Square Signature Center through May 12. 

Domenick Danza

Letters from Max

 Letters from Max
Signature Theatre Company
The Griffin Theatre
The Pershing Square Signature Center
February 22, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre Company

Sarah Ruhl’s Letters from Max, now playing at Signature Theatre, is a heartwarming telling of the relationship between teacher and student that grows into a mutually supportive and creative camaraderie.  It is based on the book Ms. Ruhl wrote with Max Ritvo.  It contains their correspondence over a number of years and through challenging and painful times.  The production is simply and effectively conceived, driven by a combination of direct address and dialogue scenes that depict moments of genuine connection and admiration.  Director Kate Whoriskey sculpts this piece into an intimate journey through pain and fear into understanding, peace, and love.

Sarah (played by Jessica Hecht) first meets Max (played by Ben Edelman) when he attended her playwriting class at Yale.  She immediately notices his light and creativity.  Max, a poet and comic, who never wrote a play in his life, was in remission from pediatric cancer.  He and Sarah share emails, letters, and texts, discussing their creative perspectives.  They quickly bond.  When Max’s cancer returns, their correspondence takes on a more serious tone.  Sarah says that she often felt like the student.  Max was teaching her so much about life, and challenging her to see herself more clearly.  Max undergoes a number of trial treatments for his cancer, yet never loses his creative drive or stops writing.  

Ben Edelman & Jessica Hecht
Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre Company

Jessica Hecht is phenomenal in the role of Sarah.  Her heart is open from the first moment, and continues to expand throughout the action of the play.  Her connection with Ben Edelman (Max) is truthful and tangible.  Mr. Edelman’s character faces his mortality with courage and endurance, which is reflected back to him through the relationship he creates with Ms. Hecht’s character.  Their bond is genuine.  They welcome the audience into their story, yearning to share the experience. 

The discussions of life, death, and life after death in the letters are wise, caring, and hopeful.  The audience comes to conclusions along with the characters, as they share their stories and ponder their fates. 

Letters from Max is playing at the Griffin Theatre at the Pershing Square Signature Theatre Center through March 19.  Go see it!  It will do your heart some good. 

Domenick Danza

Becky Nurse of Salem

 Becky Nurse of Salem
Lincoln Center Theater
The Mitzi E. Newhouse
November 26, 2022 

Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater

Dispelling myths.  Facing truths.  Releasing the past.  Accepting the present.  Sara Ruhl’s Becky Nurse of Salem does all of this, and more.  It is an emotionally engaging play that makes you look into yourself and recognize the cycle of accusation and victimization that keeps so many of us down.  The ending has an empowering effect.  Director Rebecca Taichman guided this phenomenal cast to discover truthful characters and create genuine moments while encompassing the wide range of topics Ms. Ruhl addresses in this play.

Becky (played by Deirdre O’Connell) is a tour guide at the Salem Witch Museum.  She is the very great granddaughter of Rebecca Nurse, the true character from Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, who was hanged as a witch in 1692.  Becky is fired from her job for speaking honestly to a group of museum visitors and then mouthing off to her supervisor.  She looks for a job at the Marriot, where she meets Stan (played by Julian Sanchez).  He recommends that she see a witch to help her find a new job, as he did.  The witch (played by Candy Buckley) can see that Becky tragically lost her daughter and is struggling to care for her teenage granddaughter, Gail (played by Alicia Crowder), who suffers from depression.  When the witch tells Becky it will cost her $400 to release her from the curse she carries from her ancestors, Becky turns to her old friend Bob (played by Bernard White) for a loan.  The witch also throws in a love potion for Becky to attract Bob into a romantic relationship.  Things get out of hand very quickly as Becky gets caught up in a cycle of self-destruction, and is arrested for breaking and entering.  While in jail, she is forced to do without her pain killers, which she is addicted to.  During her withdrawal, she faces the haunting of her past.  She is able to release the pain of losing her daughter and move forward with a stronger sense of acceptance. 

Deirdre O'Connell as Becky Nurse
Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater

From the minute the lights come up for her opening monologue, Deirdre O’Connell grabs the audience’s attention and does not let it go for a second.  Her character holds nothing back.  She is gruff, straight forward, and brutally honest.  She tells it like it is, which is why the character of Bob is attracted to her.  Bernard White (as Bob) and Ms. O’Connell have a strong connection.  The backstory of these characters is alive in every scenes they share.  Their attraction is strong and visceral.  These two actors allow their characters to grow and change through their interactions, keeping the story richly engaging.

Candy Buckley is mysterious and funny as the witch.  Ms. Ruhl has sharply written this character to include a shrewd balance of truthful insight and selfish chicanery.  Julian Sanchez and Alicia Crowder are solid as Stan and Gail.  The focus goes to both of these actors during their scenes, which is important since their characters play vital roles in the objectives and actions of the main character (Becky).

Deirdre O'Connell & Candy Buckley
Photo courtesy of Lincoln Center Theater

Ms. Ruhl tackles a heavy load in this play.  She challenges Arthur Miller’s chronicling of the Salem witch trials in The Crucible.  She magnifies the objectification of the women in history who were falsely accused and murdered.  She points a finger at the causes of addiction, taking the pressure off the user so they can focus on healing.  She gives voice to the accused, not as a defense, but as a request to be seen.  The emotional impact of the final moment of the play is clear evidence of Ms. Ruhl’s success in the taking on of these heavy challenges.  This is an important play for the healing of our present situation, just as The Crucible was when it was written in 1953.

Rebecca Nurse of Salem is playing at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse.  Don’t miss it!  

Domenick Danza

For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday

For Peter Pan on her 70^th birthday

Playwrights Horizons

August 25, 2017

 

Photo courtesy of Playwrights Horizons

Sarah Ruhl states that she wrote For Peter Pan on her 70th birthday as a gift for her mother on her 70^th birthday.  Presently in previews at Playwrights Horizons, this play is a gift of opportunity to all of us to ponder the occurrences in life that we cannot turn back from.  It is a chance to contemplate the circumstances that push us toward growing up, no matter our age.  Les Waters directs an amazing ensemble cast, creating a close-knit family of five adult brothers and sisters who face and accept the death of their father.  The script gives insight to each of their varied perspectives.  It is a tender and intimate story.

Ann (played by Kathleen Chalfant), John (played by Daniel Jenkins), Michael (played by Keith Redding), Jim (played by David Chandler), and Wendy (played by Lisa Emery) surround their father (played by Ron Crawford) on his death bed.  Time moves slowly until he finally lets go.  The brothers and sisters meet back at their childhood home to reminisce and toast their father and the memory of their other departed loved ones.  They realize they are now orphans.  The only one who admits she has not grown up is Ann, who played Peter Pan in her youth.  As they sleep in their childhood beds that night, the thought of flying off to Neverland overpowers them all.

Kathleen Chalfant, Daniel Jenkins, Keith Redding, & Lisa Emery
Photo courtesy of Playwrights Horizons

In the program notes, Ms. Ruhl talks about how she structured this play after Japanese Noh drama.  In part one the protagonist meets the ghost.  In part two they recognize the ghost.  In part three they embrace and dance with the ghost.  Since the play is in three scenes, this structure is clearly defined.  Being aware of it gives a deeper insight into the emotional and universal journey of the play.  Each member of the cast builds distinctive characters who unite during this solemn occasion to face the challenges and the changes ahead. 

For Peter Pan on her 70^th birthday runs on Playwrights Horizons’ Mainstage Theatre through October 1.  It is Sarah Ruhl’s most personal play, and is touching on many levels.

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

Dear Elizabeth

Dear Elizabeth

WP (Women’s Project) Theater

November 14, 2015

Photo courtesy of WP Theater

I have read a number of Sarah Ruhl plays and have seen a few productions.  I find her unique writing style in the genre of magical realism to be captivating.  When I saw her name associated with the WP (Women’s Project) Theater’s Dear Elizabeth, I quickly grabbed a ticket.  The play is based on Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell.  The play is sprinkled with works of these two poets as well as the point of view of Ms. Ruhl, making it a touching and personal theatrical experience. 

Becky Ann Baker & Peter Scolari

Very much set up like the Broadway production of Love Letters, the play has different well known Broadway and television actors stepping in every two weeks.  I was lucky to see Becky Ann Baker and Peter Scolari.  Their chemistry and energy created a believable account of the decades-long relationship between the two prolific poets.  Sarah Ruhl wrote in the program notes that "the silence between the letters fascinated me.”  It is in these interludes that Ms. Ruhl allows characters of Ms. Bishop and Mr. Lowell to reveal a deeper side of themselves.  She achieves this by skillfully arranging the writing of the letters so they are always “speaking in their own words.”

Playwright Sarah Ruhl

Watching the play made me think about how we do not take time to correspond anymore.  A quick email or an abbreviated text does not serve the same purpose or communicate the same level of thought as sitting down and putting a pen to paper.  The immediacy of email eliminates time spent to ponder and choose words with accuracy and care.  Letter writing has become a lost art and with that went the opportunity to have a record of our experiences, reflections, and relationships. 

Dear Elizabeth is playing at the WP Theater until December 5.  Check the website before getting tickets to see who is featured.  Cherry Jones will be in from November 16 through 21.  That is sure to be amazing.

Domenick Danza