Sea Wall / A Life

Sea Wall / A Life

Hudson Theater

August 9, 2019

Photo courtesy of Sea Wall / A Life

SeaWall / A Life are two back to back one-act, one-character plays starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge.  Sea Wall is written by Simon Stephens.  A Life is written by Nick Payne.  They are very different in style and structure, and when placed together, invoke the joy, wonder, pain, and solitude of the mystery of life.  These two playwrights craft characters that are exposed and vulnerable.  They openly admit their flaws and fears, while sharing the intimacies of their brightest and darkest moments.  Director Carrie Cracknell finds the uniqueness of each piece and juxtaposes them in a way that magnetically unifies them.

Sea Wall:  Alex (played by Tom Sturridge) shares the first impression he has of a close friend of his in Ireland.  He flows into telling of the meeting of his girlfriend, who later becomes his wife.  Together they travel to visit his friend’s home in the South of France  They swim and scuba dive, and engage in discussion of God and existence.  Alex and his wife have a daughter, Lucy, who brings love and completion to Alex’s heart.  They continue to visit the South of France, until events take a sudden and unexpected turn.   

Tom Sturridge
Photo courtesy of Sea Wall / A Life

Tom Sturridge is pensive and distracted as Alex.  He clumsily knocks things over, then waits to get his bearing.  He starts to get to the best part of his story, then retreats incapable of making words.  As the story unfolds, we understand the depth of this physical and emotional behavior.  He embodies this character in his core.  His performance is raw and moving.

A Life:  Abe (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) starts off telling of the awkward moment when his wife told him she was pregnant.  It takes him by surprise.  He then jumps to telling of the time his father woke him in the middle of the night because his arm was numb and tingling.  Being a teenager, Abe could not fully understand his father’s need for his company.  He jumps again to the time he brought his girlfriend, later to be his wife, to first meet his parents.  He jumps forward to telling of his father being taken to the hospital with heart failure.  Abe continually skips back and forth as his stories of losing his father gel with the birth of his daughter, meshing his feeling of joy and grief to such an extreme that they become one. 

Jake Gyllenhaal
Photo courtesy of Sea Wall / A Life

Jake Gyllenhaal is quirky and openhearted as Abe.  As the story jumps from moment to moment in a seemingly disjointed manner, we understand the thought process of his character.  He brilliantly juggles and blends the humor and intensity of the writing, creating honest moments of realization and discovery.

Sea All / A Life is playing at the Hudson Theatre for a limited time.  Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge are magnificent.  You only have until September 29 to see these two outstanding performances of two skillfully written and moving plays.  Don’t miss it!  Get your tickets right away!

Domenick Danza

Incognito

Incognito

Manhattan Theatre Club

New York City Center Stage I

May 8, 2016

Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

How does the brain’s ability to store and retrieve long term memory affect relationships?  Without memory, does a person have an identity?  Can post-mortem study of the brain unlock patterns of thought and scope of intelligence?  These are a few of the questions brought to the surface in Nick Payne’s play, Incognito, presently in previews at Manhattan Theatre Club.  It is an engaging and captivating compilation of fact and fiction that delves into the mysteries and science of memory and brain function.

Geneva Carr, Morgan Spector, Heather Lind, & Charlie Cox
Photo courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club

Four actors play twenty roles during the course of the play.  Some characters are developed from true stories and actual events.  Henry Maison (played by Charlie Cox) undergoes a procedure that destroys the portion of his brain associated with memory.  This leaves him with a long term memory span of about three minutes.  After the death of Albert Einstein, Dr. Thomas Harvey (played by Morgan Spector) removes his brain during the autopsy and keeps it, without consent, for research.  When psychologist Brenda Walsh (played by Geneva Carr) begins dating Patricia Thorn (played by Heather Lind), she leaves out facts about her past that are essential in building trust and comradery.  These three story lines, among others, run parallel and sometimes overlap, to dramatize the correlation between the brain’s ability to successfully store and retrieve information and the development of personality, intelligence, and relationship.

Playwright Nick Payne
Photo courtesy of
Manhattan Theatre Club

Each actor transforms in seconds from one character to the next with detailed command of gesture, posture, and vocal intonation, thus creating complete, realistic characters.  The audience instantaneously recognizes which character is being portrayed, and effortlessly connects the previous action of the simultaneous plot lines.  Director Doug Hughes keeps the action flowing continuously, stimulating the audience to stay focused on each moment.  It is this fluidity that makes the retention of the particulars of each individual plot line uncomplicated.  While layered with scientific fact and psychological theory, Mr. Payne’s script is remarkably poetic.  The final moment of the play is awe-inspiring.  It celebrates the mystery and magnitude in the power of the brain to connect bites of information with deep, emotional meaning.

The Manhattan Theatre Club production of Incognito opens on May 24 at New York City Center Stage I.  Don’t miss it!  It will amplify your understanding of how memory connects with identity.  It will broaden your appreciation of the science that explains our every moment.

Domenick Danza