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

Grey House

 
Grey House
Lyceum Theatre
June 2, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Grey House

You hear sound in the darkness.  Lights slowly come up on the interior of an old, rundown home.  Someone is sleeping on the couch.  You notice a second person, then a third.  They’re watching Road Runner cartoons on TV.  Your eyes search for more as the lights continue to illuminate the detail.  Your mind races with questions.  You are hooked.  You are engaged.  You are in Grey House.  Director Joe Mantello maintains this creepy atmosphere throughout the one hour and fifty minutes of the play.  Everything that occurs is intriguing and eerily disturbing.  

More sound in the darkness.  A car crash?  There is a pounding at the door.  Max (played by understudy Claire Karpen) and her husband Henry (played by Paul Sparks) stumble in.  They crashed their car on the snowy road and need help.  The house appears empty, but is not.  Raleigh (played by Laurie Metcalf) lives there with four daughters (played by Sophia Anne Caruso, Millicent Simmonds, Colby Kipnes, and Alyssa Emily Marvin) and one boy (played by Eamon Patrick O’Connell).  Raleigh helps Henry with his broken ankle, as the girls ominously hover.  The air is full of mystery and the refrigerator full of moonshine, but it’s The Ancient (played by Cyndi Coyne), who appears in the dead of night, who is most disconcerting. 

The cast of Grey House
Photo courtesy of Grey House

Your mind races with questions throughout the story, only to be followed by more questions every time a new plot element is introduced.  It’s not until the end that you start to connect the clues.  Once that connection is made, it all falls into place for a very satisfying conclusion.  Creepy, but satisfying. 

It is no easy feat to create a horror story live on stage.  Playwright Levi Holloway and this creative team have truly succeeded.  The performances are outstanding.  The cast creates a tension that never releases.  The set design by Scott Pask, lighting design by Natasha Katz, and sound design by Tom Gibbins blend magnificently to create an effect that keeps you on the edge of your seat, wanting more.  

Grey House is playing at the Lyceum Theatre.  

Domenick Danza

At Home at the Zoo

At Home at the Zoo

Signature Theatre

The Pershing Square Signature Center

February 10, 2018

Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo, the two act version of his 1959 groundbreaking play The Zoo Story, is presently bring presented at Signature Theatre.  The production is excellently cast.  Director Lila Neugebauer has an expansive vision for the play.  The timing and character development are amazingly precise.

Peter (played by Robert Sean Leonard) is at home reading when his wife, Ann (played by Katie Finneran) enters from the kitchen and proclaims, “We should talk.”  Peter is so immersed in his reading that he does not hear her.  She manage to get his attention.  They get to talking, and it is viscerally understood how complacent they are in their marriage.  They are both very happy living in their Upper East Side apartment with their two daughters, two cats, and two parakeets, then Ann mentions her occasional need for something more animalistic.  Peter is perplexed.  He goes to Central Park to read, where he meets Jerry (played by Paul Sparks).  Again, Peter is so immersed in his reading that at first he does not notice that someone is talking to him.  Jerry, however, is  much more successful than Ann at getting Peter’s animal nature aroused.

Katie Finneran & Robert Sean Leonard
Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

Robert Sean Leonard and Katie Finneran are captivating in Act I.  Their relationship is deeply rooted and realistic, based on decades of familiarity and comfort.  Their dialogue reveals new aspects of both their personalities, yet they remain calm and accepting with one another.  Paul Sparks is intoxicating as Jerry.  His rhythm and physicality keep you engaged through Edward Albee’s detailed monologues in Act II.  The connections between these characters are vital to the climactic impact of the play, and this cast masterfully creates the bonds that are needed.

Paul Sparks & Robert Sean Leonard
Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

Scenic design by Andrew Lieberman is open and abstract.  The realistic green arm chair in Act I and the five iron and wood park benches in Act II keep the action grounded and realistic.  Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo: Homelife & The Zoo Story is playing at Pershing Square Signature Center through March 11.  Go see it!

Domenick Danza