Angel Reapers

Angel Reapers

Signature Theatre

The Pershing Square Signature Center

March 6, 2016

Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

Angel Reapers is a collaborative project between Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry presently running at Signature Theatre’s Pershing Square Signature Center.  When you enter the theatre, you are on the set, which is a Shaker Meeting House.  Ladder back chairs are sporadically placed, and one male character is seated in meditation.  Right away you sense this experience is going to be unique and intimate.  With equal seating on two sides of the playing area, you are ready to be drawn into the lifestyle, worship, and beliefs of the Shaker community.  The next hour and ten minutes does not disappoint, yet the experience is not as uplifting as you would hope.

Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

One by one the characters enter the meeting house dressed in identical costumes that remind you of the Amish or Puritans.  You get a sense of some individuality by their walk and pace.  After an interval of silence, a joyful laugh spreads from character to character.  This leads to song (The Shaker Hymn, “Simple Gifts”) and a sharing of the belief and rules they live by.  The story is told through movement, song, and short snippets of dialogue and monologue that offer insight into what makes this community strong.  You also find that they are united not only in their beliefs and joy of a simple life, but in their shame and isolation.

Photo courtesy of Signature Theatre

Ms. Clarke’s movement patterns are structured and rhythmic.  The staccato stomping and clapping is counterbalanced by sweeping, graceful movement illustrating the dichotomy of the community’s lifestyle.  The ensemble carefully creates unity and conformity while offering brief glimpses into their individuality.  This is the wonder of the piece.  You get an almost desperate sense of their underlying need for personal connection, while getting an even stronger sense of fulfillment in compliance.  It is when you see two characters ostracized and banished for breaking away that you gain another layer of understanding of the fear that keeps them together.

In this production Martha Clarke offers a visceral insight into the lives of the Shaker community.  It is simple, yes, but hardly joyous.  Angel Reapers has been extended through March 20.

 

Domenick Danza

The Spoils

The Spoils

The New Group

The Pershing Square Signature Center

May 31, 2015

Photo courtesy of The New Group

When I saw the listing on TDF for The Spoils, written by and starring Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and co-starring Kunal Nayyar (The Big Bang Theory), I knew I had to see it.  The play far exceeds any expectations that the advertised names create.  The script is intriguing and challenging.  The characters are full, real and complex.  The relationships are genuine, compelling and relatable.  The world of this play rings true on a personal level as well as holds strong relevance on a broader scale.  

In the opening scene, Kalyan (Kunal Nayyar) asks his girlfriend, Reshma (Annapurna Sriram) if she thinks it is better to tell someone a truth that will hurt their feelings and possibly destroy what they have that is going smoothly in their life, or leave well enough alone by withholding information.  As a playwright, Jesse Eisenberg explores this concept when the main character, Ben, who he portrays, does just that to the people to whom he is closely connected.  The term “closely connected” refers to Ben’s roommate Kalyan, his girlfriend Reshma, Ben’s grade school crush Sarah (Erin Darke), and her fiancé Ted (Michael Zegen).  Since Ben has managed to alienate himself from all social, professional, and creative contacts (he considers himself a filmmaker), these four characters are not necessarily defined by this term within his isolated existence.   It gets ugly and uncomfortable when Ben starts revealing some “truths” he has kept to himself.  What exactly is the truth and what purpose does it serve anyway? 

Jesse Eisenberg and Kunal Nayyar in The Spoils
Photo courtesy of The New Group

Scott Elliot’s directing is superb.  The two and a half hour play is tight and controlled.  Each of the five cast members is excellent.  They create authentic and realistic relationships based on genuine emotion, whether it’s compassion, generosity, jealousy, love, lust, loathing, or any strange and complex combination.  The depths of the characters are revealed throughout the play, but not fully exposed until the last moments.  Thank you Jesse Eisenberg for this prolific, unpredictable, and riveting journey of a play.

Michael Zegen, Jesse Eisenberg and Erin Darke in The Spoils
Phots courtesy of The New Group

On a personal note:  In the second act, Kalyan tells Ben about a job interview he went on which was unpleasant and humiliating.  His possible future employer berated his comments so that he felt like everything he said was the wrong answer.  Kalyan’s qualifications, education, and intelligence are clearly built up throughout the play.  The integrity of his interviewer is clearly questionable in the way he tells the story.  I had a similar experience last week.  Kalyan only had Ben to turn to, who filled up his head with “truths” that magnified the point of view of his interviewer.  Ben then continues to tear down Kalyan and illustrates how he created the alienated situation he thrives on.  I, on the other hand, was lucky enough to immediately call my friend Julia who gave me a more positive perspective.  A few questions come to mind:  Which “truth” is real?  Is it the one that serves you and keeps you moving forward with verve and self-confidence?  Or, is it the one that the person in power holds over you?  This brings up the basis of Ben and Kalyan’s relationship.  Ben kicks Kalyan when he is down in order to lift himself up.  Which “truth” is best for Ben and Kalyan to face? Will “truths” that Kalyan holds back from Ben affect him as deeply as the ones Ben reveals to Kalyan?  Does the question Kalyan asks in the opening of the play have a different answer based on the circumstances?  

Go see The New Group’s production of Jesse Eisenberg’s The Spoils at The Pershing Square Signature Center.  It runs through June 28.  The truth is… you’re gonna love it! 

 

 Domenick Danza