Travesties

Travesties

Roundabout Theatre Company

American Airlines Theatre

April 5, 2018

Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Tom Stoppard’s Travesties is receiving a tremendous revival by Roundabout Theatre Company.  Director Patrick Marber is in sync with Mr. Stoppard’s rhythms and humor.  The cast magnificently delivers the bite in the sarcasm and the punch in the irony.  The political and social commentary is clear and relevant, and makes an even more impressive statement when you realize it was first performed in 1974.

Tom Hollander as Henry Carr
Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

Henry Carr (played by Tom Hollander) pieces together the stories from his younger days in 1918 after the war in Zurich, Switzerland.  First there was his acquaintance with Tristan Tzara (played by Seth Numrich), the Romanian radical free thinker who helped find the Dada movement.  Next was the meeting with James Joyce (played by Peter McDonald), while he was writing Ulysses.  Then there was his run-ins with Lenin (played by Dan Butler) at the local library.  The discourse over revolution, socialism, art for art’s sake, and art for social commentary commands the air when these characters collide.  The comedy rises when Gwendolyn (played by Scarlett Strallen) and Cecily (played by Sara Topham) mistake the identities of Henry and Tristan.  This parallels the plot of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest, a play in which James Joyce convinces Henry to star in. 

Tom Hollander, Dan Butler, Patrick Kerr, Seth Numrich, & Patrick Marber
Photo courtesy of  Walter McBride, Broadway World,
& Roundabout Theatre Company 

Tom Hollander and Seth Numrich are mesmerizing as Henry Carr and Tristan Tzara.  Peter McDonald and Dan Butler boldly embody the characters of James Joyce and Lenin.  Patrick Kerr is underplayed perfection as Bennet, Henry Carr’s butler.  The entire cast works as a tight ensemble.  Their timing is impeccable.  Their physicalities are broad and energetic.  They bring light to Mr. Stoppard’s strong statements about art and humanity, which ring truthfully and vigorously.

The set design by Tim Hatley is full of surprises, allowing for numerous exit and entrance points and a wide variety of levels.  Lighting by Neil Austin is crisp and succinct, and greatly enhances the timing of the humor and the enthusiasm of the absurdity.

Photo courtesy of Roundabout Theatre Company

From the Roundabout Theatre Company program notes:  “A travesty is a ‘debased, distorted, or grossly inferior imitation’ of something; can also be defined as an artistic imitation of something in a ridiculously inappropriate style; Travesties is a travesty of The Importance of Being Ernest and other literary sources; characters in Travesties are travesties of the real people they are based on.”  This production sharply focuses on these four statements, bringing valuable insight to the purpose of art and how our involvement in it makes us human

Travesties is running at the American Airlines Theatre through June 17. 

Domenick Danza

The Changeling

The Changeling

Red Bull Theater

Lucille Lortel Theatre

December 31, 2015

Photo courtesy of Red Bull Theater

The Changeling, the Renaissance tragedy set in Spain, is remounted by Red Bull Theatre and presently playing in the West Village at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.  Jesse Berger boldly directed this dark and graphic tale of love and murder.  If you enjoy well done, classic theatre set in the time period in which it was written, this production is for you.  The characters are all genuinely driven by their desire and swallowed up by the fate they initiate for themselves.

Sara Topham & Christian Coulson
Photo by Carol Rosegg
Courtesy of Red Bull Theater

When Beatrice-Joanna (played by Sara Topham) meets the noble Alsemero (played by Christian Coulson), they fall immediately in love.  She is so overtaken that she plots with her father’s servant, DeFlores (played by Manoel Felciano), to murder Alonzo (played by John Skelley), to whom her father has previously betrothed her.  Unbeknownst to Beatrice-Joanna, DeFlores sees this as an opportunity to bond himself to her and demand what his heart desires, her maidenhood and loyalty. 

Christopher McCann &Andrew Weems
Photo by Carol Rosegg
Courtesy of Red Bull Theater

The subplot of the play takes place in “a madhouse resembling Bedlam, or Bethlehem Hospital, the famous London institution for the incarceration and ‘cure’ of madmen and fools.”*  This setting adds disorder, chaos, and comic relief to the darkness of the main plot, while deepening the level of intrigue and lunacy.  Actors Bill Army, Phillipe Bowgen, Christopher McCann, Michelle Beck, and Andrew Weems realistically create this locale and level of mayhem.

The entire cast is superb.  Each character is clearly developed with a strong sense of setting and time period.  They all deliver the classic language, which is Red Bull’s specialty, with natural comfort and expertise.  The set, costumes, and lighting (by Marion Williams, Beth Goldenberg, and Peter West) create an authentic atmosphere.  Choreography, by Tracy Bersley, in the opening of the first and second act clearly and skillfully sets up the action and pace for what follows.

Photo by Carol Rosegg
Courtesy of red Bull Theater

This is my first experience with Red Bull Theater.  They are “dedicated to the presentation  of vital and imaginative productions of heightened language plays and to the development of new plays written in a similar vein.  With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, Red Bull Theatre engages the intellect and imagination of today’s theatergoers through intimate and evocative staging of great classic stories.”*  If The Changeling is an example of the quality of their work, I look forward to seeing future productions.  It runs at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through January 24.  Check it out!

Domenick Danza

*These quotes come directly from Red Bull Theater’s program for The Changeling.