Orpheus Descending

Orpheus Descending
Theatre for a New Audience
Polonsky Shakespeare Center
July 15, 2023 

Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience

Theatre for a New Audience’s production of Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending is pure poetry.  Director Erica Schmidt gives distinctive voice to each character by finding their individual rhythm.  The pace is steady, drawing the audience deeply into the yearning of the main characters.  The tension builds as each character faces their need to escape their repressive circumstances and find freedom. 

When Jabe Torrance, owner of the town’s dry goods store (played by Michael Cullen), is taken seriously ill, Vee Talbott (played by Ana Reeder) introduces his wife, Lady (played by Maggie Siff), to a young man who can help her in the store.  Valentine Xavier (played by Pico Alexander) is a drifter, looking for work.  When Carol Cutrere (played by Julia McDermott) gets a glimpse of Valentine, wearing his snakeskin jacket and playing his guitar, she tries to lure him away from the dry goods store.  She warns Valentine of the dangers he will find there, but he does not listen.  He just turned thirty, and says he has given up the wild life.  Lady allows Valentine to live in the back room of the store.  She opens up to him, telling of when the men in the town burned her father’s vineyard to the ground, killing him.  She was then sold to her husband, and has been trapped in the dry goods store ever since.  When Jabe reveals the truth of his involvement in the fire at the vineyard, Lady throws herself at Valentine, seeking freedom and revenge. 

The Cast of "Orpheus Descending"
Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience

The tension of the piece is created through the contrast in the portrayal of the characters.  Pico
Alexander’s Valentine is smooth as silk.  Maggie Siff’s Lady is tough as nails.  Julia McDermott’s Carol is wild with abandon.  Ana Reeder’s Vee is cogent in her beliefs.  This is a large cast of strong, skilled actors.  Each actor on stage adds a distinct rhythm and pace in their interpretation, tightening the pull of the dramatic tension, while impelling the action to build to a shocking conclusion.  

Orpheus Descending is beautifully directed and performed.  It is playing at Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center in downtown Brooklyn through August 6. 

Domenick Danza

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur

La Femme Theatre Productions

Theatre at St. Clements

September 22, 2018

Photo courtesy of
La Femme Theatre Productions

A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, presented by La Femme Theatre Productions, poetically captures Tennessee Williams’ rhythms to draw you into the complexity of the characters.  Director Austin Pendleton orchestrates this stellar cast to gradually reveal their characters yearnings, motivations, and inner fears.  The scenic and lighting design by Harry Feiner magnificently creates a single room living space on the poorer side of St. Louis in 1939.  The overcrowded set dressing brilliantly reflects the characters’ deep need for fulfillment.  The four women in the cast gracefully dive beneath the surface to deliver heartfelt, genuine performances.

Dottie (played by Jean Lichty) is waiting for a very important call, while her roommate, Bodey (played by Kristine Nielson) is frying chicken and preparing deviled eggs for a Sunday picnic at Creve Coeur.  Bodey is obsessed with Dottie getting together with her brother, Buddy.  Dottie has her heart set on another man, the principal at the school where she teaches.  Bodey does not believe he is a good match for Dottie.  When Helena (played by Annette O’Toole) arrives and asks to speak to Dorothea, it takes Bodey a few minutes to realize she is asking for Dottie.  Helena is a teacher at the same school as Dottie.  They have been planning on getting an apartment together in a more affluent neighborhood, and Helena is there to collect the down payment.  Bodey thinks Helena is there to break some disturbing gossip to Dottie, and tries to keep them from speaking privately.  The presence of Miss Gluck (played by Polly McKie), the upstairs neighbor who suffers from depression due to the recent death of her mother, triggers specific reactions from each of the three women.  When Helena finally has a private moment with Dottie, she has to face her greatest fear.   

Kristine Nielsen, Jean Lichty, & Annette O'Toole
Photo courtesy of La Femme Theatre Productions

Tennessee Williams creates three highly complex characters in Dorothea (Dottie), Bodey, and Helena.  Dorothea is the fragile, idealistic, and aging Southern Belle who puts tremendous effort into maintaining her superficial and calm façade.  Jean Lichty reveals Dottie’s true heart in the opening scene with Bodey.  Their friendship is genuine.  Kristine Nielsen portrays Bodey as highly protective of Dottie.  Bodey’s personal need for Dottie to marry her brother is never spoken, but viscerally communicated by Ms. Nielsen.  When Dottie faces her fears in the climax of the play, Ms. Lichty relies on the genuine connection she created in the opening scene to build her character’s courage and fortitude.

Annette O’Toole’s Helena is highbrow and uptight.  Her entrance immediately creates a problem for Bodey.  Ms. O’Toole and Ms. Nielsen explore many levels of this conflict.  They build and vary their tone and physicality.  Even when they find a moment of agreement, they never drop the tension of competition.  After all her aggressive behavior, Ms. O’Toole is still able to elicit empathy when Helena’s deep sense of isolation is uncovered.

Annette O'Toole, Jean Lichty, Kristine Nielsen, & Pollu McKie
Photo courtesy of La Femme Theatre Productions

Miss Gluck represents the lonely end that each of the three women fear.  Polly McKie creates a dark and imposing presence that none of the other actors on stage can avoid.  She is what unites these characters in their struggle to survive.

This lesser produced Tennessee Williams play is a gem of complexity.  As he does in his other works, Williams sets up the fragile, artistic soul of the main character.  In this play, however, he surprises us by revealing the tender and vulnerable side of the characters who push their expectations on her.  Austin Pendleton and this marvelous cast take the audience on a truthful and intimate journey.  A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur is playing at the Theatre at St. Clements through October 21.   

Domenick Danza

The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie

Belasco Theatre

May 20, 2017

Photo courtesy of The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams’ words ring powerfully clear and vigorous in Director Sam Gold’s stark and poignant interpretations of The Glass Menagerie.  It is truly breathtaking.  The bare stage magically lends itself to the illusion of memory that Mr. Williams poetically inspires.  The phenomenal cast draws you in and engages you on a profoundly emitonal level.

The stage is empty, except for a table and four orange chairs.  Tom (played by Joe Mantello) enters and tells us, “I have tricks in my pocket.  I have tricks up my sleeve.  But I am the opposite of a stage magician.  I give you truth in the peasant disguise of illusion.”  The truthful moments abound as Tom brings us deep into his intimate memory of the relationships and struggles between him and his mother, Amanda (played by Sally Field), and his sister, Laura (played by Madison Ferris).  He takes us back to the 1930’s “when the huge middles class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind.”  Amanda worries about Laura’s future.  She pays for her to go to business school, but due to Laura’s shy nature and social disability, she drops out.  Amanda convinces Tom to invite a friend from his factory job to dinner as a “Gentleman Caller” for Laura.  When Tom brings home Jim (played by Finn Wittrock), Laura is paralyzed with fear.  Jim charms her in a candle-lit scene that allows her to see herself truthfully.

Madison Ferris, Sally Field, & Joe Mantello
Photo courtesy of The Glass Menagerie

Joe Mantello’s portrayal of Tom is tender and troubled.  The love he feels for his sister and his mother is genuine, yet his need to escape the stagnation of his life in St. Louis is crushing.  The relationship between him and Sally Field’s Amanda is realistic in its fire and sensitivity.  These two actors are phenomenal in these roles.  The moment when Amada asks Tom to bring home a gentleman caller for his sister is heart stopping.  The scene between them when Tom explains how Laura is different than other girls is emotionally gripping.  Joe Mantello’s Tom is clearly his mother’s son, complete with a flair for the dramatics.  It is Tom’s need to break the intimate bond between these two characters that creates the main conflict of the play.  This is clearly defined and powerfully interpreted by these two stellar actors.  

Photo courtesy of The Glass Menagerie

Madison Ferris’ Laura is strong and stoic.  She uses her withdrawal as a means to find inner strength.  She is calm and resilient in the face of her mother’s disapproval and outlook.  Due to her physical disability, the care and patience she receives from her mother and brother become a driving force in the main conflict.  The continual provision of this care is of utmost importance to the both of them, yet their ability to maintain it is constantly in question.  The image used in the poster for this production, which is distinctly atypical, is perfectly chosen for Mr. Gold’s version of this play.  Instead of the usual representation of the fragility of Laura’s character, it symbolizes her strength and perseverance.

Photo courtesy of The Glass Menagerie

The description Tom gives of Jim as “the most realistic character in the play, being an emissary for a world of reality that we were somehow set apart from” is impeccably portrayed by Finn Wittrock.  He is energetic and optimistic, and turns the world of the play upside down.

Sam Gold made profound choices in his direction of this American classic that create a visceral experience beyond expectation.  The closing scene is hauntingly insightful.  Unfortunately, this astounding production ends its limited Broadway run on May 21. 

Domenick Danza