Syncing Ink at the Flea

This review of Syncing Ink at The Flea was written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Syncing Ink
Written & Directed by NSangou Njikam
Artistic Director: Niegel Smith
Producing Director: Carol Ostrow
Wardrobe Supervisor: Sarah Lawrence
Director of Dance Programming: Lisa Reilly
Director of Music Programming: Lauren Alfano-Ishida
Hip Hop Choreography: Gabriel Dionisio (a/k/a Kwikstep)
Music by DJ Reborn
The Flea
20 Thomas Street
New York, New York 10007
Reviewed 10/9/17

Syncing Ink is legit. This play or musical-esque crossover of hip-hop expands on the stylistic innovations of Hamilton to demonstrate the power of this uniquely American subculture (Hip Hop) to create personal, emotional impact. Njikam's play features love, rivalry, failure, and redemption on a modern Hero's journey taught through the motions and emotions of those tales that have dominated both our times and all times. He expertly weaves in modern references to Dragonball Z and Jedi Knights while his character, Gordon, follows in his father's footsteps using their family's ancient power of the sacred Ase (pronounced Ashay) from Yoruba spirituality.

The absolutely fantastic meter soars in this play due to the accomplishments of the actors. Their combined ability to dance in complex break dancing moves as well as to change character brought the whole thing together seamlessly. For example, one moment, Adesola Osakalumi is alliterating adroitly as Mr. Wright ("You must make pupils of your pupils so you can teach your eyes to see. You must activate and integrate your hidden linguistic capacity, for you are all born with allocations from your ancestors to advance the atoms in the minds of men...and women...and the first way we will resuscitate and rejuvenate your precious gift is through the powerful paradigm we call poetry.") and the next, he is serving up laughs as Gordon's father. Example - "School has the 3Bs. Study the Books...use your Brains...and when the ladies see that, they might just shake their Butts."

Pay respects to The Mother

It is in Mr. Wright's Advanced Placement English Class at Langston Hughes High School where the story begins. Gordon (NSangou Njikam) enters on Day One and meets his opposition, Sweet Tea (Kara Young), Ice Cold (Elisha Lawson), and the reigning M.C. champion of the school, Jamal (Nuri Hazzard). Each of them can throw down rhymes while Gordon sits tight unable to speak his mind. Finally, in walks Mona Lisa, a new student at the school, played by the wonderful McKenzie Frye. In an effort to win Mona Lisa's affection, Gordon engages Ice Cold to help get her attention. To do this he must learn how to become the most powerful M.C. and out-rap Jamal.

This opens up one of the best sequences I think I've seen in modern playwriting. Knowing that the audience surrounded the stage on four sides, the actors create a "demonstrative walk through" that swirls around other actors frozen in the middle. Ice Cold mocks video game tutorials by guiding Gordon on the first stages of his journey as if he is a cross between C-3PO and a Disney automation while Mr. Wright busts out some more chops imitating a Japanese karate master as he teaches Gordon how to "dance." 

Just when you think you have a handle on each character and each actor, everything changes. Gordon stands up to Jamal, a tough looking kid in beat up clothes with face paint and a thick beard, only to be defeated. End Act 1. Gordon then grows up to study poetry and writing at Mecca University where he meets two of the most dynamic characters: Professor Brown (Hazzard), who is impressed with the Harlem Renaissance and the Standard English Canon disdaining his student's interest in "Little Wayne or Little Yachty or anyone else who is little." and Professor Black (Osakalumi), whose classes are "100% freestyle" and who sees white paper as a plot against young black minds." Jamal attends Georgetown University where he creates "a blend of conscious and trap music called 'crap'." All this sets up an epic confrontation where Gordon and Jamal compete against one another at The Cypher, an invitation-only, underground, Hip Hop competition "where the illest M.C.s go to battle." On the line are love and family honor.

Go see this. Tickets are available for $35.00 online at www.theflea.org or via the Box Office extension at 212-352-3101. 

The Baroness at the Clurman Theatre

This review of The Baroness: Isak Dinesen's Final Affair at The Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row was written by written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

The Baroness: Isak Dinesen's Final Affair
Written by Thor Bjorn Krebs
Translated by Kim Damboek
Directed by Henning Hegland
Music by Aleksi Ranta
Set Design by Akiko Nishijima Rotch
Lighting Design by Miriam Crowe
Sound Design by Amy Altadonna
Costume Design by Stine Martinsen
The Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street
New York, New York 10036
Reviewed 9/13/17

The Baroness captures an eerie intensity through the strange relationship between the young, Thorkild Bjørnvig, and the famous, Baroness Karen Blixen (known in the United States by the pseudonym Isak Dinesen), who takes a special interest in his "career." The tale takes place in Denmark where the young doctor, Thorkild, has just garnered national fame as the country's latest acclaimed writer. Upon hearing of the young man, The Baroness swoops in "to claim him." The two had a prolonged relationship between 1948 and 1955 that the playwright, Thor Bjorn Krebs, reconstructed for dramatic appeal using notes from the time period.

The infamous and famous Karen Blixen.

Just off the publication of Stjoernen bag Gavlen, a collection of poems, in 1947, Thorkild (played by Conrad Ardelius) was living a life that seemed perfect. He has financial support from a benefactor, has just married, and has a young child. There is just one major problem. He can't write. This is incredibly common. As a writer, I've read or come across accounts of other writers who have to learn to overcome the new struggle to create. When once they might have relied on the "wind in their sails," many writers find it difficult to hunker down and repeat their performance especially under the pressure of expectations. In comes Karen Blixen using this opportunity to insert herself in the young doctor's life. Sometimes I felt that this wasn't very relatable and that the structure of the dialogue did not work to draw you in, but there were a number of positives to the performance including Dee Pelletier who made an astounding Karen Blixen.

Blixen (at 62) approaches the much younger Thorkild (29) with an enticing offer. She will help him to write. The offer does not seem at all innocent. Blixen requires Thorkild to join her at her home,Rumgstedlund, alone, leaving behind his young family. Thorkild accepts, hoping the isolation will prove helpful. As the "affair" commences, Thorkild treads through it with so much naivete (or perhaps hesitancy) that the relationship is never consummated. Blixen requires him to swear a pact to her in friendship by giving him a ceremonial African dagger. With every scene change, she questions his loyalty, and he listens and listens. He goes through all the motions, but he fails to write little more than one sexually-laced poem about lust.

It's not really a surprise that sex is the subject matter. Blixen describes things like putting a record on as if it is a sensual caress. She also often claims she will find the gorgeous young doctor a harem to unleash the desire that led him to write Gavlen. She'll present them in a bouquet, she says. The closest she comes, however, is giving him an actual bouquet of flowers in the colors of the women she describes. Complicating things is the young wife of Thorkild's benefactor, Benedicte (Vanessa Johansson). Benedicte fits the mold of the women Thorkild is interested in, and when Blixen eventually pushes Thorkild away to Bonn, Germany for a literary escapade, Benedicte goes to see him. Passion envelopes them, and Thorkild begins to sever the ties of his old relationships, including his wife. He takes refuge in a summer home his benefactor had bought before the affair.

This time it is Blixen who follows the young Thorkild who has finally succeeded in writing again. Blixen confronts him about the pact, and at first, Thorkild seems like he has been won over by Blixen's statements of passion, loyalty, and friendship. When she claims they must seal their pact in blood, Thorkild finally rejects her. Blixen, entranced by voodoo, sees a black adder on the threshold of the door. She takes it as a token of esteem, but Thorkild writes that it is an ill omen. The two break their bond, and Thorkild would go on to write multiple collections of poems throughout the rest of his life. Blixen would publish Last Tales in 1957, which include four stories that seem to relate to their friendship.

The performance of the play was good and left little to be desired. The set design and lighting helped to showcase an intimate, reflective look at the creative process through this striking production about one of literature's key figures. Many aspects of this play were revealing and powerful, especially regarding the creative process which Blixen states, in the play, "takes courage." There did seem to be a minor disconnect between the audience and the play. I feel this was mainly due to an over-reliance on the audience having a prior understanding of who the two characters were, especially Baroness Blixen. As an internationally famous Dutch author who died in 1962, Blixen lived flamboyantly, often wearing lavish outfits. She was best known for Out Of Africa, written about her life in Kenya, which was made into an Academy-Award winning motion picture. I'd recommend this play to anyone interested in the creative process. Tickets can be purchased for $47.50 at https://www.satcnyc.org/thebaroness 

Lost and Guided at Under St. Marks

This review of Irene Kapustina's Lost & Guided at Under St. Mark's Theater was written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Lost & Guided
Written & Directed by Irene Kapustina
Assistant Director: Alexandra Kattan
Costume, Set & Lighting Design by Wesley Cornwell
Sound Design by Adam Cuthbert
Stage Management by Sabrina Morabito
Under St. Mark's Theater
94 St. Mark's Place
New York, New York 10009
Reviewed 8/5/17

Lost & Guided has an intriguing concept for a play. Set amidst the onset of violence in Syria's Civil War, it follows the fates of two families connected through best friends Amina (Mischa Ipp) and Rima (Mouna R'miki). While relying perhaps too heavily on the classic idea of how civil war or war, in general, can tear apart families and ruin lives, the play does synthesize the emotions of the characters through good acting and an engaging script. These factors allowed the play to capture both the naive hope, in the early days, of positive changes being made to the government and the devastating effects the war would later have on the citizens of the country.

Despite a plethora of moments of clarity that created intense emotional drama, there were some aspects of the play that made it difficult to follow. One of the problems was a convoluted story arc. Most likely meant to draw attention to how lives are altered by the onset of war as mentioned earlier, I felt like none of the featured characters became an early focal point. This made it hard to catch the main storyline, but it did provide for interesting dialogue that was partially a guise for the delivery of a deluge of information. 

The first scene in the play shows a conversation between Rima and Amina discussing husbands. Mouna R'miki as Rima was an awesome ball of passion that dominated the opening wonderfully. "I do not love him!" Rima exclaimed before launching into a twister-like tirade across the exquisite stage with a delicate balance of grace and verve. "He's so quiet" she would say about her husband while being her loud and obnoxious self and describing her own character as the worst thing about her personality. It was pretty funny, but beside her, Amina seemed to be merely a person with a pulse for Rima to talk to. Even though this scene seemed like a big deal, most if it didn't really factor into the main elements of the story. The most important part was the return of Imad and Sami (Rima's brother) with news. Even though he just got engaged to Amina, Imad accepted a position in a hospital in New Orleans.
 

Retrospectively, this might have been given a more prominent position in the unfolding of the story. The news could have been broken at the beginning of the scene and then Rima could have consoled Amina while lambasting her own husband. However, it came at the end somewhat disguising the fact that Imad takes the central role in the story powered by Doga Celik's superb performance. While Imad is in New Orleans adapting and adjusting to American life (quite comically at points), the Syrian Civil War breaks out and begins to tear apart his family back home. All he can do is stay in contact through Whatsapp hearing intermittent news from Sami, who works as a star doctor in a hospital, and Amina, who plans to escape with Rima as a refugee to Jordan. Imad is left powerless complaining, "I'm a man. I should do something," but he can't even tell his fiancee he misses her because she starts to cry. His biggest issue is being able to sound surprised and enthusiastic when colleagues tell him interesting news while at home bombs begin to become a constant threat. At first, Sami, played by the solid Shayan Sobhian, joyously discussed the pro-Democracy marches, but quickly the news starts to sour when Rima's husband is taken off to fight for Assad's army.

The other major difficulty in following the storyline was in the structure of the cast. Three of the seven actors played strange bit roles that mostly didn't require talking. These roles came in between major talking parts like commercials between different segments of the show. For example, immediately after Imad delivers his news about going to America, Jarrod Zayas, as an officer, chases, and mimes the killing of Alexandra Kattan, who plays a student. By mimicking hand movements on one side of the stage while Alexandra twisted and turned on the other side of the stage, Jarrod could act out more violent gestures, but it seemed a little awkward as the audience had no context for the interaction. Sami explained later when he told Imad over Whatsapp that students had been delivered to their parents dead. I am not sure if these scenes were added to make the situation seem more dire and violent, but it may have required more building up for the sake of comprehension. Susan Cohen Destefano also joined these in between segues dressed in a nun's habit and usually appeared only when death struck.

Regardless of these factors, the narrative became engrossing as the toll of the war became more and more apparent. I was deeply moved by the ultimate fate of the main characters in the play. Amina walked to Jordan for 10 hours, and Rima, who didn't leave, died in a bombing raid. Amina rested on her backpack mid-stage while Rima's body crashed to the floor in the back. Meanwhile, Sami safely rested up against the wall having just told Imad he was hiding under a support beam. When he goes to help an injured rebel left for dead, she cries out and a guard (Jarrod Zayas) kills them both. The two actors lay side by side after Sami sends out one last message to be received by Imad in America. Safe in America, Imad goes to pray.

There were a lot of positive aspects to Lost & Guided, but the story arc and the silent segues did make it difficult to follow. I would recommend this play for its timeliness and gritty nature. Doga Celik and Mouna R'miki stood out for their passionate performances as Imad and Rima. The cast as a whole brought a human face to a faraway war that now resonates for me more emotionally than it did before watching the play. For that, Lost & Guided deserves praise as does writer-director Irene Kapustina for writing the script after conducting interviews with Syrian refugees living in the United States. I hope you get a chance to enjoy it while it is at Under St. Mark's Theater through August 25, 2017. Tickets for $20.00 can be found on www.lostandguided.com or by calling 1-800-901-7173. 

A Toy Gun at Teatro Circulo

This review of Tamar Bartaia's A Toy Gun at Teatro Circulo was written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

A Toy Gun
Written by Tamar Bartaia
Directed by Becky Baumwoll
Translated by Donald Rayfield
Teatro Circulo
64 East 4th Street
New York, New York 10003
Reviewed 7/29/17

A Toy Gun, a play by Tamar Bartaia, is part of the Georgian-American Theatrical Feast, a festival of new works written by playwrights from the Republic of Georgia. It begins in a small Georgian town but the country's setting and the sequence of events that affect it during the lifetimes of our two main characters, Medea (Tara Giordano) and Yoram (Luke Younger) are very similar to what is happening elsewhere in the world. The writer and actors successfully present universal themes that resonate beyond the circumstances of any one country. One of the main plot points is how the two characters react to current events in their home country from their changing statures. Their perceptions of the world and of each other change during the course of their lives. A toy gun connects them throughout their lives.

The two characters meet on an empty black stage when Medea (Mea) goes to an audition for a role in a play that her teen idol, Yoram (Yo) is putting on. The actors portray the emotions of the moment very well while they also begin spreading colored sand along the ground which accumulates as time passes. At the start, Mea is giddy with hope while Yo is cursing the fame that isolates him. He can't stand love letters or his adoring fans while Mea makes up having received even one. While she waits in line to audition, she catches Yo's attention, but not for the right reasons. She has had a drink of Brandy, and Yo notices that her eyes glisten. He asks her to audition, but while in her mind, she impresses, in reality, Yo can barely stand the sight of her. He sends her away saying, "You have no talent." Mea storms out, and when at home, she fumes. With excellent chemistry and rhythm, the two actors were able to make all this believable whether there were supposed to be two or twenty people in their fictional world.

At first, she plans to kill him with her dad's shot gun, but then she goes to grab her brother's toy gun. She imagines humiliating him in front of everyone but when she arrives, he is alone working late. He hears her coming up the stairs and tries to calm himself down by telling himself it is probably just one of his fans looking for an autograph. Mea appears and threatens him with the toy gun. To her surprise, Yo breaks down crying. She loses all respect for him and tosses the gun on the floor beside the sniveling Yo. He grabs it after she's left and realizes instantly that it is only a toy. There are many emotional aspects portrayed in this opening but there was still a long way to go. The toy gun incident alters both characters' paths in life. Mea runs home to tell her family she no longer wants to be an actress - to their relief. Yo goes home to wallow in the misery of his realization of having broken down in front of this little girl. Mea suddenly has more confidence in school, and Yo begins to cancel shows so that no one sees him miserable. At one point, he throws the gun out the window only to look for it in the dark. When he finally does come out for a show, he is haunted by Mea's face and sees her everywhere in the crowd. But he does the performance and receives applause. 

The Swirling Sand of A Toy Gun

Years go by. Yo stays an actor, and Mea gets married and has kids. One day, for her confidence and unique mezzo soprano voice, she is selected for a prestigious scholarship at the famous La Scala in Milan. Everyone is proud and Yo sees Mea on television saying how beautiful she is and not recognizing her as the child with the toy gun. The roles have now been reversed. While Mea once looked up to Yo as untouchable, now Yo looks at Mea the same way. Unfortunately, while she is gone, a civil war breaks out. Yo is brave and fights hard. He is one of two survivors from his battalion. Meanwhile, Mea watches helplessly from abroad and begins to feel the isolation, loneliness, and imprisonment of fame Yo once felt. Because of their fame, both were asked, "Which side are you on?", and both couldn't tell a difference between the sides. 

The remainder of the play deals with this dichotomy. The lives of the two characters are ruled more by their roles in society than by their own desires. Mea continues to succeed as a singer, and ultimately when offered a contract late in her career, she turns it down to return to buy her father's old house to reinvigorate the community. Although her search for purpose abroad had turned into homesickness, the aging Yo, inspired by the incomparable Mea, has begun to learn English and frets that he has wasted too much time. Even when a second civil war breaks out for a little over a week, he risks marching through the dangerous streets in order to study English at his tutor's house. He discovers that English is not as hard as he thought, and he falls in love with his tutor's twin children, who call him Grandpa. He begins to write plays in English, and one of his plays is accepted for production in England. On the same flight he takes into Heathrow, Mea leaves for home. In England, Yo realizes the plays there are pretty bad, saying the audiences there "are bound to like (mine)." He plans to write plays at home so he can spend time with the twins. However, on the flight home, he has a stroke after writing his final play, A Toy Gun. Mea, now living in the same town as Yo, rushes to the hospital to confess that she was the girl from that day long ago. A week later, posted from the day before Yo's death, Mea receives a package and inside is her brother's toy gun and the words, "Thank you for everything dearest."

The solid structure and depth of this play are apparent from the start when society and class lines are insinuated by the briefest mention, but astounding detail lies just beneath the surface at every turn. For example, from London, Mea sees the civil war as lasting three days while in-country Yo and the tutor see a civil war that lasts almost two weeks. These are small things but they serve to create the perspective that details may change based on from whom and when the information is received. The actors brought out the level of depth that made this play well-worth seeing. They engaged the audience to create an intimate setting and deserve credit for solidly executing their lines. There were no complex fight scenes or dramatic dances but they talked easily and moved around the stage pouring different colored sand from envelopes and packing boxes. This seemed to represent the experiences that one accumulates in life because, in the end, each of them had their own large pile and the rings they had formed at the start of the play had become muddled and unclear. It was a cool image (see above) and helped to keep my attention.

I'd recommend this play. It is short and meaningful while others in the festival could have tended to the obscene or abnormal. It is relatable showing that the search for meaning goes beyond finding a day to day purpose. Instead, it is about connecting and forming bonds between people even if by some strange incident involving A Toy Gun. The festival runs from July 19th through August 3rd at Teatro Circulo (www.teatrocirculo.org). 

In A Word at the Cherry Lane Theatre

This review of Lauren Yee's In A Word at The Cherry Lane Theatre was written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

In A Word
Written by Lauren Yee
Directed by Tyne Rafaeli
The Cherry Lane Theatre
38 Commerce Street
New York, New York 10014
Reviewed 7/2/17

In A Word delivered a thorough introspective of what it can be like to work with and raise difficult children. The play showcases a child seen as adorable in one moment and then troublesome in another. The juxtaposition of this child's different phases left me wondering whether I felt bad for any of the characters at all. At first, I empathized with the parents who had lost their little boy. The situation seemed so heartbreaking. A child had gone missing and his two loving parents were unable to move on, but as the sequences of the play revealed a clearer picture of the circumstances of the household, I felt like the audience was challenged. We were confronted with the question of whether the value of the loss and the parent's remorse changed with the knowledge that the child was mentally handicapped.

The play began in the living room of the Hamlet family. The husband, Guy, steps in to find the wife, Fiona, searching through boxes. It's the second anniversary of the disappearance of their adopted little boy, Tristan, and as Fiona frantically ransacks the apartment looking for evidence of their child, Guy tries to get her to go out for dinner for the first time since the tragic incident two years ago. Jose Joaquin Perez's performance as Guy was particularly patient and respectable alongside a clever Laura Ramadei. Perez brought a lot of emotion to his part as he made impassioned appeals to his wife. It makes sense right off the bat that he wants her to move on from their lost child, but she has a hard time letting go. He is concerned for her, but he can't understand why she has been so listless these past two years. He tells her, "This has to stop" and in almost the same breath, reminds her, "Was there something that you wanted to tell me?"

The aftermath of the play at the Cherry Lane - great use of stage props to focus the audience's attention.

These appeals launch a series of flashbacks that became the main substance of the play. About every 3-5 minutes, the couple would say some lines of dialogue that would cue a flashback sequence and an extremely talented Justin Mark, who played a myriad of roles including the role of Tristan, joined the couple on stage. His comedic timing was impeccable. As a detective, Justin mockingly plays with a cantaloupe from Fiona who thought she had met the kidnapper at the grocery store. She has some trouble when she first sees Justin Mark, the detective because the kidnapper and Tristan were also played by Justin Mark. He says, "I just have one of those faces." It is revealed later that Fiona never saw the kidnapper on the day of Tristan's disappearance, but she is clearly hung up on the loss of her child. She not only hallucinates meetings with the supposed kidnapper, but she also paints a glossy picture over the time that she was living with Tristan. Fiona tells the newspapers that she "loved him" and that she "misses him very much," but Guy tells the audience, "funny, I never remember hearing those words (when Tristan was around)."

One of Fiona's favorite lines to young Tristan is "take care of your things or you're going to lose them." Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like Fiona took her own advice. As Guy brings up, Tristan was a much more difficult child than Fiona would let the media know. She likes to tell how great Tristan was, but in reality, he was "difficult." That's what Guy remembers hearing. At school, Tristan was a nuisance, and Fiona had to take him into her own class to keep him from going into special education. It is actually unclear as to why she does this considering that Tristan's behavior is revealed to actually be pretty horrible. He has trouble controlling is bowels. He has trouble learning. He can't make friends. His own father recognizes his developmental disabilities and calls him at one time "retarded." Fiona tries to avoid this word, but she can't seem to come to grips with the reality of Tristan's situation. After a particularly traumatic "picture day," the school gives her a leave of absence and she loses Tristan in the parking lot of a gas station when she stepped in to grab a candy bar. She finally reveals this to her husband, Guy, who reminds her that "even if we can't get justice, we can get better."

At the beginning of the play, I felt remorseful, but when I learned more about how Fiona handled her son's situation and education, I felt a lot less empathetic towards her and unfortunately, her child. It seems to me like she wanted to remain in denial rather than make tangible efforts to help Tristan get better, more helpful attention. That being said, I also wonder if I'd still feel as badly for the missing child as I did at the start if I knew then that he had these difficulties. I definitely feel bad for the husband and father, Guy, who has stayed patiently by his wife's side for these two years, but there is an element of "you reap what you sew" to the whole play. In A Word will keep you entertained for sure, but it may also leave you scratching your head at times at the behavior of the two parents. It's well-written, fluid, and makes you think. If you're looking for that, get tickets atwww.CherryLaneTheatre.org or call OvationTix at 866-811-4111.

George Tabori's Jubilee at the Theater for the New City

This review of George Tabori's Jubilee at Theater For The New City was written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Jubilee
Written by George Tabori
Directed by Manfred Bormann
Theater For The New City
155 First Avenue
New York, New York 10003
Reviewed 5/11/17

George Tabori's Jubilee is a scathing rebuke directed toward any resurgence or sympathy in the types of behavior that Tabori witnessed first-hand in the lead up to World War II. Written originally in German in 1983, three years after Tabori returned, the playwright may have either seen familiar behavior or meant to describe what World War II was like. Within the 70s and 80s, German nationalism suffered from "a feeling of hopelessness" which later resulted in the 1989-91 social movement, "Die Winde," that reunited Germany under a democratic parliamentary system. It's hard to tell whether, in 1983, Tabori was responding to a social trend, calling out outliers, or providing critical satire on the century's darkest hours. While Tabori relies on mixed metaphors and stylized dialogue similar to Tabori's other reproduction, Mein Kampf, he also lays out his intentions in this dramatic tale of death and woe much clearer. There is no wondering whether we are to understand evil or contemplate the profundity of a satirical jab at the meaninglessness of wishing to prevent that which already occurred. No, it is clear that evil must be stopped immediately. This is shown expertly rather than told. We, as the audience, must relive the deaths of five innocents, each of which is related to the actions of the hateful, young skinhead, Juergen played terrifically by David Knowle whose villainous posturing and venomous tone captured the essence of hate.
 

Photo of GW Read and Andrea Lynn Green - photo by Michael E Mason and provided by Theater for the New City

Jubilee revolves around Juergen's visits to the graveyard where the victims of his hate lie buried. It may be said that he attempts to reconcile with some measure of guilt for their deaths, and yet he simultaneously tortures these dead ghosts further. In one scene he quite literally punches them in the face. While sometimes it seems like Juergen does, in fact, regret causing so many deaths, he spends most of the play rubbing into these ghosts that they are, in fact, dead. Each scene from the opening in which all of the ghosts and Juergen appear together develops in further detail how it is that these characters met their fates and ended up buried together in this particular spot. The first of these is an old man named Arnold, played by G.W. Reed. His performance is more than adequate to the role and starts the play off on a somber but patient tone. The young Juergen prank calls old Arnold and he tells his wife, Lotte, played exceptionally well by Cordis Heard, that it is just the "poor freak." He keeps up an uplifting reminiscence of when they first met until Juergen reminds him of the death of Mitzi, Lotte's late sister's only child. Lotte attempts to keep Arnold happy, but Juergen apparently doesn't think he has harassed the old man enough, however, and he shows up on the doorstep to put a bullet in Arnold's chest. From there, we dive into the interrelated events (and deaths) that have led to this moment.

The first three deaths are the suicides of Mitzi (Andrea Lynn Green), Otto (Jeff Burchfield), and Helmut (Derrick Peterson). While it doesn't seem to directly state which death came first chronologically, the play's timeline continues with Helmut, who is the gay spouse of Otto and Juergen's uncle. Helmut is upset at his nephew's constant hate and unpunished crimes against the Jewish, so he gets himself circumcised. Helmut begins to mentally self-destruct when he can't reach Juergen and eventually ends up in a hospital to receive treatment for his sexual preference as the source of his melancholy. He "succumbs" to the treatment and is left in a room with a belt just as a Nazi once left a prisoner in a room with a belt. Helmut uses it to hang himself in the same manner that the prisoner once was forced to in World War II. Upon receiving the news, Otto does the same, slipping into the water after taking sleeping pills. While it may seem that these deaths do not have much to do with the evil of Juergen, Mitzi's death is more clearly related begging us to ask the question, "When do we act?" Mitzi moved to this new school and fell ill-fated in love with a young boy in a long, black coat. While she never specifically says Juergen, he happens to always be wearing a long, black, coat. Seemingly as a joke or possibly out of some interest (shown in the form of hate?), Juergen sends Mitzi a letter. She is excited to read it, but upon opening it, she reads aloud, "How come they (the Nazis) missed you?" She promptly responds by putting her head in an oven. Are these instigator-less crimes? Is there no one to blame? Do we wait to stop the hatred until an outright act of violence has been committed such as the execution-style shooting of old Arnold?

David Knowle performs an excellent soliloquy suggesting that we, deep down as people, relish the chance to be evil and dismiss the small evils, better described as warning signs. Maybe this is true. each of these four deaths seems to be modeled after the deaths of Jewish prisoners during World War II. So how does Lotte end up in the cemetery with the other four? As it turned out, she is slowly drowned in a telephone booth amidst a parade. If the other death's metaphors don't draw enough clear allusions to World War II, Cordis Heard's passionate and desperate plea must ring true. At first, she is calm, letting every one of her safe friends know that she will be going away for a while when suddenly she realizes that water is leaking into her phone booth. She begins to ask calmly for help, but her friends think she is pranking them and start hanging up on her. The door is stuck shut, and the parade goers are too busy partying to notice her plight. Her friends continue to ignore her desperation, and she begins to bid them goodbye until finally, the water has drowned her. It was a beautiful performance by Cordis to tie the deaths together. Before World War II, many people likely knew that something was happening. Some left, but most either couldn't or by the time they realized they needed to, they were no longer able to leave the country. They asked for help, but people didn't listen. Many were too excited about the good things to care (the "parades"). Those stuck in Central Europe before the fighting broke out were drowned in front of everyone who never even lifted a finger in their defense.

While maybe this, for some people, was enough, the final act demonstrates the true darkness of ignoring those deaths that were evident. Andrea Lynn Green puts on an outright virtuoso performance as Mitzi with a conclusive plea. She portrays this through "what she learned about Hitler" for a school paper. She shifts characters and voices to showcase her range and ability, describing the needless hanging by the Nazis of a number of children aged 5 to 12 who were ordered to their deaths to conceal an experiment using the children to test an "anti-tuberculosis serum." It was a privilege to watch her work with such passion. The deaths were needless and horrible, but had action been taken, could the evil have been stopped even before Mitzi and the oven? While the inherent thesis does not stand on any single, specific story, it does display, in my opinion, exactly what Tabori had intended. This collection of snippets, comparable to a slide show or a series of dreams, provides a look into what it was like to watch the evil unfold as a member of the minority communities in Nazi Germany. There is very, little classic plot to speak of, but I would say that Tabori understood this. Instead of seeing the play develop in a classical way toward a climax, each scene becomes a clearer and clearer depiction of what the Nazi evil developed into to the point that researchers viewed children as "guinea pigs." The question must be asked even though we might hear the cries for help, "does Juergen listen?" See at Theater For The New City on May 20th or May 21st at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $18.00 for adults and $15.00 for students/seniors. They are available on the website, http://www.theaterforthenewcity.net. Enjoy!

The Conspiracists at the IRT Theater

This review of Max Baker's The Conspiracists at The IRT Theater was written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

The Conspiracists
Written & Directed by Max Baker
The IRT Theater
154 Christopher Street, Suite 3-B
New York, New York 10014
Reviewed 4/22/17

What would happen if you put a bunch of crazy conspiracy theorists in a church basement and they disagreed on the true conspiracy? Absurdity perhaps and The Conspiracists, a quirky, funny, and surprisingly dark play that showcases playwright Max Baker's ability to create tangibly deep characterizations. This helped to provide for a uniqueness to the experience that a viewer may be interested in for just the experience. However, despite the upside of a few laughs, the intriguing concept falls prey to awkward arguments and a lack of cohesive direction which can create a lot of confusion. If you try to follow the plot, then you may miss the jokes. The stilted narrative thread follows a strange sequence of events through three alternate realities (also different acts of the play). What's unclear is whether the actions in one reality always affect the other realities or if the sequences are happening simultaneously. The true boon, however, is that the play helps us to reflect upon different aspects of our own lives and circumstances to deconstruct what conspiracies truly are.

Each act starts out the same way. Win, played by Ian Poake and the leader of the Conspiracy Support Group, enters in a flurry and says, "Hi" to Jo (Ricki Lynee), who is sitting in a chair preparing an experiment. Win sets up the room and says a few things like, "I never remember how many chairs to set up" even though we quickly learn that there are only five returning members of the support group. He is followed by Emmett (Arthur Kriklivy) and Dee Dee (Sofiya Cheyenne). After Emmett changes his chair out due to a mark on the one Win set up for him despite there being a plethora of available chairs, Dee Dee arrives spouting a spree of complaints. Why didn't Emmett hold the door? Where is her prayer stool, which she uses to place her feet? Once they've all sat down, Jo's alarm goes off and the chaos ensues. Jo is about to participate in an experiment at the same time that the Hadron Collider in Switzerland will force a collision between sub-atomic particles. She places a favorite doll of hers in a suitcase, hooks it up to a phone, and dictates this to a silver tape recorder marking the other three as witnesses. At this point, things deviate from scene to scene.

In the first act, actress Lisa Jill Anderson appears as a neurotic schizophrenic named Madonna, who believes that she can talk to inanimate objects by tapping into their feelings. Lisa absolutely stuns the audience with an exceptional demonstration of crazy. At first, she is mild-mannered and compliant to the rules of the group, but when Brooke (played by Alice Johnson) begins to complain about being locked in the bathroom, Madonna goes insane believing that she is being talked to by a despondent ghost. She chants that she is the Goddess Madonna while performing a dance with a small statue that looked like a Golden Globe Award. The other characters are as stunned as we are and in attempting to calm Madonna down, we get some pretty funny lines about dealing with the mentally unstable. This is coming from Conspiracy Theorists who believe that Lizard people control the world or that we are merely living in a simulation of our own advanced race. I remember thinking to myself, "O.K., what just happened and where do we go from here?"

In the second and third act, Lisa appears as two different versions of the newcomer to the support group - Steve, a standoffish conspiracy theorist expert, and Hilda, a bubbly girlfriend of Emmett that he met through an online dating app. Each of these characters is so different from the meek Madonna that it's incredible to think Lisa was able to prepare to perform three roles in one. In fact, while Lisa's performance was above noteworthy, all the actors seemed to be really well cast for their parts. I found Lisa's performance of Steve in the second act particularly funny and dark. She laments on the various aspects of conspiracy theories acting like a pseudo expert and eventually commenting that "Hope" is the true conspiracy. Each act definitely takes a unique spin on the quest for answers as the conspiracy theorists slowly unravel and retreat into their own ideas.

While Lisa demands a lot of attention, she also plays catalyst to how the discussion of the group develops. Once her character enters, the group's discussion takes off. Unfortunately, for Win, and fortunately for the audience, Hilda (3rd act Lisa), presses him to seek what he really wants. This happens to be Brooke, who he has been harboring a crush for. He gives an engaging but desperate confession of love, and she, of course, denies his pathetic overture. It's one of the funniest moments of the play and starkly real. This soliloquy-like confession of love tops off a strong performance by Ian Poake. Sofiya Cheyenne, Dee Dee, also had a strong performance delivering some ridiculous lines without even the hint of a smile like describing our real-life Presidential election as being a race between "a Reptilian Shape-Shifter" and a "Snake-Oil Salesman." Without leaving the church basement, the group seems to cover almost all of the dominant conspiracies and even Santa isn't safe from the targeting. While there is no consistent narrative thread, the play returns to Jo's experiment after the discussions between the characters. She ends the act by pulling out what has become of the doll in the box leaving us guessing as to whether actions in this reality or the next affected the contents.

At times this play was emotionally confronting such as when Steve (Lisa Anderson) addresses the pointlessness of existence. Often these revelations are slightly disturbing. Thankfully, the dark, irreverent humor did not dip into the obscene or grow to the point of overwhelming despair. Although, I do wonder if overwhelming despair would have given the play a more substantial feeling. Overall, I did like the play and would suggest it to a friend looking for weird or who is tired of watching reruns of a show that follow the Friends model. On the negative side, the play did seem like one of those stories where in the end, the meaning is that there is no meaning. Whoa, so profound. Still, it was funny and the actors executed their parts well. I'm a huge fan of dark humor, and if you admire amusingly frank and sometimes uncomfortable comedy like that seen in South Park and the Fallout series games, then you'll probably enjoy a number of the jokes in The Conspiracists. Still, it wasn't so funny that my sides were splitting, and sometimes I was the only one chuckling at a particularly dark revelation of the absurdity of the search for meaning in things or life. If that is your thing, then this play is for you. If not, I'd suggest rethinking your decision to go see The Conspiracists. It can be seen at The IRT Theater through May 7, 2017. Tickets can be purchased at www.stablecableabco.org for $18.00 or at the door for $20.00.

For more reviews check out Applause! Applause!

Luft Gangster at the Sheen Center

This review of Lowell Byers' Luft Gangster at the Sheen Center For Thought & Culture (Black Box Theater) was written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Luft Gangster
Written by Lowell Byers
Directed by Austin Pendleton
Sheen Center For Thought & Culture
Black Box Theater
18 Bleecker Street
New York, New York 10012
Reviewed 4/15/17

Luft Gangster returns to the Sheen Center after a few years with many of the same cast members who appeared in the 2013 production. The play entertained audiences then and still does while providing context and clarity on life within a World War II German Prisoner Of War (POW) camp. The play latches onto your attention early and doesn't let go. The gradual building of intensity through the first few scenes, and the smooth introduction of various characters, actors, and settings, draws the viewer into the life of the lead character, Lou Fowler, played by Lowell Byers. Additionally, the script, characterization, and portrayal of the roles allow one to imagine the circumstances clearly without the play resorting to overdone dialogue.

Pre-performance at the Sheen Center

The play begins with Lou Fowler at the bedside of his dying and widowed mother. This is a little unclear because the set design employed chairs as props for both chairs and beds. Following his mother's death, Lou signs up for the United States Army Air Corps and is eventually shot down over Yugoslavia in March 1944. Lou bails out of a falling plane and suffers shrapnel wounds to his leg and injures his shoulder. He is rescued by a peasant woman before being captured by the Germans. During his first interrogation, we learn the Germans are interested in specific technical and tactical information about Lou's bomber and bombing target. They utilize various techniques to get him to talk including the use of German-American spies posing as prisoners to encourage "cooperation." The Germans remind Lou of the many Germans who lost their loved ones during Allied bombing raids that deliberately targeted civilians. One of the surprising factors of this part of the play is the vast amount of information the Germans already knew about Lou Fowler, including the names of his family members and where he grew up. It is unclear how they were able to link Lou to his information considering Lou lost his dog tags in North Africa. Lou answers the questions with just his name, rank, and identification number, and is eventually shipped to a POW camp named Stalag Luft VI. 

Once Lou is at the POW camp, we are introduced to the remainder of the main characters in the form of other POWs. In total, there were two Brits - Randall, and Peter, as well as three Americans - Joe, Vinny, and Lou. While I can't say enough about the praiseworthy performance of Lowell Byers as Lou Fowler, the supporting cast was equally as impressive. Their ability to transition between different languages and effortlessly switch between roles built upon the intensity established by the circumstances of Lou's introduction. Ralph Byers, Lowell Byers' real life father, played a variety of German officers and did an especially brilliant job balancing intimidation with poise. Granted some of the characterizations were a little standard for World War II stories, however solid acting helped to create a sense of purpose to each character. Two of the best examples were Noel Joseph Allain as Randall and Paul Bomba as Vinny. They impressed with their consistent accents and ability to portray vivid personalities. Randall was a long term interned Brit who acted as domineering and self-righteous as one would expect. The gregarious New York Italian-American Vinny became the subject of suspicion for being a possible Jerry upon his introduction but later earned the trust of the rest of the group, especially when they started digging an escape tunnel.

Unfortunately, even after the group navigates the politics of the camp and fends off a potential German spy named Bill, the escape tunnel plan ends in the gruesome death of both Brits. Seth James' Peter provided the main comedic moments of the play with his various attempts to brew tea. In fact, the desperation of Peter to find a good tea highlighted the difficulty of life in the POW camp which was additionally emphasized through Lou's lagging leg injury and the discussion of eating charcoal. The group attempts a second escape using Vinny's Prune Jack, a home-brewed alcohol, which ends in the execution of Werner, a German officer, and solitary confinement for the remaining three Americans. During his time in solitary confinement, Lou hallucinates his family and friends, both living and dead. He snaps out of the hallucination to learn from Otto, a guard he has befriended, that the prisoners are about to go on a death march as the Russian forces are closing in. On this march, the three Americans devise a final escape plan, which involves a moral dilemma for Lou, and great risk for all three. Afterward and with his last breaths of life, Lou is rescued by an American soldier. 

Lou Fowler is portrayed as a decent fellow who steers clear of the more questionable moral decisions made by the other prisoners. For example, Lou doesn't interfere when Bill is killed by a Brit on the mere suspicion of being a German spy. In addition, when Otto needs to be sacrificed, Lou seemed torn up by the decision but how much resistance could Lou have offered when Otto stood between them and possible freedom? Interestingly, despite his bum leg, Lou was the only one to escape of the five POWs portrayed within the play. 

Luft Gangster kept things engaging on both a personal and dramatic level. The actors and the detail provided by the set and costume designers brought a gloomy subject to life. While a very small portion of the story seemed cliche, the truth is that we've probably just seen and heard a lot of stories about World War II at this point. This intense play moved fast. At points, time and scene switches were hard to catch while at other times it was very clear. Despite various time leaps, the play is fairly easy to follow due to its linear plot. Lou Fowler was a real person, and the play is written by Lowell Byers, his cousin, who also plays the lead role. Apparently, few, if any, artistic liberties were taken, so this is a true story of a World War II veteran's escape from certain death acted out over 70 years later by a much younger cousin. I'd recommend seeing this play especially if you're interested in World War II or gritty stories. It plays through April 30, 2017 at the Sheen Center. Tickets cost $29-$32 and can be purchased by calling OvationTix at 866-811-4111 or by visiting https://sheencenter.org/shows/luftgangster/

Read more reviews at http://drtomstevens.blogspot.com/

King Lear at the Secret Theatre

This review of King Lear at The Secret Theatre was written by Christopher M. Struck and published in Volume X, Issue 7 (2017) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

King Lear
Written by William Shakespeare
Directed by Alberto Bonilla
The Secret Theatre
44-02 23rd Street
Long Island City, New York 11101
Reviewed 3/25/17

The Secret Theatre is a custom built theatre and rehearsal rooms facility in the heart of Long Island City's artists' quarter. The place feels brand new and well-kept despite being around since 2007. It has a long history of performing Shakespeare's plays. Despite the nice aesthetics, the seating is a little close together and isn't all that soft after a few hours of sitting. However, it is very easy to see the production and there is no separation between the front row and the stage, which probably influenced the decision of the director to use stage knives instead of swords making for some interesting takes on the classic fight scenes.

King Lear has been regarded as one of Shakespeare's supreme achievements. Originally drafted in 1605/1606, it has been produced regularly throughout the centuries with some modifications. The play follows the descent of King Lear as his actions in response to his various daughters slowly precipitate the gradual losing of his mind. The happy kingdom, as quoted by Richard Mazda as the Earl of Gloucester, may have "seen the best of times" but domestic insurrection and internal conflict will follow King Lear's decision to disinherit his youngest and most precious daughter Cordelia (Meggy Hai Trang) for her unwillingness or inability to explain to her father the nature of the "pure love" she holds for him. Her older sisters, Goneril (Elizabeth A. Davis) and Regan (Melissa Macleod), heap praise upon their father only to undermine and plot against him later. With no inheritance, the Duke of Burgundy has no interest in marrying Cordelia, while the King Of France promises himself to her and views her as a sincere person who is praiseworthy. The King of France isn't the only one to call King Lear's actions into question. The "noble" Earl of Kent (Arthur Lazalde) also attempts to defend Cordelia only to find himself banished from the kingdom.

King Lear at the Secret Theatre

Goneril and Regan's disingenuous statements and subsequent betrayals of their father eventually drive King Lear to the brink of madness. Goneril, the King's eldest daughter, becomes frustrated with the King's entourage and publicly rebukes him. Oswald, her steward, blatantly shows him disrespect, which angers him greatly. One suspects Goneril might take her father's life if her entourage was ever larger than his. When the King appeals to Regan, his middle daughter, for help, she sides with her sister suggesting the King reduce the size of his personal forces to nothing. This, combined with Regan's mistreatment of the King's messenger results in him storming off into the woods during a terrible thunderstorm with no one by his side but his Fool (Jack Herholdt). King Lear rebukes the gods for turning his daughters against him. The Earl of Kent offers his help to Cordelia, who has arrived at Dover with an army from France intent on returning King Lear to power over his daughters, Goneril and Regan, who have overstepped their bounds. Fearful the elder daughters plan to assassinate the King, the Earl of Gloucester sends him to Dover to meet up with the French army and Cordelia.

Meanwhile, Edmund (Zachary Clark), the Earl of Gloucester's illegitimate son, first manipulates his father into turning against Edgar (Nick Chris), his brother, and then betrays his father to the Duke of Cornwall (Regan's husband). In the ensuing confrontation between the Duke of Cornwall and the Earl of Gloucester, the Duke is mortally wounded by his own servant who tries to prevent the complete blinding of Gloucester, who sets off on the road to Dover. Edmund, now Earl in his father's place, uses this opening to turn Goneril and Regan against each other and to further enhance his position and power. When the English capture Cordelia and King Lear during the defeat of the French, he plans to have both the King and Cordelia killed. Fortunately, Edgar discovers his blind father on the road to Dover, and when Oswald appears with instructions to kill Gloucester, Edgar saves his father's life. Also on Oswald is a letter from Goneril to Edmund asking him to kill her husband, the Duke of Albany.

The play wraps up where it began, in the King's court. Edgar arrives just after the capture of Lear and Cordelia. He appears in disguise and defeats Edmund in a duel to the death. During this same scene, Goneril poisons Regan and then, when confronted by the Duke of Albany with the letter Edgar found, she commits suicide. As Edmund dies, he confesses to having planned assassinations of Lear and Cordelia that same day. Albany and Edgar rush to the rescue but they are too late. The play ends with King Lear returning to the stage with the body of Cordelia (In some Shakespeare's editions, either the Duke of Albany or Edgar become King). 

The casting was really well done for this play. Zachary Clark, who played Edmund, was a standout performer who brought much energy to the part. Arthur Lazalde as the Earl of Kent delivered some of the few comedic lines in this generally dark play. The extremely talented Jack Herholdt appeared as the Fool (the King's constant companion)  and Elizabeth A. Davis was particularly impressive in the lead female role. On the other hand, there were a few times it was hard to understand what was being said. Shakespeare's lines can be mouthfuls. At times, it was a little difficult to understand Austin Pendleton as King Lear. While he delivered some excellent monologues, he stumbled over more than a few lines. However, he acted the mad King at the end of the play with flair. 

In the Secret Theatre's production of King Lear, modern songs are used to accompany certain scenes, especially during Poor Tom's parts (Poor Tom was Edgar's disguise after being shunned by his father). Most of Poor Tom's original dialogue was a hodgepodge of popular lyrics from Shakespeare's heydey. In this production, the action is framed as a recollection occurring within the mind of King Lear, now a hospitalized, dying man. I think these adaptations, along with stage props and lighting, created a cool and eerie atmosphere that made the personal descent of the King into madness more pronounced. 

Go see this Shakespearean Tragedy at The Secret Theatre! It is wonderfully done and offers one of the best examples of Tragedy you will ever see. King Lear runs almost every night (except Mondays and Tuesdays) between March 23rd and April 9th. Tickets can be reserved for $18.00 ($20.00 at the door) on their website at http://www.secrettheatre.com 

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