You Are Dead. You Are Here (through June 22, 2013 at Here)

Anyone who thinks it a good idea to become more engaged in the civil war now going on in Syria by sending troops is advised to see You Are Dead. You Are There, a gripping and impassioned new play by Christine Evans presented by Transit Lounge at Here. Not necessarily defined as a plea for neutrality, the play is layered with the perspective of two characters; one is a soldier, the other a civilian. As produced by an innovative new company, under the direction of Joseph Megel, the play uses multi-media to combine real-life with virtual life in a powerful way.

Virtual reality video isn't new as a story-telling device (the empowering media design is by Jared Mezzocchi), but it is an integral part of this story about Michael (Anthony Gaskins) an American war veteran who is being treated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at a Veterans Recovery Center. The provocative, but carefully incremented weekly treatment sessions presided over by therapist Dr Hannah (Kittson O'Neill) is the core of a drama with humans at its heart, but media as its engine.

The dedicated Dr. Hannah may be feeling stressed with implementing the new and somewhat experimental technique she has developed, but she is hopeful that a breakthrough is forthcoming for Michael so that he can return to living a normal life. The clever plot is splintered purposefully, as Michael's sessions are suddenly intruded upon by a live internet feed from Zaynab (Kathreen Khavari), a young Iraqi woman blogger. With slow and heartbreaking revelations about her experiences, she adds another level to Michael's story as she brings her own horrific/heart-breaking experiences into the sessions. But these are only for us to see and hear. This is done indirectly through a monitor in which we see her as well as images that validate her connection to the soldier.

Zaynab's detailed revelations are important components in the play, especially as they relate to Michael's memories as they slowly surface through his active participation in the program. In actuality, these video gaming programs are being used by the military as a training tool and for use in therapy. Khavari is incredibly moving as Zaynab but she also plays the role of Nadia, an office temp at the clinic where the play is set and where Dr. Hannah guides the reticent and anguished Michael into recreating in a virtual reality game what happened to him.

Using a headset, he sees and hears what we also see and can hear from a large overhead monitor. A curious and unexpected development occurs when Michael thinks he may have previously met Nadia. The sessions become increasingly tense as Dr. Hannah is able to add Michael's memory of how he got a brain concussion and began feeling the symptoms of PTSD.

The events seen in virtual reality begin with the U.S. troop's invasion of Fallujah in March 2003 and end on the day of a massive military assault on April 4, 2004 — "Operation Vigilant Resolve," a day that led to the death of hundreds of civilians. The sessions in real time are equally gripping as well as thought-provoking, made so by the fine performances of Gaskins, as the tormented solider, Khavari, in the duel roles, and O'Neill as the therapist.

Australian-born playwright Evans' has made a career down under as well as in the U.S. where she has received honors including a Fulbright Award. We might hope that this impressive collaboration with director Megel and media designer Mezzocchi will encourage them to bring another exciting theatrical experience to New York. It isn't often that I get to visit Here, noted for the past twenty years for presenting "daring new hybrid performance." It was a rewarding visit.

Here Arts Center, 145 6th Avenue
Tickets: $10 in advance, $20 at the door
Performances: Tuesday through Sunday at 8:30 pm

"The Silver Cord"

“The Silver Cord” (now through July 14^th at the Peccadillo Theatre Company)

 Caroline Kaplan and Wilson Bridges

 

Sidney Howard’s 1926 play “The Silver Cord” is not remembered as an endearing old warhorse of a play, but its leading character Mrs. Phelps is unquestionably an armor-plated warhorse when it comes to fending off the two women who would dare come between her and her two sons. In the Peccadillo Theatre production this nearly clichéd mother from hell is played in drag by actor Dale Carman who is here repeating the role he played for the same company in 1995. Whether or not he has brought additional nuance to his characterization isn’t for me to say as I didn’t see it. But based on Carman’s amusing, stiff-necked, autocratic posturing and posing, the play happily doesn’t descend into camp. It is a solidly written bit of claptrap about the lengths that Mrs. Phelps will go to secure her future and keep the taut bond she has secured with her sons.

The older son David (Thomas Matthew Kelley), an architect, has just returned to the stately family home in some eastern American city with Christina (Victoria Mack) a biologist whom he met and wed while studying and working abroad. They are welcomed by mother dearest with a somewhat tempered display of disapproval…soon to increase in its intensity when she learns of their plans to reside in New York City. The younger son Robert (Wilson Bridges) is conspicuously an unredeemable momma’s boy despite his being engaged to the rather charming Hester (Caroline Kaplan) to whom Mrs. Phelps is even more openly hostile.

Under the embracing direction of Dan Ackerman, the play courses briskly through events that mark Mrs. Phelps as a ruthless, domineering manipulator and her sons as a pair of lily-livered specimens of manhood. The upshot is that any rebellion on the parts of David and Robert to stand up for themselves and for the women they presume to love leaves them conflicted, emotionally crippled, and with feelings of guilt. The out-come is predictable, but there is fun watching Mrs. Phelps muster up her wits to carry out some rather despicably contrived machinations in order to keep at least one of her boys tied to her and secure her tomorrow as just another day.

Carman is to be commended for the way he segues from a fiercely obsessive love for her sons to sashaying around her female adversaries in high dudgeon. Kaplan is excellent as the viciously victimized Hester as is Mack as the not-so-easily duped Christina. Both Kelly as the completely blind-sided David and Bridges as the perilously wimpy son are defined by having been raised by (dare I say it) an incestuously motivated mother. Set designer Harry Finer spared no imagination in the use of musty post-Victorian décor. The play may also be a bit musty, but it deserves praise and consideration for being in the canon of a playwright who received the Pulitzer Prize in 1925 for “They Knew What They Wanted” (made into the successful musical “The Most Happy Fella”). Howard also wrote (most of) the screen-play for “Gone with the Wind,” about another self-centered woman who could assure herself that “Tomorrow is another day.”

“The Silver Cord”

Peccadillo Theatre Company, Theatre at St. Clement's, 423 West 46th Street

For tickets ($55.00) call 212-352-3101

Happy (at the New Jersey Repertory Company now through June 30, 2013)

In Robert Caisley’s unsettling but absorbing play Happy, 40-something Alfred Rehm (Michael Irvin Pollard) is a married professor of French literature who has apparently earned a reputation for being “happy all the time, freakishly happy.” This evaluation is hurled at him by the very attractive, sexy-by-design 20-something Eva (Susan Maris), who has mostly been busy taunting, teasing, baiting and even insulting him ever since he walked through the open door of his best friend Eduardo’s apartment. Here is a link to my full review at CurtainUp.com http://curtainup.com/happynj13.html

The Broadway Musicals of 1988 cast included Farah Alvin, Lisa Brescia, Scott Coulter (who directed the show), Kevin Earley, Howard McGillin, Jennifer Hope Wills and The Broadway By the Year Chorus  (photo by Maryann Lopinto)

 “The Broadway Musicals of 1988”

Presented one night only

Wow! On May 3, 2013, A capacity audience attended the 50^th concert of the popular Monday night “Broadway by the Year” series presented at The Town Hall. Hosted as it has been since 2000 by its creator-writer Scott Siegel the program veered sharply from its more traditional format for an exceptionally rewarding, musically rich experience. As expected Siegel shared with us some of the newsy highlights of the year 1988 the year that Irving Berlin celebrated his 100^th birthday. You could say it was all an all-singing-no-dancing-no-comedy program that surprisingly, under the nifty direction of Scott Coulter, proved to be one of the most exhilarating of the entire series.

With its primary focus on such musical dramas as “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Legs Diamond,” “Chess,” and “Carrie,” there was, nevertheless, a sweet sampling from “Romance, Romance” the program’s only bow to musical comedy. Also pressed into the otherwise heady mix was a song from the forgotten “Mail,” and a rousing choral number “Lift Me Up” from the oratorio “The Gospel at Colonus” that showed off the Broadway By The Year Chorus featuring impressive singing by Kyle Scatliffe and Carlton Terrence Taylor Jr.

For the most part, it was Howard McGillin’s night as he thrilled us as “The Phantom,” the acclaimed role he played on Broadway for a total of 2,544 performances. You could say this was his 2,545^th performances as he put his sturdy voice, as well as his heart and soul into three musically thrilling scenes from the longest running pop-opera in Broadway history, each segment prompting cheers from the audience. Singing up an emotional storm with him was Jennifer Hope Wills whose silvery soprano voice provided even more shivers of delight as she sang the close-to-show-stopping “Unsuspecting Hearts” from the infamous horror musical “Carrie.” Another knock-out performance was given by Lisa Brecsia singing “I Remember How those Boys Could Dance” from the same musical. 

The terrifically talented Brescia reminded us she had “Technique” to spare from “Mail,” and “The Music Went Out of My Life” from “Legs Diamond,” reminders that many fine songs came out of flop shows. She was joined by the terrific Scott Coulter and Kevin Earley to revisit the gems within Keith Herrmann/Barry Harman’s “Romance, Romance.” I’ve always felt that the Tim Rice/Bjorn Ulvaeus’ “Chess” had one of the great musical theater scores, and the talented Farah Alvin brought it into perspective again with an impassioned “Someone Else’s Story.” The Ross Patterson Little Big Band provided splendid support.

Two new plays worthy of your attention and attendance - "The Little Mermaid" and "The Playboy of the Western World" - have opened recently at New Jersey theaters.

The Little Mermaid - Whatever were the major issues that plagued the stage version of the popular 1989 cartoon feature when it first opened on Broadway in 2008 seem to have been mainly and commendably resolved in this newly conceived staging at the Paper Mill Playhouse. . .Here is a link to read the full review on CurtainUp.com - http://curtainup.com/mermaidnj13.html

The Playboy of the Western World -It's roundup time for all the playboys and playgirls to attend the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's splendid production of John Millington Synge's rollicking and rueful play . Here is a link to read the full review on CurtainUp.com- http://curtainup.com/playboynj13.html