"The Curse of the Starving Class" at the Signature Theatre Opened 05/13/19 Ends 05/26/19

(left to right) David Warshofsky and Gilles Geary
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

It is doubtful whether there will be a more spectacularly stunning opening minute for any play this season....and the new season has barely begun. Sam Shepard's “The Curse of the Starving Class” is gritty, grungy and metaphoric. It doesn’t take long to get into the playwright’s mindset the minute our eyes take in the setting: a primitive barely functional kitchen of a ramshackle home somewhere in the southeast. Even before a word is spoken, you can feel the dominating presence, the power of a playwright whose vision and perspective is a reality gone amuck.

Shepard is one of the celebrants in this Signature Theatre season. The ground-breaking “Curse...” is a trenchant mix of the darkly satirical and absurdly logical and shares a kinship with his other family-centered Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Buried Child” and also “True West.” Shepard’s economically as much as emotionally ravaged characters are if nothing else a sight to behold. In this intense production under the excellent direction of Terry Kinney, the company adheres to the play’s purpose to excite and shamelessly amuse us.  

First produced by the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1978, “Curse...” has since made periodic visits. In “Curse...” we get to see a vision of American life both as a horrifying reality and as an illuminated allegory. There is still no contemporary playwright who can touch Shepard’s talent to inject unrelenting grimness with so much blistering humor.

Shoveling down the last rash of bacon, the mother pays scant attention to her daughter who is raving hysterically over the slaughter of her pet chicken. Even before the belligerent alcoholic father returns home, we are being prepared, through the means of soliloquy and riveting conversation for a play in which tension for better or worse is unrelenting.

   

Whether the symbolism or socio-political messages are totally clear is of less importance than the provocation. We watch a near poverty stricken family being swindled, cheated and abused first, by an unscrupulous real estate agent then a murderous pair of gangsters is presumably deemed to be like watching the disintegration of the working class and the rape of America. But the true blessing of  “Curse...” is Shepard’s  way of being exhilarating in the midst of all the pain and tragedy set before us.

Maggie Siff as the mother, Lizzy Declement, as the daughter, Gilles Geary as the son, David Warshofsky as the father and a terrific supporting cast including Flora Diaz, Esau Pritchett and Andrew Rothenberg contribute splendidly to the kind ensemble performing that Shepard’s plays demand. Julian Crouch’s awesome set design will be something to be remembered next award season as will the superb lighting designed by Natasha Katz.

"Too Heavy For Your Pocket" at the George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, N.J. through May 19, 2019

Donnell E. Smith as Bowzie.

Although I previously saw this award-winning (2017 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award) play a year ago in New York, it made a lasting impression on me, one that made me eager to see it again now that it is at the George Street Playhouse. Although the play is well acted and remains worthwhile, the current production left me less than enthused. But more about that later.

As a graduate from the Yale School of Drama, playwright Jireh Breon Holder was inspired by his family history. He has created four closely connected characters caught up in domestic quandaries that involve misplaced passion and misguided loyalties amidst the encroaching socio-political changes of the time. Each is integral and well-defined  within a compelling narrative that is mainly revealed through a young man with a mission.

The action takes place in Nashville, Tennessee during the summer of 1961. This is shortly after segregation was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The play focuses on the relationship of two couples. At its center is Bowzie Brandon (Donnell E. Smith), an intensely motivated young black man intent on leaving his home, his wife and friends and leap into the burgeoning activities of the Freedom Riders.

These are the men and women, both black and white, who braved the backlash of racism by riding on buses through cities that did not welcome integration. Standing up to this resistance, the Freedom Riders were denounced as trouble-makers. They were assaulted by masses of intolerant bigots and also brutalized by the local police. Many are arrested, taken to filthy jails, beaten and staying for months unable to post bail.

The extraordinarily bright Bowzie has barely begun his first semester at Fisk University to which he has won a full tuition scholarship when he is recruited into a group of peaceful activists. His change of plans is not received well by his wife Evelyn (Felicia Boswell) or by their best friends Sally-Mae (Joniece Abbott-Pratt) and her husband Tony (Landon G. Woodson) who has been Bowzie's best friend since childhood.

While the play circles around the domestic anxieties of the pregnant Sally Mae and her philandering husband Tony, it is Evelyn's fear that Bowzie's commitment to the movement has replaced his concerns and devotion to her. Director LA Williams has certainly filled that circle with fine actors who do everything they can to inhabit their complex, warmly conceived characters.

There is also no lack in the play itself of a good mix of the comedic and the explosive. What becomes troublesome is the similarity of dramatic tone and resonance in their collective characterizations...not easy to explain as is why the play’s staging lacks imagination while its pace appears more plodding than penetrating.

Although the action occurs primarily in and around the kitchen setting it allows for other locations. More of a distraction rather than creating a feeling of home and kinship, the set, that includes a strangely impressionistic evocation of a roof, looks more makeshift than we are accustomed to seeing at George Street. It has been a long time since I felt that a set actually worked against the efforts of actors to inhabit a place. 

One gets the impression that this is a much better play than we are seeing. At its core, however, we do see how the Civil Rights Movement directly and indirectly enables four people to see their own personal light through sacrifice or self-determination or both.

"The Plough and the Stars" at the Irish Repertory Theatre through June 22, 2019

Maryann Plunkett, Sarah Street and Ed Malone   Photo credit: Carol Rosegg

It would be very easy to be under the delusion that I was not, in fact, at the Irish Repertory Theater in NYC but rather at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre so resonant is the forthright Irish-ness of their terrific production of Sean O’Casey’s “The Plough and the Stars.” What an audience can expect is that this grandly lyrical almost epic drama is vibrantly alive with characters mainly damaged by the disabling events of the times. The eminent dramatist had a patriotic zeal and a hearty political conscience that reflected his own passionate involvement. That O’Casey set his play during the inflammatory Easter Rebellion of 1916 can only be lauded. He notably fused his heartfelt drama with the cause of Irish Republicans in their attempt to end British rule.

Director Charlotte Moore has graced the first portions of the play with a lively pace but also a respect for a stunning change in pace during the last poignant scenes -- a mad scene as melodramatic as that in an old opera; a disturbing exchange between two British soldiers, and a lengthy death scene -- that Moore and her fine company handle with commendable sensitivity. With that, the play’s perspective remains as constant and uncompromising as do the  “troubles” they depict.

Although complacent audiences may no longer riot, as they did following the 1926 Abbey Theater premier, the seething and anguish that the play provokes says a lot for its contemporary appeal. From my vantage point, I could not detect a nodding head or the rustle of programs during any part of the performance. 

That we are able to feel the eloquence and wit of O’Casey’s prose is no small advantage within the Irish Reps cozy space. Charlie Corcoran’s evocative settings -- four distinct locales revealed on a revolving stage are rather amazing in both design and in their execution. Excellent atmospherics are provided by Michael Gottlieb’s lighting and Ryan Rumery & M. Florian Staab’s effective sound.

The power of “The Plough...” is such that it transcends the nearly St. Vitus-afflicted Maryann Plunkett who all but danced an evening’s jig as the vociferous Bessie Burgess. She was certainly in step with the rampantly Gaelic expressiveness around her. You could also see it most plainly in the head strong performance by Michael Mellamphy the carpenter with the spunk of a troll and the spirit of a leprechaun.

The play is so filled with a blend of artifact and fancy that is makes your own head spin, especially when watching Una Clancy as the ever blabbering Mrs. Gogan rattle her jaw in a seemingly non-stop stream of consciousness. What’s not to enjoy about the heated bickering between James Russell as The Young Covey, the ardent socialist and Robert Langdon Lloyd as the old guard’s Uncle Peter. 

A rowdy pub scene is enlivened by the earthy presence of an amusingly flamboyant Rosie (Sarah Street) the house prostitute. You are sure to feel the tug of emotions and the call of duty between Nora (Clare O’Malley) and Jack (Adam Petherbridge), the ill-fated young lovers. 

This is a play in which feelings run hot and cold for this closely-knit if also contentious group of political people, all of whom are caught up in the ravages of revolution and the vestiges of independence. O’Casey’s characters -- robust, chauvinistic, prideful and insufferable -- offer a realistic but also poetic view of Irish life.

This is the third play in its series by O’Casey produced by the Irish Rep. this year -- “The Shadow of a Gunman,” and “Juno the Paycock” being the others and also excellent.) Harsh and funny, painful and purposeful,  “The Plough and the Stars” is a grand taste of Irish theater at its most boisterous and blistering.