Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – A pair of British plays address pressing socio-economic matters: Alexander Zeldin’s LOVE and Arinze Kene’s MISTY

• By drediman
• March 14, 2023
• No Comments

Over the course the last few days, I attended a pair of London-born plays that seek to address pressing socio-economic matters. Although these works were written as reactions to specific conditions across the pond, they also resonate on a universal level. As always, here are my thoughts.

LOVE
Park Avenue Armory / National Theatre
Through March 25

Over at the Park Avenue Armory, you’ll find Alexander Zeldin’s Love (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) in the midst of performances. Originally staged at the National Theatre in 2016, the play depicts the needless circumstances faced by two homeless families in a run-down halfway house in London. The play was written by Zeldin in collaboration with his cast, as well as real life accounts of those caught in the endless bureaucracy of the British welfare system. The beauty of the play is that it shows rather than tells, inviting audiences to lean in as it gradually evolves form a slow simmer to a scalding boil. In many ways, the deeply intimate play is an audacious programming choice for the Park Avenue Armory’s cavernous drill hall, but it’s a risk that here pays off handsomely. Like in Zeldin’s Beyond Caring (a play about workers employed under zero-hours contracts which I also caught at the National), depictions of raw, unadorned humanity needs no commentary to pack an emotional punch, particularly as portrayed by the fearless cast currently at the Armory. The coup of Zeldin’s subtly immersive staging is how it bleeds the audience into the onstage action, both humanizing the proceedings and implicating us at the same time. Love is political theater at its most empathetic and engrossing.

MISTY
The Shed / Bush Theatre
Through April 2

Then over at The Shed in Hudson Yards, Arinze Kene’s multi-disciplinary show Misty (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED) has taken up residence at the Griffin Theater. Originally produced by the Bush Theatre in London in 2018, the play subsequently transferred to the West End before landing on this side of the pond. Written and performed by Kene, the work is a layered attempt at theatricalizing racial tensions vis-à-vis London’s ongoing gentrification. Kene uses a dizzying array genres – from theatrical monologue, to conventional theater, to music, to clowning, to film – to confront the issues at hand. The result, however, is a mixed bag – a haphazard concoction that largely muddles the underlying matters it endeavors to address. The work is at its most interesting in its meta-theatrical musings, in which it poses another question – what are the expectations of a Black artist in this tricky time for race relations? In this regard, Misty serves as a layered and nuanced analysis of the dilemma currently being faced by theater artists of color. There’s no doubt of Kene’s compelling ability to hold court (as evidenced by his triumphant performance as Bob Marley in Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical). Indeed, despite the material’s repetition and dull edges, he’s a magnetic performer who manages to captivate audiences with the sheer force of his charisma and presence.