Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Taking cues from the classics: Gregg Ostrin’s KOWALSKI and Matthew Gasda’s staging of VANYA ON HURON STREET

• By drediman
• January 30, 2025
• No Comments

Over the last few days, I came across a pair of works that have clearly taken their cues from classics of Western drama. As always, read on below for my thoughts.

KOWALSKI
The Duke on 42nd Street
Through February 23

First up is Gregg Ostrin’s new play Kowalski (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which officially opened Off-Broadway earlier this week at The Duke on 42nd Street. Set in Tennessee Williams’ Provincetown beachouse during the summer of 1947, the play tells the story of the young Marlon Brando’s audition for the character of the brutish Stanley Kowalski in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire — the role that catapulted the iconic stage and film actor to stardom. There’s no doubt that the main reason to catch Ostrin’s confidently written and performed work is the chance to witness the volatile tug-of-war exchanges between Brando and Williams, two men with enormous egos and a tendency to manipulate and provoke. Indeed, despite their undeniable charisma and allure, both are also, to a certain degree, problematically toxic to themselves and those around them — characteristics that the playwright has painted with caustically delicious detail. Overall, Ostrin’s play is in equal measure entertaining and enlightening, and an ideal balance between well-researched theater lore and an inspired exercise in dramatic imagination. Suffice to say, the Battle Royale that transpires between these two drastically dissimilar titans is scintillating, which must also be credited to the very watchable acting duo of Robin Lord Taylor and the handsome Brandon Flynn. As Williams and Brando, respectively, they give skillful, swaggering performances that animate their roles with verve and ample personality. With everything Kowalski has going for it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be a popular hit.

VANYA ON HURON STREET
Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research
In repertory through February 4

Then there’s Matthew Gasda’s scrappy yet satisfying Vanya on Huron Street (RECOMMENDED). As performed way Off-Broadway in a second story loft space at the relatively new Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research located in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, the production is an intensely intimate affair that affords audiences with literally a “fly-on-the-wall” vantage point from which to take in Chekhov’s play of longing and disappointment (to its detriment, such intimacy was largely missing in last season’s Lincoln Center revival of Uncle Vanya at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre). Both Gasda’s staging and Albina Aleksandrova’s translation bring an unfussy contemporary sheen without distorting Chekhov’s underlying play very much at all (purists will take comfort in the fact that the production is less of a spin than its title may suggest). If anything, the production continues to highlight the striking universality and timelessness of Chekhov’s clear-eyed depiction of the human experience, which is the primary reason why the playwright’s works are still so abundantly performed to this day (indeed, I can’t tell you how many revivals and adaptations I’ve seen of both Uncle Vanya and The Seagull alone over the years). Solidly acted at a pleasantly quick pace by a relatively young ensemble with the same kind of unadorned and grounded honesty as you’d find in a Chicago storefront production, Gasda’s reading of the play mercifully does away with the lulls that have notoriously put many a Chekhov audience to sleep. Even if Vanya on Huron Street isn’t the most striking nor the most vividly-acted Uncle Vanya I’ve seen, it’s nevertheless a worthwhile variation on a prismatic play.