Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Stephen Adly Guirgis’s vital HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN is unruly and overpopulated, as it should be

• By drediman
• December 10, 2019
• No Comments

Elizabeth Canavan, Liza Colón-Zayas, Kara Young, and Pernell Walker in the Atlantic and LAByrinth Theater Company production of “Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven” by Stephen Adly Guirgis at the Linda Gross Theater. Photo by Monique Carboni.

Last night, Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven opened Off-Broadway at the Linda Gross Theater via a co-production between Atlantic Theater Company and LAByrinth Theater Company (the playwright has a history with both institutions). The latest play by Mr. Guirgis – who deservingly won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with his 2014 outing, the astonishing Between Riverside and Crazy – depicts an underfunded halfway house for women in New York City, giving us an unfiltered glimpse at the lives of its inhabitants, as well as the administrative struggles of keeping such a facility afloat.

Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven is unruly and overpopulated (the production features a cast of about 20), as it should be. The play takes place in a halfway house, after all. Although the characters initially come off as caricatures, they gradually take dimension – as do their relationships – over the course of the play’s nearly three-hour run time. Although not much in terms of plot actually transpires during the play, getting to know its denizens is plenty pleasure enough. Mr. Guirgis has an acute understanding of society’s lowlives (as evidenced by his previous plays), and he empathetically draws out the humanizing contradictions from his dejected characters. Indeed, they’re at once vulnerable and tough, comic and tragic, loving and vengeful, articulate and blunt. As a result, the piece teems with the kind of exhilarating vitality that few plays achieve.

The lively production has been staged by LAByrinth artistic director John Ortiz in his Off-Broadway directorial debut. He just barely tames Mr. Guirgis’s long, messy play, which I suspect was designed to be a sprawling, bursting-by-the-seams ensemble piece along the lines of Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Giliead and Eugene On’Neill’s  The Iceman Cometh. Luckily, Mr. Ortiz’s cast is comprised of a band of extraordinary actors (plus a goat!) – many of whom have in the past memorably appeared in the playwright’s works – who together uncannily create a convincing community onstage. It’s hard to single out certain performances, as each of their contributions are integral to the show’s overall fabric. In their hands, the lengthy, meandering play flies by.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

HALFWAY BITCHES GO STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN
Off-Broadway, Play
Atlantic Theater Company
2 hours, 50 minutes (with one intermission)
Through December 29