Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Off-Broadway impressions: Bedlam’s stage adaptation of PERSUASION and Lynn Clay Byrnes’ BETWEEN THE BARS

• By drediman
• October 5, 2021
• No Comments

It’s been thoroughly gratifying to see so many in-person shows sprouting across the city in recent weeks. Indeed, in just the past few days, I was able to attend a steady stream of fully-staged Off-Broadway productions as in pre-pandemic times. Here are my impressions of two of them.

PERSUASION
Bedlam at the Connelly Theater
Through October 31

This past weekend at the Connelly Theater in the East Village, I attended Sarah Rose Kearns’ stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion (RECOMMENDED) for Bedlam, a theater company that’s made a name for itself by audaciously amplifying the emotions embedded within beloved classics (both literary and theatrical). Bedlam’s Persuasion – directed, as usual, by artistic director Eric Tucker – takes on the quirks of the company’s tried and true aesthetic, resulting in a production that falls somewhere in between the Royal Shakespeare Company’s legendary staging of Nicholas Nickleby and any one of Ivo van Hove’s jarringly amped-up theatrical concoctions. Unfortunately, some of Mr. Tucker’s inventive directorial flourishes here are more successful than others, and the slightly overlong production doesn’t have quite the zing and energizing forward momentum as some of Bedlam’s more wholly successful previous outings. That being said, there’s still much to admire in this endeavor, particularly the all-in commitment of the game and hardworking cast, who relish every moment onstage and work through some of the adaptation’s less taut stretches with admirable fortitude. On the occasions that this Persuasion gets genuinely high on its own giddy storytelling, it’s intoxicating.

BETWEEN THE BARS
HERE Arts Center
Through October 30

I also recently had a chance to catch Lynn Clay Byrne’s new drama Between the Bars (RECOMMENDED), which opened this past weekend at HERE Arts Center as part of its SubletSeries (in recent weeks, the series has also presented Colt Coeur’s production of Polylogues by Sandra Nur Clark and Liza Birkenmeier and Katie Brook’s Islander). Set in the visiting room of an unspecified penitentiary, Ms. Byrne’s fictional work reveals the deep flaws of the American jail system through a series of escalating scenes depicting the ongoing interactions between five inmates and their distressed visitors. If the play’s goals seem immediately obvious and its histrionics on the predictable side, so be it. Despite some indistinct early scenes, Ms. Byrne’s writing gets stronger as her 90-minute play unfolds. Between the Bars ultimately manages to compel, thanks largely to a stylish staging – which injects dynamism into a potentially static play – and some solid acting. In particular, the production’s two actresses fare well, delivering believable performances that are ripe with nuance and emotional potency. One minor gripe is that since each cast member plays at least two characters (with minimal costume changes), it takes a little while to fully distinguish the play’s discrete storylines.