Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Theater as therapy session: Jade Anouka’s HEART and Aya Ogawa’s THE NOSEBLEED

• By drediman
• August 4, 2022
• No Comments

This past week, I caught two new autobiographical plays that use theater as a sort of therapy session for their respective writer/performer. As per usual, here are my thoughts on these deeply personal works.

THE NOSEBLEED
Lincoln Center Theater at the Claire Tow Theater
Through August 28

First up at the Claire Tow Theater was Lincoln Center Theater’s Off-Broadway production of The Nosebleed (RECOMMENDED). Aya Ogawa’s autobiographical play was first seen at Japan Society, where it enjoyed an all-too-brief run last fall. In essence, the work dissects the Japanese American playwright’s stunted relationship with her father, particularly mourning the questions she was never able to ask him. Throughout the 70-minute play, Ogawa doubles down on the notion that we contain multitudes within us, which is depicted literally in her play – Ogawa is collectively played by a four performers, each of whom bring different qualities and layers to the “character”. As for Ogawa herself, she briefly portrays her son as a child, but most importantly affectingly plays her ailing father at the end of his life. The playwright also directs the work, giving The Nosebleed a highly participatory, ritualistic staging, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Nevertheless, you’ll likely find the dreamlike final sequence to be a truly moving theatrical tribute and send-off to her father. Catharsis achieved.

HEART
Audible Theater at the Minetta Lane Theatre
Through August 14

Then down at Off-Broadway’s Minetta Lane Theatre, I took in Jade Anouka’s new solo play Heart (RECOMMENDED), which is being presented by the enterprising Audible Theater. I had previously seen and was impressed by Anouka in her fierce appearances in Donmar Warehouse’s tremendous all-woman trilogy of Shakespeare plays at St. Ann’s Warehouse. Also running at a brisk 70-minutes (like the play discussed above), the similarly autobiographical work depicts the British playwright/performer’s doomed early marriage and her subsequent quest for self-realization and true love in a society that often judges, dismisses, and ostracizes (no spoilers here). The production is more remarkable for Anouka’s dynamic performance and director Ola Ince’s relatively elaborate staging rather than the playwright’s earnest, somewhat predictable storytelling, which at times uncomfortably toggles between prose and verse-like spoken word. Performance-wise, Anouka inhabits her own story with authority and the lithe physicality of a well-trained athlete. It’s a treat to see them in action.