Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Women at Work: A tale of ten playwrights

• By drediman
• December 9, 2015
• No Comments

Earlier in the fall I had raved about Washington, D.C.’s unprecedented and altogether triumphant Women’s Voices Theater Festival. All the while, I was also keeping close tabs on new works by women playwrights being produced at New York theaters. Overall, much like their Washington counterparts, I’ve been quite impressed by the range exhibited the works presented in the Big Apple. Even if the quality was a bit uneven across them, I was consistently riveted by the uncompromising vision of these works, as well as the level of polish and ardor with which they were acted and produced (the tone was coincidentally set by the the Atlantic Theater Company’s magnificently potent production of Caryl Churchill’s trailblazing, visionary Cloud Nine, which, as a revival, is not included in my list below). In alphabetical order, the following were ten noteworthy New York premieres written by women playwrights so far this season. Let me be clear – I am not suggesting that parity currently exists for women theater-makers. I am, however, by giving evidence to the contrary, suggesting that we may very well be heading down the right path.

DEAR ELIZABETH
Women’s Project Theater at at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre
Closed

The increasingly indispensable Women’s Project Theater’s offering this fall was Sarah Ruhl’s deceptively simple Dear Elizabeth (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which is essentially a curated collage of correspondences between poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (think A. R. Gurney’s much-produced Love Letters). Under the sensitive direction of Kate Whoriskey – a director whom I have long admired for her voluptuous sense of the possibilities within theater – Ms. Ruhl’s slight, potentially unsatisfying play filled the empty space with a vitality and lived-in agitation that felt very much like lives unfolding (and unhinging) before our very eyes. The success of the production was also due in no small part to its rotating set of fabulous actors, who no doubt brought their own individualism to their roles. The night I attended, I caught Ellen McLaughlin (as Bishop), Rinde Eckert (as Lowell), and Ms. Ruhl’s long-standing and unmistakable muse, Polly Noonan (as the narrator).

A DELICATE SHIP
The Playwrights Realm at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Closed

This is shaping up to be quite the season for playwright Anna Ziegler. Not only is her Photograph 51 currently selling out in the West End – in a deluxe production starring Nicole Kidman and direction by Michael Grandage – she is also represented in New York by an acclaimed production at The Playwrights Realm a few months ago (A Delicate Ship) and an upcoming co-production by Keen Company and Ensemble Studio Theatre (Boy). A Delicate Ship (RECOMMENDED) was one of the first notable new plays to open in the theater season back in August. What makes this Ziegler play so interesting, despite its somewhat cloying preciousness at times, is its unabashedly probing way of asking profound questions – particularly those surrounding the nature of memory – within the context of its simple scenario (the play basically depicts two men vying for the affections of a women). Ultimately, I think that all this philosophical pontification is too much for the play’s slight frame. However, the Playwrights Realm’s production, which was beautifully directed by Margot Bordelon, made the most of the play and almost completely camouflaged the flaws in the script thanks to a trio of very fine performances. Indeed, Matt Dellapina, Miriam Silverman, and Nick Westrate were all superb, giving memorable performances that added heft and texture to Ms. Ziegler’s searching play.

ECLIPSED
The Public Theater
Closed (Begins performances on Broadway February 2016)

I first saw Danai Gurira’s Eclipsed (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) in its 2009 world premiere production at the cutting edge Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. I must admit that while I admired the idea of the play – it depicts the brutality of the Liberian civil war from the perspective of powerless and voiceless women – I was less than smitten by its unearned earnestness and some embarrassingly didactic scenes. Well, what a difference a couple of years make. Nothing is unearned in the Public’s more intimate, terrifically powerful production. This current incarnation is harrowing and hard-hitting in ways I don’t remember the original Woolly production being. I attribute my change of heart to Liesl Tommy’s impressive direction, which is significantly more focused than her work at the Woolly. She now convincingly keeps Ms. Gurira’s multi-faceted characters (huge kudos to the extraordinary, shattering work by the all-female cast, including Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o) walking on razor’s edge. As a result, the thematically rich scenes now unspool with truth and organic force; there’s danger and uncertainty in every scene right up until the final breathtaking moment. If you missed Eclipsed in its sold out run at the Public, do not miss it when it transfers to Broadway in February.

FONDLY, COLLETTE RICHLAND
New York Theatre Workshop
Closed

It took me a long time to formalize my thoughts on Sibyl Kempson’s confounding and strangely fascinating Fondly, Collette Richland (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED), as performed by the folks at the adventurous Elevator Repair Service in a co-production with New York Theatre Workshop early in the season. Attempting to begin to describe its indecipherable fever dream of a plot is futile. Try as might, I couldn’t tell you what Ms. Kempson’s obviously extensively-researched play is about – at all. So I’ll save you the agony of my trying articulate any semblance of meaning. This is a shame because the production, directed to the bone by John Collins, was technically thrilling to behold, element by element. I applaud the excellent cast for their commitment and energy, especially given the show’s nearly three hour running time. The production’s meticulous, complex designs brought to mind the rigorous, highly disciplined work of Robert Wilson. Indeed, the final phantasmagorical sequence, in which technical mastery meets unbridled chaos, was quite the experience. Alas, if that were enough.

INFORMED CONSENT
Co-produced by Primary Stages and Ensemble Studio Theatre at The Duke on 42^nd Street
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One of the more intellectually fascinating plays to open so far this season was Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Informed Consent (RECOMMENDED) in a co-production by Primary Stages and Ensemble Studio Theatre at the Duke. In its essence, the play is an homage to the stories we tell ourselves in order to make life bearable. Call these tales what you will – folk lore, religion, science, children’s bedtime stories – these acts of storytelling are a defining trait of being human. Ms. Laufer’s play lays out her ideas elegantly, even if I thought the ending was somewhat of a cop-out (no spoilers here). In the central role of the passionate scientist Jillian, Tina Benko gave a performance of ravishing intensity and intelligence. She was aided beautifully by the seamless work of the ever-morphing company around her and Liesl Tommy’s smooth, visually-stimulating direction.

JOHN
Signature Theatre Company
Closed

Perhaps the marquee playwright of her generation, Annie Baker continues to stun us with her uncanny ability to articulate the vastness of the human experience, even in the seemingly most insignificant lives or mundane moments. In her latest, John (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), Ms. Baker – in Sam Gold’s absolutely meticulous, knockout production at the Signature Theatre Company, led by the incomparable Georgia Engel and Lois Smith – chillingly goes one step further and suggests that there is a deeper logic to our existence just beyond our grasp and comprehensibility (a very similar strain runs through Stephen Karam’s equally fine The Humans). On the surface, her latest is ponderous portrait of a deteriorating romantic relationship between a twenty-something-year-old couple. Look more closely, and you’ll get a glimpse (or think you did) of the cosmos and beyond; according to this singularly soulful playwright, we’re all very much a part of that fabric. This may seem like a comfort, but it manifests itself in John in the most disconcerting ways. At the end of day, what’s more unsettling than a ghost story when you aren’t sure that ghosts are part of the equation to begin with?

NIGHT IS A ROOM
Signature Theatre Company
Through December 20

The Signature this season is also supporting another ambitious playwright, Naomi Wallace. If Annie Baker is the master of creating theater out of the minute subtleties of life, Ms. Wallace’s feverish, heightened brand of theater basks in the operatic, some would say melodramatic, extremes of the human experience. Last season alone, to varying success, she dramatized a turbulent lesbian relationship (And I and Silence) and the convoluted story of a pair of runaway slaves (The Liquid Plain). Her latest, Night Is a Room (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED), is no exception. Once again, Ms. Wallace asks us to buy into the extreme premise depicted onstage; this time, it’s an incestuous love triangle involving a man, his wife, and his mother. If this latest effort is more successful than her previous plays – Night Is a Room is written in a more convincing naturalistic manner than her usual hollow flights of fancy – it’s still a tough one-note pill to swallow. Some bitter, dark humor and biting wit could have gone a long way here, à la Edward Albee’s The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?, another play that attempts to make sense of a forbidden relationship. Still, the excellent cast of three – which includes Bill Heck, Dagmara Dominczyk, and Ann Dowd – puts in a heroic effort that’s worth cherishing.

PIKE ST.
Epic Theatre Ensemble at the Abrons Arts Center
Through December 19

Nilaja Sun is absolutely breathtaking in her latest one-woman show, the invigorating and bittersweet Pike St. (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), courtesy of Epic Theatre Ensemble at the Abrons Arts Center. What’s astonishing about Ms. Sun’s latest work is the skill with which it is both written AND performed. She creates a vibrant tapestry that is the Lower East Side from the authenticity and efficiency of her writing, as well as the complete mastery of her craft as an actor. It’s a testimony to Ms. Sun’s immense skill and talent that this terrific solo show – perhaps the finest we’ll see all season – transcends the sub-genre and avoids feeling anything like a self-indulgent project. Simply, this is theater of the highest order and deserves to be seen by a much larger audience, as was the case with her much-toured No Child… However, the current place to see Pike St. is at its current home at the Abrons, a vital performing arts center which is sits amidst the very community Ms. Sun brilliantly brings to teeming life.

THÉRÈSE RAQUIN
Roundabout Theatre Company at Studio 54
Through January 3

Oh, those eyes. For much of the play, those belonging to Keira Knightley, who is currently making a fine Broadway debut in Helen Edmundson’s adaptation of Émile Zola’s Thérèse Raquin (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED), burn holes of passion through walls as she sits off to the side for much of the first act. When is sexually awakened by the handsome Laurent (Matt Ryan), that passion starts to permeate her entire body – ending in murder. Scott Ellis’s handsome and appropriately claustrophobic production does an impressive job of pulling you into its dark gothic setting in its slow-boiling first act. However, the long second act can’t quite sustain the momentum as the plot delves into the realm of psychological horror. Ms. Knightley and Mr. Ryan are given riveting support by stage veterans Gabriel Ebert and Judith Light.

UGLY LIES THE BONES
Roundabout Underground at the Black Box Theatre at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre
Closed

Ugly Lies the Bones (RECOMMENDED) by Lindsey Ferrentino via the Roundabout Underground program (the same program that yielded the much-produced Bad Jews by Joshua Harmon) is perhaps the most straightforward drama of the bunch highlighted in today’s entry. I don’t mean this as a criticism. On the contrary, there’s something refreshing about the honesty and aching no-nonsense way in which Ms. Ferrentino chooses to tell the story of a severely injured soldier trying to make sense of her life at home after three tours in Afghanistan (who was played plaintively yet defiantly by a first-rate Mamie Gummer). The play’s success was also largely due to Patricia McGregor careful, quietly confident direction.