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Off-Broadway Theater Review: Ironbound

Marin Ireland and Moragn Spector. Photo Sandra Coudert

Baggage Bound to Repeat Itself in Relationships

By Lauren Yarger
Three time frames intersect at one location – a bus stop in Elizabeth, NJ -- in Martyna Majok’s study of relationships and their baggage in a run co-produced Off-Broadway by the Women’s Project Theatre and Rattlestick.

Marin Ireland stars as Darja (a Polish-born, New Jersey-bred woman not unlike the playwright) who relives three relationships in three time settings – 1992,  2006,  2014 – that all end up at the bus stop.

First we meet Tommy (Morgan Spector). They have been together for years and the young immigrant has tolerated his multiple infidelities – until now. Now all she wants from him is $1,000 to buy a car and go look for her estranged son, whom Tommy doesn’t much like. Tommy isn’t very helpful to the distraught mother, who finally just claims he owes her. Relationships are all just about money, after all, she decrees.

Tommy is a bit put off to think that Darja is putting a monetary value on the sexual favors she has performed for him over the years as part of their relationship, especially when he realizes she might actually leave him and those benefits might no longer be at his beck and call. He does seem to care about her, however, even while proclaiming his intention to see other women.

Flashback to when Darja first arrived in the US with her first love and fellow immigrant, Maks (Josiah Bania). He and his wife are full of hope for a new life – and a music career for him -- in a new country full of promise and possibility. This relationship also centers around money, we discover – their lack of it – which is a problem since Darja is expecting a child.

Flash forward and Darja finds herself homeless at the bus stop where she meets Vic (Shiloh Fernandez), a kind street hustler.

The factory where Darja once worked looms in the distance (though not depicted on Justin Townsend’s bleak, simple set) as a metaphor for her struggles. Once a bustling example of the hoped-for fruits of honest labor, it has since been shuttered as business dropped off and workers were let go. The young woman also is haunted by the memory of a terrible tragedy at the hands of one of the factory’s slicing machines, all because a worker friend of hers had been distracted by thoughts of being somewhere else, somewhere that felt like home.

The play is a sensitive look at one immigrant’s story over the span of 20-plus years. It’s touching and realistic, with Ireland giving a strong performance (complete with accent – dialect coaching by Charlotte Fleck and Deb Hecht ) under the direction of Daniella Topol. The 90 minutes without intermission is compelling, but a bit of a downer, despite some humor to help temper the story.

The time jumping is confusing at first, but once we get the hang of who’s who and what is happening, we are aboard – even if Darja herself never makes it on a bus out of her grim New Jersey surroundings. Majok’s writing is poetic and full of passion is (she has an MFA  from the Yale School of Drama).

She is a playwright to watch. Ironbound premiered at the Women’s Voices Theater Festival in Washington, DC last fall. Her plays have been performed and developed at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, The John F. Kennedy Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Yale Cabaret among others.  She is part of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwright Program at The Juilliard School and has taught playwriting at Williams College, Wesleyan University, SUNY Purchase, and as an assistant to Paula Vogel at Yale.

More information:

Ironbound runs through April 24 at Rattlestick Theatre, 224 Waverly Place, NYC. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7 pm; Friday and Saturday at 8 pm; Saturday and Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are $10-$70: rattlestick.org.

Credits: Written by Martyna Majok; Direction by Daniella Topol; Set and Lighting Design by Justin Townsend, Costume Design by Kaye Voyce, Sound Design by Jane Shaw, Dialect Coaching by Charlotte Fleck and Deb Hecht,  Stage Conflict by Uncle Dave’s Fight House, Props by Zach Serafin. 

FAMILY-FRIENDLY FACTORS:

-- Language

-- Sexual Dialogue

-- God's name taken in vain

New Site Assists Finding Accessible Broadway Productions

Theatre Development Fund and The Broadway League are breaking barriers to Broadway with the launch of Theatre Access NYC, 
www.theatreaccess.nyc
a new website designed to assist theatregoers with disabilities in finding accessible performances of Broadway productions.

This website is a way to help theatregoers with physical disabilities or autism and other sensory sensitivities find Broadway shows with the particular type of accessibility service they require.  Theatre Access NYC is an intuitive, user-friendly show finder that allows users to filter and sort through dozens of Broadway shows based on accessibility, and provides details including dates, times and ticket availability for accessible performances.

TDF and The Broadway League worked with their developer to conform to web accessibility standards, ensuring that all people with all disabilities are able to access the site.

Among the services listed are:

* Mobility issues - wheelchair access, info on stairs/elevators in theatres, accessible restrooms, water fountains, etc;

* Mild to severe hearing loss - theatres that regularly provide iCaption units (handheld closed caption units) and assistive listening devices (headphone units that amplify the sound onstage), as well as listings of upcoming specially scheduled open captioned and sign language interpreted performances;

* Mild to severe vision loss - theatres that always provide D-scriptive audio devices (which provide a detailed account of all onstage activity) as well as listings for upcoming specially scheduled audio described performances); and

* Autism friendly performances - upcoming scheduled autism/sensory friendly performances (creating a safe, supportive environment for an audience of families with children and adults on the autism spectrum. The shows are performed with minor adjustments to lighting and sound cues).

Drama Desk Panel Highlights Relationship Between Playwrights and Critics

The Drama Desk hosted a panel discussion at its March Members Mingle on the relationship between playwrights and critics. The insightful, and often humorous discussion, was organized by Sherry Eaker and moderated by Pulitzer-Prize winner Doug Wright. Also on the panel were Pulitzer-Prize winner Robert Schenkkan, Kia Corthron, Matthew Lombardo and Sharr White.  All photos by Barry Gordin.

Sharr White, Matthew Lombardo, Doug Wright, Robert Schenkkan and Kia Corthron.

Drama Desk Members Martha Steketee and Douglas Strassler.

Matthew Lombardo and Kia Corthron

Board members Lauren Yarger, Wiliam Wolf, Lislie (Hoban) Blake and President Charles Wright

Sherry Eaker, right, introduces the event.

Off-Broadway Theater Review: Prodigal Son TOP PICK

Biographical Play is One of Shanley’s Finest
By Lauren Yarger
John Patrick Shanley’s latest play, Prodigal Son, getting its world premiere by Manhattan Theatre Club Off-Broadway, might just be his most personal yet – and not just because he is the writer and director.

This story (from the Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Doubt) is an autobiographical story of his time in the mid 1960s at Thomas More, a private prep school in New Hampshire. It was a period of time when the direction of his life was being decided, Shanley writes in program notes. Prodigal Son is the journey of a tough, troubled, but gifted young kid from the Bronx, who is given a scholarship to mix in with the nation’s elite (with only a few tweaks to true events for simplicity’s or clarity’s sake, Shanley writes.

Talented newcomer Timothée Chalamet (TV’s “Homeland” and Hollywood’s “Interstellar”) plays Shanley’s younger self, Jim Quinn. Original, haunting music by Paul Simon (yes, of Beatles fame) and exquisite, nomination-worthy lighting by Natasha Katz, help visualize the feelings of a boy out of his element and trying to cope with the “special, beautiful room in hell” that is age 15.

Though suspended from his previous school for saying he didn’t believe in God, Thomas More’s religious instructor and headmaster, Carl Schmitt (Chris McGarry), sees potential in the boy and gives him a chance.

“He’s the most interesting mess we have this year,” Schmitt tells his anti-war head of the English Department Alan Hoffman (Robert Sean Leonard). He’s so unlike the other upper-crust boy,  like roommate Austin (David Potters), at the Catholic school.

Jesus, like Socrates and even the school’s namesake, Thomas More, all were suicides, Quinn, surmises, because they allowed their persecutors to kill them when they could have taken action to stop their deaths.

Hoffman is amused by the boy’s mind and the philosophical discussions they share, but cautions Quinn about expressing his views to Schmitt -- who continues to make a case for Christ’s divinity. He especially discourages Quinn from sharing the thought that he might like to attend the headmaster’s alma mater, Harvard, and encourages him to shoot for NYU instead.

Quinn isn’t quite sure what to do. He continues his rebellious ways breaking rules and testing boundaries, but when he gets in trouble, it is Schmitt’s wife, Louise (Annika Boras) who comes to the rescue. She has been instructing the boy in her advanced English class and also sees something in him – perhaps a glimpse of the son she and Carl lost.

Hoffman is the one who reaches Quinn, whose prolific essays about Hitler are a source of consternation as well as amusement.

“Mr. Hoffman, finally SAW me. And more than that. Somebody, a grown person, decided I was good before I was good,” Quinn, who sort of narrates the tale, says.

Over the course of years, the struggle for Quinn’s true calling, as it were, become more intense with both Hoffman and Schmitt trying to influence him. Will his passionate soul find light and be able to soar or will he give into loneliness and the darkness of despair that will crush him? Revelations about Hoffman and his motivations make the question about whom to trust even more intense.

Though story is from Quinn’s viewpoint, and told in the retrospect of adult memory, so the other characters here don’t develop much beyond what he would have known as the young boy. This is a brave piece of writing, as many lesser playwrights might have been tempted to try to round out the characters, to reveal a whole lot more about them, to make them more interesting. In keeping them contained – except for the Schmitts, who briefly reveal some of how their relationship is affected by the death of their son -- Prodigal Son truly becomes a memory of how things were for this one boy and the choices that made him who he is today.

Set Designer Santo Loquasto’s images of interiors of Thomas More as well as the school in the distance assist in the storytelling, into which Shanley paints pictures of faith, forgiveness, free will and choices that can make or break a life. And he does it all in a compelling 95 minutes without intermission.

Information:

Prodigal Son plays through March 27 at NY City Center I, 131 W. 55^th St., NYC. Performances are Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday at 7 pm; Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 8 pm; select matinees. Tickets $90: manhattantheatreclub.com; (212) 581-1212.

Credits: Written and Directed by John Patrick Shanley; Scenic Design by Santo Loquasto, Costume Design by Jennifer Von Mayrhauser, Lighting Design by Natasha Katz, Sound design by Fitz Patton, Original Music by Paul Simon, dialect Coaching by Charlotte Fleck.

Family-Friendly Factors:

-- Language

-- God's name taken in vain

-- Grace is said before meal

Broadway Theater Review: Hughie

Frank Wood, Forest Whitaker Wide Shot - Photo: Marc Brenne

Sometimes a Hollywood Star Isn’t Enough

to Guarantee Broadway Success

By Lauren Yarger
Broadway shows seem to think casting a Hollywood film star is the only sure way to success these days, but with the revival of Eugene ONeill’s difficult Hughie, Forest Whitaker has proved them wrong.

Whitaker, who won an Academy Award for his turn as dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland” and who has a long string of successful films, found that acting on a stage is quite different. He doesn’t seem comfortable in the role of Erie Smith, a down-on-his-luck gambler who pays a visit to one of his favorite late-night haunts, a run-down hotel in New York.

Christopher Oram effectively creates the brooding lobby in dark, faded,  copper-dulled hues that are symbolic of the characters’ existences. He also designs costumes to invoke the 1928 setting.

For most of the 65-minute play, Whitaker sounds like he is reading from the script. This is pretty lethal for a work that is mostly long monologues broken only by an occasional contribution from the other actor on stage (in this case a solid Broadway vet Frank Wood who plays the hotel’s night clerk Charlie Hughes) or some inserted pauses with music. It’s all Whitaker, but Director Michael Grandage never gets him beyond one superficial level in a role that demands layers of depth and nuance.

Now to be fair, the play isn’t one of O’Neill’s greatest. The one-act is one big monologue by Erie, who talks to the new Night Clerk about his predecessor named, Hughie, who recently died. It seems the two spent a lot of time together, with Erie staking Hughie to some friendly gambling between the two. Erie seems lost without Hughie’s companionship, but his angst may be more about the fact that his own luck has run out since Hughie first went to the hospital, Erie also may be reluctant to have to face the insignificance of his own life.

While Erie describes their relationship as a friendship – Hughie was “one grand little guy,” he tells the new clerk – he confuses the issue by referring to him as “a sucker night after night.” We get the impression he didn’t really like the guy – he sure didn’t get along with Hughie’s wife. It might be that Erie just enjoyed feeling empowered by being able to use and bully Hughie.

Though the clerk tells us he is not related to Hughie, despite the “Hughes” last name, before the night is over we begin to see that he might be more connected to him than he knows, at least with respect to filling the void in Erie’s life.

Despite having only a few lines throughout the play, Wood gets most of the evening’s laughs. Whitaker’s inability to give his character some shape causes the production to fall flat, which must be a disappointment to fans willing to pay $150 a ticket for just over an hour’s entertainment (Box Office sales reportedly have been slow).

Grandage reunites the creative team from his Tony-Award-winning production Red and his recent West End hit Photograph 51 starring Nicole Kidman, but fails to make it three times the charm here (Neil Austin designs the lighting and Adam Cork designs sound and composes music which helps drift some spacing into the monologues.)  The play, originally scheduled for a Broadway run though mid June, will close early on March 27.

Hughie runs at the Booth Theatre, 222 West 45 St., NYC, through March 27. Perofromances are Tuesdays: 7:30 pm; Wednesdays 2 and 7:30 pm; Thursdays 7:30 pm; Fridays 8 pm; Saturdays 2 and 8 pm; Sundays 3 pm. Tickets $55-$149: hughiebroadway.com 

FAMILY FRIENDLY FACTORS
-- God's name taken in vain
-- Language

Off-Broadway Review: That Physics Show

That Physics Show
Created by and Featuring Dave Maiullo
The Elktra Theater

By Lauren Yarger

Who thought physics could be so much fun? That Physics Show is an entertaining demonstration of the laws of physics, all made interesting and fun by performer/teacher Dave Maiullo, who created the show which has moved to the larger Elektra after a sod-out run at New York's 62-seat Playroom Theater, 

Whether he is using a fire extinguisher to propel himself cross the stage, floating Coke cans, making light bubs out of pickles or lying on a bed of nails, among the intriguing demonstrations, Maiullo and his assistants, Jordan Bunshaft, Jack Herholdt and Kelsey Lane Dies (two appear on stage), have the audience's attention. On the day I attended, that meant a bunch of school students who bused in for the show (thank God for teachers who use theater to enhance their curriculum). The kids were fully engaged and practically jumped out of their seats to raise a hand to volunteer to help with some of the demonstrations.

Truth be told, at least one adult in the audience learned a few things too, particularly about how energy is transformed into waves (I didn't pick that up in high school science). Maiullo uses a lot of visual aids (a prop in the shape of the state of New Jersey, for example, is used to show center of mass.) He also uses examples that we are familiar with already to ease the learning curve. We might not know WHY we're going to experience a shock from static electricity in a certain instance, but because we do know to expect a shock, Maiullo easily leads us into the physics laws at play.

Every school kid should get to experience science like this. Not only is it fun, but it's learning that sticks with you and I already have recommended it to school groups. 

That Physics Show features segments on motion, momentum, vacuum, friction, energy, density, fluid motion, sound waves and sound vibration, light waves and temperature -- all in just 80 minutes. It;s magic! No, It's physics, but fun.

Maiullo has been a physics demonstrator at Rutgers University for more than 20 years and most recently became a regular on “The Weather Channel” and a presenter at national physics festivals.

More information:
That Physics Show plays at the Elektra Theater, 300 West 43rd St,. NYC.Performance times vary.

Tickets $39-$49: thatphysicsshow.com

Additional Credits: Lighting Design: Joan Racho-Jansen