A play about loneliness and the importance of having a community... or at least one friend. William Jackson Harper plays Kenneth, an orphan living in upstate New York. When Kenneth's longtime boss at a small bookstore tells him he is closing up shop and moving away, Kenneth assures him that he'll be okay, that he does have one friend. Kenneth and his friend Bert (Eric Berryman) enjoy 2-for-1 happy hour drinks every night at a local bar. The only problem is that Bert isn't really there. Bert is a figment of Kenneth's imagination - a coping mechanism that stems from the traumatic loss of his mother and the social worker (named Bert) who helped place him in foster care.
Harper gives a very moving performance as Kenneth, gradually coming to terms with his lot in life. He gets a job at the bank and eventually builds enough self-esteem to function without Bert. He makes a real friend - Wally, a woman from the waitstaff at the bar where he goes (April Matthis plays Wally and a rotating roster of other waiters at the bar). The play drags on a little, but the story is heartwarming without being cheesy. While this is an extreme case of loneliness, all of us can relate to needing a friend with whom to share a 2-for-1 happy hour deal. Laura Pels Theatre An unbelievably powerful play, perfectly executed. This is one of the best (maybe the best) one-person production I have seen. Jodie Comer is incredible, but the play itself, by Suzie Miller, is the backbone of the production - the writing, the direction, the stage design, the lighting and sound design (with an original score by Self Esteem) - everything comes together seamlessly. In a tight 100 minutes, Comer barely leaves the stage. She plays all of the characters, she changes her outfits on stage, she moves around furniture to transition the sets - and at the same time, she flawlessly articulates all her monologues (and all of the dialogues). Despite the rapid-fire delivery, I don't think I missed one word.
The premise of the play poignantly reveals the inadequacy of how the legal system handles sexual assault cases. Tessa is a criminal defense lawyer, and she has honed a strategy for defending men accused of sexual assault. She is passionate about justice and the word of the law, and separates her legal strategy - essentially to discredit the women based on their hazy and inconsistent accounts - from any empathy she may have towards the women she cross-examines. She stands by "innocent until proven guilty" and does not dwell on the flawed way we deem things "proven." And then the unthinkable happens - Tessa herself is sexually assaulted. By someone she knows well and likes. After a long night of drinking. Tessa finds her career, her trust in the law, her understanding of friends and colleagues, and her whole sense of self in shambles. Even though Comer is on stage by herself the entire time, and the set remains somewhat constant, I have powerful visuals of distinct scenes in the play. When Tessa is carried to the bed after vomiting in the bathroom; the assault itself, when Tessa disassociates in a confused fugue state; when Tessa breaks down crying in a taxi and the driver suddenly shifts his attitude from annoyance to concern; when Tessa is interrogated on tape at the police precinct; when Tessa is surrounded by only men in court, and meets the eye of the only woman, a security officer accompanying her mother; when Tessa is on the witness stand internally cross-examining herself, trying and failing to predict the lawyer's strategy, trying and failing to stay cool and collected... and so many more. The play deftly exposes how the legal process is built to favor the assailant, how it fails the women who overcome their trauma to testify, and how the results of these trials are so often unsatisfactory no matter the outcome. Golden Theatre A play about a magician explaining his magic, but in the least engaging way possible. Steve Cuiffo has been a magician his entire life - it is the only job he has ever had. Now in this one-man play, Cuiffo shares the stage with a tape recorder that is playing director Lucas Hnath's half of their conversations from a handful of meetings over the past few years. Cuiffo recreates his side of the conversation live, as well as the magic tricks he demonstrates for Hnath.
But actual magic tricks are few and far between. Instead, Hnath asks Cuiffo tons of questions and the result is more a therapy session than anything else. The question of originality is central - most magic tricks are recreations or versions of another - and Hnath challenges Cuiffo to do something original, and something to please his wife (who hates magic). I enjoyed the card tricks Cuiffo does at the beginning, and marveled at the trick where he turns water into ice out of nowhere. But the finale, the original trick to please his wife where he uses her creepy childhood doll and makes it move around a little... was anticlimactic to say the least. Atlantic Theater, Atlantic Stage 2 Rachel Bloom comes out swinging with raunchy, over-the-top jokes (and songs of course) that will make you cringe. She announces she will pretend it's 2019 and will not focus on the pandemic or anything too serious. Just when you start to worry that she means it, Death interrupts the show. Death, personified in the wings of the theater by Danny Jolles, insists that Bloom face the topic and her grief. A harrowing confluence of events took a toll on Bloom at the start of the pandemic, but she turns lemons into the best lemonade she can muster.
From giving birth to a baby with respiratory issues in early March 2020 (when no one wore masks, but everyone used Lysol wipes on their mail) to the sudden loss of her close friend and collaborator, Adam Schlesinger, Bloom faces it all in this tour de force show. She finds insight and humor in the darkest places to move herself (and the audience) forward, eventually making a strong and poignant case that parents are to their children what dogs are to their owners... a loved one that will hopefully die first. Gramercy Theatre Catherine Cohen is better live. Her first Netflix special, "The Twist..? She's Gorgeous" came out last year and it's great (watch that too), but this new show was better. And the first time we saw her, downtown at Club Cumming, was even better. Cohen's comedy is quick and smart and did I mention she writes songs? They're catchy, clever, and she can actually sing too.
Joe's Pub An insightful exploration of love and marriage, how relationships evolve, and what keeps them going. We see Manuel (Xavier Pacheco) and Johaira (Maribel Martinez) meet, fall in love, and settle into a life together. Manuel has a successful auto repair shop and Johaira is a prosecutor on a high-profile sexual assault case. The play cuts between scenes, only showing us their life at home together and simply referencing everything else. But we clearly see how outside events begin to impact and strain their relationship until it becomes too much. Johaira lectures Manuel on feminism, ingrained patriarchy, racially charged language... it's a little too pedagogical for realistic conversations between partners, but Manuel is unusually receptive.
Then Manuel learns his mother is ill and insists they take her in despite the small apartment and baby on the way. Shortly after, under extreme stress after losing the case, Johaira has a miscarriage and is unable to cope. Given what we know of their relationship, we expect they will work through these difficulties, but Johaira descends deeply and lashes out. She asks for a divorce and (being a lawyer) has the papers ready. Time passes, and we see them in the apartment again to pack up. But the passing of time has helped and the play ends with an emotional reconciliation, leaving the audience with the hope that the relationship will endure. Pacheco and Martinez have a slow-burning chemistry as their relationship builds. It doesn't feel right at the beginning, but grows until it makes sense. With only 2 people in the cast, I get that an intermission provides a much needed break... but getting into the relationship took a little too long, and the break interrupts the flow of emotion towards the inevitable. In other words, a good candidate for my usual recommendation of 90 minutes, no intermission. MCC Theater |
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