2 by Tennessee Williams
by Tennessee Williams
starring Katheryn Luce Garfunkel
directed by Marilyn Fried
St. Lukes Theatre
July 17, 2016
Production website

💉 out of 5.

I am caught in a vortex of bad theatre. I am rethinking my whole idea of checking tdf.com for discount tickets. “You get what you pay for.” >> I am truly learning it this week!  The motivator to see this production was that I have taught the one act plays that are part of the collection of Tennessee Williams one act anthology, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton for over 20 years. It is my favorite group of short plays that teach good sound playwriting structure. The kids do NOT think they will love these “old” plays – but after a bit of study – they love them. I was excited to see these seldom done gems by pros!To begin, Katheryn Garfunkel (of Simon and Garfunkel fame) was just dreadful. As Flora, she captured the mentally limited, damaged, southern belle of a character but it got so one-dimensional that it became more of a Blanche DuBois on Quaaludes. I never saw her create scenes with her partner. The most important things on stage was NOT her acting partner but herself. She PLAYED tragic and did not pursue any objective. She was the same at the end as she was at the beginning. Where is the dramatic journey? I never made an emotional connection with her? I never saw her discover anything on stage. All poising no substance.

On a REAL superficial level, the script repeatedly says that Flora is FAT – – it is a key to her character yet the actress was not. Why? Doesn’t NYC have enough large actresses? And Vicarro is to be a “dark skinned Latin”. His lines says he is. Why wasn’t he? Come on – – I can see in the amateur world you cannot be so picky – but this is PROFESSIONAL theatre.

And then the setting – I realize and really do love that settings in these small theaters are kept quite simple and minimal. THAT never gets in the way of good theatre – but a white PVC swing to give us this time and place? And then a bit of trellises attached to the downright corner of the stage – that fell down n the middle of the play – – and not enough programs copied for this the first week of performance. This would NEVER be accepted in high school – – and this is an Equity production?

The second one act of the knight, Kingdom of Earth, was better. The actors were actually acting and listening and reacting to each other. It was not remarkable but it had good ol’ basic scene work. It screamed amateur theatre but it drew me in.

Please believe me, I am not a pretentious theatre asshole. I love theatre and I go to theatre to be “taken away” but you gotta call bullshit for what it is!