Letters of Suresh

Letters of Suresh
Written by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by May Adrales
Second Stage Theatre
October 10, 2021
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5

With this play I did something I have never done in all of my years of theatre-going.  I just looked at my watch and found that I could make an evening show if I wanted.  I hadn’t planned on this – didn’t do any research.  I just went to Playbill on-line and picked one not too far away that I hadn’t seen – – thus Letters of Suresh.  Luckily it paid off and the play was the perfect choice for the evening.

Essentially Letters of Suresh is a series of letters that were found in the meager estate of a dead priest in Hiroshima.  Over the years he had corresponded to Suresh about life and love.  These letters where found and through a third party they are read and passed on to another reader.  Essentially the correspondence of one pair of penpals grew into a small group of people that were transformed by the beauty and honesty of the writing.  Each person that read the letters was driven to become a writer and the art of letter writing blossomed.

Pass Over

Pass Over
Written by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu
Directed by Dana Taymor
August Wilson Theatre
October 10, 2021
Production website
💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5

This play was perfection.  There was not a single word or gesture that was extraneous.  Visually the play made sense on the bare stage to a stage full of smoke and affects.  Very seldom have been so moved by a play.

In many ways Pass Over uses the play, Waiting for Godot and applies this story and its absurdist rules to an urban black culture.  Gogo and Didi have been replaced with Moses and Kitch.  The bare stage with a single tree has been replaced with a concrete median with a single imposing streetlight.  Even the classic bowler hats of the hobos Gogo and Didi are replaced by baseball caps that become treasured props to them.  I could go on and on with the comparisons and revaluations made in seeing Godot through this new lense – it was brilliant. Â