A Human Being Died that Night
by Nicholas Wright, based on the book b y Pula Gobodo-Madikizela
directed by Jonathan Munby
Brooklyn Academy of Music – Fishman Space
June 19, 2015
On a Sunday afternoon after spending ten days with high school students and seeing thirteen shows in ten days, I donโt think my mind was ready to deal with police brutality in aparteid South Africa. Not really the best choice for exhausted teenagers before a flight home. Me bad.ย This two-hander inย a jail cell; some very clinical dramaturgy and acting; and we were off and running. A Human Being Died that Night is adapted from the book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist hired by the South African government to hold all the of the perpetrates of apartheid responsible for their enormous violence and human rights violations. Continue reading A Human Being That Night→
David Mamet without the yelling and foul language? What has happened? Both one acts give the audience a tasteย of radio theatre where little is happening on stage but much is happening in the quite story-telling.s “Prairie du Chien”, the first of the stories, is a quite murder mystery that is primarily told as a way of passing time on a moving train. One man telling the story and another listening. At first I wandered what was the function of the other less important characters playing cards, serving pages, and tapping their fingers.. Then I closed my eyes and found out how much theyย were contributing to the rhythm and mood of the story. They became the musical background for the Ghost Story. Continue reading Ghost Stories: The Shawl and Prairie du Chien→
The Flick
by Annie Baker
directed by Sam Gold
Barrow Street Theatre
June 18, 2015 Production websiteย ย ย ๐๐๐๐๐ out of 5.
I will never leave my too-buttered popcorn and giant soda in my movie theatre seat again!ย Set in a movie theatre in New England The Flick focuses on 3 barely paid workers trying to keep the movies playing (although no one seems to be attending) and the floor free from trash.ย They interact and collide with each other and basically get to know each other.ย BUT what makes this experience so rare is that they are getting to know each other at the very same speed that we are!ย This doesnโt happen quickly.
The Taj Mahal is a truly beautiful wonder of the world – – but you will NEVER be able to look at that serene building the same! Based on a popular myth regarding the Taj, director Amy Morton tells the story of the ugly cruelty that is behind so many of the beautiful things that man is able to create.
Two low level guards are set to protect the construction of the Taj Mahal. They are to insure that no one, including themselves, are able to view the Taj before it is fully complete and ready for viewing. So they stand, and they stand. Slowly we explore the Godot-like relationship of the two men: one strictly following the rules without question, the other, a bit of a radical open to questioning authority! What fun to watch this couple banter away and debate theย obvious impossibility of preventing passerby from viewing the enormous Taj. ย How crazy is this job? ย But to what extent must authority be obeyed? ย What would be so wrong to take just the slightest of peeks to see what in the world they have been guarding for sometime. Continue reading Guards at the Taj→
Significant Other
by Joshua Harmon
directed by Trip Cullman
Roundabout Theatre
July 17, 2015 Production website.
๐ out of 5.
I am really not so sure what makes this significant.ย Significant Others is a play that sets out to explore how hard it is for a twenty-something gay man to find the โone.โย For all of his consternating with his grandmother, employing of all social media options and championing of his best girl buddies he simply canโt โget any.โย I guess we are supposed to care.
The play does have its funny moments as wedding parties always create a drunken free-for-all.ย And protagonist Jordan Berkan certainly does fly across the stage in a caffeinated craze – – but I simply didnโt care for him.ย He seemed so whiny and shallow as he pursued the elusive Abacrombie-like model that did little but stand on a raised platform for admiration.
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He did talk to his grandmother, played by the talented Barbara Barrie.ย She either ask him โhowโs your love life? (which she does more then a dozen times) or she is oddly and comfortably planning her suicide.ย What??
The set was massive – – a series of rooms and levels but none of them got used.ย Most was played on the apron in front.ย Why build such a big set and never inhabit it.
Significant Other would undoubtable make good TV.ย But to get all dressed up, catch 3 trains, pay over $75 and not to have your dog on your lap – – it simply wasnโt worth the trip.ย It might have even different for the twenty-sowing in the audience but for this fifty-something no.
A Human Being Died that Night
Guards at the Taj