Kafka on the Shore
based on the book by Haruki Murakami
adapted for the stage by Frank Galati
Ninagawa Company
Lincoln Center Festival
July 23, 2015 Production websiteย ย ๐๐๐๐ out of 5.
Only in New York after a quiet cappuccino do you get a chance to see a play with talking cats, transgender librarians, truck drivers, a man named Johnnie Walker that cuts off he heads of cats and refrigerates them, and Colonial Sanders (yes, the one from chicken fame) hustling to get you laid for the night. All of this in an elaborate Peer Gynt-like story of finding yourself by taking the greatest journey. Crazy right? Continue reading Kafka at the Beach→
Happy Days
written by Samuel Beckett
directed by Andrei Belgrader
starring Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub
The Flea Theatre
July 13, 2015
Production websiteย ย ย ๐๐๐๐ out of 5.
You walk into the theatre of seventy-five seats and see nothing on stage but a large mount of dirt and an obviously painted scrim with clouds and sky. The lights go down and up and then we see our protagonist, Winnie (Brooke Adams) โplantedโ in the ground with only her head and torso above ground. ย A theatre shaking alarm blares off, Winnie opens her eyes and itโs โjust another day.โ Winnie spends all of act one ย trapped in this dirt mound with only a capacious bag full of toiletries, and a gun – – Brownie – – a gun – just in case . . Continue reading Happy Days→
Skylight
written by David Hare and Mathew Beard
starring Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy
Golden Theatre – June 14, 2015
๏ฟผ Production website
๐๐๐๐ out of 5.
This is going to sound a bit crude but watching this show seemed to me a very literate and brilliantly played out feasting on the Animal Channel. ย Crude I know – – but the constant clashing of horns for both the materialist, Bill Nighy, and the newly drafted idealist, Carey Mulligan was a scary thing.
Early in the evening Kyra (Carey Mulligan) puts a pot of Bolognese on the stove (literally food on the stove) and literally heats it for all of the audience to watch and smell. ย This meal cooks and cooks and when finally served we can only guess how hot it gets and how severely it burns the tongue.
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At its simplest, Skylight is the story of an old rich married man with a sickly wife who befriends and later woos a much younger woman. ย The secret plays out for a long time until the death of the wife andย conscious of the youngerย woman kicks in. ย Now, separated, they join on this rainy night to rekindle (?) what could have been, or might be, or hasn’t a chance of being.
It was very scary to watch the match up here. ย The language was so brilliantly sharpย and you couldn’t find twoย better actors/swords to wield against each other.
On a funny note, one of my teenage students with me found it totally unbelievable that a man as OLD as he was could ever have a relationship with someone as YOUNG as she was. ย “What could possibly drive them together?”
Patience young teenager – life will reveal stranger things then this.
I have seen this play and loved it both times. ย This is a perfect example of using expressionism to really get inside the life of an autistic boy and yet still be meaningful to the audience. ย What struck me both times about seeing this play is PLAY: ย the wonderful, joyous practice of play that we adults abandon way to early for our own good. ย When is the last time that someone grabbed you by the waist and helped you play rocket ship around the living room? ย When is the last time someone held you above your head threatening to send you plunging into the bed below? ย Autistic or not – – why in the hell did we ever give up our sense of play? Continue reading Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time→
appy Days
Ethelย Barrymore Theatre – June 13, 2016