Leslie
Ayvazian is always a
worthwhile
playwright to follow, always tackling interesting subjects in a fresh
and yet
sweetly humanist way. That’s quite a balancing act when applied to her
most
recent subject, the world of S&M erotics, as practiced, or at least
attempted, by three pairs of male/female partners: a thirtyish married
couple (Anthony
Arkin, Jessica Hecht), a professional dominatrix/S&M
teacher and a
prominent Mayor (Candy Buckley,
Richard Masur) and a
retired
couple (Ellen Parker,
JR
Horne). The play
recently closed at Atlantic Theatre's Stage 2, so this is for the
record and for the future life of the play in regionals.
Make
Me once
it gets rolling, takes place on three simultaneous stages representing
separate locales (with a minimum of cross-personnel interaction as
ideas get
passed along from one couple set to the next), and wrapped up in 90
intermissionless
minutes. While the Atlantic production was well-acted (under the
direction of Christian Parker), Ms. Ayvazian’s script has a hard
time keeping
the counterpointed scenes from upstaging, as opposed to enhancing one
another.
Especially compromised is the older couple, because while the younger
ones are engaged in externalized action and revelation (involving
whips, handcuffs,
and other such paraphernalia, mostly for show and for power rather than
injury), the seniors are exploring the terrain philosophically,
verbally,
making internal transitions, often with elliptical language, that
simply
can’t compete with the visual business. While Ms. Ayvazian is always
too
good a writer to be dull, this mildly exhausting “three ring circus,”
though
dramatizing contrasts in approach and taste effectively enough, never
quite
implies a clear overall point.
************
While
I do admire the New Group’s
production of the award-winning South African play Groundswell, by
Ian Bruce, I’m less
enamored
of the play itself. Here’s part of the thumbnail description from the
official
website: “On the barren, diamond-diving coast of South Africa, Johan (David
Lansbury) and Thami (Soulémane
Sy Savané), an
ex-cop and a
gardener from starkly contrasting backgrounds, maintain a beachfront
guest
lodge during the off-season while looking for a way out. When Smith (Larry
Bryggman), a retired
businessman,
shows up one foggy night, the two men think they've found an ideal
investor for
their scheme to buy into a government-run diamond concession.” Of
course, Smith
didn’t get where he is by being naïve, so he resists; and of
course things get
out of hand. The volatility of the evening is too predictably set up (a
potential weapon is a conspicuous early prop and a promise not to drink
is made
only so it can be broken later) so, also of course, only disaster can
ensue.
The sole tension point is how severe the disaster will be. And while
that’s not
an insignificant question or an insignificant tension, the
inevitability of the
desperation behind it and the schematic preparation makes it feel (or
did for
me) like story manipulation rather than genuine revelation.
That
said, I don’t mean to imply that the play is its own disaster. There is a degree of
powerful,
passionate writing about South African life and dreams in the speeches,
a
surprising character secret or two—and the businessman’s character is
approached from a fresh angle, blessedly free of expected
cliché. (And in the
role, Larry Bryggman, usually only a stalwart reliable, may be giving
the
performance of his career, the alchemy between role and actor is that
dynamic).
Under the direction of Scott Elliott, the Mssrs. Lansbury and Savané
create equally pointed corners of
the triangle. With some great accent work to match.
************
Night
Sky by Susan Yankowitz (at the Baruch Performing Arts Center
on East 23rd)
concerns a brilliantly articulate astronomer (Jordan Baker) who is struck by a car and loses her
ability to
access words in speech. The play—in what seems to be a somewhat
revised, updated version, judging from a few passing references to pop
culture and technology (its original off-Broadway debut was in
1991)—examines the impact this has on her live-in lover (Jim Stanek), daughter (Lauren Ashley Carter), career (as represented by colleague Tuck
Milligan) and other
aspects of
her life (various roles assayed by Dan Domingues and Darlesia Creasy). The performances are very good under
the clear,
clean direction of Daniela Topol,
with Ms. Baker’s being far better than that, and the play, to be sure,
has its
share of touching moments and interesting insights. But it falls short
of plays
in the arguably similar “genre”—Wit, for example—because parts of it feel
overwritten and attenuated; and it peaks too early, resolving its key
emotional
conflict, and thus the play, well before the author intends.
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