It would seem, based on the reviews, that I am in the minority in observing that the current Broadway production of Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love" is flat and that the stars, Nina Arianda and Sam Rockwell lack even a modicum of chemistry. I saw the brilliant 1983 Circle Rep production with Will Patton and Frances Fisher with requisite sexual fireworks. Even Altman's not so great 1985 film version with Sam Shepard and Kim Basinger oozed a palpable erotic connection. "So what went wrong here?" I ask myself. Sam Rockwell is fine actor with a certain amount of sex appeal and Nina Arianda was a fabulously sensual being in "Venus in Fur" and had real pin-up girl appeal in the Broadway production of "Born Yesterday." Perhaps the direction of Daniel Aukin is at fault which seems to have them playing off anyone but each other. The only real chemistry in the play came in the scene between Eddie (Rockwell) and Martin (Tom Pelphry), May's sweet but dumb suitor. Even the Old Man (Gordon Joseph Weiss) brought more immediacy to his role. Rockwell and Arianda were oddly detached throughout. Perhaps an off night?
Ivo Van Hove's "Antigone"(translation by Anne Carson) which I saw at the BAM Harvey a couple of weeks ago was also problematic. One of the great tragic dramas of all time, it wasn't exactly flat but it felt as though the tragedy was missing. I have no complaints about the staging or design which was basically a scrim with dessert scenes projected on it and a large hole which closes at the end like an eclipse of the sun. The set itself was bare aside from a few risers and a(nother) hole in the center riser signifying a grave that rose and descended as needed. Juliet Binoche was an outstanding Antigone and Patrick O'Kane as Kreon held the stage as the real center of the drama but I never felt the immediacy of the play nor the wrench in my gut that would have made it a tragedy.
Yesterday I saw "The Christians" at Playwrights Horizons, finally succumbing to the press and hoopla around the play and playwright, Lucas Hnath. Again I was left curious unaffected. Although well-acted and nicely staged by Les Waters, I didn't find the debate about whether Christianity requires the existence of a hell and satan nor the other questions of faith addressed in the context of the play especially original. Nice singing though.
The production that really won me over in recent weeks is at the tiny Claire Tow Theatre at Lincoln Center. It's called "The Kill Floor" and is the professional debut of the playwright Abe Koogler who has had the great fortune to have Marin Ireland in his cast. The play is solid and workmanlike and well-directed by Lila Neubegauer but Ireland brings everything up a notch as Andy, an ex-drug addict recently released from prison who is trying to reconnect with her teenage son B (Nicholas L. Ashe). The only work she can find is on the "kill floor" of an abattoir where working conditions are paralyzingly sub-human. She faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles as she desperately tries to heal her relationship with her son and find a way to make connections to fill the lonely void in her life. In a parallel story the son is struggling with his own loneliness and confusion about his sexual identity. Marin Ireland is always so present in her roles that one forgets she is acting but, having seen her play such different characters as Steph in Neil LaBute's "Reasons to be Pretty," Marie Antionette in David Adjmi's play of that name at Soho Rep and Ellen in Lisa Krone's "In the Wake" at the Public Theatre, I can assure you that she has an outstanding range. I also recommend you see her in the title role of the murderously hilarious 2008 independent film "The Understudy."
uer.
