January Blew In ...

"[Porto]" at the Bushwick Starr was pretty thin stuff.  Two hipsters walk into a bar... You get the picture. Following on the heels of Clare Barron's wonderful "I'll Never Love Again" (One of my best pics for 2016) at the Starr, this was a let-down.  I feel really strongly about supporting off-off Broadway theatre companies presenting works by up-and-coming playwrights but the play by Kate Benson didn't bring anything new to the table and, apart from a few top-notch performances, in particular Noel Joseph Allain as Doug the Bartender and Julia Sirna-Frest in the title role, there was little of interest unless it's impelling for you to follow the lonely lives of singletons in Brooklyn. I think Benson imagines herself clever by throwing in an on-stage conversation between Simone de Beauvoir and Gloria Steinem discussing feminism. Perhaps this would have been a more interesting play?  I found no fault in the direction by Lee Sunday Evans who will be directing the upcoming LCt3 production of "Bull in a China Shop" by Bryna Turner.  I hope Evans will have more to work with.

Fortunately for me, the follow-up to that disappointing trek out to Bushwick were two extraodinary productions, "The Tempest" at St. Ann's Warehouse in Dumbo and "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" at BAM Harvey.

"The Tempest" is the third in a trilogy of Shakespeare's plays following "Julius Caesar" and "Henry IV" with an all-female cast directed by Phyllida Lloyd and starring Harriet Walter.  Set in a woman's prison in upstate in New York (Bedford Hills?), "The Tempest" is framed by the story of an American woman named Judy Clark (Harriet Walter) who is in prison for life after having participated in a politically motivated crime much like the Brink's robbery.  Hence, the prison is the island to which she as Prospero is exiled.  Presumably we all know the story of the "The Tempest" but what makes the play fresh is the way the story has been woven into a tale of prison life once again using the same actors who were so brilliant in "Henry IV."   I didn't feel transported as I did in "Henry IV" but it worked it's magic.

The Druid's current production of "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" directed by Garry Hynes at the BAM Harvey is a stunner.  I didn't see the Tony Award 1998 Broadway production but am betting that this rivals and even surpasses that  production.  Long a fan of Martin McDonagh since seeing "The Pillowman" on Broadway in the 2005, I knew that this would be a very dark fable.  Set in Ireland, it's the story of an aging mother Mag and her adult daughter Maureen who acts as her caretaker. Theirs is an aggressively hostile relationship and when the daughter has a chance to break away it seems to be thwarted by the mother.  I say "seems" because what you see is not necessarily the reality. Marie Mullen who played Maureen in the 1998 production is here cast as the mother.  So convincing is her portrayal of an elderly infirm woman that it's hard to imagine her as the beautiful 40 year old Maureen less than 20 years ago, a portrayal for which she won a Tony.  The performances of Aisling O'Sullivan as  Maureen, Marty Rea as her presumable suitor Pato Dooley and Aaron Monaghan as Pato's lay-about brother Ray were all seamless.  But prepare to be shocked.