"The Hairy Ape" is magnificent. If you love your O'Neill there is still time to make it to Richard Jones' sublime production at the Park Avenue Armory. The WPA inspired set is glorious. The play opens with the actors in a frozen tableau as the set on a circular loop moves into view. This "devise" of freezing the action to create a tableau is used judiciously throughout the play and always to dramatic effect. In addition to theatre, Jones has done operas which have certainly taught him how to direct on the grand visual scale necessary for a production in the vast space of the Armory. The Designer Stewart Laing, Choreographer Aletta Collins, Lighting Designer Mimi Jordan Sherin and Composer and Sound Designer Sarah Angliss must be acknowledged because it is only with the meshing of their contributions that the production achieves a certain majesty. The performances are outstanding, especially those of Bobby Cannavale as The Yank and David Constabile as Paddy. The exception is Catherine Combs who shrieks her way through the role of Mildred. "The Hairy Ape" is especially relevant in this time when there is such a disparity between the rich and the poor. The Yank's inability to understand this and ultimate descent into madness will rip you apart.
You have, however, a couple of months to see "A Doll's House Part 2" in it's limited run at the Golden Theatre. This is the third play I have seen by the very hot young playwright Lucas Hnath. "The Christians" at Playwrights Horizons was dull. "Red Speedo" at NYTW was marginally better but third time's a charm and this play directed by the omnipresent Sam Gold is pretty perfect . Nora returns home 15 years after she walks out on Torvald and her children in Ibsen's "A Doll's House." My only quibble would be that it would make more sense for it to be 20-25 years later given Laurie Metcalf's age but theatre is all about the suspension of belief, isn't it? Metcalf is outstanding. She owns the stage and her comic timing is impeccable. Hers is a selfish, narcissistic and devious Nora, not the takeaway from Ibsen's play, that of strong woman finally breaking free from the constraints of an unhappy marriage. And it is delightful to see Chris Cooper return to the stage after over two decades acting the heavy in film and flex his comic muscle as Torvald, a decent, caring man who wants to do right by Nora. This is not Ibsen's Torvald. But this is not Ibsen's "A Doll's House." Jayne Houdyshell, as ever, delivers as the faithful housekeeper who raised Nora's children and Condola Rashad as Nora's barely-grown daughter holds her own with Laurie Metcalf, an achievement in itself.
Richard Maxwell's "Samara," the latest offering from The Soho Rep is trickier. With music and narration by Steve Earle, the play takes place in an indeterminate, possibly futuristic terrain. The performances are uneven and the play gets lost in it's attempts to be profound. I admit it left me baffled even as I was hypnotized by the mysterious ending, stage plunged into darkness, smoke rising and the melodious voice of Steve Earle leading us into some oblique landscape in our minds. Sarah Benson has made some unusual and interesting casting choices but the 14 year old actor Jasper Newell as The Messenger was not one of them. His is a flat, disconnected performance that drains the energy from his interactions with the other actors. The trans actor Becca Blackwell as Manan and Paul Lazar a veteran of the Wooster Group as The Drunk fare better and Vinie Burrows, an African-American actress well into her 80's is outstanding as Agnes a sort of Mother Courage character. I came away wanting to see her in that Brechtian role. Is anyone out there listening?
I'm not a fan of one-man/woman plays and "Cry Havoc," conceived and acted by Stephan Wolfert and directed by Eric Tucker, both members of the outstanding Bedlam Theatre Company, didn't do a whole lot to change my mind. While I found the way in which Wolfert is able to connect his experience as a soldier and a vet to Shakespeare's Richard III, Henry V and, most interestingly, Lady Percy, Hotspur's wife, well-conceived, I grew a-weary about an hour in. And I wish I had not stayed past the intermission for the audience focus group. I'm sure it's different every night but on the night I attended it was more of a group therapy session. I appreciate Wolfert's desire to make audience members aware of the many ways in which we respond to and are connected to veterans but I think the play itself sends that message.
