Carey Mulligan is magnificent in the one woman show "Girls and Boys" at The Minetta Lane Theatre. Mulligan is simply "Woman." We listen as she recounts the story of how she met her husband on an Easy Jet line in Italy and her story progresses to their marriage, her career, her success, his failure, their children and so on. For much of the play Mulligan stands uncomfortably in what feels like a box on stage but these scenes are intercut with her in her apartment attending to her children. I wouldn't want to give out too many spoilers here because the shock we feel at the end is necessary to the experience but I will say that the subject matter of the play is something I would not be surprised to see Ken Loach take on. I'm still not big on one-person shows and this one could even have been judiciously cut but Mulligan commanded the stage and my attention for 90 minutes. This is the third time I've seen her on stage. Previously she made the emotionally fragile Nina in "The Seagull" live as a fully realized human being and her performance in David Hare's "Skylight" opposite Bill Neigh was heartbreaking. In her performances both in theatre and on film her intelligence and self-awareness are always evident. Props to the Set Designer Es Devlin, Video Designer Luke Halls and Lighting Designer Oliver Fenwick who transform the stage magically as the play goes on. The apartment is at first all ashy tones but as the play progresses bits of color are added: a toy, a piece of fruit, a pillow until the apartment becomes vibrant with color. I was surprised that the play was written by a man, Dennis Kelly, because "Woman" rings so true. Lindsey Turner masterfully directs as she did Rebecca Hall in "Machinal" several years ago. Magnificent, magical, masterful ... I think I've used up my alliteration quota for this piece.
An import from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival "secret life of humans" is at the 59E59 theatre. Written by David Byrne and directed by Byrne and Kate Stanley, "secret life of humans" addresses the question of whether our species is capable of learning from our mistakes. It's not a brilliant work but has its interesting moments and the acting is all quite good, especially Olivia Hirst. The set and visual projections are clever but a little to busy for my taste.
Rounding out this post is "Fire in Dreamland" at the Public Theatre, written by Rinne Groff and directed by Marissa Wolf. It's a serviceable well-constructed play but not especially novel. Once again, as with "secret life of humans," the performances are all perfectly fine but not especially noteworthy. I have seen Rebecca Naomi Jones do better work in "Describe the Night" at the Atlantic Theatre and also on Broadway in "Passing Strange." It was not an unpleasant way to spend a couple of hours but there are better off-Broadway plays to be had at the moment like "Girls and Boys" and "Pass Over" at Lincoln Center.
