'Tis Pity She's a Whore (John Ford)

Red Bull Theater’s production of John Ford’s Tis Pity She’s a Whore presented a clear exposition and interpretation of this memorable (but seldom performed) Jacobin revenge tale of sibling incest and atheism.  This play does not explore the causes and consequences of accidental incest, that unfortunate mistake resulting when identity is misplaced and family lost through catastrophe or carelessness.  Instead, as the play makes clear from the first scene, Giovanni and Annabella move from siblings to lovers knowingly. In fact, Giovanni has already sought sanction from his confession. Rather than abandon his desires for his sister, as admonished by the friar, he forsakes his religious beliefs and accepts the mantle of the atheist.  

In this way, the way seems to be more about atheism than incest.  With many parallels to rightwing arguments made in today’s single-sex marriage debates, the play speaks forcefully about the consequences of ignoring Christianity’s bedrock principles; without the grounding of religious faith, the play threatens us with the specter of all sorts of despicable practices becoming the norm.  

Frequently, Giovanni takes on the heroic cast of Stanley Fish’s version of Milton’s Satan: the hero sent to test our values.  Just how much do we find ourselves sympathizing with the incestuous lovers? With whom are we more upset, Annabella pregnant with her brother’s child or the cuckolded husband who beats her? 

Jesse Berger’s production spreads out these issues for the audience, and there is no turning away from their brutal reality.  It's good to see his Red Bull productions moving uptown to Broadway.

A final note. Perhaps this production sees camp as another point of intersection between the Jacobian and the contemporary; otherwise, the costuming was baffling and absolutely off-putting.

Recommended. The caveats should be obvious. 

Venus in Fur (David Ives)

2nd time around (and still with Nina Arianda in the lead) and the play still charms! We were only able to get one ticket, so Mike waited outside while I saw it by myself. Greater love....

I cannot recommend this production highly enough.  It's terrific.

The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Stephen Alan Guirgis)

The unforgettable play with the unprintable name.

Though it makes use of the language of addiction and recovery, the play isn't really about either. Instead, it's about how we treat one another and ourselves, the codes of behavior we do and don't love by. It treats all of this with riotous, iconoclastic humor, and yet there's never a flippant moment.

Highly recommend.

Jerusalem (Jez Butterworth)

This play is a virtuoso of language coming at the audience like the crowds on Times Square. Sometimes you cannot see the faces in the crowds, but you can be overwhelmed nonetheless. Mark Rylance's performance as Rooster Byron, a drug dealing pied piper of Wiltshire youth, is often difficult to fathom. His motivations are unclear and his self conception muddled, even delusional. I wasn't sure if he represented a lost English Arden or the general degradation of British middle-class culture. He certainly isn't a figure of hope, not even failed rebellion. Deserves to be read.

Recommend.

Arcadia (Tom Stoppard)

I love this play. And this production does it justice.

Highly recommended.

Time Stands Still (Donald Margulies)

Red (John Logan)

I first encountered Mark Rothko and his art when a freshman in Houston, Texas. In 1975, The Rothko Chapel (http://www.rothkochapel.org/) had been opened only 4 years, and it introduced me to a spirituality--as well as a genre of art, Abstract Expressionism--I'd never before encountered. Thereafter, I regularly visited the chapel, finding peace and consolation when religion failed me. And in a reversal of an earlier generation's experience with Rothko, I was startled when I eventually encountered his vivid and colorful canvases dating from earlier in his career.

Logan's play imagines Rothko's artistic and spiritual struggles during that color-saturated phase in the middle of his career. Alfred Molina (as Rothko) and Eddie Redmayne (as his assistant, Ken) provide pitch perfect performances, while the red and black canvases reverberate and pulse on stage.

Without doubt, this is theatre at its finest.

Highly, highly recommend. Do NOT miss.

Superior Donuts, Tracy Letts

We were in NYC anyway, so we decided at the last minute to see Tracy Lett's Superior Donuts. Unlike August: Osage County, which was set in rural Oklahoma and peopled with my people, SD is set in Chicago and peopled with urban misfits living on the margins. The play is well crafted and the production well conceived. The best performance was Jon Michael Hill's as the aspiring young writer trying to get out of a hole of gambling debt. From the opening moment, the play and cast held the audience in rapt attention.

Recommended.

God of Carnage, Yasmina Reza

Just days before the cast changed, we took a quick, last-minute train trip to NYC for a matinee performance of God of Carnage with the play's Tony-winning cast: Hope Davis, James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, and Marcia Gay Harden. And neither the play nor the performances disappointed. (As it happened, this performance was recorded for the archives at NYPublic Library of Performing Arts.)

Tightly written, the script has clearly drawn characters and wit woven throughout. Similarly, the acting was crisp and impeccable. That said, I must add that this play doesn't reach for much emotional depth.

Recommend highly.

And we caught a train that got us back home for dinner at home.