TheaterScene.net

Joel Benjamin

September 27th, 2021

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The Wayward Daughter of Judah the Prince

An epic Biblical tale cleverly reduced to the size of an off-Broadway theater stage.

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Douglas Lackey almost pulls off the impossible with his The Wayward Daughter of Judah the Prince, a cinematically epic tale set in the century after Jesus’ crucifixion reduced to the size of an off-Broadway theater stage.

 

I say almost because he can’t quite interweave the factual history with the human element even though both are fascinating.  Emotions and relationships vie with lectures on religious sects.  Fortunately, the high level of the acting helps humanize the history.

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His play transports the audience from second century Palestine to Ephesus then to Rome and finishes off in ancient Alexandria where the title character, Hannah meets her fate.

 

Hannah’s father, Judah (a commanding Stan Buturla), a high-born Jew in Palestine, is assembling what would become one of the seminal works of Judaism, the Mishnah. His helpmeet is his devoted daughter who slavishly adheres to the many, sometime inscrutable, religious rules and regulations of her religion.

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As the play opens Hannah (Jessica Crandall, luminous) is teaching her servant slave Sarah (Amanda Kristin Nichols, adding a welcome note of heat to the play) the stringent laws of behavior on the Sabbath.  Hannah is adamant about her adherence to the Scripture, but balks when her father, within his paternal rights, insists on marrying her off to a skittish nobleman, Jonah (Mohammad Saleem who acquits himself well in several contrasting roles).

Jonah’s religious beliefs are diametrically opposed to those of Hannah’s, plus she cannot abide the idea of marrying.  Also marriage’s sexual obligations go against her natural inclinations.  Her ideal love mate is Sarah with whom she absconds to foreign shores and encounters a spectrum of religious sects and philosophies including Christianity, Gnosticism and Neoplatonism.

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Wayward Daughter then walks an uneasy path between drama and didacticism as Hannah and Sarah are confronted with sexual humiliation, angry polemists and hateful mobs.  All the while their journey illuminates the madness of conflicting religious philosophies from the world-weary Gnostics to the anti-Christian Hellenists as embodied in the characters of the unsavory Gnostic leader Basilides (Saleem), pagan philosopher Plotinus (Anthon Mondesir) and Christian Bishop Kyril (Mondesir again, displaying his diversity).

 

It is to the credit of the entire cast—dressed in Anthony Paul-Cavaretta’s period tunics and flowing robes—that Lackey’s sometimes over-the-top dialogue lands credibly.

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Wayward Daughter then walks an uneasy path between drama and didacticism as Hannah and Sarah are confronted with sexual
humiliation, angry polemists and hateful mobs. All the while their journey illuminates the madness of conflicting religious philosophies
from the world-weary Gnostics to the anti-Christian Hellenists as embodied in the characters of the unsavory Gnostic leader Basilides
(Saleem), pagan philosopher Plotinus (Anthon Mondesir) and Christian Bishop Kyril (Mondesir again, displaying his diversity).
It is to the credit of the entire cast—dressed in Anthony Paul-Cavaretta’s period tunics and flowing robes—that Lackey’s sometimes overthe-
top dialogue lands credibly.

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Two other elements elevate the play:  Michael Sirotta’s lovely, mood-enhancing score and Jon DeGaetano’s imaginative scenery which includes large, stage-spanning curtains that cleverly serve as entranceways, sails and even ancient columns.  Michael Redman’s moody projections enhance Sirotta’s contributions.

 

Alexander Harrington directs without the slightest hint of irony.  There is no winking at the audience even when Lackey’s lines veer towards Hollywood Bblical epic camp.   He makes these characters human even when spouting complex rhetoric.

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The Wayward Daughter of Judah the Prince’s combination of earnestness and exoticism make it a happy, if uneven, contribution to the reawakening off-Broadway scene.

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The Wayward Daughter of Judah the Prince (through October 10, 2021)

Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, in Manhattan

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New York Theater Buying Guide

Ron Gross

 

"LUDWIG AND BERTIE" 

BY DOUGLAS LACKEY, 

DIRECTED BY ALEXANDER HARRINGTON

 

September 26 to October 13

Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave.,

Presented by Theater for the New City

Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 PM, Sundays at 3:00 PM

Tickets $15 gen. am. Box office:  www.theaterforthenewcity.net, 

(212) 254-1109

Running time 1:45 (includes intermission).  

Show's website: www.ludwigbertie.com

 

Bottom Line: Our highest recommendation!  An exhilarating “comedy of ideas” vividly enacting the forty-year love/hate relationship between Bertrand Russell and his most famous student, Ludwig Wittgenstein.  

 

 

Can the lifelong philosophical arm-wrestling between two icons of modern western philosophy, be meaningful in our momentous moment?  And can that struggle make an exceedingly entertaining play?   

 

This wondrous work  delivers YESs  to those questions, culminating in one of the characters speaking on the BBC to the largest world-wide audience in the history of cogitation, declaring:  "When politicians pass a law, the purpose is to keep the holders of power happy. When a scientist conducts an experiment, the purpose is not to make anyone happy, but to discover the truth. There is no other source of truth; the alternative to science… is fiction."

 

Playwright and philosophy professor Douglas Lakey has discerned the roots of our current contention between truth and bullshit, in the entwined lives and philosophies of these two avatars of modernism from their first meeting at Cambridge in 1911, when Russell was nearly 40 and Wittgenstein was 21, to Wittgenstein's death in 1951.  A play on such characters might seem to be a drama of philosophical ideas, but this one is rooted in a pointedly personal drama that plays out at many levels. 

 

This intellectual Odd Couple couldn’t be more different – except when they meet in the realm of pure mathematics, as they do in a climactic scene in the wee hours of a morning when Ludwig interrupts Bertie’s sleep for an impromptu seminar.

 

Russell is heterosexual, hedonistic and agnostic; Wittgenstein is puritanical, gay and Jewish.  Russell is an imprisoned pacifist; Wittgenstein a decorated combat soldier. Wittgenstein is intensely religious; Russell mocks religion from first to last.  

 

Academically, they start out together as proponents of a modernism rooted in logic, mathematics and science. Wittgenstein creates a modernist book, and then designs a modernist house, each with as many sharp angles as a painting by Mondrian.  

 

But it all goes wrong in 1926, when Wittgenstein wakes up to a post-modern, post-truth world of anti-Semitism, Naziism, and irrationality (two of his brothers committed suicide).

 

Ludwig regards Bertie as his "mental father," but their relationship has elements of rivalry.  At one point, Russel declares, "Damn it, I will never catch up with him."  Their clashes take many comic turns, as when Russell is unable to prove to Wittgenstein that there is no rhinoceros in the room.  (Which calls-forward aptly to Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros, which is so tellingly apt to our situation.)

 

Stan Buturla bestrides the stage like the intellectual colossus that Russell was. Connor Bond delivers an agonized, brilliant, and tragic as Wittgenstein. Pat Dwyer is a subtle and nuanced Cambridge philosopher G.E. Moore. Alyssa Simon enchants  as Lady Ottoline Morrell (Russell's paramour).  Daniel Yaiullo has a  beautiful scene as  David Pinsent (Wittgenstein's undergrad lover).   

 

Alexander Harrington directs with an extraordinary orchestration of a simple but brilliant set and a corps of on-stage movers and shakers. Special kudos for the perfect “musical score” throughout, including Brahms, Bach, Vivaldi, Delibes, then ringing in Satie, Antheil, and Schonberg as modernism dawns.

 

The piece is a successor to TNC's hit production last season of  "Arendt-Heidegger: A Love Story," which was also written by Lackey and directed by Harrington.  That play dramatized the troubling, lifelong affair between Zionist Hannah Arendt and Nazi sympathizing philosopher Martin Heidegger.  

 

 And a boisterous BRAVO! to the ever-renewing commitment to creativity of Crystal Field and her angels at the Theater for the New City. 

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The following is from James Navarrete's review of Ludwig and Bertie on TheaterScene.net and can be found at http://www.theaterscene.net/plays/offbway-plays/ludwig-and-bertie/james-navarrete/

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Ludwig and Bertie

Thought-provoking yet fun, this play featuring two very different 20th century philosophers, shows us how we can still learn from them to this day.  

Posted on October 3, 2019 by James Navarrete in Off-Broadway, Plays

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Ludwig and Bertie, written by Douglas Lackey, gives us insight into the relationship of two of our greatest twentieth century philosophers, the younger Jewish Ludwig Wittgenstein and the 20-year-older atheist Bertrand Russell.

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Bertie, played smartly by Stan Buturla, is the wise old professor at Cambridge when he meets the almost half-his-age young student Ludwig, poignant, headstrong and hungry for more knowledge, insight and truth, played passionately by Connor Bond.

 

Beginning in Vienna, Alexander Bartinieff’s simple, dark yet evocative stage lighting sets the stage. We are first introduced to the young boy Ludwig played brilliantly by Hayden Bercy. He has four siblings, three of whom have committed suicide.

 

We meet the young man Ludwig at Cambridge in 1911 where he hands Bertie his manuscripts. The seed is planted and Bertie immediately recognizes the genius of his new pupil as he shares his thoughts with his fellow Cambridge philosopher, G.E. Moore, played by the talented Pat Dwyer.

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Directed by Alexander Harrington, this play is like a well-choreographed stage dance. The players move seamlessly from scene to scene and the parts are played with just the right amount of balance of passion, humor and controlled sensibility.

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Jon DeGaetano’s set design is simple yet practical. The blackboards are used both to illustrate a story as well as framing the dialogue. The costumes by Anthony Paul-Cavaretta lend themselves to the era in which the story is taking place, from the classrooms, to the bedroom and even during war! Lady Ottoline Morrell, played by Alyssa Simon, always looks ravishing in her gowns and evokes a proper upper-crust upbringing. The lighting does not distract from the performers but does spotlight each storyline nicely.

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I enjoyed the well-executed boat ride Ludwig shares with his love interest David Pinsent, played by Daniel Yaiullo. I would have liked to see more of this relationship unfold and more of Mr. Yaiullo’s subtle, soft yet effective delivered performance.

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Ludwig and Bertie have many exchanges of thoughts as well as mainly disagreements or views. However, what I most took away from the relationship of student to professor or “mental Father,” as Ludwig refers to Bertie, is not just the differences in age, religion, thoughts, struggles and challenges, but the openness and respect that each has for the other.

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We live in a time where opposites do not see eye to eye much less try to hear and understand where the other is coming from. We have seen time and again an older generation which is set in its ways and not open to challenges, new insights or other people’s ideas.

Ludwig and Bertie show us that as different as we all may be, whether by religion, age, or even sexual orientation, we can learn from each other. Be more open to a bigger discussion and sometimes change our minds over things, as if in fact there is a rhinoceros in the room or not.

This thought-provoking play answers that question as well as shedding light into this historic duo’s relationship. See this discussion and more in Douglas Lackey’s new play, Ludwig and Bertie.

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The following is from Alan Miller's review of Ludwig and Bertie on A Seat on the Aisle ... and can be found at http://aseatontheaisle.blogspot.com/2019/10/ludwig-and-bertie-by-douglas-lackey-at.html

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A SEAT ON THE AISLE...

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S U N D AY, O C T O B E R 6 , 2 0 1 9
LUDWIG AND BERTIE by Douglas Lackey at
Theater for the New City

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Ludwig Wittgenstein (Connor Bond) and Bertrand Russell (Stan
Buturia) had little in common in nature, background, or philosophical
outlook. Russell was an Englishman, a generation older than
Wittgenstein, a heterosexual sensualist, a hedonist, a pacifist
imprisoned for refusing to serve in the First World War, and a selfproclaimed
agnostic. By contrast, Wittgenstein was an Austrian, a bisexual,
a decorated combat soldier in the First World War, and a
puritanical religious Catholic coming to grips with his Jewish roots. Yet
the two men had an enormous effect on one another and were also
arguably the two most dominant philosophers of the twentieth century.

 

Ludwig and Bertie by Douglas Lackey, currently premiering at
Theater for the New City on First Avenue in New York’s East Village,
tells their story. It is a comprehensive bio-pic of the lives of the two
philosophers, the influence they had on one another’s philosophies,
and the extraordinary relationship that existed between them. The play 

is a remarkable achievement on two levels: on one level, it provides an
exhaustive explication of their respective philosophies (which even
those most familiar with the concepts underlying analytic philosophy
should find informative and educational). And on another level, it also
provides an entertaining theatrical experience for those less committed
to the nuances of philosophical thought in its explorations of these
men’s personae.

In penning Ludwig and Bertie, Lackey has taken some liberty with
historical facts (as often occurs in bio-pics). For example, he portrays
an argumentative episode involving the aggressive wielding of a poker
as having occurred between Wittgenstein and Russell when it actually
transpired between Wittgenstein and Karl Popper (as describef by
David Edmonds and John Edinow in Wittgensteins’s Poker). And while
it is true that Wittgenstein and Adolf Hitler were schoolmates, there is
no real evidence that they ever actually met – then or as adults –
although Lackey credits Wittgenstein with having successfully
appealed directly to Hitler to achieve freedom from the Nazis for his
siblings despite their Jewish ancestry. But these are minor matters and
Lackey does provide a true picture of the lives of Wittgenstein and
Russell in the broadest sense.

 

Both Connor Bond and Stan Butuna are outstanding in their respective
roles as Wittgenstein and Russell and they are ably supported by the
rest of the cast: Hayden Berry as the young Wittgenstein; Pat Dwyer as
the philosopher, G. E. Moore; Alyssa Simon as Russell’s paramour,
Lady Ottoline Morrell, and as Wittgensteins sister, Gretl Stonborough;
and Daniel Yaiullo as Wittgenstein’s gay lover.
POSTED BY ALAN MILLER AT 8:32 PM

 

The following is Beate Hein Bennett's review of Arendt-Heidegger: a Love Story  The review can be found at http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/bhb18092t.htm

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Who would have thought that two philosophers could possibly be dramatic much less theatrical subjects? Author Douglas
Lackey and director Alexander Harrington have managed to extract a thought provoking stimulating performance from two
of the most controversial public intellects of the twentieth century: Hannah Arendt (1906-1975), a German-Jewish
philosopher and social theorist and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), one of the most renowned German philosophers to have
succumbed to Nazism. The subject of their romantic entanglement, in conjunction with their political trajectories over the
course of forty years, from the mid 1920s to 1964, is the dramatic core of this play in a series of 23 concisely scripted
scenes.

Hannah Arendt, born into an assimilated Jewish family in Königsberg, East Prussia—
the city of 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant—first encounters Martin
Heidegger as a 19 year old student in his philosophy seminar at the University of
Marburg. She is brilliant and challenges him as a thinker but her eroticism challenges
him as a man. He is a respected professor and a married man. The mix of intellectual
fireworks and erotic exhilaration erupts into a full-fledged love affair as the political
storm in Germany gathers force until Hitler's election in 1933 seals the fate of all
Jewish intellectuals (and any political opponents, such as communists and social
democrats) first with expulsion from their positions, and ultimately with persecution,
obliteration, and death.

Douglas Lackey's play follows the two
protagonists as they must reckon with the
political reality in terms of their personal
relationship, and their conflict is presented
through an exhilarating poignant dialogue.
Speech as action is underscored by Director
Harrington's good use of the large space, designed by Lianne Arnold and Asa
Lipton to suggest the variety of locales traversed by the protagonists: Heidegger's
office is a desk with a couple of chairs; Hannah's room is a small writing table and
a portable gramophone; the famous Philosopher's Walk in Heidelberg is a narrow
ramp upstage across the full width of the stage space; Heidegger's retreat in the
Black Forest (in Todtnauberg) is simply another raised platform further upstage
center; upstage left and right some white birch trunks suggest exterior; a projection
screen upstage center shows historic slides of Marburg, Heidelberg, and Freiburg where Heidegger taught, some in
conditions before the war, some after the bombings of WWII. Arendt and Heidegger move in those locales with ease and
familiarity.

To underscore Heidegger's tragic abrogation of any personal moral responsibility from failing to acknowledge the utter
corruption of Nazi ideology and political behavior and his submission to the authoritarian manipulations without any
resistance, Douglas Lackey highlights some significant events in the philosopher's life, mostly through scenes where
Hannah Arendt raises the probing questions about his betrayals of colleagues, his inaugural speech as rector at the
University of Freiburg that ends with his triple "Sieg Heil." Heidegger is mostly seen as a feckless man who avoids conflict
and justifies his actions as following inescapable orders. During their last meeting in 1964 in a hotel in Freiburg, they
exchange two books. Arendt gives Heidegger her book about the 1961 Eichmann trial, entitled "The Banality of Evil" for
which she was attacked by fellow Jews as violating the memory of Auschwitz. Heidegger gives her an edition of his book,
"Sein und Dasein" [The Being of Beings]—she opens the cover page and discovers that the original dedication to Husserl,
his teacher and mentor, was missing. "Why?" Heidegger's quiet answer: "They told me to take the dedication out." A
devastating exchange that gives insight into the personal collapse of a thinker under existential pressure. Douglas Lackey
has distilled historical research and extracted with few but powerful words the tragedy of intellectual and personal collapse
under totalitarianism. A choice quote by Hannah Arendt in bold print adorns the program's back page: "The ideal subject of
totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact
and fiction (i.e. the reality of experience) and the distinction between the true and the false (i.e the standards of thought) no
longer exist." How apropos for the present political situation!
The actors Alyssa Simon and Joris Stuyck are a superb pair, attuned to each other, finding the nuances, and portraying in
subtle ways the impact on their relationship that their external reality imposes: first the exhilarating life of the mind at a
renowned university, to threatening Nazi politics and Heidegger's compromises, Arendt's experience of internment (Gurs in
France) and forced emigration, geographic distance and age, post-war German reality. To give some contrast and balance to
the protagonists, the author included Heidegger's wife Elfriede in a couple of scenes (set in 1933 and in 1959) that show her
firm conviction of the Nazi cause to the end—Alexandra O'Daly is a good foil to Alyssa Simon in those two scenes,
especially the confrontation between Hannah and Elfriede in Todtnauberg in 1959.
Stan Buturla plays an imposing Ernst Cassirer, another famous philosopher (and Jew) who
manages to escape to New York—he is shown first in the famous Davos debate of Heidegger
and Cassirer about Immanuel Kant and philosophy's proper inquiry into the nature of
existence; according to Cassirer, Heidegger makes mythology while, to Cassirer, science
must be the basis for philosophy. Later he has a short scene as Lionel Abel, one of Arendt's
New York friends and colleagues. The actors must be commended for bringing to life figures
that loom large in the intellectual horizon but are not exactly household names. Hannah
Arendt gets ultimately no answer from Heidegger.

The final image on stage is memorable: As she
stands behind him with light above, she grabs his
head by the forehead with a certain force, clutching
his hair and his head, as if she wants to make him
say something, her hand gently relaxes into a touch
—no words are spoken. Dark descends.

Heidegger's retreat "Todtnauberg" in the Black
Forest is the subject of Paul Celan's poem by the same title. Paul Celan, a Jewish
poet, came to Heidegger on July 25, 1967 in search of an answer, like Hannah
Arendt. Paul Celan, born in 1920 in Bukovina, had survived the death camps and
written some of the most haunting poems about this reality—he was to commit
suicide in 1970. "Todtnauberg" has some lines that resonate with Hannah Arendt's
search for Heidegger's soul after the war:
"…in the hut,
In this book—
Whose name does it hold be fore mine—
This line written in this book
About a hope, today,
For a word by one think ing
A word
In the heart, …"

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The following is Edward Rubin's review of Arendt-Heidegger: a Love Story  The review can be found at http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/bhb18092t.htm

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In bringing the lives of political theorist and philosophical thinker Hannah Arendt and philosopher Martin Heidegger to
the stage at the Theatre for the New City – the play runs through October 14 – playwright Douglas Lackey, known for
his historically grounded, highly-researched, and deeply thought out plays ("Kaddish in East Jerusalem," "Daylight
Precision," "A Garroting in Toulouse"), has now tackled an historical subject more directly related to his so-called ‘other
life', that of a practicing professor of philosophy.
Through a series of 23 trenchantly sketched scenes in two acts, the Arendt-Heidegger play billed as a love story, covers
the years 1924 when the brilliant, and wide-eyed, 18-year-old Hannah Arendt – some forty years before she coined the
eponymous term ‘banality of evil' which brought her world-wide fame – first meets her teacher, the 35-year-old,
philosopher Martin Heidegger, soon to be lionized for his book "Being and Time" (1927), and ends in 1964 in a dramatic
confrontation between both parties.

In addition to Hannah (Alyssa Simon) and Martin (Joris Stuyck), who
command the majority of the scenes in the play – we get to take many a
walk through the Black Forest with them as they talk about their love,
politics, philosophy, and Zionism. We even witness quite a few passionate
kisses between them. Also, inhabiting the stage is Heidegger's Jew-hating
wife Elfride (Alexandra O'Daly), no friend of "Hannah the Jew", and
philosopher Ernst Cassirer (Stan Buturia), an adversarial colleague of
Heidegger's, Both make several effective appearances. In one compellingly
combative scene, Heidegger and Cassirer are in Davos, Switzerland
participating in a heated debate of opposing views, each eager to debunk the
other's position. The subject being debated, Is Immanuel Kant still relevant
in 1929.

 

During the play's 110 heady minutes we are made privy to the thoughts,
ideas, and actions of these two major twentieth century thinkers whose very
names in this day and age of intellectual forgetfulness are better known then
their writings.

To prepare the audience for what they are about to see, a note in the play's
program informs us that "the facts of the Arendt-Heidegger relationship
have been progressively made known by scholars. Martin Heidegger's
relationship with the Nazis is also well-documented. We know what
happened. We don't know why. This play addresses the "why" question. As in Shakespeare's Histories, much of the
dialogue and action is invented. The play goes beyond the facts. But everything in the play is consistent with the known
facts."
I see this as a niche play for an intellectual audience that is aware, at least on some level, of Hannah Arendt, if not
Martin Heidegger, as well as a play for those philosophy-loving newbie's with an intellectual bent.
The playwright wisely starts this play by prepping the audience, before reverting back to the play's strict chronological
order, with a 1952 expository scene which introduces most of the play's topics that we will see unfold in greater detail
throughout the play.

In this Act One, Scene One, we find ourselves in Germany at the Freiburg
Hotel dining room with Hannah (Alyssa Simon), now 46 and happily
married to her second husband, and the 63-year-old Martin (Joris Stuyck)
also married with two sons. It is their first post World War II meeting and
Arendt, as she tells Heidegger who had been blocked from teaching by the
French Military authorities for his association with the Nazi Party, and only
just allowed to resume teaching at the Freiburg University, that she is intent
on understanding why he has kept silent all these years about his support of
the Nazi regime.

"I once loved you more than all the world," she says, "and now the world
hates you. They hate your silence. How can you remain silent? Martin they
put me in a concentration camp! Me and six million other Jews. The Nazi
Party did this. YOUR party did this. How can you tell me that terrible things happened to Germany and not speak out
about what happened to the Jews? To me? To all the Jewish children shot in Russia, gassed in Poland."
"…I still need explanations," Arendt continues. "When you were in charge, when you were the exalted Rector of this
Freiburg school, you fired Jewish professors. Martin, you fired (Edmund Husserl 1859-1938) your own teacher! A man
we both loved. You can't blame the Americans for that." Heidegger's reply, one that he and thousands of others trotted
out whenever interrogated, was that he had no responsibility for his actions, as he was following government orders
coming from Berlin.

At this point in time, Arendt had already written her first major book "The Origins of Totalitarianism" (1951). Yet to
come was her coverage of the 1961 Eichmann trial for the New Yorker Magazine that spawned her most famous and
controversial book "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil" (1963) in which she examines the
question of whether evil is radical or simply a function of thoughtlessness, a tendency of ordinary people to obey orders
and conform to mass opinion without a critical evaluation of the consequences of their actions. Arendt sided with the
latter and used this same defense, most-likely to herself, as well as others, when explaining her life-long friendship with
Heidegger.

"Arendt-Heidegger: A Love Story," though small scenewise, is huge in its character-driven, thought-provoking ideas,
many of which, like racism (both genuine and opportunistic), along with the emergence of right-wing autocratic
nationalism, like a virus gone wild, appears to be on the rise around the globe. It is a timely play to say the least.
Breathing life into this production is the masterful melding, under the deft hand of director Alexander Harrington, of the
actors and technical crew, the latter which played a major part in accurately presenting, both time and place. Especially
spot on, are the scenic and video projection designs by Lianne Arnold and her associate Asa Lipton – every scene had an
image projected on a screen that let us know in what city, what location, the action was taking place. Setting the mood to
all of this is the continually changing, scene by scene, lighting genius of Joyce Liao.

While all of the actors were simply wonderful, it was Alyssa Simon's
uncanny channeling of Hannah Arendt that kidnapped the entire audience.
With a cigarette, most always in hand – Arendt was a noted chain smoker –
Simon radiating intelligence and an overflowing love of humanity,
commandeered every scene that she appeared in, just as Arendt is said to
have done in real life. At times I felt that I was watching the real Hannah
herself. And that is the kind acting, rare as it is, that brings me back to the
theater, hoping for such a repeat, again and again..

Note: I might add, in order to more fully understand the ideas and life of
these three tremendously productive and deeply intellectual writers and
thinkers, I was driven to make a small study of both Arendt and Heidegger,
as well as Cassirer which included reading 2 books, numerous essays,
wading through loads of online data, and having many constructive conversations with David Audon, a student and
friend of Hannah Arendt's, and a brilliant thinker himself.

Also, extremely helpful were playwright philosopher Douglas Lackey's notes on, "Why I Write Plays," "What Is This
Play About?," and "Is Heidegger's ‘Being and Time' A Nazi Book?" These invaluable notes can be found on
http://arendt- heidegger.com/playwright.htm#notes [Rubin]

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The following is a ReformJudaism.org review of Arednt-Heidegger: a Love Story and can be found at https://reformjudaism.org/blog/2018/10/08/lessons-opportunism-arendtheidegger-love-story

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The following review of Arendt-Heidegger: a Love Story is from New York Theater Buying Guide, a print-only newsletter

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Review by Ronald Gross
New York Theater Buying Guide
[a newsletter - subscription info here]
September 30, 2018

BOTTOM LINE: Our highest recommendation! A thoroughly enthralling drama of ideas, romance, and politics – worthy of the great tradition of Shaw and Ibsen. This show will engage your heart and your mind at the deepest levels. 

Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt were leading intellectuals of the twentieth century. In the 1920s, they had a passionate affair. In the 1930s, Heidegger became an ardent Nazi while Arendt became an ardent Zionist, whose report on the Eichman Trial in Jerusalem in the New Yorker roiled Manhattan’s intellectual world. Nevertheless, after the war, they still continued to correspond and to meet. 

The play is first and foremost a compelling love story. It dramatizes the powerful combination of sexual and intellectual attraction. The playwright explains helpfully on the play's website, "Arendt connected with Heidegger physically, emotionally and intellectually. This is a story of a woman in love, no ordinary woman and no ordinary affair." 

As a young student, Arendt first seizes her professor’s attention with an act of sexual daring – but by the end of the play she has commanded his deepest respect as the towering philosopher she has become. It’s an unforgettable transit to witness.

Alyssa Simon as Arendt bestrides the stage as she enacts her character from 19-year old prodigy to a premier public intellectual. Simon displays both astounding emotional range and incisive skill in delivering witty zingers. 

Joris Stuyck overcomes daunting challenges in portraying Heidegger, since his character was, in life, uncharismatic and unattractive – except on the lecture platform where he mesmerized students. Stuyck make us care about this brilliant but tragically-flawed human being – just as Arendt did in real life. (And “care” was, for Heidegger, a cardinal element in what makes us human, and not merely homo sapiens.)

Special kudos to Stan Buturla as Ernst Cassirer, a third philosopher, who has two show-stopping scenes: a famed debate at Davos in which he defends the great European tradition of rationalism and liberalism against Heidegger’s espousal of the non-rational and nationalistic, and one with Arendt at Princeton, in which he exemplifies more personally, the classic virtues of tolerance and optimism.

Is all this relevant to our present “moment”? Of course it is. As the playwright has noted: “The play explores the possibility that Heidegger’s decision to join the Nazi party and tout Hitler was self-serving. This begs comparison with the determination of so many conservative ideologues, who previously denounced Donald Trump, to support him. History does not repeat, but it instructs. We are living in a time when autocratic nationalism and open racism (both genuine and opportunistic) are re-emerging.” 

I and my companions left the theater and spent several hours at a back booth in a nearby tavern, thoughtfully pondering the implications and what we felt called-upon to do – as the TV over the bar reported on the Kavenaugh hearings.

TIP: To “brush up your Heidegger”, treat yourself to the superb 10-minute video by the playwright and director, at http://www.arendt-heidegger.com/, before seeing the show. It’s a gem of an introduction to this rewarding theater piece.

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Lessons in Opportunism: Arendt/Heidegger: A Love Story

BY ARON HIRT-MANHEIMER , 10/08/2018​

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At the core of Arendt/Heidegger: A Love Story, a new play by Douglas Lackey, is the intellectual, emotional, and romantic relationship between two of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century: Martin Heidegger, a renowned German professor who became an ardent Nazi, and his student Hannah Arendt, who became an ardent Zionist.

 

Their affair began in 1924 at the University of Marburg in Germany. Nineteen-year-old Hannah (Alyssa Simon) impressed Heidegger (Joris Stuyck) with her extraordinary intellect. Not only did she challenge Heidegger with her profound philosophical questions, she could recite Plato in Greek and volumes of German poetry from memory. Teacher and student also shared a deep love of art, music, and literature.

In this well staged and acted drama, directed by Alexander Harrington, Hannah and her married 35-year-old professor enter into a romantic relationship.

In 1925, while walking together in a forest (Kreisler’s “Liebesfreude” playing in the background), Hannah asks Martin to leave his wife for her. When he refuses, Hannah says, “She is an anti-Semite…Will you not have me because I am Jewish?” He insists he is not, but Hannah is not convinced and transfers to the University of Heidelberg to study with Karl Jaspers, who has a Jewish wife.

In one of the most powerful scenes, on May 3, 1933, Hannah sits in her room listening to the radio on the table next to a photo of Heidegger. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s minister for public enlightenment, announces:

… the world renowned German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, has joined the Nazi Party. On German Labor Day, on the day of the community of the people, the professor of Freiburg University, Dr. Martin Heidegger, made his official entry into the National Socialist Party… May he wear his party pin with pride….

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Reacting as if she had been “struck by lightning,” Hannah looks at Martin’s photo and laments:

How could Hitler happen in Germany, in my Germany, Goethe’s Germany? … How can the Germans read Kant, who told them never to lie for any reason and then elect a man who lies with every breath? Lies about the war, lies about the socialists, lies about the Jews, a whole imaginary history? How could a philosopher who starts every lecture with the word “truth” on the blackboard follow this Prince of Lies? The demagogue whose standard of truth is his own mouth? The Germans voted Hitler in, but they will never get a chance to vote him out…

Lackey, a philosophy professor at Baruch College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, says he was prompted to write the play in part as a response to the question of why so many people stand behind Donald Trump, even though they do not share his ideas. Why did Heidegger, he asks, “one of the great philosophy professors of his time, obviously not believing in the ideas of Nazism because they were too simple and stupid, nevertheless collaborate with the Nazis?”

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The reason, Lackey suggests, is opportunism.

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In philosophical terms, Lackey argues that Heidegger represents “the irrational spirit in philosophy and Arendt represents the rational.” These two currents of thought, he says, clashed in the 1930s and tragically, “the irrational defeated the rational.”

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While Heidegger’s joining the Nazi Party enabled him to become rector of Freiberg University, his former Jewish lover was imprisoned in a Nazi internment camp in occupied France. Eventually she became a citizen of the United States and in 1951 wrote The Origins of Totalitarianism, which launched her career as a public intellectual.  

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Arendt continued to correspond and meet with Heidegger, despite his refusal to disavow the Nazi Party.

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The play closes with a powerful final encounter between Hannah and Martin in the dining room of a Freiberg hotel in 1964. Before the curtain call we see an Arendt quote projected on a screen:

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist, but one for whom the distinction between fact and fiction… and the true and the false…no longer exists.”

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The following is a Stage Buddy review of Plaza Suite. The review can be found at https://stagebuddy.com/theater/theater-review/review-plaza-suite-gallery-players

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Review: The Gallery Players Take on Neil Simon’s Hilarious ‘Plaza Suite’

Three separate couples occupy room 719 at the Plaza Hotel on di􀃗erent days in 1966 to hilarious e􀃗ect in Neil Simon’s classic three-act comedy
Plaza Suite. Directed by Alexander Harrington and presented by The Gallery Players in Park Slope, a common theme throughout the three distinct
plays is marital unhappiness and the passage of time highlighting this unhappiness.
The opening act, and the strongest of the three, is “Visitor from Mamaroneck” in which a middle-aged couple from the suburbs stays in suite 719
on the eve of their 23rd wedding anniversary. Ostensibly there to let their house dry after being painted, Karen (Alyssa Simon) hopes to rekindle
the spark that has been missing in her marriage to Sam (Robert McEvily) by booking the same room in which they spent their honeymoon 23
years earlier. The surly, distracted Sam has other plans, however, as Karen 􀃓its about the room trying to get his attention.
In “Visitor from Hollywood,” Jesse (McEvily), a famous Hollywood producer from New Jersey, summons his high school sweetheart, Muriel (Taylor
Graves), to the Plaza in an attempt to seduce the woman he hopes can redeem his three failed marriages. Muriel, married with two children, is
starstruck by her former 􀃓ame and can’t seem to make up her mind over whether she’s going to succumb or not. Both idealize the other to the
extent they don’t realize they are just using each other.
In the 􀃒nal act, “Visitor from Forest Hills,” Norma (Simon) and Roy (Mitch Tebo) desperately try to coax their daughter, Mimsey (Graves), who’s
locked herself in the bathroom, out on her wedding day. The bickering couple go to great lengths and endure great injury and embarrassment to
get their daughter to marry Borden (Jim deProphetis). But they are too wrapped up in su􀃗ering the indignity of a canceled wedding that they can’t
see how their behavior is pushing their daughter further away from marriage.
Supporting the charming cast is the impressive set (set designer, Robert Sebes), evoking the sumptuous design and period furnishings that one
can imagine in the Plaza Hotel of the 1960s. Similarly, costume designer Joseph S. Blaha has out􀃒tted the cast wonderfully with the pencil skirts,
suits, dresses, and accessories of the time period.
The way Neil Simon satirizes marriage may not be new to us in 2018, but the frankness of the discussion of in􀃒delity, sex, and marriage at the
time must have been groundbreaking. Although Plaza Suite does seem a bit dated, the underlying theme of the elusiveness of marital bliss still
resonates today. And it still makes for an entertaining evening of theatre.
 

The following is a Rising Action review of Plaza Suite.  The review can be found at http://drtomstevens.blogspot.com/2018/03/applause-applause-review-of-neil-simons.html

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Rising Action

 

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Applause! Applause! Review of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite at The Gallery Players by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens

This review of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite at The Gallery Players was written by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens and published in Volume X, Issue 8 (2018) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Plaza Suite
Written by Neil Simon
Directed by Alexander Harrington
Scenic Design by Robert Sebes
Costume Design by Jerry Mittelhauser
Lighting Design by Heather Crocker
The Gallery Players
199 14th Street
Park Slope, New York 11215
Reviewed 3/17/18

Plaza Suite opened on Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on February 14, 1968, and closed on October 3, 1970, after 1,097 performances and two previews. Mike Nichols won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. The three stories told all involve different characters, performed by some of the same actors, who are staying in Suite 719 of New York City's Plaza Hotel. In Visitor From Mamaroneck, we are introduced to Sam Nash (Robert McEvily) and Karen Nash (Alyssa Simon), a not-so-happily married couple. Karen suspects Sam is having an affair with Jean McCormack (Taylor Graves), his Secretary. Karen has rented the suite as a last-ditch effort to save their marriage. Jim deProphetis was hilarious as the bellhop. In Visitor From Hollywood, Jesse Kiplinger (Robert McEvily), a successful Hollywood producer who lives in Humphrey Bogart's old home in Beverly Hills, has invited the now-married Muriel Tate (Taylor Graves), his old High School girlfriend from Tenafly, New Jersey, to visit him in his hotel room. He has seduction on his mind while Muriel is doing her best to say and do what would be proper in those compromising circumstances. Mitch Tebo played the waiter in both stories. In Visitor From Forest Hills, the most hilarious of the three, Roy Hubley (Mitch Tebo) and his wife Norma Hubley (Alyssa Simon) find that their daughter, Mimsey (Taylor Graves) has locked herself in the bathroom minutes before she is set to marry Borden Eisler (Jim deProphetis). It appears nothing will get her out of the locked bathroom until her boyfriend Borden is called to the suite and mentions the magic words that resolve the crisis. No, not "I love you." 

Visitor From Mamaroneck reminds us how people, over time, can get on each other's nerves. Cute little idiosyncrasies and adorable habits can become intolerable points of torture whether we are talking about close friends or married couples. In Karen's case, she is cheap ("I don't usually give a dollar tip.); talks to strangers, like the waiter, about personal details regarding her family; annoys her husband by singing loudly in the background when he is on a business call; orders champagne and hors d'oeuvres when she knows her husband is on a 900-calorie-a-day diet; urges him to abandon his work to take her to a porn movie; deliberately doesn't pack his pajamas knowing he can't sleep without them; and constantly gets dates and facts wrong such as the date on which they were married, her age, and even the correct suite they stayed in on their honeymoon. Their marriage hasn't been a happy one for many years and Sam has become increasingly distant even to the point of being nasty. He even blows up at Karen's relatively calm reaction to his responses to her accusations. The funniest line in this otherwise serious story is when Karen surmises his affair may have started after he turned 50 years old, and suggests that if his secretary wasn't readily available, he might have even had an affair with the elevator operator in his office building. Sam's response, "It couldn't have been the elevator operator. He's 52 and I don't go for older men."

Visitor From Hollywood reminds us that in the old days, a single or married woman, should not go to the hotel suite of another man, especially an old boyfriend unless she has sex on her mind. In this story, Jesse Kiplinger (Robert McEvily) has invited Muriel Tate (Taylor Graves), his old High School girlfriend, to meet him while he is in New York. Muriel has closely followed Jesse's career and fantasizes what her life would have been like had she not married Larry. Before the #MeToo movement, it was a man's job to try to seduce and sleep with as many women as he could, and it was a woman's job to avoid comprising situations and circumstances. In addition, many times "No" did not really mean "No" since women were expected not to give in too easily. In this case, Muriel says all the right things, such as "I can only stay a few minutes" and " I really have to go. I am parked in a one-hour zone." Yet she finally accepts two Vodka Stingers and rejects going down to the bar to drink them. Despite her objection, Jesse kisses Muriel on the neck and then says, "If you don't object too strenuously, I'm going to kiss you again." Her response starts to change and eventually she says "I have plenty of time." and "Don't bite my neck. It will leave marks." Jesse eventually figures out Muriel gets sexually turned on when he mentions the names of celebrities he has met. He then uses that bat to hit a home run. So much for feigned resistance.

Visitor From Forest Hills was my favorite of the three. The reactions of the two parents, Roy Hubley (Mitch Tebo) and Norma Hubley (Alyssa Simon) as they try to get their daughter Mimsey (Taylor Graves) out of the locked bathroom are priceless. It involves pigeons, a gargoyle, a torn stocking, a ripped jacket, a broken diamond ring, a suspected broken arm, thunder, rain, and a possible lawsuit. With all the havoc Mimsy has created, you reach a point when you wish she'd just "cool it.' 

This production of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite is a must-see. The material holds up well and the acting is amazing. The entire ensemble cast is top-notch. You will have no complaints. I hesitate to point anyone out because I don't want to diminish the stellar, professional performances of the rest of the cast, but I do feel that Mitch Tebo as Roy Hubley in Visitor From Forest Hills was so exceptional that he deserves special mention. In my opinion, he could use a video of his performance in this show as a tape he can submit for his next Broadway audition. The show is extremely entertaining. I highly recommend you see this old gem while you can. Plaza Suite runs at The Gallery Players through Sunday, March 25, 2018. Tickets are $25.00 for Adults and $20.00 for Children 12 and under and Senior Citizens. For reservations, call 212-352-3101 or visit www.galleryplayers.com 

Posted by Dr. Tom Stevens at 4:24 PM 

 

The following is a Theatre is Easy review of End of Summer.  The review can be found at http://www.theasy.com/Reviews/2016/E/endofsummer.php

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End of Summer

By S.N. Behrman; Directed by Alexander Harrington

Off Off Broadway, Play Revival
Runs through 11.6.16
Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East 4th Street

 

by Sarah Palay on 10.15.16

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BOTTOM LINE: A comedy-drama that revolves around unemployment, the nature of wealth, and female independence, End of Summer transports us to a 1930s that feels vaguely reminiscent of our present moment. 

The year is 1936, and everything is darling, chic, and absolutely marvelous. At least, so it appears at the Frothingham-Wyler estate, an opulent seaside property sequestered from the rest of the world. Outside the cream-paneled walls of this Maine cottage, the Great Depression haunts the rest of the country, looming over the proletariat. 

Such contrast between the wealthy elite and the working class takes center stage in S.N. Behrman’s family drama End of Summer. We meet three generations of women: Mrs. Wyler (Sarah Saltus) is the dying matriarch who is cared for by daughter Leonie Frothingham (Erin Beirnard), and granddaughter Paula Frothingham (Mary McNulty). Paula is set to inherit the family fortune, an inauspicious circumstance that threatens to undermine her relationship with her beau, Will Dexter (Andrew Bryce). Despite his affection for Paula, Will, a hardworking Amherst student with no superfluous wealth, despises Paula’s luxurious world. He and his partner-in-crime Dennis (David Friedlander) are "radicals" who stand for the impoverished and disenfranchised populous. For her part, Paula wants desperately to distance herself from such a grandiose lifestyle, and she struggles to break from her mother Leonie’s anti-female-independence attitude. Along the way, we meet other major players, including Paula’s father Sam Frothingham (Michael Hardart), who has come to officially file for divorce from Leonie. We also encounter Leonie’s suitors, Freudian psychoanalyst Dr. Kenneth Rice (Kelly Cooper) and Russian aristocrat Count Mirsky (Brian Ott).

It is said that money makes the world go round, but not in this family. Instead, wealth feels like an explosive, teetering precariously on a ledge and threatening to destroy every relationship in its path. It commandeers the future of Paula and Will’s romance, it is the driving force behind Dr. Rice’s presence at the estate, and perhaps most significantly, it illuminates stark generational contrasts. As we watch these compatriots interact, it becomes evident that money is the driving force behind every character’s actions. 

There is much to praise in director Alexander Harrington’s production. The ensemble work is strong, with standout performances by McNulty, Friedlander, and Hardart. Harrington’s pacing has a delightful musicality—structured in three acts, End of Summer relies on swift entrances and exits as characters play scenes in various permutations of duos and triplets. Harrington achieves this effect very well, so that this little veranda room resembles a revolving door of drama. I further commend Harrington and his team on the meticulous construction of our visual world: with a largely neutral palette emboldened by occasional pops of color, set designer Cao Xuemei and costume designer Sidney Fortner transport us to the 1930s. Seated on three sides of the stage, we look onto the veranda, lined with large bay windows that capture the illustrious natural world beyond—the rocky seashore and bright blue skyline. A white and blue striped carpet (reminiscent of classic seaside accoutrement) adorns the floor, and atop sits crisp, white wicker furniture. Characters glide around in dresses and mis-matched suits of browns, whites, tans, and muted yellows with the intermittent burst of burgundy or turquoise. Such care to detail paints a sumptuous picture of a charmed 1930s life. 

There are a few shortcomings that disrupt an otherwise strong production. Behrman’s script lays out very clear character objectives, but these intentions sometimes disappear, rendering it rather unclear who wants what and why. Moments of line fumbling added to this ambiguity, making it difficult to follow some of the action. Nonetheless, I am sure as the show progresses in its run, the production will tighten.

Kudos to Metropolitan Playhouse for remounting a piece that continues to resonate in a twenty-first century context. With older works situated within a classical canon, audiences might expect to sit back and enjoy the old-fashioned charm of archaic attitudes. This is not so with Behrman’s script, and I appreciate that Metropolitan Playhouse recognizes its relevance. I sat chuckling to myself about the familiarity of the young generation bemoaning the pangs of unemployment and at Paula's struggles to assert her independence as a woman. And lines that should seem ridiculously outdated are somehow, perhaps absurdly, quite topical. Hearing Leonie ask earnestly “are things better because women vote?” just days after #Repealthe19th was trending on Twitter (in response to a poll that Trump would win if women didn't vote) was a poignant reminder that 2016 may have more in common with 1936 than we might like to believe.

(End of Summer plays at The Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East 4th Street, through November 6, 2016. Running time is 2 hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30; Sundays at 3. Additional performances on Wednesdays at 3: October 26 and November 2; and Saturdays at 3: October 29 and November 5. Tickets are $30 and are available at brownpapertickets.com. For more information visit metropolitanplayhouse.org) 

 

End of Summer is written by S.N. Behrman. Directed by Alexander Harrington. Stage manager is William Vann Carlton. Set design is by Cao Xuemei. Lighting design is by Christopher Weston. Costume design is by Sidney Fortner. Dialect coach is Cliff Miller. Technical director is Michael LeBron. Assistant stage manager is Josh Gulotta. Scenic carpenters are Spencer Emile and Donna Golden. Scenic painting is by Collin Eastwood. 

The cast is Andrew Bryce, Sarah Saltus, Mary McNulty, Brian Ott, Erin Beirnard, Michael Hardart, Kelly Cooper, David Friedlander, and Stan Buturla. 

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The following is a Hi! Drama review of End of Summer.  HI! DRAMA is on every other Sat. afternoon from 1:30-200PM on Time Warner Ch.56, RCN Ch.83, Fios Ch.34

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Hi!
Drama

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Barry Liebman    October 24, 2016

The disparity between the rich and poor is always a rich mine of material for plays and novels, which is why S.N. Behrman's 1936 play, "End Of Summer" (now being revived by The Metropolitan Playhouse) seems relevant 80 years after its premiere.

The story focuses on the rich Frothingham family. Young heiress Paula is in love with working class student Will, who wants to start a radical magazine with his friend, Dennis. The Frothingham fortune seems at times a possible wedge between the two lovers--just as it seems to attract two suitors to her mother, Leonie: Russian emigre, Count Mirski and possibly Machiavellian psychiatrist, Dr. Rice.

Behrman provides his characters with sharp witty dialogue and speeches that reveal strong viewpoints. In this way "End Of Summer" resembles a Shaw play. The characters are not treated like easily-knockable paper tigers and what at first looks like a typical drawing room comedy becomes

The uniformly excellent cast brings out the depth in these characters. Of special note are two actors handling the more difficult roles: Erin Beirnard as Leonie gives us a three-dimensional character that never seems shallow, even though she's a rich lady who's been isolated from the harsh realities of life. Any changes she undergoes seem natural and never forced. Kelly D. Cooper as Dr. Rice handles both his characters' dark undercurrents and charismatic rationality with equal skill. You can see why he's alternately attractive and repellent to the other characters (and in the case of Paula, both at the same time.)

Mr. Behrman's comedy/drama is both delightful and thought provoking. And it’s to the Metropolitan Playhouse's credit that this old forgotten play has been so successfully brought to life.

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Eva Heinemann, 11/1/16

I totally agree with Barry Liebmann. This is a fascinating play where this time it is the rich person who has the obstacle of money preventing the happiness. It even answers the questions about possible solutions going through your head like giving up the money or giving it away but it is hard to ignore such a vast sum. 

Cao Xuemei has created the most sumptuous set that really makes a person feel that they are in a summer home in Maine with an incredible view of the water. Once again Sidney Fortner has created the most gorgeous costumes that  not only reflect the era but the status as well and Christopher Weston's reflective lighting focuses on the individuals in such a way that we can see their innermost thoughts.
There was something so reptilian in the psychiatrist's demeanor and yet the chemistry he exerted on Paula ( Mary McNulty) was palpable. Could the decent Will (Andrew Bryce) overcome all the obstacles in his path real or made up?

I know Barry thinks Shaw but with its social issues I also thought Ibsen as there is this marriage between Paula's Mom,  Leonie, and her Father, Sam (Michael Hardart) that is very shocking for the times. Both lead their separate lives and yet still stay married.

I know I am going to love the Metropolitan Playhouse's season of Prosperity with its rich material and opulent cast and always luxuriant production values.

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The Following is an Eyes on World Culture review of End of Summer.  The review can be found at http://www.eyesonworldcultures.com/search/end+of+summer

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OCTOBER 11, 2016

Theatre

 

End of Summer

 

By

S. N. Behrman

Erin Beirnard, Kelly Cooper, photo by Vadim Goldenberg 

Written in 1936, this play revival is timely in more ways than what might seem obvious.  Mr. Behrman presents a picture of the issues of the time which remain, remarkably, many of the same we still face today.                                                       

Set against the backdrop of Depression-era trauma, the immensely wealthy Frothingham (aptly named) family struggles to find meaning in their all-too-leisurely life; young college graduates – frustrated in their job searches – resent the industrial developments that rob many of their work; self-delusion is a constant threat and the challenge to do “what’s right.”

But before you think it’s depressing, wait!  This is an urbane, delightful comedy of manners filled with one-liners.  About one of the characters:  “He’s non-descript.“ Then the money problem again, “When you marry a rich woman, it’s always HER house.”  The employment frustration:  “If house painters can become leaders of nations, think what a really bright man could do!”  Women’s place in society:  “Well, if you can’t be a crusader, it’s better to be decorative.”

The cast is sound with one (Persian?) flaw.  The constant posturing (as if for a photo shoot) by Mary McNulty as Paula, was distracting to the point where one waited for the next pose.  Erin Beirnard, as Leonie, conveyed both the delicacy of her place in society and the steel of her determination.  Kelly Cooper as Dr. Rice is excellent in any role I’ve seen and this was no exception. His compassion woven into a capacity for manipulation was fascinating.  

End of Summer runs through November 6 at Metropolitan Playhouse.  212-995-8410.