Tynan's Anger

Barely in New York for 24 hours, I see my first New York show while living in New York full time, and already I see the benefits of New York's theater culture. At a semi-obscured theater adjacent to a graffiti-laden car shop and the Police Athletic League, I get a world premiere by Neil LaBute and four other exciting new dramas with premiere actors and directors (and the ~100 seat theater was packed on a Monday night). Anywhere else in the country (even Chicago), this level of talent would have been the talk of the town. Here's it's just another night of theater.

I'll start off with the highlight of the night, which also happened to be the main reason people showed up—Neil LaBute's fantastic, career-reviving one-act The Great War. About a month ago, after having given up on David Mamet after November and his childish screed against "brain-dead liberals" in The Village Voice, I had my faith in Mamet revived by Redbelt, in my mind his best movie of the decade. A month later, the same cycle repeated itself with LaBute. Going from This is How It Goes, Fat Pig, and an equally childish screed against American theater in The Guardian, we get his best play since The Shape of Things. Whereas the former two plays played to LaBute's weaknesses, The Great War plays to his strengths. Yes, the trademark LaBute misogyny is still there, but it's secondary to his keen focus on power dynamics in a failed relationship. The focus is not on the vicious, man-eating woman (though Laila Robins is gleefully malicious as the unnamed woman), but on the impossibility of a relationship between two people who, though inextricably tied, can no longer stand the sight of each other. You'd think such a play would result in nothing but a screaming match, but the key to the success of the play is the strange chemistry between the soon-to-be-divorced couple. Their mutual hatred unites them, makes them see eye-to-eye, and, by some bizarre but consistent logic, forces them to come to the best solution. Robins and the emasculated Grant Shaud put on the best performances of the night.

The Great War ends a first act of some very good, if slightly flawed plays. The first play, Lloyd Suh's Happy Birthday William Abernathy, focuses on a 100 year old man struggling to find his identity and legacy in the face of the ethnic ambiguities of his intermarried offspring and the deep guilt related to events that occurred 70 years ago, maybe (he is 100 after all). William imposes this end-of-life crisis on his somewhat baffled Asian great-grandson. If the play raises some fascinating thematic issues, its execution leaves a little to be desired. The dialog focuses a bit too much on William's racist ramblings, and while Ensemble Theater mainstay Joe Ponazecki aces his role, Peter Kim as great-grandson Albert seems a bit lost. The reverse problem afflicts October/November by Anne Washburn, a play that focuses quite hollowly on the relationship between a 16 year old bad girl Nikkie and the confused, extremely adolescent 13-year-old-David. Yet, while there's not much deeper meaning to the play, the quality of the dialogue, and Gio Perez's irresistibly charming David, carry the play to success.

The Marathon moves to the absurd in the second act, with David Zellnik's Eastern-flavored Ideogram and Taylor Mac's surreal Okay, a kind of Brechtian Dawson's Creek. Ideogram focuses on a man who, when writing fake Chinese, accidentally becomes the greatest Chinese playwright of a generation, and merits the censorship of the Chinese government. The play deals with some intriguing themes, such as the nature of authorship, and how a fable can translate in the modern world, but the satire never moves beyond its initial premise, and only fades as it progresses (though that problem is somewhat relieved by the one-act format). Okay is without a doubt the most polarizing of the plays, as audience members were laughing hysterically in equal force as they wanted to leave early, perhaps why it was saved for last. Set in the girls bathroom of a senior prom circa 2003, there's references to teen pregnancy, body issues, drug use, boy drama, 9/11, homosexuality, all masked by more than a little potty humor (and a prom queen spending the majority of the time giving birth into a toilet, recalling Melissa Drexler). I found myself being personally offended and abhorred at some moments, and deeply moved by others.

Labels: anne washburn, david zellnick, ensemble studio theater, laila robins, lloyd suh, marathon b, neil labute, taylor mac, theater review