As I uncrammed myself out of my seat at the end of “A Spanish Play”, directed by John Turturro, in previews at the Classic Stage Company near Union Square - I thought OK maybe Im just too stupid for theatre.
As the blood started to flow back into my legs I saw John Turturro in the last row intensely conferring with people holding clipboards - I wanted to yell “Jeez John for $75 bucks shouldnt I be walking out of here with some idea what the hell these people were talking about?
Its too bad that its so tough to write a decent play because boy this performance was yet another reminder that theres alot of world class talent out there in need of world class material. In "A Spanish Play" the performers frequently step back and reflect on themselves as performers. The play is about a 70 something mother, played by Zoe Caldwell and her tormented relationship with two daughters. Nuria, played by Torturro's wife, Katherine Borowitz, is an emotionally tormented movie star. Her older sister Aurelia, played by Linda Edmon, is an emotionally tormented wannabe actress, mother/wife, trapped in an emotionally tormented marriage to her emotionally tormented alcoholic math teacher husband,Mariano, played by Denis O’Hare. I will go out on a limb at this point and say the play is about emotionally tormented lives and lousy relationships.
Mom has invited everyone over to meet her new love, Fernan, the 60 something property manager of her coop played by Larry Pine, who makes up for being refreshingly untormented by tormenting the audience with a series of speeches, that need to be cut, about how good he is at handling the physical and social complexities of managing a New York City coop. Are you still awake because I wasn't.
For most of the play they all torment each other over champagne and Mom's lousy frozen cake. (Get it - frozen cake - frozen love)
Nonetheless, when I wasn’t looking at my watch, as the promised 1 hr 35 min running time dragged on to 2 hours, there was alot of great acting and even ground breaking use of live video which creates a kind of movie within a play about a play within a play. In the video sequences live performers are alone on stage (and sometimes offstage)followed by a backwards walking hand held camera operator as the live video image of their monologue is projected onto a rear wall.
It is visually interesting to watch a live performer in front of a video image of the same performmance from different angles that are frequently unflattering. Whether this is a distracting gimick or a plot enhancing device will have be debated. The kid with the camera, Cameron Bossert, did a pretty good job of making himself invisible as he followed characters around with a palm size video camera on stage. He deserves a more prominent credit in the playbill.
Denis O'Hare is a funny physical comedic performer who got the best -or was it the only - laughs of the night. Linda Edmond gives a riveting performance as the aging actress/mom/housewife trapped in a dead marriage. Four time Tony winning veteran Zoe Caldwell, is returning to the NY stage where she hasnt been since 1995 - she's a pro but its kind of hard to figure out why her daughters dislike her so intensely.
There is still time before this play opens - it needs to be funnier and shorter. The french playwright Yasmina Reza is probably trying to say something worthwhile here about acting and life. However, as rule of thumb an audience should walk out of a play with some idea what the playwrights point was.
http://www.playbill.com/news/article/104763.html
