History on Stage

Today is the Feast Day of Joan of Arc, a historical figure who has inspired a number of plays, including Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan, Jane Anderson's Mother of the Maid, and my own Dark Night of the Soul.

History has always been an inspiration for dramatists, and this Saturday another history-inspired play of mine, Snip o' the Shears, will have a staged reading at the Hamilton Grange branch of the New York Public Library.

Snip o' the Shears is based loosely on accounts of Betsy Ross, the Philadelphia-based upholsterer who according to legend sewed the first modern flag of the Uniter States. She will be portrayed this Saturday by Rebecca Ana Peña. Rachael Langton is directing the reading.

Later this summer, I'll be presenting a paper on plays inspired by historical slave revolts. I'll be discussing J.H. Amherst's The Death of Christophe King of Hayti, as well as W.H. Murray's Obi; or, Three-Fingered Jack. This will be at a conference by the British Association for Romantic Studies in Glasgow.

That conference will be in July, and then in August I'll be giving a paper online for the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism on Felicia Hemans' historically inspired play The Vespers of Palermo. Hemans was literally writing about a massacre that occurred in medieval Sicily, but the 1823 play was also referencing the recent turmoil of the French Revolution.

George Gordon Byron wrote dramas inspired by history as well, and this fall I will be speaking on a panel at the annual Curran Symposium, co-sponsored this year by the Keats-Shelley Association of America and the Byron Society of America. The roundtable I'll be on will discuss Red Bull Theater's staged reading of Byron's Sardanapalus, about the ancient Assyrian king.

That's a long ways off yet, but I hope you can join me for the reading on Saturday. After that, I'll be off to a conference in Dublin... but more on that later!

Hamlet in the Park

Last night, I had the good fortune of seeing the Public Theater's production of Hamlet at the Delacorte in Central Park.

It's directed by Kenny Leon, whose production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing in 2019 was such a hit. That production re-imagined the comedy in a near-future United States where a struggle for basic rights is ongoing. (As... well... as it just so happens... it is....)

When I walked into the Delacorte, it became clear that this production would be a sequel of sorts to Leon's last play in the park. The set--designed by Beowulf Boritt, who also designed Much Ado--looks like the estate we had seen previously in a comedy wrecked by some unknown cataclysm. The large brick house from Much Ado appears to be partially sunken into the ground. The flagpole that proudly waved Old Glory in the last production is tilted at an angle. While Much Ado featured an SUV rolling onto the stage, Hamlet shows an SUV mired in the earth.

Center stage at the beginning of the play is a flag-draped coffin, presumably of the dead King Hamlet, whose portrait also dominates the set. A quartet of vocalists comes out to sing, which fortunately also allows latecomers to be seated without disturbing the play too much. Then the play begins in earnest with the funeral of the dead king, and we get to meet the cast, led by Ato Blankson-Wood. As young Prince Hamlet, Blankson-Wood communicates the play's famous monologues in a straight-forward manner, clearly getting across the complex verse in a way that is relatable and easy to understand for the audience.

When it comes time for Hamlet to confront the ghost of his father, the production has a few tricks up its sleeve, which is why it's good Leon cut the opening scene of the script where some minor characters meet the ghost. Seeing this up front would have ruined the surprise later on in the play. Plus, Hamlet as we know it today is pieced together from three different texts, so it has to be cut if the audience is going to experience anything close to how the original play would have been performed. Overall, the production does a good job trimming the play, though some of the piece's most famous lines have to be altered to eliminate any references to it taking place in Denmark. (The production is whole-heartedly American.)

One of the joys of seeing Shakespeare in the Park is getting to watch a variety of tremendous actors in supporting roles, and this production is no different. The incomparable John Douglas Thompson (who recently won praise for his performance in Irish Rep's production of Endgame) plays Claudius, and he's easily the best Claudius I've ever seen. As the usurping king tries to pray for forgiveness, we see he is truly overcome by remorse, even as he is unable to take the next step and actually repent. His interactions with Lorraine Toussaint are sexy and filled with warmth, making us see immediately why she chose to marry him. Both of them have some comic interactions with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, played perfectly by Mitchell Winter and Brandon Gill.

Additional comedy is provided by not just Greg Hildreth as the gravedigger, but by Daniel Pearce as Polonius. I previously saw Pearce as Macduff in a production the Public did of Shakespeare's Macbeth, and then later in another Public production, Jane Anderson's Mother of the Maid. As Polonius, Pearce milks the long-winded advisor for all he's worth. Fine performances are also delivered by Solea Pfeiffer who plays his daughter Ophelia and Nick Rehberger who plays his son Laertes.

This production also adds in some hip hop with Warner Miller's Horatio and with the players, led by Colby Lewis, reminding us that even gods cry. This summer will also be your last chance to see Shakespeare in the Park at the old Delacorte before it gets completely redone, so make sure you don't miss this wonderful production! 

Top Plays of 2018

Each December, I compile a list of the top plays I saw that opened that year in New York City. Last year, Sweeney Todd, HOME/SICK, and Julius Caesar topped the list.

This year both Roundabout Theatre Company and the Public Theater have multiple shows on my list. Playwrights William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw get multiple nods as well.

So without further ado, here’s my list:

10. Romeo and Juliet – Each year, New York Classical Theatre Company puts on free productions in the city’s parks. This summer’s production of Shakespeare’s classic tale about star-crossed lovers used innovative doubling to tell a familiar story in a memorable new way.

9. Heartbreak House – Gingold Theatrical Group makes the list this year with another innovative adaptation of a classic. This re-imagining of Shaw’s chestnut about Europe during World War I was reset as a play-within-a-play during the London Blitz, which worked quite well.

8. Love’s Labour’s Lost – This Shake & Bake production combines the Bard’s romantic comedy with a five-course tasting menu. The actors do a wonderful job creating magical moments in a pared-down production in the Meatpacking District. The food is tasty, but it’s the acting that is truly delicious.

7. Stories by Heart – So, what is this thing? That’s what John Lithgow quipped at the beginning of his one-man show about the stories his father read to him as a child. Ordinarily, I don’t go in for one person plays, but Lithgow’s mixture of personal memoir with classic storytelling won me over in the end.

6. Othello – Not everyone loved the Public Theatre’s production of Othello this summer at the Delacorte, but I found Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s direction to be superb. The relationship between Iago and Rodrigo was particularly fascinating to me, and Chukwudi Iwuji did a great job playing the title role.

5. Mother of the Maid – The Public Theatre scored another hit with Jane Anderson’s new play Mother of the Maid about the family of Joan of Arc. The piece was marketed as a vehicle for Glenn Close, who played Isabelle Arc, but Anderson’s play tells the story from an interesting perspective, and would be worth seeing even without Close’s star power.

4. Bernhardt/Hamlet – As a fan of both Sarah Bernhardt and William Shakespeare, I knew I had to see this show. This is probably Theresa Rebeck’s best play to date, and the cast was superb. Janet McTeer was deservedly praised as Bernhardt, but Dylan Baker was also wonderful as the legendary French actor Constant Coquelin, and Jason Butler gave a memorable portrayal of the playwright Edmond Rostand.

3. Pygmalion – Bedlam theatre company’s productions are sometimes hit-or-miss, but they are generally memorable even when they don’t entirely succeed. This year’s re-imagining of Shaw’s most popular play definitely qualifies as a hit, though. The immersive first act led into an exploration of not just class, but also race, ethnicity, and assimilation, all in the frantic Bedlam style in which performers play multiple characters to hilarious effect.

2. Twelfth Night – What happened to musicals this year? All of my top ten picks were straight plays this year, with the exception of Shaina Taub’s musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which she co-created with director Kwame Kwei-Armah as part of the Public Works program, but came back in a new production this summer as a part of the regular Shakespeare in the Park season. Taub’s songs are inspired by Shakespeare’s text, but not usually direct settings of his poetry, in spite of the fact that Twelfth Night already contains multiple songs. Her lyrics fit in with the Bard’s play beautifully, and her performance as Feste was equally delightful.

1. Travesties – To me, the most delightful production this year, however, was Roundabout’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s play Travesties. As a playwright, I’ve always admired Stoppard’s skill in weaving together the stories of James Joyce, Vladimir Lenin, and Tristan Tzara into a rollicking farce that also makes us think and feel in new ways. Perhaps because this production was directed by a fellow playwright, Patrick Marber, it was able to encompass both the profundity and goofiness of Stoppard’s writing. A cast that included Tom Hollander, Scarlett Strallen, and Sara Topham also seemed exceptionally sympathetic to Stoppard’s ambitious vision.

So that’s my list. Here’s to an even better year of New York theatre in 2019!

Mother of the Maid

Last week, I had the privilege of seeing Jane Anderson's new play Mother of the Maid at The Public Theater.

Anderson, who also wrote Defying Gravity, uses her latest play to tell the story of Joan of Arc through the eyes of saint's mother. The result is a touching story of fame, glory, family, and heartbreak.

Stage and screen legend Glenn Close plays Isabelle Arc, the titular mother in the piece, and her daughter is played by Grace Van Patten, a relative newcomer who was also in The New Group's production of The Whirligig last year. Both performers hold their own, however, and they are complimented by a supporting cast that includes Dermot Crowley, Andrew Hovelson, and Daniel Pearce.

I saw the matinee performance on Halloween. During the first scene, some ghosts or goblins must have been playing tricks on us, because a power drill could clearly be heard somewhere offstage. Close and Van Patten continued through the noise, but then hammering started. Didn't the noisemaker know there were multiple matinees going on in the building? Close turned to the audience, apologized, and asked out loud if something could be done to stop the noise. A voice over the intercom said, "Absolutely!" The audience burst into applause.

The intercom voice said that Ms. Close could go offstage and wait, but Glenn (can I call her Glenn, now?) said she'd wait with the audience. "Anybody have any questions about the show?" she asked. Our new personal friend Glenn then answered questions about the play, her career, and her life. She graciously complimented both Anderson's play and her co-star Grace. (Sure, we can call her Grace!) She asked people in the audience where they were from. "Tasmania? When I went to Paris to shoot Dangerous Liaisons, we had a nanny to help with my daughter who had just been born, and our nanny was from Tasmania. The sweetest woman!"

Eventually, the noise stopped and the performance resumed. If you read this blog regularly, you know I'm a sucker for Joan of Arc plays, and that my own play Dark Night of the Soul tells the story of the saint's trial. (It also won the Nittany Theatre at the Barn's 2017 Theatre of the First Amendment Play Festival.) Anderson's handling of the story is different than most, however, as we glimpse Joan's life through the lives of others. Some of the most interesting scenes were between Isabelle and a Lady of the Court, played by Kelley Curran. I'd seen Curran before in the Red Bull Theater Company's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, but she particularly impressed me in this role, as a clueless but well-meaning noblewoman who wants to help but is powerless amidst the political turmoil of war-torn France.

The delay in the performance meant that I was late for the "Frankenreads" event at the Morgan Library that afternoon, but after the performance, I did manage to catch the end of the marathon of readings from Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. There's also a wonderful exhibition about the book at the Morgan which you should check out, but definitely make sure you get down to the Public, too. Mother of the Maid is not to be missed!