 |
| L-R: Peter Bradbury, Robert LuPone and Kevin Isola in THE VIOLIN. Photo by Carol Rosegg. |
The Violin by Dan McCormick,
currently enjoying its world premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in
midtown Manhattan, is an immensely entertaining modern fairy tale set in the
pre-gentrified Lower East Side. All of
the ingredients are there (albeit in somewhat mysterious or disguised form –
omens and harbingers, departed souls, severed limbs, strange occurrences, secret
passages, lucky discoveries, and, ultimately, happily-ever-aftering).
And
so, when Terry (Devin Isola), who is mildly retarded (euphemistically described
by his mother as “her special child”) lost both his parents in a flash he
readily accepted the assurances of his older brother, Bobby (Peter Bradbury), a
petty thief who survives by burglarizing stores and stealing cars but who is
utterly devoted to Terry, that they had not really died but simply had been
called to Heaven to be with God and that they might even return one day. When Terry’s palms begin to itch, he takes it
as an omen that money is about to come his way and, sure enough, while he finds
no Aladdin’s Lamp nor Philosopher’s Stone nor even a winning lottery ticket, he
does find a violin – a Stradivarius, no less – left in his gypsy cab. Terry does not realize the violin’s worth nor
how it may change their lives, but Bobby quickly does and hatches a plot to
extort hundreds of thousands of dollars in reward money from its rightful owner
for its return.
To
that end, Bobby enlists the assistance of Gio (Robert LuPone), a skilled tailor
(doesn’t every good fairy tale require a skilled tailor?) who is “legendary” in
his neighborhood (or at least believes himself to be). But the fact is that Gio’s father not only
taught Gio the trade but also imbued him with morals and integrita, which leads Gio to be deeply conflicted over the entire
affair.
Meanwhile,
the mysteries (all of which are, in fact, resolved by play’s end) pile up. What actually did happen to Bobby and Terry’s
parents? Why did Gio never marry, what
was his relationship to Bobby and Terry’s parents, and why has he always been something
of a father figure to both men? Why does
Gio only sit facing the door, as did his father before him? And what, if anything, does the clutter in
his shop conceal? Is there any significance
to the boot Bobby stumbled over on 14th Street – the one with the severed foot
still in it? And, of course, how will
the violin caper turn out?
Robert
LuPone is dispassionately cool as Gio, gradually providing us with most of the
answers to our questions as he peels away the layers of his, Bobby’s and Terry’s
lives. Kevin Isola is mischievously
charming as Terry (although he appears to be much less intellectually challenged
and much more socially unaware than his description as “retarded” or “special”
would have led us to believe; it is difficult, for example, to accept his
expressing his having experienced an “epiphany” as he does - but that is not
meant as a criticism of Isola; he played the role as it was written and did a
fine job at that).
Best
of all, however, is Peter Bradbury who provides an exceptionally rich portrayal
of Bobby – a small time amoral hood who, at one and the same time, is fully
committed to caring for his younger brother, despite being frequently and
openly exasperated by him. It is a
complex role to play and Bradbury succeeds brilliantly.
