HANDBAGGED by Moira Buffini Premieres at 59E59 Theatres as Part of Brits Off Broadway

L-R: Beth Hylton, Anita Carey, Kate Fahy, and Susan Lynskey in HANDBAGGED.  Photo by Carol Rosegg.

Although they were born just six months apart, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher entered the world under strikingly different circumstances: Elizabeth was born into one of the world’s oldest and most illustrious monarchies and her future role as her country’s Queen was virtually assured; Margaret was born the daughter of a grocer, rising through her own merits to become her country’s first female Prime Minister.  In the 1980s, the two “grande dames” met regularly behind closed palace doors and it would be enlightening to know just what they said to one another in those private moments.

Unfortunately, neither Moira Buffini nor anyone else (other than the two women themselves) could let us in on those secrets but Ms Buffini has done the next best thing.  She has written Handbagged, a totally fictionalized re-imagining of what might have been said behind those closed doors and, even if this two-act, Brechtian comedy is a theatrical version of “fake news,” it still has the ring of truth about it and is great fun.

Handbagged was a hit in London’s West End and now is enjoying its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan as part of this year’s Brits Off Broadway program.  And  what could be more appropriate for a Brits Off Broadway program than a play about Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher?

The play is really about Margaret Thatcher and her conservative philosophy, not the Queen, with the Queen’s presence primarily serving as a contrast to the Iron Lady’s ideological extremism.  One might have assumed that the Queen would be the more conservative, perhaps even reactionary, of the two - she does, after all, embody the establishment – but then one would be wrong.  In fact, Queen Elizabeth was the more moderate, maybe even the more progressive of the two.  It may be counter-intuitive but that was the case.  Or at least it was in Ms Buffini’s opinion (and in my own).  We never really can know for sure since the Queen is constitutionally prohibited from overtly expressing anything other than support for whatever government is in power in Great Britain at any given time.

Both Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher are larger than life figures and it was perhaps that realization that led Ms Buffini to conclude that neither character could be captured on stage in her entirety by a single actor.  That is just idle speculation on my part but the fact is that the playwright did see fit to cast two separate actors in the role of the Queen (one older and one younger) and two different actors in the role of Margaret Thatcher (again, one older and one younger).  Or it may be that the playwright wanted to show how both characters had changed over the years (although, honestly, I didn’t see much evidence of such evolution in either one).  Or maybe the playwright wanted to show how faulty are our memories of our own younger selves (though I didn’t discern much of that either).

Be that as it may, the playwright has written the play with two Queens and two Prime Ministers, not just one of each.  In this production, Anita Carey plays the elderly Queen Elizabeth and Beth Hilton plays the younger Liz.  Similarly, Kate Fahy plays the older Margaret Thatcher and Susan Lynskey plays the younger Mags.  And fortunately all four actors are really spot on in their performances.

But while the playwright felt that the two leading roles required a doubling of the number of actors performing them, she had no such misgivings regarding the production’s other roles – and there are seventeen of them!  To perform those seventeen parts, she determined that just two actors would suffice.  Actor 1 (Cody Leroy Wilson) plays eight different roles including those of Kenneth Kaunda (the President of Zambia), Nancy Reagan (in drag), Michael Shea (the Queen’s Press Secretary), and Kenneth Clarke (the Conservative Party MP and Cabinet Member known as the “Big Beast”), among others.  And Actor 2 (John Lescault) goes him even one better, playing nine different roles including those of Denis Thatcher (Margaret’s husband), Gerry Adams (the leader of the Sinn Fein), Ronald Reagan, Rupert Murdoch, and Prince Philip, among others.

The two male actors are truly remarkable in the range of their performances and it is they who turn the play into the Brechtian carnival it eventually becomes.  And it is they who enable the play to shift seamlessly from a discussion of Margaret Thatcher’s role in the conduct of the Falklands War with Argentina to her granting the United States the right to use Britain as an airbase from which to launch a bombing attack on Libya to her reluctance to accept black majority rule in Zambia or to apply anti-apartheid sanctions to South Africa.

Ms Buffini has gone on record that she has “no sympathy for Margaret Thatcher or anything she stands for.”  Indeed, she has admitted to being “glad when she was dead” and has referred to her as a “monstrous woman” and a “villainess.”  But despite her personal antipathy toward the Iron Lady, Ms Buffini has been exceptionally fair and even-handed in her writing, eschewing the opportunity to satirize her or to take any cheap shots.  It is a credit to her, not only as a playwright but as a human being, and it has resulted in her having created a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking work that should appeal both to conservatives and progressives (as well as to royalists and anti-royalists alike).

PUBLIC SERVANT by Bekah Brunstetter Premieres at Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row

L-R: Christine Bruno and Chris Henry Coffey in PERFECT SERVANT.  Photo by Carol Rosegg.

NBC’s award-winning hit series, This Is Us, is a remarkable piece of work.  It deals sensitively with issues ranging from physical disability and infertility (Kate, one of the drama’s principal characters, is clinically overweight and successfully confronted her own infertility problem) to the pressures of balancing the strains of work against those of family (Randall, Kate’s adoptive brother, elected to the City Council following a successful career in the financial world, confronts the problem of satisfying the needs of his constituents with that of maintaining loving relationships with his wife and three daughters.)

Bekah Brunstetter, a co-producer and writer on the show, has drawn on the just those themes in writing Public Servant, a terrific three-hander currently premiering at the Clurman Theatre on Theatre Row on West 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan.  This is readily understandable since Ms Brunstetter has struggled with infertility issues herself and since her own father served as a County Commissioner for many years.  Ms Brunstetter readily acknowledges that Public Servant was inspired by her recollections of her father’s political career and the problems he faced in raising a family, working in the private sector, and seeking to please all of his constituents at the same time which was, of course, a near impossible task.

Public Servant is being produced by Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), under the Artistic Direction of Nicholas Viselli.  TBTB is an acclaimed Off-Broadway company that integrates able-bodied actors with artists with disabilities. Originally founded 40 years ago as Theater by the Blind, the company's mission is “to change the image of people with disabilities from one of dependence to independence, to fight stereotypes and misperceptions associated with disability, and to show how vibrant, fluid and exuberant the work of artists with disabilities can be”.

(It may be worth noting at this point that Christine Bruno, one of the three actors in Public Servant is, herself, a staunch advocate for the disabled, serving as chair of the SAG-AFTRA NY Local Board Performers with Disabilities Committee (PWD) and is a member of the SAG-AFTRA National PWD and Actors Equity EEOC Committees.)

The central character in Public Servant is Ed Sink (Chris Henry Coffey), a church-going small town politician in North Carolina who has the very best of intentions but who may have bitten off more than he can chew.  (Rather like Randall in that respect in This Is Us.)

Miriam Hart (Christine Bruno), one of Ed’s constituents and suffering from cerebral palsy, has arrived unannounced at Ed’s office in the hopes of soliciting his assistance in selling her recently-deceased mother’s house.  The problem is that plans are underway to build a new beltway in the town which could render her mother’s house worthless and she is seeking compensation for that loss.  All of which could interfere with Ed’s own pet project to build a pool in the town.  It really does seem that you never can do just one nice thing for someone – certainly not without pissing off someone else.

Moreover, Miriam is also desperately seeking to become pregnant, so far to no avail.  (Rather like Kate, I’d say, in This Is Us.)

Which brings us to the third character in Public Servant, Ed’s daughter, Hannah (Anna Lentz).   Insecure, promiscuous, insensitive and shallow, but with all the insufferable liberal certainty that only a nineteen-year-old can muster, she has come home to visit her father.  But she certainly doesn’t feel that she can tell him that she’s pregnant.

In her note on how to stage Public Servant, the playwright has suggested that the play be thought of “as a triangle that’s being constantly turned. When one character is the focus, the other two rest at the corners, and often participate in the focus character’s world.”  And the director, Geordie Broadwater, has succeeded in doing just that. 

Thus Miriam’s disability, her infertility, her problem selling her mother’s house – all are central to her but somewhat peripheral to Ed and Hannah.  And yet it is Ed who does participate in her world, at least to the extent of assisting her in selling her mother’s house.  Similarly, Hannah’s pregnancy is central to her even if it is peripheral to Ed and Miriam.  And yet Miriam ends up playing an outsize role in assisting Hannah in her time of need and Ed, as it turns out, is there for her as well.

I’m reminded of the old maxim “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes” and I think the play truly succeeds at conveying that message, particularly in regard to today’s pro-life/pro-choice conundrum.  And it does so with great sensitivity.

L-R: Chris Henry Coffey and Anna Lentz in PUBLIC SERVANT.  Photo by Carol Rosegg.

All three actors deliver superb performances.  Chris Henry Coffey perfectly embodies the small town businessman, politician, and father who really wants to do the right thing and sometimes finds himself overwhelmed by life itself but somehow manages to succeed in the end.  Christine Bruno is incredible, exhibiting a fortitude in the face of adversity that we’d all be well-advised to emulate and an empathy for others even when their circumstances are antithetical to her own.  And Anna Lentz, in her Off-Broadway debut has brilliantly captured the inconsistencies, contradictions, and vagaries of youth.  I expect that we’ll be seeing a lot more of her.

The set design by Edward T. Morris is creative but I don’t think it really works.  The stage is basically set as an outdoor scene in which two white picket fences are set at an angle to one another and intended, I think, to fulfill the playwright’s suggestion that the play be thought of “as a triangle that’s being constantly turned.”  And to be sure, it does do that.

But the set also obscures the distinction between inside and outside.  Sections of the fence swing open and closed to reveal and conceal interior scenes – an office, a clinic, a home – and perhaps the intent there is to suggest that things are often not what they seem when one goes behind the scenes.  If so, I get the point but I found the process unnecessarily disconcerting.

CAROLINE'S KITCHEN Premieres at 59E59 Theaters

L-R: Caroline Langrishe and Tom England in CAROLINE'S KITCHEN.  Photo by Sam Taylor.

Caroline Mortimer (Caroline Langrishe) is a well-known television personality with her own cooking show (Caroline’s Kitchen).  Her husband, Mike (Aden Gillett), is a successful banker with a penchant for golf.  And their son, Leo (Tom England), has just graduated with a “First” from Cambridge.  As Leo puts it, his mother presents herself as “the perfect woman with the perfect life and the perfect marriage in the perfect house with the perfect friends.”:And so it would seem.

Caroline and Mike are on the verge of selling their house in anticipation of paying off their son’s school debt, gifting him with a flat of his own, and embarking on the next stage of their own presumably ideal lives.  And tonight they are planning a champagne celebration for Leo.  What could possibly go wrong?

Well, just about everything.  For starters, things really are not quite what they seem.  Caroline may be an admired television personality with an enviable marriage but she is also a discombobulated, religiously fanatic, alcoholic carrying on an affair with Graeme (James Sutton), a carpenter working at her home.  Mike may be a successful banker and golf aficionado but he is also a victim of child abuse, bi-polar, wallowing in remorse over his own previous infidelity, and seemingly incapable of expressing true affection for his wife of son.  And Leo is a cigarette-smoking, vegan, semi-closeted homosexual (Caroline knows he’s gay but Mike does not), who is heartbroken to have learned of his own partner’s infidelity and who plans to leave for Syria to help the refugees before the climate change apocalypse that he deems inevitable destroys us all.

Not to be outdone by the Mortimers, Amanda (Jasmyn Banks), Caroline’s inept, insouciant, and over-sexed assistant, is in the throes of her own affair with Dominic, a married man (although that doesn’t prevent her from flirting outrageously with Graeme).  And, as if not to be left out, it is then that Graeme’s own mentally unbalanced, previously institutionalized, and violence-prone wife, Sally (Elizabeth Boag),  bursts upon the scene and all hell breaks loose.

The entire entourage of fidelity-challenged dysfunctional characters appear in Caroline’s Kitchen, written by Torben Betts and directed by Alastair Whatley, currently enjoying its US premiere as part of the Brits Off Broadway program at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan.  The play (originally entitled Monogamy) is a classic example of British slapstick humor – a kind of hellzapoppin’ farcical pastiche, replete with mistaken identities, bumbling husbands, sexual revelations, the mandatory homosexual, and just plain tom-foolery.  The genre has never been  my cuppa but if that is the sort of thing that floats your boat, you won’t be disappointed by this one.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AMERICAN SERVICEMEN IN BRITAIN Premieres at 59E59 Theaters

L-R: Matt Sheahan and Dan March in Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain.  Photo by Lidia Crisafulli.

Broad, slapstick British humor may not be everybody’s cup of tea but if it does happen to be yours, you might want to catch The Real MacGuffins (Dan March, James Millard and Matt Sheahan) in Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain, currently enjoying its US premiere as part of this year’s Brits Off Broadway program at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan.  The Real MacGuffins, a leading sketch group on the British comedy circuit, adapted Instructions for American Servicemen in Britain from a pamphlet of the same name issued by the Americn War Office in 1942 to prepare GIs being sent to England during World War II for the idiosyncrasies of British (life ranging from cricket to the country’s inclement weather and from the near-incomprehensibility of the British monetary system to Brits’ predilection for warm beer).

The play takes place in 1942 when a horde of American GIs have arrived in England only to be confronted by a people ostensibly speaking the same language as Americans do but with so many customs so different from our own as to make social intercourse immensely difficult.  Two American officers, Lieutenant Schultz (James Millard) and Colonel Atwood (Dan March) have been given the responsibility of instructing the newly-arrived American troops and they are joined in their effort by a British officer, Major Gibbons (Matt Sheahan).

The characters are just what we have come to expect in British productions of this genre.  Lieutenant Schultz is another version of Jack Armstrong.  Colonel Atwood is the Iowa farm boy who has risen through the ranks but still remembers the dance steps to “kick the pig.”  And Major Gibbons is the relatively effete officer whose mother (also played by James Millard) still embarrasses him by telling his associates of the ballet lessons he took as a child.

The play breaks no new ground.  The characters are stereotypical and caricature-ish.  But that is not to say that they aren’t entertaining for they most certainly are.  Moreover, all three performers are consummate comedians and, at least at the performance I attended, the audience really seemed to love them and to enjoy the show.

Gordon Clapp Stars in TRICK OR TREAT at 59E59 Theaters

L-R: Gordon Clapp and Jenni Putney in TRICK OR TREAT.  Photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp.

Every family has its secrets and the Moynihans certainly are no exception.  What is going on between Johnny Moynihan (Gordon Clapp) and Nancy (Kathy Manfre), his wife of more than 40 years, now that her Alzheimer’s disease is worsening?  What transpired between Johnny’s son, Teddy (David Mason) and Johnny’s neighbor, Hannah (Kathy McCafferty), years ago that ended Teddy and Hannah’s romantic relationship - and did Johnny have anything to do with it?  Who is Sharon - and what has become of her?

Johnny and Nancy have kept the family’s secrets for years but now that Nancy’s Alzheimer’s has worsened, can she still be relied on to do so? Claire (Jenni Putney), who is Johnny and Nancy’s daughter and Danny’s sister, never was privy to the family’s secrets herself but that’s all about to change tonight.  It is Halloween and Claire has just received a tearful call from her father imploring her to come to his house right away where all eventually wiil be revealed.

Teddy, as it turns out, is a cop, a police captain in fact and in line to become the next Chief of Police, an appointment that would delight Johnny since Teddy would be following in the footsteps of Johnny’s own father who once had held that post.  But Teddy’s appointment is far from certain.  For one thing, Claire’s influential husband, Sal, who publishes the town paper, vehemently opposes it.  Moreover, some in the town continue to hold Danny responsible for the “murder” of Normie Beauchamp, despite the fact that Danny was acquitted of all charges in that incident.  Additionally, that “bitch” Hannah still has it in for him.  And, finally, should the secret surrounding Sharon be disclosed, it could mark the end of Danny’s career.

Trick or Treat by Jack Neary is an exceptionally well-written play – a family drama, a mystery, and a black comedy all in one – currently enjoying its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan.  Neary’s ear for dialogue is terrific but that’s not all the play has going for it: it also has been blessed with a truly extraordinary cast.

David Mason is tough, bitter and menacing as Johnny’s son, Teddy, while Jenni Putney conveys an equally convincing sense of cold, calculating objectivity, tempered by concern for both of her parents, as his daughter, Claire.  Kathy McCafferty is splendid as the truly nosy, obnoxious, trouble-making “bitch,” Hannah, and Kathy Manfre is effective as Nancy, Johnny’s wife, suffering from Alzheimer’s.

But when all is said and done, the play really belongs to Gordon Clapp.  His is an award-worthy performance as Johnny, a working-class stiff whose own life never measured up to that of his father and who now seeks to live his life vicariously through his son.  He is a man who finds little to take pride in himself beyond the size of the candy bars he distributes to the neighborhood’s children on Halloween.  But at the same time, he is a man deeply in love with his wife, Nancy, and devoted to her care who, nonetheless, places the preservation of his family (as he perceives it) above all else – including Nancy’s well-being.  It is a performance that will remain with you long after you have left the theater.

ALONE IT STANDS by John Breen Premieres at 59E59 Theaters

L-R: Ed Malone, Henry Raber, David O'Hara, Rob McDermott, Chase Guthrie Knueven, and Sarah Street in ALONE IT STANDS.  Photo by Heidi Bohnenkamp.

The US victory over the Soviet Union in ice hockey in the 1980 Winter Olympics came to be known as the “Miracle on Ice.”  It was, after all, an extraordinary event: the Soviets were overwhelming favorites, they had taken the gold in five of the previous six Olympics, and their players were primarily professionals, whereas the American team consisted exclusively of amateurs and was the youngest team in the tournament. Little wonder that, two decades later, Sports Illustrated crowned the “Miracle on Ice” as the top sports moment of the Twentieth Century, nor that in 2008 the International Ice Hockey Federation named it the best international ice hockey story of the previous hundred years.

Less well remembered was a similar upset that occurred two years before the “Miracle on Ice.” Munster, a small Irish provincial rugby team stunned Ireland when, in 1978, it defeated the New Zealand All Blacks (who, at the time, were generally considered to be one of the greatest teams in rugby history).  To be sure, the event was not as momentous to the rest of the world as was the “Miracle on Ice,” but it sure was to the Irish who, at the time, were suffering through war and economic recession.  For the Irish, the upset victory could not have come at a better time.

Alone It Stands, written and directed by John Breen, relates the story of that remarkable sports event and its effect on the Irish people.  Originally opening in 2000 at the Gaiety Theatre in Dublin, the play transferred to London’s West End, and went on to become an international hit.  At last it has crossed the Atlantic and is currently enjoying its New York premiere at 59E59 Theaters on East 59th Street in midtown Manhattan as part of Origin’s 1st Irish Festival.

This is an exceptionally entertaining play, a brilliantly choreographed work, an exuberantly athletic romp, and a celebratory paean to the indomitability of the human spirit.  A truly talented cast of six play – wait for it, this is not a typo – sixty-two (62) different characters including the players on both rugby teams (Munster and the All Blacks), coaches, spouses, fathers, nurses, fans, street children, baby twins, a pregnant woman, a pet dog, and - before I forget – a newborn emerging from the birth canal!  Much of the play is devoted to the rugby game itself, with grueling scrums aplenty, but the multiplicity of scenes also include a celebratory bonfire, a wake (you can’t have an Irish play without a wake!) and, of course, that cheerfully and tastefully executed childbirth moment.

The play’s entire cast of five men (Chase Guthrie Knueven, Ed Malone, Henry Raber, Rob McDermott, and David O’Hara) and one woman (Sarah Street) deserve accolades for their performances, both on the field and off.  Casting is almost as gender-blind (and even species-blind!) as you can get: Sarah Street more than holds her own on the rugby field and in the scrums although her real star turn comes in a more natural role as the birthing mother; Chase Guthrie Knueven performs well as a pet dog but his strongest performances are barreling down the rugby field; and while several of the male actors do provide a bit of comic relief in their momentary performances as women, their finest performances still are as male rugby players.  I guess when push comes to shove (or scrum or childbirth), boys will still be boys and girls will still be girls (and dogs will still be dogs).

World Premiere of BITTER GREENS by Clea DeCrane at 59E59 Theaters

L-R:  Regan Sims, Andy Do, Jessica Darrow, Ben Lorenz, and Clea DeCrane in BITTER GREENS.  Photo by Brendan Swift.

I shouid not be surprised to learn that it was Rainer Maria Rilke’s work that inspired (or at least influenced) Clea DeCrane in her writing of  Bitter Greens, a well-crafted but less than earth-shattering play about five self-absorbed but fundamentally insecure millennials currently enjoying its world premiere at 59E59 Theaters in midtown Manhattan.  In “Notes” to the script of Bitter Greens, Ms DeCrane quotes from Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet as follows:

“That is why us young people, who are beginners in everything, must, with our whole being, with all our forces, gather around our anxious, upward-beating hearts, and learn to love.  For we are so often and so disastrously wrong when we fling ourselves at each other when love takes hold of us, we scatter ourselves, just as we are, in all our messiness, disorder, bewilderment... and what can happen there?  

What can life do with this heap of half-broken things that we call our communion and that we would like to call our happiness, if that were possible, and our future?"

And, as if to underscore Rilke’s influence, the lead character in Bitter Greens, a 22 year old brilliantly successful overachiever, is named Reyna – played in this production by Ms DeCrane herself.  Three of the other four characters in the play – Caitlin (Jessica Darrow), Andrew (Andy Do), and Lily (Regan Sims) – are also 21 or 22 years old; all were classmates and friends as undergraduates at Berkeley; and, to a greater or lesser degree, all but Caitlin have bought into some sort of stereotypical Californian millennial foolishness: veganism, ultra-environmentalism, naturopathic medicine, etc.

Andrew, Reyna’s Japanese-American boyfriend, is cute and very much in love with her, but he is relatively ineffectual and indecisive (he has difficulty even deciding whether to stay in or eat out) and he certainly constitutes no threat to her.  Caitlin, one of Reyna’s closest friends from college, is a talented artist but can’t quite believe it herself.  And Lily, another of Reyna’s college friends, is involved with her partner, Indigo, in building a company that manufactures herb-infused tonics; she is excited over their success in acquiring the funding they need for their enterprise while glossing over the fact that most of it actually came from mommy and daddy.

Reyna and Andrew have just returned from Tokyo and she is eagerly awaiting word that she has landed the dream job she applied for at Green Communications (the most competitive post-grad program in the country).  There’s not much doubt that she’ll get it: after all, she did intern for Green Comm all through college (even winning the company’s Initiative/Leadership award), and she did double major in college, and she did graduate magna cum laude.  And, over the course of her entire life, she never did fail to get whatever it was that she set her sights on.

Never, that is, until now.

When Reyna learns that she didn’t get the job – and, what is worse, that Andrew got it instead – she simply goes off the rails.  It is a situation with which she cannot cope rationally because she never really learned how to deal with failure. (It is analogous to the picture Andrew painted for her of older Japanese children who, when they tripped, invariably fell on their faces because their overprotective parents consistently prevented them from falling as young children, with the result that they never learned to put their hands out in front of them to protect their faces.)  And so it is that Reyna’s relationship to Andrew takes a macabre turn in connection with her millennial obsession with vitamin supplements and super-foods.

 

And it is then that it all goes from bad to worse when Jack (Ben Lorenz) shows up.

Jack is the fifth member of the cast, not quite a millennial himself, but almost.  He’s 28 years old and relatively sexy but pretty much something of a grubby loser, nonetheless.  He dropped out of Stanford six years ago and is now working at Trader Joe’s while still harboring fantasies of returning to college some day.  When he delivers an order of stuffed peppers to Kayla in her presently vulnerable state, the immediate consequences are relatively foreseeable.  The ripple effect on the other members of Kayla’s millennial crowd are, however, less anticipated.

The press release for Bitter Greens describes the play as “an explosive look at the deep roots of jealousy and privilege, and how relationships can deteriorate when the foundation in which they were born completely changes”.  And the entire cast of Bitter Greens does do a superb job of bringing Clea DeCrane’s play to life and expressing just what it means to be a millennial in today’s world.   Yet, when all is said and done, I doubt if the play’s “explosive” insights would matter all that much to anyone who’s not a millennial herself.