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Hamlet

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  Hamlet -- By William Shakespeare -- The Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park -- Directed by Kenny Leon -- Costumes by Jessica Jahn -- Set by Beowulf Boritt -- With: -- Ato Blankson-Wood   -- Nick Rehberger -- Daniel Pearce -- Solea Pfeiffer -- John Douglas Thompson -- Lorraine Toussaint -- Hamlet is The Public Theater’s major production in Central Park this summer. I saw it in preview. Director Kenny Leon has given us an interpretation with a solid foundation as a domestic tragedy. There’s some terrific acting. But Mr. Leon peppers the production with such a variety of spices that we’re sometimes bewildered. His combining of styles that we find in the show is simultaneously post-modernist and Elizabethan. To begin with, the set is inscrutable — a modern mansion that seems to have half-fallen into a fissure of the earth. To indicate that we’re in Atlanta in 2020, there’s a large Stacey Abrams 2020 sign that’s half-buried in the lawn. There’s also a Jeep that’s been driven...
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  Fool's Mass = From Dzieci Theatre = Directed by Matt Mitler = at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC = December 2023 = December brought one of my favorite NYC theater events — the 25th iteration of Dzieci Theatre’s production of Fool’s Mass . I saw this movable feast in a side chapel of the majestic Cathedral of St. John the Divine (that is, a side chapel itself the size of a small church). The production takes off from Marat/Sade , putting the lunatics in a sacred ambience and adding glorious irreverence. Ten or so actors play idiots — in the sense of “village idiots” — who’ve lost their priest and have to slug their way through a mass themselves. Dressed in colorless rags, almost all with caps and sporting dirty faces, they’re the picture of medieval bedlam. They give us masterful ensemble work, sometimes moving with the unity of a school of fish, sometimes freezing in lovely tableaux vivants . The iconography of religion indicates what the ersatz ceremony refers to: ther...
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A Blanket of Dust

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Photo by Sharon Kinsella In Richard Squires’ play A Blanket of Dust, presented at The Flea Theater by Delphi Film in association with Alfonso Ramos and Eve Pomerance, a woman, Diane, looses her husband in the 9-11 disaster. She’s convinced that the government is responsible for the catastrophe, and campaigns to uncover the conspiracy. She’s a Senator’s daughter, so the issue becomes a family affair. Years later, she becomes involved with Andrew, a book store owner active in the dissident movement. Andrew is also at odds with his parents on political issues (his father is in government but it’s not clear what his position is.) In frustration, Andrew commits suicide - he sets fire to himself - in protest. This is all pretty grim, but, well, it’s a grim world, and it’s good to see issue- committed theater.   Mr. Squires’ keeps his script as lean as the WTC towers. The characters have no identity aside from their attitudes toward the issue, aside from the sketchy romance. ...
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