An Amazing Dying City by The Seeing Place

The first New York City revival of Dying City demonstrates why this piece was a 2008 finalist for Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Dying City consistently surprises the viewer and challenges expectations.

Erin Cronican & Brandon Walker

The story set up is deceptively simple.  Kelly is a young window who lost her husband Craig in the Iraq War.  A therapist by trade, she appears not to have dealt with her grief.  The unannounced appearance of her husband’s identical twin brother forces her to confront both her guilt in avoiding the family and the grief she hasn’t faced.  

The action shifts inside Kelly’s apartment between 2005 with Her husband’s twin and 2004 the night before he husband leaves.  It is a simple setup, and it implies a story progression and climax by the numbers.  Instead these story leads into unexpected directions, lead by fearless actors.

Erin Cronican plays young widow Kelly and Brandon Walker plays twins Craig and Peter.  I don’t want to give too much away, it would be a sin with a play this rich in emotion, but the actors are amazing.  And amazing acting because it seems, at first, they are rather bad at portraying these characters.

Erin Cronican’s Kelly is a Therapist who is passive and unable to face her own grief, which is a rather simplistic portrayal.  Only as the play progresses does the audience realize, that the character of Kelly is projecting this false face.  Kelly’s later emotional changes and revelations make the Ms. Cronican’s performance exceptional.Brandon Walker’s portrayal of gay brother Peter also seems oddly one-note early in the show.  Peter’s nervous laughter serves as a lazy identifier between the roles, only later does this nervous tick make full sense with the character.  Mr. Walker inhabits both roles believably with wonderful results.I mention this facet of the show, because the slow reveal of the depth of these characters mirrors the depth and slow reveal of the entire show.  It is a pleasure to watch.

Dying City is produced by The Seeing Place, in repertory with Lee Blessing’s play Two Rooms.  It is a fascinating combination, exploring the impact of war on those left behind on the home front.  The women (at home front) in both shows have emotionally cauterized their wounds, but deal with the world very differently.  Different directors, a great Adam Reich in this case, pull these two pieces into harmony.   And a call out is needed for an outstanding effort done by Duane Pagano in lighting design.

Dying City

Playwright: Christopher Shinn

Director: Adam Reich

Cast: Erin Cronican, Brandon Walker

Website

A Funny and Touching Love Song

The Seeing Place Theater is exploring “Fantasy vs Reality: The Games Our Minds Play” this season, and they have opened with a wonderful show, Love Song by John Kolvenbach.  Despite the overarching theme of the season, Love Song is rooted very much in the reality of emotions and humanity.

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The show is a relatively straightforward look at the life of Bean, played by Brandon Walker.  Bean is a depressed young man, sleepwalking through the daily grind.  He is minimalist to an absurd degree, as noted by the woman who attempts to rob him only to find a nearly empty apartment.

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Bean’s sister Joan is, in many ways, the emotional opposite of Bean.  Joan, well played by Marnie Klar, is a detail oriented, hyper organized, over excitable businessperson.  She rules the office with an iron fist and a short temper.  Her husband Harry, played calmly by Jason Wilson, seems to manage her by passivity - letting her anxiety and control blow up and then dissipate naturally.  Joan and Harry are  only people Bean interacts with, but even with them Bean seems oddly removed from conversations he is part of.

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Brandon Walker and Erin Cronican in Love Song

Enter Molly, played by Erin Cronican, a burglar with an attitude.  Bean arrives home to find Molly waiting for him in his nearly empty apartment.  She questions Bean directly on the way he lives, and his answers surprise them both.  Molly leaves with his pitiful possessions, but is later drawn back to his apartment.  Forced to open up, Bean grows infatuated and excited by Molly.  Bean’s outlook changes as he begins to experience life instead of merely existing.

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Bean’s enthusiasm motivates Joan to reexamine her choices, for the better.  Harry and Joan are infected by Bean’s newfound zest for life.  But complications arise when Joan and Harry try to meet Molly.

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Love Song is a wonderful show, but it starts off a little shaky.   Bean and Joan are defined too broadly as damaged before settling into believability.

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Early on, Brandon Walker’s Bean vacillates between being withdrawn and passive to angry and aggressive in his apartment.  Bean’s sudden enjoyment of life is a little too manic.  It is a frustrating because once the characterization settles in Bean’s transformation delivers a beautiful payoff.   On a side note, the sets by Joe Arnow work excellently to help define Bean’s neuroses.  Mr. Walker silent interactions with the sets and lights convey the fragility of Bean.

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Marnie Klar and Jason Wilson exploring freedom in Love Song

Marnie Klar’s Joan is well played, but also over written at the start of the show.  The character starts as excessively Type-A personality.  Joan’s journey would be more believable if frazzled frustration showed through instead of manic intensity.  It is a choice of the playwright that Ms. Klar almost makes work.  Once Joan’s foundation shifts a little, Ms. Klar is excellent in delivering a nuanced performance.

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Ms. Cronican’s character Molly benefits from lovely writing, and she gives a nicely restrained performance.  A burglar that stirs emotion in wounded psyche, and then responds to it, is a tough act to render believably.

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Love Song is sweet and funny, as well as a fascinating look at the power of emotion.  So much of the story and acting is great, that the occasional odd choices are frustrating.  Once the story starts to move, the play flows beautifully.

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Love Song is being presented through December 9^th at a low price of $12.00.

Love Song

Playwright: John Kolvenbach

Director: Erin Cronican

Cast: Erin Cronican, Marnie Klar, Javan Nelson, Brandon Walker, Jason Wilson

website 

Danny & The Deep Blue Sea: Navigating Turbulent Waters

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is an early work by John Patrick Shanley which has lost none of its power over time.  As presented by The Seeing Place Theater, it is a vibrant and emotional story exploring venerability and redemption.

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The story is relatively straightforward, while exploring emotions that are jagged and complex. It opens as Danny bursts into a bar nursing cuts, bruises and bloody hands.  He is a violent, anti-social young man who is quick to anger and itching for a fight.  He is constantly on guard for perceived slights, and he sees them everywhere.  In this nearly empty bar he meets Roberta, an aggressively bitter woman.  Roberta needles Danny with the intensity of a child picking at a scab.

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Brandon Walker and Erin Cronican in Danny and The Deep Blue Sea

Danny and Roberta, two outcasts both with a chip on their shoulder, end up flirting but they could just as easily ended up at blows.  Erin Cronican as Roberta and Brandon Walker as Danny pull off the difficult task of making these characters both frightening and sympathetic. 

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Mr. Walker’s Danny is coiled so tight that every moment he doesn’t lash out only adds to potential explosion coming.  He conveys Danny’s mental state in nervous shakes and fractured phrasing that never cross over to caricature.  Ms. Cronican’s Roberta is revealed more slowly.  She is obviously angry at the world, and she vents the anger in bursts, sometimes aimed at Danny, but more often aimed at the world in general.

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Danny is a fighter, full of rage and prone to outbursts.  His co-workers call him “the beast”.  Roberta is a bitter single mother, living with her parents and mad at the world.  She takes joy in antagonizing Danny, because she is at least getting a response from another person.

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These two end up spending the night together, and the pieces of their life are pulled out and examined.  Sometimes the stories are told with prompting and other times they are thrown up, like some sickness they can’t hold in.

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Ultimately Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is an examination of the emotional connection between people that have lost the ability to communicate.  It is a moving and great show.  Director Ariel Francoeur and her actors have created an intense experience - full of surprise, apprehension and unexpected tenderness.  The show has been extended this week, see it if you can.

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea

Playwright: John Patrick Shanely

Director: Ariel Francoeur

Cast: Erin Cronican, Brandon Walker

Website