Letters From Max: A Glimpse Into The Heart

Sarah Ruhl’s new play, Letters From Max, is not a traditional type of play that is the style today. That isn’t to say it is bad, in fact just the opposite, it is wonderful. But it does take a bit to get into the play.

It is a simple story, deceptively simple. Letters From Max is an adaption of their book, Letters from Max: A Poet, a Teacher, a Friendship. And in the beginning, it seems indulgent. Letters From Max is the story of a writing teacher, author Sara Ruhl, and Max, a student in love with words and poetry.

Because Sara Ruhl is the play’s author AND one of the two characters, you question her accounting and memory. She is the strong woman who is a mentor and steps up to be a glorious friend to Max. But the audience's acceptance of  Ruhl as the perfect mentor is hesitant at first.

However, Letters From Max slowly moves from seeming a self-satisfied look back into a more complete understanding of Max and of Ms. Ruhl’s love and admiration for each other. Max’s mind formulates words and poetry as instinctively as breathing. Max cannot speak or write without falling back on words as an expression of his very being. It is a passion we all have, but Max can use this passion to bring to life his art.

Jessica Hecht plays Sarah. The role of Max is switched between Ben Edelman and Zane Paris, with the non-performer playing music and seamlessly delivering and removing props and business. I saw Zane Paris as Max and he was mesmerizing. Paris’ Max was strung with energy of a puppy, playing and testing his limits.

Jessica Hecht and Zane Paris (credit Joan Marcus)

Max applies for a spot in Ruhl’s class for playwrights, even though he has never written a play. After Sarh reads his application, she spots potential. And she justifies this unusual decision in dialog. As she explains why she allowed Max in. “Because funny poets are my favorite kind of human being.”

And both Max’s and Ruhl’s the words are near transcendent. In Letters From Max poetry and expository are the characters' lifeblood. And they are a matched pair. Both Max and Sarah find comfort in their writing, their poetry, and their platonic love of each other. They seem to understand each other beyond the limitations of themselves. Together they bring to life the beauty of the world and themselves.

But Max, very early and very clearly, is sick. Sick with cancer, which he handles bravely. In letters and occasional visits Sarah keeps Max’s spirit up. Cancer ultimately claims Ben as his thoughts and words are the last of him to succumb.

Letters From Max is beautifully crafted piece. It is crafted for those with a love of words. Both characters speak their poems occasionally, as a projection of the words are displayed on the stage. The cadence and artistry of the poems are rendered stark as the emotions of the artists convey.

There is a scene, a small break early, as a series of stills is projected onto a wall. It is a physical representation of the very early revolving stills. That contraption that first tricked our mind into seeing movement over a century ago. But, once dissected apart, each panel is both individual and part of the overall whole. It is a metaphor that encapsulates the characters perfectly, self aware without being self indulgent.

Jessica Hecht and Ben Edelman (credit Joan Marcus)

Letters From Max ends with his death, which is not a spoiler, it is obvious early on. But his words live on in his work and in the book which Sarah Ruhl created from their exchange. Each exchange is charged with love and heartbreak. And Letters From Max brings that love and heartbreak to the audience.

I have never been much of a poet fan. That changed a bit with the gorgeous poems of Amanda Gordon, touching, poignant, and hopeful all at the same time. Letters From Max makes we want to dig a bit deeper.

Director Kate Whoriskey is in love with words as well. She sets the tempo of the play and underlines it with hints of music and light. It is a deeply moving piece.

Letters From Max

Playwright: Sarah Ruhl | Director: Kate Whoriskey | Cast: Jessica Hecht, Zane Paris, Ben Edelman

website

Piano Lesson Coming to the Signature Theater

August Wilson's The Piano Lesson is coming to the Signature Theater starting October 30th.  Tickets are available now.
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THE PIANO LESSONby August Wilson
directed by Ruben Santiago-HudsonPerformances begin October 30The Irene Diamond Stage
Featuring Eric Lenox Abrams, Chuck Cooper, Brandon J. Dirden, Jason Dirden, Alexis Holt, Mandi Masden, Roslyn Ruff and James A. Williams

Signature returns to the rich body of work of its 2006-07 Playwright-in-Residence August Wilson with a new production of his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Piano Lesson. In Pittsburgh’s Hill District in 1936, the Charles family battle their surroundings and each other over their shared legacy -- an antique piano.

The fourth play of August Wilson’s epic Century Cycle, The Piano Lesson is a stunning and moving drama of family, history, and survival.

Heartless at The Signature: Surrealist Black Comedy that Works

Sam Shepard’s new play, Heartless, at the Pershing Square Signature Theater Center is definitely not going to be everyone’s taste.  However, if you enjoy slightly surrealist black comedy, you could hardly do better.  There isn’t much of a plot, besides the exploration of family ties in a dysfunctional family.

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Lois Smith as Mable Murphy in Heartless

Lois Smith plays Mable Murphy, the wheel chair bound matriarch of a Hollywood Hills family - with a view of the Valley, not the good side.  Mable enjoys suffering from old age, which is treated with pain pills and antidepressants.  With a full time nurse, and a daughter that dotes on her, Mable rules the roost.  Ms. Smith commands the stage with a presence just as Mable commands the house.

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The one daughter who rebels is Sally, played by Julianne Nicholson.  When we first set eyes on her, we see a massive scar that runs the length of her torso.  She was recipient of a heart transplant when a child and her life has been influenced by it ever since.  She is always reminded of her physical fragility, but the experience also gives her emotional freedom to act on impulse, even callously, towards her family.

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Sally has brought home a much older man who is going through what seems to be a mid-life crisis.  Gary Cole plays Roscoe, a sixty-something professor of Latin Literature, in the middle of a divorce.  Roscoe is the catalyst, who upsets the family dynamic by his presence.  But Roscoe doesn’t have any control over the situation.  Mr. Cole eloquently slides from smug to confused to resigned over the course of the play.

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Gary Cole and Julianne Nicholson in Heartless

The “good daughter” is Lucy, played by Jenny Bacon.  This role is written a bit too broad; her anger and sarcasm too superficial. Ms. Bacon does good work trying to ground Lucy, but the character is too inconsistent to be totally believable.  The physical look of Lucy is too obvious and frumpy, and it is surprising since the rest of the design (costume, lighting and scenic) is excellent.

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The final character is the nurse Elizabeth, played by Betty Gilpin.  It is Ms. Gilpin that brings the surreal to the reality, and then in the second half amps it up.  Ms. Gilpin and Lois Smith do a great job of walking the tightrope of tragedy and black comedy, firmly keeping the story from crashing out of control.

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The Heartless' story locale and conversational asides constantly remind the audience of film and the movie industry.  Each of the female characters behaves as if they are starring in their private movie genre.  Gary Cole as Roscoe is alone in normality, and the question that presents itself; is he any better off?

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Directed by Daniel Aukin, Heartless takes a while to settle into a rhythm – which is a function of the story.  If you can accept the artificial and unrealistic situations, Heartless is a crazy fun ride.  But be warned, many people don't enjoy that experience.

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Heartless

Playwright: Sam Shepard

Director: Daniel Aukin

Cast: Jenny Bacon, Gary Cole, Betty Gilpin, Julianne Nicholson, Lois Smith

Website

Title and Deed: Its Charms Escaped Me

Title and Deed at the Signature Theater is a show which I did not like, although I admire the actor who did a fine job with the material, Connor Lovett.  It could easily be that I just didn’t understand the show, which was very much in the Samuel Beckett tradition.

Title and Deed is a simple one-man show, a monologue delivered to the audience from a visitor from another country.  That non-descript country is definitely not Ireland – despite the Irish accent.  Making the country unidentifiable seems to be a decision designed to remove every possibility of identifying with this person.  Care is taken to make this character abstractly and totally foreign to the audience.  His voice is quiet, his cadence is labored, and the laughs he engenders early in the show are met with an uncomfortable flash that he might have said the wrong thing.

Conner Lovett plays a visitor in Title and Deed

Mr. Lovett’s mannerisms are designed to reinforce a message that every man is traveling far from home – each is alone, even when surrounded by people.  It worked a bit too well for much of the audience, who felt so removed from Mr. Lovett that many were not invested in the outcome.

The character is definitely a fish out of water.  He finds the simplest interactions beyond his grasp, and struggles trying to connect with a woman he admires.   Some might be entranced with the lilt, and the character’s rambling story.  Faced with a passive character that was very difficult to relate to, most of the audience disengaged from the story long before the end of the show.

Charles Isherwood of the New York Times, a man I admire greatly, “got” the show and has a wonderful glowing review.  I am linking it here because I think I missed the point of the show - and he loved it. (NY Times Review)

The amazing acoustics in the smallest of the Frank Gehery designed theaters worked both for and against Mr. Lovett.  His voice reached every viewer, even in his quiet and gentle asides.  However, the audience members’ every twitch, rustle of program and sigh was also heard.  And despite the desire of the audience to enjoy the show, you could hear and feel the audience slip away.

I think the show was acted and directed appropriate to the material; it just wasn’t a show I enjoyed.

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Tile and Deed at The Signature Theater

Playwright: Will Eno

Director: Judy Hegarty Lovett

Cast: Conner Lovett

Website

Upcoming: Medieval Play @ Signature Theater

The Signature Theater has amazing shows for $25.
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Link for Tickets
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Upcoming: Title and Deed @ Signature

The new shows at the Signature Theater have been announced.  It is an amazing space.
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Select here for tickets.

The Lady From Dubuque: An Unnecessary Revival

The Lady From Dubuque @ Pershing Square Signature Center

Edward Albee’s early work, The Lady From Dubuque, is getting a revival from the new Signature Center Theater.  It is a rarely seen work, which even the author admits is difficult.  “Difficult” might be putting it too kindly.  The Lady From Dubuque doesn’t work on multiple levels.

Jane Alexander as The Lady From Dubuque

The story opens with 3 couples playing a 20-questions like game called “Who Am I?”  The game gives ample opportunity to flesh out these characters; but instead we are given a set of unpleasant stereotypes.  A milquetoast couple, a thrice divorced man and his new young girlfriend, and Sam and Jo, the hosts.  Jo is terminally ill, which has turned her nasty disposition into hurtful shrewishness.  Beyond putting in a polite, perfunctory appearance, there is no reason any neighbor would stray within spitting distance of Jo.  Her nasty asides to the audience are sometimes humorous.  But the biting comments to her guests are purposeless attempts to pull everyone down to her level.  It is unpleasant to watch.

As to her illness, Jo appears to be dying of terrible menstrual cramps.  It is a quibble to argue for reality in a surrealist show, but Jo’s pain is both so loud and so intermittent, as to be unbelievable.  She is remarkably agile in the first half, popping out to the front yard to comfort Lucinda - before walking back in the house, only to scream and hold her lower stomach.  Then she pulls out of the pain long enough to berate her husband.  This on-again off-again wouldn’t be a problem, but the next morning (in Act 2), Jo is so delirious as to not recognize anyone and has suddenly arrived on death’s doorstep. 

The second half is where the real trouble starts.  At the end of the first act, strangers Elizabeth and Oscar show up in the house, uninvited and mysterious.  In the second half they act as a catalyst to set up existential questions – as the characters from last night drop by for no particular reason.  But because no character acts as they would in reality, the questions are exercises in passing time.

Oscar is an African-American, and his dialog is where the play often shows it’s age.  Peter Francis James does a good job making the dialog acceptable, but it still veers occasionaly into uncomfortable for no reason.  C.J. Wilson’s character, Fred, - as the strong alpha male, has also aged poorly.  What was once “manly” is now bullying and misogynistic. 

Jane Alexander does a fine job as the ethereal Elizabeth, but the problems with motivation and actions doom not just her character, but the entire proceedings.   Elizabeth, The Lady From Dubuque, is a cypher and it is hard to create a connection to this type of character.

All in all, it is hard to recommend this show to anyone but a devoted Edward Albee fan.

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The Lady From Dubuque at The Pershing Square Theater, at the Signature Center

Playwright: Edward Albee

Director: David Esbjornson

Cast: Jane Alexander, Catherine Curtin, Michael Hayden, Peter Francis James, Tricia Paoluccio, Thomas Jay Ryna, Laila Robins, C.J. Wilson

Through April 1

Website