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Review of Bridge Over Land

A Triptych written and directed by Gilbert Girion

By Stefan Matthew

Through May 10

Click here for tickets

People come to art events with their own idiosyncratic references, associations, semblances in order to make meaning of the soon to be unraveled spectacle. People come to death events and such events’ transference to realized and unrealized acts of intimacy with the same laundry list (peep actor Josh Liveright as Math Professor Michael in the third installment “Number Land” and his inability to move his feet “glued” to a spot on his ex-student’s lawn). I came with my own list anticipating a work on mourning and melancholia; specifically, the depiction of hell in Hieronymus Bosch’s Millennium Triptych painted in the 1500’s and Amiri Baraka’s explanation of the modal insistence and pointillism of Miles Davis’s 1959 recording Kind of Blue.

Brecht once said, “I’m writing this down because I like precision” so let me go into a bit more detail.

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Review of Every Girl Gets Her Man

Written By Emma Sheanshang

Directed By Michael Melamedoff

By Stefan Matthew

Despite Jouissance Theater’s program-notes proviso that “there is no ‘outside’ to the text,” during my viewing last Sunday of this highly entertaining, visually enthralling glimpse into the dating lives of five beautiful New York women, my mind ventured outside. To Germany of all places. One of the aphoristic, didactic Geschicten (stories) in German Marxist playwright Bertolt Brecht’s collection—Stories of Mr. Keuner fits right at home with this charming dramatic exposition on the absurdity of dating in New York City. It’s about ideal types, ideal objects of desire, painterly objects of desire. I couldn’t help but think of this fragment while watching the cast execute perfect dialogue to discuss the travails of Margot and her mercurial, never on stage, painter boyfriend Tristan. (Brief aside and admission—Sarah Wilson, who plays Margot in the production beats every crush I have ever entertained including Lisa Bonet, Cristina Ricci, Alyssa Milano, and Punky Brewster). Brecht:

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Mary Jane Wells in ‘Transit’
click for full-size image

‘Transit’
The Stage Left Studio, part of the Midtown International Theater Festival
review by Naneh Israelyan

‘Transit’, written and performed by Mary Jane Wells, most definitely moves at the speed of a train in motion—except that the train stops are entirely unconnected. The journey was almost as if I was transferring from one train to another so often that keeping track of the storyline (more…)

‘Spitting in the Face of the Devil’
John Montgomery Theatre Company at The Kraine
review by Naneh Israelyan

click for full-size image

In a compelling performance, Bob Brader, or Little Bobby as referred to by his family, animates for the audience the story of his childhood through the upbringing of his abusive father. Bob Brader enters the stage to announce the death of his father and thereafter slips into a simple wooden chair centered in the middle of a simple wooden desk—and at this desk Brader draws the audience into his childhood through the magic of storytelling.
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The Scarlett O’Hara Complex
Review by Caroline M. Sun

The Scarlett O’Hara Complex is a southern-fried comedy about a group of close-knit, middle-aged women who suspect “murder” when one of them catches her husband in a compromising position. A cross between Nancy Drew and The Golden Girls, these chatty, catty amateur sleuths set about trying to discover and thwart the plot of their wounded friend. In the process, the looming shadow of gentility cast over southern women by the movie Gone with the Wind is juxtaposed against the real-life violence of southern belles like Blanche Taylor Moore and Lorena Bobbitt.
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Reviews of two shows that look interesting from nytheatre.com:
El Conquistador!, which in addition to having an exclamation point on it appears to be a ‘telenovela’-style show, “involving suspense, seduction, murder and revenge.” (Mmmm… revenge…).
Also of note: OFF Stage: the West Village Fragments, which we’ve also mentioned.

‘The Beginning of the And’
Audax Theatre at the 78th Street Theatre Lab
Production closed; info here.
review by Naneh Israelyan

A play significantly infused with the nature of common interactions and human behavior, The Beginning of the And, written by Daniel Roberts, presents us with three unrelated narratives (all of which include a humorous filmed prologue) that involve colorful characters with quirky personalities. The first of the three, entitled “Apps,” begins with a newlywed on his honeymoon waiting for his fiancé to arrive in order to have dinner and have a long awaited “conversation” about marriage. But as Bob Meyers waits in the hotel bar, he meets two regulars (as well as an overly fabricated bartender): a charming man, strangely obsessed with the art of appetizers and the right drinks to go with them, and Mr. Burns, more secretly known as Ringo Starr. “Burns” remains blindfolded for majority of his performance, occasionally passing incoherent comments; however, it is he that ultimately makes Bob realize that, although a series of alcoholic drinks may force a man to realize that marriage is nothing more than a job without substance, he is perfectly content with his overly obnoxious and spiteful wife.
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Here are some pics from ‘Valentyne and Orson’ which we wrote about yesterday. Today, the New York Times review came out. Coincidence? We think not.

Lil’ teeny pics below, larger sized shots on this page. Get ticket info here.

‘The Pool With Five Porches’
FringeNYC
Ticket and venue info
review by Naneh Israelyan

An ambitious play on the idea of miracles, The Pool With Five Porches is as delicate with significance as it is rough with its aggressive characters and fuming dialogue. Regardless, playwright Peter Zablotsky succeeds in maintaining a fantastic balance between the play’s hotheaded, stern personalities and their more or less softer demeanor learning to compromise in order to bring each other to their final destination: the miracle pool.
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From offoffonline:
The Featured Review, Three Sisters, assesses a contemporary playwright’s updated version of a classic Chekhov play. No longer in turn-of-the-century Russia, Olga, Masha, and Irina are now exiled to the outer boroughs of Manhattan and longing for their beloved Upper West Side duplex.

Okay, that’s just a little too contemporary for our taste. Do they also have pet cats? And was the duplex rent controlled? Did the landlord lock them out when they left the house unattended for the first time in 25 years? Do they browse open houses while waiting for their brunch reservations? Ah, Chekhov, we hardly knew ye.

offoffonline - review - Three Sisters - Rising Phoenix Rep
Three Sisters