'Loot:'' Joe Orton's Anarchic Comedy In Madcap Revival By Red Bull Theater

Inspector Truscott of Scotland Yard is keeper of the keys in the land of Topsy-Turvydom in Red Bull Theater’s madcap revival of Joe Orton’s Loot.

Loot was one of three full-length plays (the others were Entertaining Mr. Sloane, and What The Butler Saw) that Orton penned between 1964 and the time of his brutal death three years later at the hands of his long-time lover Kenneth Halliwell. 

With his death, Orton’s quick-fire output solidified his legacy and his reputation as an iconoclastic writer who used dark humor to skewer the Church and persons in positions of authority. 

Although Orton provided Loot with a wafer thin plot and occasional swerves in tone, the play is anarchically comical, like the best of the Marx Brothers movies (e.g. Duck Soup). 

The “Groucho” of the play is Inspector Truscott, performed here to the very edge of manic madness by Rocco Sisto. Truscott has invaded the home of the McLeavy family just as they are about to hold funeral services for the recently deceased Mrs. McLeavy. He is ostensibly investigating the theft of a large sum of money (of which the McLeavys’ son Hal and Hal’s undertaker buddy Dennis are, indeed, guilty).

In order to conceal their crime, the miscreants have pulled the corpse out of the coffin and replaced it with the “loot.” Thereon hangs the plot.  But all of this is merely an excuse for Orton’s quite funny dialog, in which it is possible to find echoes of Oscar Wilde, W. S. Gilbert, Lewis Carroll, and the aforementioned Marx Brothers. 

Truscott, who despite having the best lines, represents what Orton saw as the stupidity, the oafishness, and the corruption of the police. There is, for example, a scene in which he smacks around one of the suspects—a bit of realism that does shock us out of the comic absurdity of most of the rest of the proceedings (as does a reference to Pakastani child prostitutes). With Orton, what you see is what you get.

Truly, though, Truscott is an inspired invention. All through Act I, he justifies his takeover of the McLeavy household by insisting he is a representative of the “Water Board,” there to inspect the plumbing. (Although Orton clearly was not referring to “waterboarding,” that does add an appropriately contemporary image he would undoubtedly appreciate as another opportunity to wag a finger at authority figures).

When Truscott is finally forced to confess his subterfuge, he brushes it off this way:  “Any deception I practiced was never intended to deceive you,” a line that Oscar Wilde would have been delighted to lay claim to.  

Another gem is Truscott’s boastful story of how he broke the case of “the limbless girl killer.”

            “Who would kill a limbless girl?” he is asked, as

            a picture out of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus 

            pops into mind. 

            “She was the killer!” he explains, though he 

            refuses to elucidate lest it trigger a run of 

            copycat crimes.   

Try wrapping your head around that image. 

Loot is full of these fantasmagorical twists of language that are constantly flying around the set—along with Mrs. McLeavy’s mummified body (Another Truscott-ism: “The theft of a pharaoh is something which had not crossed my mind”). 

Even though Orton undoubtedly planned the set pieces carefully so as to allow for the word play, most of these bon mots feel anything but forced; rather they seem a logical reflection of the crazed minds of Inspector Truscott and the other characters. These include Hal (Nick Westrate); Dennis (Ryan Garbayo); another member of the police force, Meadows (Eric Martin Brown); Mr. McLeavy (who, as played by Jarlath Conroy, equals Mr. Sisto as master of the requisite tone and timing of Orton’s twisted variation on farce); and Fay (Rebecca Brooksher), the homicidal nurse and devout Catholic who—having worked her way through seven husbands, all deceased—is eyeing the others in search of Number Eight. 

Red Bull Theater, helmed by its founding artistic director Jesse Berger, built its reputation over the past decade by offering rarely produced Jacobean dramas and other plays of “heightened language,” along with a well-regarded program of readings. It is good to see the company expanding into producing contemporary works like Loot. 

Coming up in the spring will be a revival of Charles Ludlam’s The Mystery of Irma Vep, another outlandish work that is right up Red Bull’s alley.  Should be fun!  Meanwhile, there’s Loot, which is set to run to February 9 at the Lucille Lortel Theater. 

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'Machinal': Stunning Revival by Roundabout Theatre Company

Resurrecting old theatrical treasures is a real art. Far too many efforts at reviving early twentieth century works turn out to be lost causes—with presentations of plays that are painfully dated and creaky despite their respected place in drama history. Without naming names, let’s just say there have been an unfortunate number of these on view in the past few years.    

So it’s decidedly hats-off time in salute to the Roundabout Theatre Company and its artistic director, Todd Haimes, who have thus far this season given us two absolutely first-rate revivals at the American Airlines Theatre.

We had thought we had struck a lucky vein of gold this past October with Terence Rattigan’s The Winslow Boy, featuring a marvelous cast headed up by Roger Rees under the razor sharp direction of Lindsay Posner.

But as good as that was, it is the current production of Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 masterpiece, Machinal, that raises the ante and exchanges gold for diamonds.

Machinal, which hitherto had not been seen on Broadway since its initial run 85 years ago, is a powerhouse work that takes us inside of the mind of a sadly disturbed young woman accused of committing a cold-blooded murder. 

Sophie Treadwell, a successful playwright and journalist, based the play on an actual incident. But instead of merely recounting the facts, she turned the story into a stunning expressionistic drama about her protagonist, Helen, brilliantly portrayed in this production by British actress Rebecca Hall.

It is quite possible to view Machinal as a cautionary tale about a woman trapped within the very limited options allowed by social norms. Like Nora in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Helen has tried to fit into the tightly bound life she feels is her only option—in this case taking care of her mother, holding down a job as a clerk/typist, marrying the boss, and having a child.  But the more she tries to conform, the more anxious and panicky she feels, so that by the time we get to know her, she is the living embodiment of Edvard Munch’s famous painting, The Scream.

But Ms. Treadwell is not Ibsen, nor does she seek to be. She is more interested in examining Helen’s psyche than in laying blame on her significant others or Society. Yes, her mother (Suzanne Bertish) is annoying and her husband (Michael Cumpsty) is oblivious, but neither of them is particularly monstrous. Yet Helen is disgusted beyond endurance by both of them, and, as well, she feels no bond whatsoever with her daughter. 

To contemporary eyes, Helen suffers from a range of psychiatric disorders for which there now exist treatments and therapies: clinical depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, bipolar disorder, attachment disorder.  Unfortunately, she is forced to pull herself through day after day without any support, and the play is at least as much an indictment of the society’s lack of attention to mental illness as it is about the stifling of women. 

For Helen, the only time she finds even a glimmer of relief is when she meets a man (Morgan Spector) in a pick-up bar and has her first and only romantic and sexual fling.  She endows in him her long repressed dreams of her imagined rescuer, though their relationship is short-lived and he moves on. With all hope gone, the act of violence that leads Helen to her fate is pretty much inevitable.  And even as we sympathize with her, we do so with the understanding that her plight has extended to envelop others, including her mother, husband, and child. 

The entire cast of Machinal is excellent, with several of the actors taking on multiple and distinct roles. And Lyndsey Turner’s direction, Es Devlin’s set design, and Jane Cox’s lighting design are truly inspired. Together, they give Helen’s psyche a physical and nightmarish presence. The opening scene hits us smack on by perfectly encapsulating Helen’s emotional state without a word being spoken—the personification of New York anxiety.   

The could turn out to be a banner year for Roundabout, what with the upcoming productions of Cabaret, Violet, and The Real Thing, and the pair of winners at the American Airlines Theater, not to mention the splendid array of works at the Laura Pels, where a revival of David Margulies’ Pulitzer Prize winner Dinner With Friends is about to open.

Kudos to Machinal.  And kudos to Roundabout and to all involved!

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Ring Out The Old: Prof Miller's Theatrical 'Top Ten' List for 2013

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It’s December 31, 2013—New Year’s Eve—and time to look back on a year of theater-going (my fifty-fourth!) and identify those shows and performances that made me sit up and take notice.

With 92 shows under my belt—22 more than I saw in 2012—I was much happier with the overall picture, both on Broadway and off, than I was as I sat squirming and peeking at my watch through so many of the previous year’s lackluster offerings.

As I reviewed the entries in my pocket calendar, what I uncovered is an array of engaging productions, strong ensemble and individual performances, and original writing—all of which made 2013 a fine year for this veteran member of the audience. 

The list below, offered in no particular order, represents my most idiosyncratic selection of the very best. I should mention here that I have not considered any of the big hit shows that already garnered accolades during 2013's award season; they already had their turn in the spotlight. With that in mind, I bring you THE LIST:

Not surprisingly, some of the most creative work is being done by small Off Off Broadway theater groups—short on cash and long on talent, where every production is born of ingenuity and love. 

Let’s start with a very recent example that made it onto my “Best Of” list—Blessed Unrest’s retelling of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, adapted by the company’s managing director Matt Opatrny and directed with a cinematic eye by Jessica Burr. This version of the timeless tale of redemption provided Ebenezer Scrooge with a psychologically sound backstory that was able to speak to a modern audience while thoroughly honoring the original.  God bless us, everyone, for a job well done!

Another play that saw a first-rate production was one of Tennessee Williams’s lesser known dramas, The Mutilated.  It boasted spot-on performances by two perfectly cast iconic bohemians, Mink Stole and Penny Arcade, accompanied by toe-tapping New Orleans-style music by Jesse Selengut and lovingly directed by Cosmin Chivu.  This was an all-around winner that made me wish the entire company would dig up another underserved Williams play to work its magic on.  

When attempting absurdist theater, it is very difficult to capture just the right tone (usually tragicomedy). Too often it veers in the direction of silliness rather than surrealism. But when a production gets it right, the impact can be tremendous—like being inside of an Escher print. Two of the shows on my Top Ten list achieved just the right balance:  rogerandtom and More. The former, penned by Julien Schwab, was a smart, funny, and surprisingly touching dreamlike play that mixed to great effect elements of The Twilight Zone with The Matrix. The latter, by Maria Tryti Vennerød and presented as part of a double bill under the title Norway Plays:  Drama Beyond Ibsen, offered up a Kafkaesque tale of murder and media hype. Ioan Ardelean and Alexandra Cohen Spiegler hit just the right notes as a pair of off-the-wall celebrity TV news personalities.    

2013 was a banner year for Shakespeare, with several productions of the bard’s works on display on and off Broadway.  The one that soared the highest was Twelfth Night, with a stellar cast strong enough to match the always-over-the-top acting style of Mark Rylance. It was the ensemble work, along with Tim Carroll’s sharp-eyed directing, the splendid period musicians, the set and costume design, and the choreography that made this a clear winner. Also making the Top Ten list is Julie Taymor’s family-friendly production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which boasted Kathryn Hunter’s exceptionally fine performance as Puck, along with lots of Taymor’s reliable theater magic.

Two additional revivals also made my Top Ten list. One was The Laramie Project (presented in rep with its follow-up The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later), featuring a cast made up of many of the original members of the Tectonic Theater Project’s docudrama.  The Laramie Project still resonates with audiences as it relates the events surrounding the murder of a young gay man in Laramie, Wyoming back in 1998.  The second outstanding revival was the eye-opening production of Tennessee Williams’s The Two Character Play, with breathtaking performances by Amanda Plummer and Brad Dourif.

Finally, rounding out the list are two musicals:  the Gilbert and Sullivan-like A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, and the imaginative take on Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. Both of these offered up outstanding creativity in the writing, the directing, and the acting. 

And so my list of favorites. 

As we bid farewell to 2013, Happy New Year to all, and to all a good year of theater!

Prosit!

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'Norway Plays': A Pair of Quirky Scandinavian Delights At Theater For The New City

Ioan Ardelean and Alexandra Cohen Spiegler
Photo By Yann Bean

There’s nothing wrong with Norway Plays:  Drama Beyond Ibsen  that could not be cured with a revised title, something like Those Wild and Crazy Norwegians, perhaps.

So, let this serve as notice that if you are seeking an intellectual evening exploring the darkness of the soul or absorbing diatribes about individual rights, you are heading out to the wrong venue. 

Instead, what you will see is a highly entertaining pair of one-acts by contemporary Norwegian playwrights. The first, The Returning, is a funny and quirky modern-day fairy tale by Fredrik Brattbert. The second, More, is a surrealistic and quirky play by Maria Tryti Vennerød. Both boast outstanding performances by their respective casts as well as excellent directing (Henning Hegland helms the first; Joan Kane does the honors on the second). 

Even before The Returning begins, you might very well be lulled into believing you truly are in Ibsen territory, or possibly that of Strindberg or Chekhov.  The silence is disturbed only by the ticking and occasional chiming of a mantel clock—a sad and lonely sound. As the play opens, you see a woman sitting on the sofa, knitting, while a man dressed in a bathrobe stands apart from her, seemingly staring into space.  You get a sense of a pair of lost souls who are no longer able to connect with one another.  She invites him to sit next to her; he demurs, muttering something about a lost dog.  This is an unhappy couple, you think.

And then we learn they have lost their only child, a teenage boy who simply disappeared one day while on a skiing trip. 

OK.  Did I mention that The Returning is funny and quirky?  Since the plot hangs on a string of events related to the missing son, I will try to avoid being a spoiler here.  Let me just say this: if Stephen King had written Pet Sematery with a sense of its comic possibilities, he might have come up with something like The Returning.

The cast of three, Ingrid Kullberg-Bendz, Andrew Langton, and Kristoffer Tonning, are delightful—with Mr. Tonning a real charmer as the adorable but irritating teenager, Gustav.  It’s a lot of fun to watch the shift in the actors’ tone and style as the play moves from dark to light to off-the-wall wacky. 

Oh, and keep an eye on the knitting, which adds a touch of its own sublime weirdness to the unfolding events. 

The second play in the twosome, More, eschews Ibsen for Kafka, and takes the notion of “media circus” to new and surrealistic heights.  It is so very difficult to successfully pull off absurdist theater without tumbling inappropriately into burlesque or slapstick comedy.  So truly Ms. Vennerød deserves high praise for this most excellent juggling act, in which the murder of a teenage girl, Benedickte (Skyler Volpe), by her best friend Ida (Christina Toth) serves as fodder for two television reporters/media personalities (gloriously portrayed by Alexandra Cohen Spiegler and Ioan Ardelean).  The pair put pressure on the police to help them sell the killing as “a lesbian crime of passion” and then prod their audience:  “Stupid?  Evil?  Or Mean?  Call in and vote!” 

The truth, of course, is far more complicated—but, hey, this is the world of sound bites, instant causes célèbres, and reality TV, so who cares about actual reality?

As was true of The Returning, the cast of More is first-rate, and includes—in addition to the ones I have already mentioned--Erik Schjerven and Chevy Kaeo Martinez as a pair of detectives caught up in the media blitz.  Special notice must be given to Shannon Stowe’s well-choreographed movement that flows through the production and melds acting with performance art. 

Thanks, Norway, for sharing these works by two of your rising stars.  Thanks, too, to Ego Actus and Scandinavian American Theater Company for presenting Norway Plays:  Drama Beyond Ibsen, which you can catch until December 1 at Theater For The New City.   

Now, about that title…

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'The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters' Intrigues Like Underground Comix

You won’t find St. Martyrbride listed in any volume on the lives of Catholic saints, yet she figures prominently in The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters, the new and unusual play by Marlane Meyer now on view at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwrights Horizons.

St. Martyrbride springs from the mind of Aubrey Lincoln, the misfit heroine of the play—the only succor she has been able to cling to in a world that is, at best, indifferent to her.  Aubrey, played by Laura Heisler with just the right mix of dreaminess and a stubborn refusal to give in to the negativity of her surroundings, pins her faith on the belief that God, through her beloved saint, will unite her with her “soul mate,” the ne’er-do-well Calvin Little. 

Our hero, Calvin (well played by Rob Campbell), is the kind of man that a rebellious daughter would latch onto to spite her scornful mother, not unlike the one Aubrey has had to live with. Calvin is crude and lascivious, cannot hold down a job, consorts with low-life, and, on at least one occasion, has committed murder.

Ever the optimist, Aubrey, who has at least found academic success in life (she is a physician and runs a free clinic in the backwoods town of her upbringing), is determined to win Calvin’s heart and change his wicked ways. 

The story of these two lies at the heart of the play.  Over time, both change and grow, so that by the end of Act II it’s not out of place to be thinking in terms of catharsis and redemption. But be warned. This represents a huge shift in tone from most the play, which is performed in a style that would be right at home in one of those underground comix written by the likes of R. Crumb. 

The other characters in the play are an oddball assortment of…well…oddballs.  Mothers come off as particularly nasty pieces of business, but there is also the threatening presence of Calvin’s stepbrother Jack, a Crumb-like big-breasted prostitute, varied and strange townspeople, and occasional appearances by Jesus and St. Martyrbride herself. There are also many references to sexually transmitted diseases and drug and alcohol abuse, and members of the cast occasionally stop the action to speak directly to the audience about political corruption and corporate greed. 

So, while it is clear that The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters is not going to appeal to everyone, I have to say it is certainly compelling.  In addition to the strong performances by the two leads, the rest of the cast, under the direction of Lisa Peterson, does fine work as well. They are Candy Buckley, Danny Wolohan, Jacqueline Wright, and Haynes Thigpen—all of whom are required to play three or more characters and manage to make each of them unique. 

While the play could use some further trimming and shaping, one thought that occurred to me is that—in addition to its connection to the world of Mr. Crumb and his ilk—it has the feel of one of those B movies that later became successful musicals, like The Toxic Avenger or Little Shop of Horrors (whose heroine was named Audrey; could this be an intentional nod?)  I wonder if some composer might want to take this on.  I’d want to go back and see it again if that were to happen.

If The Patron Saint of Sea Monsters sounds intriguing, you might want to take advantage of an offer for discount tickets, though you’ll have to hurry because the discount ends on November 5.  Here’s the scoop:

DISCOUNT TICKETS TO THE PATRON SAINT OF SEA MONSTERS available for performances to Dec 1. Order by Nov. 5 and use the code SAINTBLOG to receive 
$40 tickets (reg. $60).
To order online:  Go to  https://www.ticketcentral.com/playwrightshorizons/online/default.asp?
By phone: 212-279-4200
In Person: Ticket Central Box Office, 416 W. 42nd Street 

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