(My) ICON Magazine Theater Reviews November 2016
‘Impressive’ describes Interact
Theatre’s production of George Brant’s Grounded,
a one woman show directed by Kathryn Macmillan starring Kittson O’Neill as The
Pilot assigned to operate a fighter drone in the Middle East
from an office in the Las Vegas
desert. O’Neill is brilliant as she takes us through The Pilot’s various mental
states, from delirious boredom when nothing happens to Zero Hour mania when she
presses the deploy button obliterating her human targets. O’Neill is even better
conveying The Pilot’s slow psychological deconstruction while spending weeks tracking
a major terrorist leader. Her obsession with the target affects her marriage
and invites a nervous breakdown: she is ultimately unable to kill the terrorist
because his daughter, a mirror image of her own child, awakens her mother’s
instincts. An unsentimental male colleague is then forced to complete the
execution. Feminists may hate this play
because it shows the vulnerability of a mother when it comes to emotion and the
language of the heart.
The little theatres in The Drake on Hicks
Street are attracting a fair amount of attention. The
petite Louis Bluver Theatre hosted Azuka Theatre’s presentation of How We Got on by Idris Goodwin, an 80s
ode to teenage angst and rap. The Proscenium Theatre will present another world
premier. Douglas Williams’ Shitheads
(February 22-March 12), about a once popular Manhattan
bike shop that is losing its customers to a competing business across the
street. In yet another world premier, Azuka will present Philadelphia
playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger’s The Arsonists (May 3-21), a Florida
swamp based story about a father and daughter inspired by the Greek tragedy, Electra. Azuka Theatre is the first theater company in Philadelphia
(and the nation) to offer Pat What You Decide (PWYD) for the entire 2016-17
season.
When Bruce
Graham’s RIZZO premiered at Theater
Exile last fall, reviews were good but mixed. PTC ’s
production of the play with the same cast (Scott Greer as Rizzo) was much
improved, thanks to PTC dramaturge Carrie
Chapter. The new production incorporated many references to the current presidential
race. The PTC
Rizzo was an even more divisive and controversial
figure than his Theatre Exile counterpart. At the Rizzo press preview,
Executive Producing Director Sara Garonzik, who will leave PTC
after the 2917 season, introduced former Governor Ed Rendell, who reminded the
audience that Rizzo was a product of his times and, like everyone, a
combination of both good and bad traits.
Philadelphia
will never see another Frank Rizzo. Intensely charismatic on a personal level, the
former mayor was half in love with tyranny, police raids, and police wagons
roaming the streets picking up anyone who looked suspicious or out of the
ordinary.
Jen Childs, Co-Founder and
Artistic Director of 1812 Productions
looks great in a fat suit, especially when she’s playing Chris Christie. Childs
has also invented her own character, Patsy, a South Philly stoop lady who
dispenses bits of wisdom in Philadeliaeese. Patsy illuminated 1812’s 2016
version of its oft repeated show, This is
the Week That Is, when she compared Hillary Clinton to “the Iggles” and
Donald Trump to “scrapple.” The bi-partisan spoof no doubt “upset” political
ideologues who want satire to reflect a particular bias. The non-stop laugh-a-thon
starred Scott Greer and Alex Bechtel as Trump, and had skits on Vladimir Putin,
climate change and Obamacare,
Sharr White’s plays include Stupid Kid, Sunlight and The Snow Geese.
The award winning playwright’s The Other
Place premiered at The Walnut’s Independence Studio on 3. The unsettling
drama about a successful neurologist, Juliana, who battles a failing marriage
and a crisis involving her daughter, holds yet another nightmare: the fact that
she may have the same kind of brain tumor that killed her mother. Independence
Studio 3 lightens up somewhat with the Irish Repertory Theatre of New York’s
adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales
(Nov. 15-Dec. 23). The New York Times
writes: “Thomas’s work is a
cavalcade of imagery and sensation — the snowy sights, smells and sounds that
marked the Christmases of his boyhood. “
Figgy pudding for all!
