Antlia Pneumatica

Anne Washburn is at it again.  I did not see her last play, Mr. Burns, which has been described as leaving you "dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas".  Antlia Pneumatica seems to be a repeat of that theme as it relates to memory, dreams, and the universe.   Ms. Washburn seems to be a non-linear writer.  Concept is king.  Ethereal is the theme.  Wonder and mystery loom large.

Nina (Annie Parisse) has a family house in the middle of nowhere Texas.  Friends from eons ago (i.e. college 25+ years ago) gather to bury one of their crew.  She has a sister, Liz (April Matthis) although color blind casting makes that fact less than obvious unless you are paying attention. Amusingly quirky friends - cute, cuddly, and gay Len (Nat Dewolf) and neurotic contrarian Ula (Maria Striar) seem to be devoted to her although it is unclear when the last time they actually saw each other.  Nina's drop dead gorgeous ex-boyfriend Adrian (drop-dead gorgeous Rob Campbell) may or may not have visited the compound of friends after a 14 year estrangement.

Nothing is truly explained.  We watch in linear time but the story is non-linear.  Time is flexible. The mind plays tricks on these friends as dreams and memories abound as they gather to bury their friend Sean.  Pies are made but not baked, Breakfast is discussed but not eaten, Children are heard, but unseen (Recorded voices of Casey and Wally are played offstage).  The ethereal tale comes to a climax of confusion and wonder when Bama (Crystal Finn) shows up (one assumes her name is an homage to her accent) and proclaims her own tale about Adrian who couldn't possibly have been there if it were true. This goes along with a separate mystery of a friend of Adrian who may or may not be alive and a successful real estate guy in Nevada.

At one point, Nina and Adrian have an extended hushed and dream-like conversation in the darkness of the family's Pecan orchard, the stage lit only by a multitude of tiny stars in the Texas sky.  (Kudos Tyler Micoleau - lighting, Rachel Hauck, Sets) and it is only then you begin to realize that Ms. Washburn's play isn't what it seemed all along.  It's mind-bendingly better - in a heavenly and dizzying sort of way.  Don't wait for the 3 pecans to drop to head over to Playwrights Horizons.

Fondly, Collette Richland

Well this one was a doozy.  I could spend a few dozen hours down the rabbit hole trying to analyze this wacka-doodle "show" now running at the New York Theatre Workshop . But instead I think I will just list all the words that come to mind when reflecting on my mystifying experience in the theatre.  In full disclosure I only felt that staying for one act was bearable, but I do hear that act II was similar and the torture factor far outweighed the artistic factors.  Here are those words:

• Incoherent
• Smart
• Incomprehensible
• Colorful
• Mesmerizing
• Bizarre
• LSD
• Imaginative
• Experimental
• Unsatisfying

The show is a pastiche of ideas, colors, words, costumes.  What it is not is coherent.  It's a piece of mental theater.  I was, however, really impressed with the actors who had to learn these bizarro parts.  They don't make sense and I can only assume that it is like telling an opera singer to intentionally sing off key.  For a trained professional that's hard to do.  These actors were superb given the extremely bizarre and colorful material they were given to work with.   I made it only through Act I, but I have heard that Act II was even more of the same.  Experimental performance art should not be 2 Hours and 40 Minutes long.

iOW@

They're either really good or... well, they aren't.  In this case it really, really isn't.  little i.  @ sign instead of a.  I should have known it was a dud just from the dumb symbolic title.

Poor constructionJenny Schwartz. Poor direction Ken Rus Schmoll.  A play with more music than some musicals (Todd Almond). Frankly just a stupid idea all around.  The talented actors actually seemed uncomfortable at times at the sheer stupidity they were employed to spew.

The stupid idea?  A play that screams endlessly at you and has not a single cohesive idea (yes, we get it too - life today is filled with meaningless connections and a general lack of communication and genuine understanding).  This play is filled with such crap and meaningless, unconnected, and disingenuous jokes that it was frankly insulting, trite, annoying and might just be a complete unmitigated disaster on stage.

I will purposely laud the actors on stage - all of whom smiled through the pain and genuinely churned out top notch performances despite the material.  Cindy Cheung, April Matthis, Annie McNamara, Karyn Quackenbush, Carolina Sanchez, Lee Sellars, Jill Shackner, and Colette Tetlow all deserve polite applause and recognition.

I bet they didn't even know what they were getting into when it started.  After all, nobody communicates anymore, right?