The Great God Pan

Amy Herzog, last dazzled us with 4000 Miles at Lincoln Center Theater.  Once again, in a magical and emotional journey into memory, identity, and truth, Ms. Herzog assisted by a fine cast and delicate direction does not fail to impress.

Jamie (Jeremy Strong) is a seemingly normal young Brooklynite with a girlfriend (Sarah Goldberg) and family unremarkable to the naked eye.   But - curtain up - in walks Frank (Keith Nobbs), his childhood friend, and modern day messed up type who is back after 25 years to tell Jamie he's going to file charges against his father for molesting him.  Why is Frank telling this to Jamie?  Because allegedly Jamie was one of Frank's father's victims too.  Or so says Frank.

Slowly we realize that Jamie has no real memories of his childhood.  And perhaps, we being to ponder, this is the reason.   Jamie engages his mother  (Becky Ann Baker) and she's curt and uncharacteristically bothered by it (an odd reaction for a social worker, he points out).  His father (Peter Friedman) adds to the fire by telling Jamie about some early family and neighborhood shuffling.  His girlfriend, who through observation and innuendo also has many of her own set of "issues",  has her own take on the subject.   Jamie struggles with his lack of memory and visits his old nanny/babysitter (Joyce Van Patten) who, in her tender and forgetful old age adds even more questions than answers to the memories.

Is Frank who he seems?   Will Jamie ever remember what he needs to know?   Who is the Great God Pan and how will this all conclude?   Stop on over to Playwrights Horizons to find out.  It's well worth the price of admission to see these fine actors execute Ms. Herzog's emotional play under such fine direction.

Good People

David Lindsay Abaire's new work at Manhattan Theatre Club's Mainstage - The Freidman Theatre (I still call it the Biltmore), may only be taking its first-ever bows but already I can tell this play will be a juggernaut.  Abaire's biting wit and stinging social commentary plunge into the audience like a sharp knife into a raw steak.

The plot centers around Margaret (Frances McDormand) , a down-on-your-luck, brutally honest, not-so-educated, but quick-on-her-feet, god-fearing, life-long resident of South Boston's tough as nails, blue-collar, Lower End known as Southie.  At the curtain goes up (or the geometric panels retract, as it were) she is being fired from her latest job at the local dollar store.  We soon see her back at her apartment socializing with her close friends, Jean (Becky Ann Baker) and Dottie (Estelle Parsons).  With some brutally funny and poignantly sharp dialogue, they are discussing and gossiping about how Margaret will make ends meet for her and her retarded adult daughter.  There's little hope and lots of worry, but through it all there's an sense that this latest turn of events may not be the worst of times for these folks.

Encouraged by her friends, Margaret takes her job hunt to a (now) "comfortable" doctor she went to high school with in Southie over 30 years ago.  They dated briefly and their breakup just might coincide with the time frame that her daughter was born.  He "got out" and made something for himself.  What will she say to him?  How does the meeting go?   These questions and more will be answered.  Or will they?

Even at just the first week of previews, Parsons and McDormand are turning in top notch performances - and it will only get better from here.  My dear friend Donna is usually a bellwether of good actors and great plays - but I fear she may have mis-under-estimated the humor and depth of this fine work.  I encourage her and everyone else to check out some Good People on West 47th.

Suddenly Last Summer

Mrs Venable and Miss Holly rule the stage in a battle of wills at the Laura Pells Theater on West 46th. Blythe Danner and Carla Gugino weave Tennessee Williams' scandalous tale originally written in the early 20th century.

Violet and Sebastian - mother and son. What dark secret does this relationship hold? Why will Violet, the very rich and protective mother, go to the extreme of sending her niece to a mental hospital for a lobotomy?

Of course the answer lies in the fact that Sebastian was gay. His mother hid the secret all his life, but let him live his life in secret at home and through their worldly travels. But when he travels with his cousin Catherine instead of his mother this past summer things unravel. He's not able to deal in the same way he would have under the protective wing of his mother and ultimately that change is the cause of his horrific death on the street while traveling. The elderly Violet refuses to let this story get out and ruin her son's (and her) reputation, but her niece is "blabbing" the story all around. Violet's remedy is to seek out (and bribe) a doctor - (played rather stiffly by Gale Harold) who has a new procedure - the Lobotomy - to shut her up.

We learn about all the characters in Act I, and in Act II, when the doctor arrives, we ultimately hear the long, dramatic story of this past summer's vacation taken by Sebastian and Catherine in a poetic, dramatic, and poignant monologue. The crescendo, highlighted perfectly by a dramatic lighting effect, is, of course, the horrible death of Sebastian.

In what could only have been a shocking ending in its day - is the doctor's simple admission that perhaps the whole story could indeed be true, that Catherine is indeed not crazy, and not a candidate for the extreme procedure. (Lights Out).

Assassins