Mankind

Playwright Robert O'Hara should never be accused of being timid.  In his bold, audacious new play, Mankind, he envisions a world with no women where men who get pregnant invent a religion that masses follow and interpret far beyond their expectations.

While at first blush an absurdest comedy, as you think more and more about it - it's quite the skewering of organized religion as we know it today - with all the stories, tales, and utterly bizarre "lessons" in the bible that we are expected to believe.

Mr. O'Hara's audacity is backed up by the ferocity of the cast portraying the denizens of this futuristic world.  Bobby Moreno (Jason) and Anson Mount (Mark) are "fuck-buddies" (Bobby in a jock strap in the opening scene is worth the price of admission) seemingly enjoying it thoroughly, when Jason finds out he's pregnant (not unlike how it happens today). Although they discuss "getting rid of it" in a scene we see replayed over and over in the play, abortion is illegal and both of them end up in jail where Jason gives birth.

If the story ended there it would be a big deal - but it goes on that Mark and Jason basically invent an entire religion because their baby was a GIRL (after they had all become extinct, remember) and she dies days after birth due to the air quality (apparently it was the air pollution that killed women off altogether).  What follows is an even more absurd path that Jason and Mark end up being revered by feminists (all men, seemingly) around the globe and their words and stories are turned into a bible of sorts - not unlike religion as we know it today may just have begun too.

The difference here is that Mark and Jason fully admit they made the entire thing up.  Perhaps we'd be better off if someone admitted to that long ago too.

Fulfillment Center

With a name like this somehow you expect it to be it's namesake - fulfilling.  On the contrary, the play by Abe Koogler, performed on a too narrow runway stage by actors in ordinary street clothes falls flat , is empty, and the characters, all  but Suzan (Deirdre O'Connell), were UN-fulfilled and UN-fulfilling in their development and arc.  Suzan was the most deeply fleshed out character and, as played by Ms. O'Connell, the most juicy and emotionally satisfying of the lot.

A distribution center for a company in New Mexico is the host to this un-remarkable plot.  Alex (Bobby Moreno) and Madeleine (Eboni Booth) are not a couple you would expect.  Alex doesn't seem very smart although he went to B-School, and Madeleine doesn't seem very happy although she sees a therapist regularly (she' a stereotypical New Yorker).  Together they plod through their own un-fulfilling relationship as we wander forward.  Madeleine is the crossover link to John (Frederick Weller) a mysterious and vaguely fleshed out local.  Contrary to Alex, he once was smart, and now, after the ravages of drugs and alcohol (we are lead to believe) he isn't so much any more.  Played with aplomb by Mr. Weller, the character falls flat due to the lack of development and sheer mystery surrounding him.

Overall, this 80 minute play needs a bit more work to have any sort of impact.  The characters are ill-defined and by the time you get to the end of the play, much like Alex, you realize the failure that just unfolded in front of you.

Lazarus

New York Theater Workshop is known for its bold, interpretive, and artistic productions.  This latest installment is no different.  Based on a 1963 novel, The Man Who Fell to Earth, by Walter Tevis and a subsequent 1976 movie by Nicholas Roeg (and a 1987 television adaption which differed with the original material), this musical by David Bowie (music) and Enda Walsh (Book) is a bizarre, fantastical, and imaginative look in to the mind of a man.

Make no bones about it - this production, by its very nature, is bizarre.  Very bizarre.  It's like Clockwork Orange meets Next to Normal.  The play itself has always been discordant, imaginative, and vague.  It's the nature of dreams, insanity, and mental illness.  Helmed by hot Belgian experimental "it" director, Ivo van Hove, this particular production adds potent, strong, and lavish music to the equation.  The combination is magical.  Throw in a dazzling special effects of a large media screen and magnificent projections and you find yourself immersed in an evening of pure fantasy.

Mr. Newton is the center of our attention - A Mad, deranged, dreamer played by the indomitable  Michael C. Hall.  With the rage and angst of a madman he owned the role from the first maddening minute to the last.  His maid, Elly (Cristin Meloti), was the perfect malleable, innocent companion. Valentine, an incarnation of the devil perhaps, a madman at the very least was played to the hilt by the Michael Esper. A cast of other interlopers contributed to the mesmerizing, magical, and fantastic evening in the theater.  Perhaps the most talented and poignant performers on the whole stage was Sophia Anne Caruso (Girl).  She is perhaps vocal perfection.

And let's not forget the incredible band behind the glass wall,  They rocked.  As a result, we rocked.

Grand Concourse

What we have here is one of the most realistic and naturally constructed plays I have seen in a long while.  Heidi Schreck writes like people speak, and think, and wonder.  Kip Fagan has done a marvelous job at "keeping it real" on the stage.  Playwrights Horizons presents yet another  provocative, thought provoking discussion pieces on the small stage upstairs.

Shelly (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) is a soup kitchen manager struggling with God and religion.  Emma (Ismenia Mendes) strolls into her life and turns it upside down - or perhaps you'll think right side up by the end).  Ms. Bernstine is magnificent in her struggles and in her overall performance.  Bobby Moreno, Oscar, a relatively young, talented, and often type-cast janitor, turns in yet another solid and loving performance.  Lee Wilkof (Frog) brightens up the room with his infectious attitude, despite his deep troubles.

Performed without an intermission this 1h:40m production never ceases to entertain and keep your attention.  The characters are provocative, interesting, and quite real.  The title comes from that famous road up in the Bronx where a soup kitchen of no specific identify exists.  The characters aren't made up and in fancy costumes.  The set is a simple, slightly run-down kitchen and the action occurs in several vignettes always coming back to Shelley praying or rather trying to pray at the microwave.

This production has teamed up with City Harvest (soup kitchen in play - food rescue organization - a great pairing) to collect and I assume "rescue" some of the food and vegetables used on stage each night.  Drama for both the soul and the stomach.  Not bad for a Tuesday night at the theatre.

Invasion!

Get your wallet out now. Pull out $30 bucks and fork it over for a ticket to the box office at Walkerspace for the powerhouse Swedish playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri's US debut of Invasion!  Ask no more questions.  Do not hesitate.  This is without a doubt one of the best plays I have seen this entire season - and that includes Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway. It's an extremely intelligent, linguistically complex, politically charged, attention grabbing, rapid-fire tour-de force for each of its 75 sharply written, cunningly directed, and superbly acted and deliciously well received minutes.

Each of the four young actors - Francis Benhamou, Andrew Guilarte, Bobby Moreno, and Debargo Sanyal (known only as Actors A, B, C and D) performs at full throttle the entire evening - never missing a beat or a word or a queue.  Emotions run the gamut from scene to scene but the pace is relentlessly and purposefully quick.  Scene changes are executed with precision and aplomb  By the time you reach the end, you find yourself at the beginning again.

I won't pretend to understand everything the playwright had to say.  There was too much there for my brain to have absorbed every layer, every overt or subversive gesture, word and idea.  Hours after the play ends and you're sitting at TriBeCa Bread enjoying your 3rd Manhattan, a new meaning or the nuance of a scene will reveal itself to you.  This, I promise.  Everything may not be as it seems.  Don't believe everything they tell you.  Open your eyes and think for yourself.  Think.  Period.

seating ARRANGEMENTS

There's a lot of Experimental Theater at The Flea. Seating ARRANGEMENTS is one such performance. You walk into the theater space and notice that there is a large horseshoe shaped banquet table with seating for about 16 - - and there are only 8 actors! You are asked if you want to join the feast. After a nervous "sure, why not", you start to think - are they going to talk to me? Am I somehow going to become part of this show? Are they serving food? The answer to all these questions is yes. But fear not - you won't be cross examined!

You will awkwardly indulge the cast as they chat with you - and sit right next to you! It's not exactly a scripted performance, but not exactly stream of consciousness either. Based on the short story Babette's Feast, the 8 actors speak directly to the audience as if we are all there part of their dinner party. They interact with each other as if they are in another time and place. Time, location, and characters bleed together.

The underlying concept is about what happens around the dinner table - how we all interact, the inappropriate things we say, or the things we don't say. It's a study in psychology and sociology. It's about topics that inevitably get broached - Religion, Politics and Love - sometimes appropriately, sometimes not.

Remarkably - I learned afterwards that there was no real script for this show. The actors all developed the stories based on their own experiences and beliefs. They melded them together in workshops and rehearsals. There's a violin, a rapper, a national anthem, and a dance. There's love, hope, revenge, and desire. It's a slice of life both current and past.

Kudos to the 8 performers from The Bats Theater Group - Donal Brophy, Jane Elliott, Ben Horner, Max Jenkins, Jocelyn Kuritsky, Nana Mensah, Bobby Moreno, and Sylvia Mincewicz.

Fear not - they serve wine. Drink up - and don't be shy. Wink at the adorable Max or chat up your cute neighbors. Who knows what might come of it.