Man From Nebraska

Powerhouse Tracy Letts penned a killer show several years ago - August Osage County - family drama - intense - drug fueled.  Wowza.  His latest installment off-Broadway, Man From Nebraska, is far from that prior mark. Intentional, I'm pretty sure.  This show is brooding, show, vacuous, empty, hopeless, and depressing.  This is not all necessarily bad, it just leaves you quite a different taste in your mouth than the prior installment. Sometimes life throws you curve balls.  Some people swerve to avoid them, others get beamed directly in the head.  Such is life.

Probably the hardest working actor on and off Broadway, Reed Birney, (Ken) helms this production and is basically whom the entire show revolves around Ken and his mid-life religious crisis.  Kathleen Peirce (Cammie Carpenter) is his devoutly religious wife who is left to deal with the fallout.  It was not lost on me that Ken was from dead-center America where religion is much more central to the lives of people.  Ken meets Harry Brown , the brilliant Max Gordon Moore and Tamyra, the lovely Nana Mensah.  It also did not get lost on me that in his mid-life crisis he flew the coop to London - a city that could not be more different than Nebraska.  Mr. Letts seemed to be hinting at these disparities in quite a bit of the dialogue - (Ken: "I lost my faith", Tamyra: "They throw you Yanks out for that these days?").

Part blistering critique of religion and America, part human condition, Mr. Letts shows us what happens when man questions long held beliefs as provincial and narrow as they might seem.  He may or may not find something more satisfying out there.  He may come back. Or maybe he won't.  Despite the rather hum-drum and depressing Nebraska life that Ken leads, we do find that he is able to expand his horizons if even for a brief period.

Frankly Mr. Letts' play doesn't really answer the question it merely scratches the surface and explores the topic.  If you are looking for definitive answers you won't find them here.

Boy

A true very raw and tender story penned by Anna Ziegler is being presented on stage by Keen Company at The Clurman Theater on Theater Row.  At just over 90 minutes, this show packs a powerful and real punch.

Walking into the theatre, the first thing you notice is the mirror image set hanging above the real set on the floor (Sandra Goldmark).  The mirror image, only upside down.  This is much like the life of Adam Turner (Bobby Steggert).  Mr. Steggert plays the titular boy of the play - actually born a boy but after an accident during circumcision, surgically altered to a girl and raised as such by his deeply caring (if ignorant) parents.  Nobody really talked about or acted on these things and it was a time where a doctor with a theory had some sway in the public discourse.  In his teenage years, he rejected the identity and after surgery re-emerged as a boy... (mighty easy on the eyes, i might add).

Mr. Steggert plays the dual role of Samantha (growing up age 6 thru 13) and Adam (age 23) in the current time.  Through alternating flashbacks and current scenes, we see Adam today and learn of his struggle and anguish growing up.  We learn of his parents who cared dearly for him and through this play are portrayed as nothing more than caring parents who tried to do "the right thing".

Mr. Steggert alternates between a wounded man of 23 struggling to love a girl and a tortured little girl who somehow knew she didn't fit in even though she didn't know what was wrong. Tough, tender, raw are the words that come to mind repeatedly when observing Mr. Steggert in his fine portrayal of the little boy trapped inside this little girl.  Confronting the doctor later in life is an eye opening and tough scene and one could sense his trepidation in the meeting.

Supporting Mr. Steggert  aptly are his mother and father (Heidi Armbruster, Ted Koch) and the love of his life, (Jenny) Rebecca Rittenhouse.  His doctor for these many years, (Dr. Wendel Barnes) was played earnestly by Paul Niebanck.

I cannot imagine the anguish and torture this young boy must have endured growing up.  You can't blame his parents.  You can only partially blame the doctor. Although he never admits it in the play, the accusation is made that he put experiment over patient, but that is never proved or admitted, at least not in this play.