There oughta be a law against
theatre-as-advertising.
Now, there's nothing
wrong with acting showcases. They're a way for
performers to demonstrate their talents to directors and
agents, and, like TV commercials or the plastic-wrapped
section in the Sunday paper, they're fine as long as
they're clearly labeled, and no one asks you to pay
(much) for them.
But going to a piece of theater
and finding a showcase is like renting Evita on
DVD, and getting a disc full of old Infiniti
commercials.
And that's the story of
Italian-American Reconciliation at Theatre 3.
It's a production devoid of any attempt to take risks or
go beyond the stage directions to find the truth of a
scene -- and to top it off, the actors who are using
this vehicle to advertise themselves just aren't doing a
very good job.
Most of the cast look as if
they've taken their acting lessons from Paulie Walnuts,
and the stage is full of tight shirts, wretched
dialects, and macho poses. These caricatures not only
obliterate the subtlety of Shanley's dialogue, they say
something ugly about the mentality of the producers. Can
these folks really think of nothing that defines
Italian-Americans other than bad accents and cheap
suits? Maybe they should choose another topic.
Seth Capozza does have some charming moments as
Aldo, the neurotic, pseudo-brechtian narrator, but he
doesn't have the inner life necessary to fill out Aldo’s
extensive monologues.
Audience members with the
willpower not to leave at intermission will be treated
to the play’s only small saving grace, in the form of
Alex Dawson, as Janice, the brutal femme-fatale that
Aldo has to confront. Dawson is laboring under the same
silly dialect and overly-demonstrative blocking as
everyone else, but she somehow finds a germ of truth
that permits us to believe an actual human being could
talk and act as her character does.
Her scene
with Aldo is also the best writing in the play, With a
little help from the text, (and from Dawson) Capozza
actually manages to keep acting when he’s not talking.
But it’s all downhill again once Janice leaves stage.
Part of the problem with this show is the choice
of material. The play is a collection fragmented scenes
in which men complain about women, mostly to themselves
or to the audience. Not Shanley’s finest hour, but not
irredeemable. However, when performed amateurishly, the
talky, abstruse and wildly metaphorical writing quickly
becomes so much hot air.
The scent of high
school cafeteria theater permeates the production
values: the costumes look to be the actors’ own clothes,
the set pieces are discordant, and, excepting one pretty
backdrop painting, could have been pulled from any
theatre-shop basement. Every scene has three
generic-looking props that the actors re-arrange, but
never use.
The program, tellingly, says nothing
about the director's vision, the company’s goals, or
even the play itself – it contains only the actor’s
bios. This show isn’t theatre, it’s a marketing event,
and it has all the mystery and charm of a blue light
special at K-mart. | |
Theater
3 (Director's Company) |
Category:
Comedy
Written by:
Directed
by:
Produced by: RightNow
productions/ Seth Capozza
Opens: April
28
Closes: May 2
Running
Time: 2 hours 20
mins
Address: 153 Mercer
Street
New York, NY 10036
Mapquest Directions
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Tickets: $15.00
$12 -
Student
Phone:
Hours:
Online Ticketing: None
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Creative TeamWritten
by: John Patrick Shanley
Directed
by: Jamie Wollrab
Produced by:
Rightnow Productions
Light Designer:
Matt Fick
Sound Designer: Jamie
Wollrab
Set Designer: Evan
Lewis
Costume Designer: Sarah
Maiorino
CastSeth Capozza as Aldo
Scalicki
Scott Wallack as Huey Maximilian
Bonfigliano
Rachel Becker as Teresa
Margaret
Lepara as Aunt May
Alex Dawson as Janice
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