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A CurtainUp
Review
Cruel and Unusual Treatment
The three -in-one offering at the former piano factory dubbed the Salon
by the Culture Project
consists of three short plays adapted from three short stories by Mary
McCarthy and John
Cheever. The spacious loft space has been divided into three stages,
each with its own seating
section. This sets up both the individuality and connection
between the plays. It also gives
the audience the sense of being at a party rather than a formal theater
or, if you will, a real
salon.
The McCarthy stories are linked through one character, Meg Sargent
(Adrianna Dufay) who
appears solo in the first and title story and again in the "Man In the
Brooks Brothers Suit."
They serve as bookends for the evening's piece de resistance,
Cheever's
psychological mini-masterpiece, "Five-Forty-Eight." While the
McCarthy stories
don't lend themselves quite as readily to dramatization the directors
have integrated their
individual efforts so that all three pieces work well together. All
have an aura of life after World
Wars I and II when the relations between men and women were on the
brink of major attitudinal
changes.
I re-read "Cruel and Barbarous Treatment" just before heading for the
Salon so I can attest to
the fact that its text has been kept intact, except for the needed
shift from the third person to first
person voice. The adaptation, a joint effort of its director and
leading player, is aptly done as a
staged monologue with the narrator taking the audience into her
confidence as she moves in
and out of her art deco bedroom and busies herself with, dressing,
undressing and makeup.
Unfortunately, the story of a young New York society matron who toys
with adultery and finds
herself headed for Reno and the life of a woman who must constantly
reinvent herself is
somewhat dated and needs a bravura performance to keep the cobwebs
from clinging to its
shallow surface. Actresses from Mary McCarthy's era, like Barbara
Stanwyck and Ingrid
Bergman, come to mind. Ms. Dufay, while more than sufficiently
attractive looking, fails to
project the needed emotional and voice power.
"The Five-Forty-Eight" centers on Blake (J. Christopher O'Connor) a
suburban
executive and a mousy looking office worker, Miss Dent (splendidly and
scarily played Annie
McAdams). Blake seduced and then fired the mentally fragile young
woman who has been
unable to reach him at his office. Now, her shabby purse packed with
a gun, she has sought
him out on the commuter train where there's no one to keep her out.
.
Cheever's story is even more chilling than it was on the printed
page. With just a few folding
chairs the audience is given a clear picture of a New York train
station,
the train on its way to Westchester and a deserted area near the Shady
Hill station. Will
Pomerantz has adapted and directed the story with great style and
also collaborated with Miles
Green on the sound design which contributes enormously to the overall..
The effect is that of
an old-fashioned radio drama. At the front of the stage we have a
narrator sitting at a
microphone with his hat at a rakish angle and played with roguish
charm by Brett Cramp. On
the train and train station part of the stage, Miss Dent and Blake
seague from narrating to
acting out the past which has brought them to the present crisis.
"The Five-Forty-Eight" is a
model of page to stage adaptation and makes one eager to see what
Pomerantz, who also adapted Christopher Isherwood's Prater Violet,
will next dig out of
our literary archives.
The final play also takes place on a train and features all four
members of the cast of actors.
Adrianna Dufay, much improved as an older Meg Sargent, is now a
journalist whose single
affair has mushroomed into countless unsatisfactory casual encounters.
. J. Christopher
O'Connor is again a cheating husband, but unlike the nasty Blake of the
middle play, his
Midwestern tycoon, Bill Breen, is a rather endearing and amusing.
Brett Camp and Annie
McAdams play supporting double roles, as passengers and a porter and
maid. Despite its more
elaborate staging, it lacks the pizazz and tension of Cheever's
story.
Not to be overlooked in summing up the overall effectiveness of this
evening is the choice and
use of music. Mr. Urbinato's selection of Ravel and Debussy in the
first play perfectly
accompanies the young narrator's misguided sense of romantic
adventure. When she finds
herself "lifted to a new level of experience" after telling her
husband about her affair, a violin is
heard precisely as she
says "All the strings of my nature were, at last vibrant." In the
Cheever story we hear a
Beethoven Sonata just as Blake describes the upright piano and Beethoven
sheet music in Miss
Dent's apartment on the night of the fateful seduction. Duke
Ellington's "Take the A Train"
makes for just the right launch for the train carrying the Brooks
Brother suited Bill Breen off on
his memorable interlude with Meg Sargent.
When all is said and done this anthology, even when less than
perfect, has enough vigor to
make a visit to the upper East Side Salon a most worthwhile theatrical
outing. The opportunity
to do so is limited, since this is a short and plays Thursday
through Sundays only.
CRUEL AND BARBAROUS TREATMENT
By Mary McCarthy
Adapted by Adrianna Dufay and Rob Urbinati
Directed by Rob Urbinati
Adrianna Dufay (Meg Sargent)
Set consultants: Dain Kalas and Bill Strauss
Costume design: David Robinson
Lighting design: Jeff M. Cusick
THE FIVE-FORTY-EIGHT
By John Cheever
Adapted and directed by Will Pomerantz
Brett Cramp (narrator), Adrianna Dufay (Meg Sargent), and J. Christopher
O'Connor (Blake)
Annie
McAdams
(Miss Dent)
Lighting design: Jeff M. Cusick
Sound design: Miles Greene and Will Pomerantz
THE MAN IN THE BROOKS BROTHERS SUIT
Adapted by Adrianna Dufay and Annie McAdams
Directed by Erkik Sniedze
Adrianna Dufay (Meg Sargent), J. Christopher O'Connor (Bill Breen),
Brett Cramp
(Passenger
1/Porter), Annie McAdams (Passenger 2/Maid)
Costume design: David Robinson
Lighting design: Jeff Cusick
The Salon, 432 E. 91st St.
(Betw. First and York Ave --212/279-4200 -- 4, 5, 6 at 86th St.; 6 at
96 St.)
Thursdays through Saturday s 8 pm; Sundays at 3pm
3/03/99-3/27/99;
opened
3/06/99
Reviewed by Elyse Sommer
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