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Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
A Lifetime Burning
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So. . . I’m very curious how exactly you feel Incan? Or I believe in the article it said you were a quarter Inca and a quarter Cherokee. Just couldn’t be indigenous from one hemisphere, had to take on the plight of two native peoples? — Tess There was some mention of my other 'Irsh'half. — Emma |
(eft) Jennifer Westfeldt as Emma (right) Christina Kirk as Tess
(Photo credit: James Leynse) |
A torrent of threats, insults, recriminations and accusations are made as well as a lot of variations on the Martini in Cusi Cram’s very dark comedy about fakery masquerading as fact. Under Pam MacKinnon’s excellent direction the 90 minute play crackles with wittily edged vitriol. Cram, a member of the LABrynth Theater Company, has seized upon a hot topic in recent years: creating a fiction of your own life.
Cram, whose own life has evidently been affected by the death of both her parents in 2007, has certainly filled her play with the sense of loss and abandonment. One might also guess that Cram’s own sense of loss began long before her parents’ death. While both Emma and Tess have very different demons to combat, they have also become embittered towards each other as well as defensive about their own personal failures. Emma, who has been institutionalized five times for bi-polar disorder, unable to complete college or keep a steady job, has found some fulfillment tutoring under-privileged at-risk Latinos.
Westfeldt may be giving one of the most brilliantly bi-polar-propelled performances ever seen on a stage. She also invests in Emma a poignant transparency that ultimately succeeds in making us care for her well-being and a future that may include even more uncertainty. Conflicted by the privileged reality of her own life, her dependence on prescription drugs and the income from a trust fund, she has re-invented herself through a tell-all chronicle that includes the instigation of an affair with Alejandro (Raúl Castillo), a bright and attractive Latino student.
The memoir is grabbed up by Lydia Freemantle (Isabel Keating) a savvy, sophisticated British literary agent with a keen sense of the publishing market. She is certainly less interested in checking the facts than in having a best seller. A hefty advance pays for Emma’s smartly and expensively re-decorated apartment, handsomely designed by Kris Stone in soft blue-grey tones. But Emma has her sister Tess to deal with, a not easily won-over life-time adversary.
As successful as Tess is as a journalist she has failed at her marriage that has ended because of her affair with a 19 year-old male Dutch au pair. Nervous and unnerving tension as well as a discernable speech impediment is at the core of Kirk’s fine performance as the ever admonishing Tess. It is a bit exhausting however to listen to her endlessly berate her sister even as she continues to obsess about her twin children who hate her and the family dog that has just died from eating grapes. That Tess has lived her life in the shadow of Emma’s more debilitating disorder, however, fuels her rage over the memoir and the potential consequences.
There is a wonderfully funny (without being a joke) performance by Keating as the literary agent whose two scenes provide her with the opportunity to put a blistering perspective on publishing without regard for veracity. The LAByrinth connection continues with member Castillo, who makes a terrific impression as the earnestly infatuated Alejandro.
The world premiere of A Lifetime Burning opens the 25th season of Primary Stages. It is the first play in a season of new works celebrating the female playwright. This play is certain to create a buzz, if not in publishing circles, then in this new theater season.
Editor's Note: Two plays by Cusi Cram reviewed by Curtainup: Fuente at Barrington Stage and Lucy and the Conquest at Williamstown Theatre Festival.
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A Lifetime Burning By Cusi Cram Directed by Pam MacKinnon Cast: Raúl Castillo, Isabel Keating, Christina Kirk, Jennifer Westfeldt Set Design: Kris Stone Costume Design: Theresa Squire Lighting Design: David Weiner Sound Design: Broken Chord Collective Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes no intermission Primary Stages at 59E59 Theatres, 59 East 59th Street (212) 279 – 4200 Tickets ($60) Performances: Tuesdays at 7 PM; Wednesdays through Fridays at 8 PM; Saturdays at 2 PM & 8 PM; with a Sunday matinee at 3 PM on August 16 and Wednesday matinees at 2 PM on August 19,26, September 2. From 7/28/09; opening 8/11/09; closing 9/05/09. Review by Simon Saltzman based on press/preview performance 08/07/09 |
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Wicked
Jersey Boys
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Lion King
Shrek The Musical
South Pacific
In the Heights
Playbill 2007-08 Yearbook
Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide