CurtainUp
CurtainUp
The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings
HOME PAGE

SITE GUIDE

SEARCH


REVIEWS

REVIEW ARCHIVES

ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP

FEATURES

NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings


LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway

NYC Restaurants

BOOKS and CDs

OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Connecticut
Philadelphia
Elsewhere

QUOTES

TKTS

PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS

LETTERS TO EDITOR

FILM

LINKS

MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven,


. . . our bench here. It makes me glad. There is a border. A little railing to hold on to. A path to take. Because, of course, someday we can let go. Be free to enter all the infinite space around with no border, no sense of limit. But I do believe, for now, it is important not to let go of this railing we have. It is important not to presume.
— Mahida, after she and the young stranger who's noticed her sitting alone on a bench and with seemingly with nowhere to go begin talking and sit on the same bench, but with a space or border between them.
Mahida's Extra Key to Heaven
"Roxanna Hope & James Wallert
(Photo: Carol Rosegg)
A young woman, her head covered with a shawl, a suitcase beside her, is sitting on a bench waiting for a ferry that won't come since it's nighttime and the last ferry has left the island town where Mahida's Extra Key to Heaven takes place. A young man, realizing that she's lost, begins talking to her even though she at first seems unresponsive. He's clearly more interested in reaching out and protecting her than a pickup and his attempt at conversation turns into a self-revelatory, near monologue that tells us that he wants to be a painter like his uncle in Wyoming. He appears to be a gentle, sensitive young man and it isn't long before the girl responds. She speaks in a heavily accented voice and we learn that she's an Iranian studying in the United States and that she's stranded at that deserted ferry dock after a a fight with her brother.

Sound like love story in the making? The missed ferry is certainly a propitious device for bringing together two people who turn out to be kindred spirits. In a less turbulent world, the happenstance meeting of Mahida (Roxanna Hope) and Thomas (James Wallrt) might indeed be a light-hearted story of two people from different cultures having an instant romance. But this is a four character play and the other two characters are Mahida's brother Ramin (Arian Moayed) and Thomas's mother Edna (Michele Pawk).

While Mahida and Ramin were raised in Iran by an enlightened father who wanted them both to be educated, it seems Ramin got caught up in Muslim extremism. He's used his visa to save his sister from what he sees as a corrupt world and make her return with him to the life he's taken up after studying in a Pakistan Madrass. As for Thomas's mother Edna, she is a 2009 style ugly American who has absorbed all the propaganda that makes patriotism and intolerance bedfellows.

And so, Russell Davis's often quite lovely, getting-to-know-you dialog between Mahida and Thomas conveys a hopeful sense of possibility, but it's also overhung by an air of menace that makes the playwright's small scale view of peaceful connections on a larger scale a case of wishful thinking. When Edna and Ramin appear on stage rather than in Mahid's and Thomas's conversation there's actually a good deal of humor, but Edna's knick-knack filled seaside home is a natural environment for that already mentioned aura of menace to explode. Only a spoilsport would go into details about that explosion, so just rest assured that no play about the volatile tensions that have involved this country in two wars can go from lights up to lights down without something unnerving happening and it's a safe bet that this play's darker aspects are most likely to involve the two characters who mirror the viewpoints of those who have supported and exacerbated those tensions.

Overall, this is a quiet and somewhat too talky play. Though much of that talk is well written, there's an inevitable tilt towards polemics and forced metaphor. Mahida obviously represents the educated, modern citizens of countries like Iran and Iraq. Ramin is proof that even someone raised in enlightened homes might, in a period of rebellion or insecurity, is easily seduced by a religion which asks only obedience.

Thomas is obviously a philosophical stand-in for the playwright. When Mahida says that she's upset and embarassed by the way her brother has acted since studying with extreme fundamentalists, he tells her that he too hasn't been a happy U.Ss citizen, feeling embarrassed by his country in which "the presumptions of some of the folks who govern us from time to time are massive, and I personally believe responsible for how torn apart the world is right now. Making it such a dangerous place to live." (The playwright's program notes say much the same thing). His fears and hopes — and the play's title— are summed up in a painting interpreted by Mahida (whose unfinished story inspired it) to Thomas's mother: "Do you see? There is a wolf and a little girl with a shadow. This wolf has no shadow on the ground like the girl. They are standing before a high stone wall. At the end of a meadow. I think they have come to a place where they can go no further. Their way is blocked by a locked gate in this wall. . . But in the tree over here, above the wolf, is a bird. A friendly white dove who has the shadow of a raven. Right here in the air above the wolf. And in the beak of the dove, she has a key. But in this shadow, the shadow of the raven, there are two more keys. Maybe even more."

Director Will Pomerantz elicits vivid performances from all four actors, though one can't help wishing he had helped Roxanna Hope to go easy on the accent that's so thick that it's at times difficult to understand her. His crafts team is also excellent, especially set designer Mimi Lien. I don't usually like a lot of fussy scenery shifts between acts, but it was fascinating to watch the setup from the bare seaside ferry dock to Edna's house. If I have a major complaint about Pomerantz's staging, it's that by moving the actors so far upstage in the final stage, a crucial incident preceding that finale is likely to be unnoticed by the audience.

Russell Davis who is also a professional juggler has made a game try at bringing his juggling skills to this play, juggling the requirement that going to the theater should provoke thought but also entertain — a mission that also describes the Epic Theater which is producing Mahida's Extra Key to Heaven. If Davis doesn't quite balance philosophical rumination and solidly entertaining theater, he does leave us hoping that Mahida's and Thomas's way of looking at life will one of these days prevail over the intolerant extremist views of the Ednas and Ramins of this world.

Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven
Written bby Russell Davis
Directed by Will Pomerantz
Cast: Roxanna Hope (Mahida), Arian Moayed (Ramin), Michele Pawk (Edna), James Wallert (Thomas)
Sets: Mimi Lien
Costumes: Theresa Squire
Lighting: Justin towndsend
Sound: Katie Down
Stage Manager: Molly Minor Eustis
Running Time: 2 hours, includes 1 10-minuteintermission
Epic Theatre Ensemble at the Peter Norton Space 555 West 42nd Streetwww.epictheatreensemble.org (212) 352-3101.
From 9/16/09; opening 9/26/09; closing 10/18/09.
Tuesday – Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:o0 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $38.50; matinees, $15.00
Reviewed by Elyse Sommer 9/21 press performance
REVIEW FEEDBACK
Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
  • I agree with the review of Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven,
  • I disagree with the review of Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven,
  • The review made me eager to see Mahida’s Extra Key to Heaven,
Click on the address link E-mail: esommer@curtainup.com
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V):

Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review.

Subscribe to our FREE email updates with a note from editor Elyse Sommer about additions to the website -- with main page hot links to the latest features posted at our numerous locations. To subscribe, E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com
put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message -- if you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country.
South Pacific  Revival
South Pacific


In the Heights
In the Heights


Playbillyearbook
Playbill 2007-08 Yearbook


Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide
Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide


broadwaynewyork.com


amazon




©Copyright 2009,

GUCCI

|

Aluminium Chronograph

|

PEAK new fashion ladies venting air spring heighten casual sport shoes P8004E

|

Tiffany & Co Hook and Eye Ring

|

mbt shoes

|

MBT Shoes

|

Tiffany&Co Daisy 925 sterling silver rings

|

Rolex

|

Louis Vuitton

|

Affliction Boots

|

Nike Shoes

|

Nike Dunk

|

MP5 Wholesale

|

Atlanta Falcons

|

Abercrombie Pants Wholesale 002

|

Louis Vuitton

|

UGG Boots Mulberry Genuine Australia classic Tall Ugg Boots

|

GUCCI Handbags

|

UGG Boots Classic Argyle Knit Chocolate 5879

|

Louis Vuitton Business Card Holder Ebony

|

MBT Men's Kisumu Tan Sandals

|

MBT Chapa

|

ugg boots

|

MBT Kisumu 2 White Men's Sandals

|

Nike Shoes

|

Louis Vuitton Monogram Denim Messenger Bag PM m95865

|

Bailey Button Uggs

|

Sexy Costume QS0169

|

Phone Wholesale

|

Bikinis Sets

|

Wholesale

|

Car DVD Player

|

LV

|

Tourbillon

|

Tiffany tiffany replica ring

|

Superleggera J12 White

|

Tiffany

|

rolex

|

Mouse Wholesale

|

Nike Air Max 2003

|

Monogram Groom

|

GUCCI

|

Wholesale

|

Nike Air Max LTD (dark blue/white) No.372340

Elyse Sommer.
Information from this site may not be reproduced in print or online without specific permission from esommer@curtainup.com