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Portraits
By Amanda Cooper
|
Let us not fall into the caverns of brutality and darkness. Breathe deeply, let the light into your life. ---Christopher (narrator) |
Roberta Maxwell& Dana Reeves
(Photo: Joan Marcus )
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False: we all want to hear the experiences of seven more people on that tragic day.
As a New Yorker, I have told and retold my September 11 story an uncountable number of times. I have also heard an uncountable number of other true experiences, some of them ordinary, some chilling, some extraordinary, but all real.
Portraits, which recently opened Off-Broadway at the Union Square Theater, is a series of monologues about seven different Americans on 9/11, how they were affected, and who they are. Two of the characters are based on true stories, the rest are invented by playwright Jonathan Bell. Though I respect artistic license as much as the next theater patron, these fictionalized portraits left me feeling cheated.
The characters involvement varies from peripheral to direct -- a man is saved by being mid-affair, a woman from out of town wanting to reach out to someone dials her number but in a New York area code, another woman must deal with widowhood because her husband sacrificed his own life to help others escape. Though Bell constructed the play well, it's more a 90-minute catharsis than a satisfying theater experience.
The actors are stellar: Victor Slezak as the "lucky" adulterer, Darrie Lawrence as the out-of-town caller to her own number with a 212 prefix, Dana Reeve as the widow who wishes her husband had been less noble, Roberta Maxwell as a woman already widowed whose son escapes death, Matte Osian as an EMS worker who heads from Boston to Ground Zero to help and Anjali Bhimani anticipating harassment as an American-born Muslim. Mark Pinter's unassuming direction gives free rein to all on stage to establish rapport with the audience and make their characters whole and understandable. The only exception was on the part of the narrator played by Christopher Coucill, whose physical embodiment of a detached artist trying to find his tragic masterpiece comes off as awkward and pretentious.
The set, lights and sound (by Andrew Knapp, Aaron Meadow and Raymond D. Schilke respectively) add to the over-the-top effect that exasperates more than it exalts.
CurtainUp will be reviewing Omnium Gatherum and Recent Tragic Events. Maybe these will give New York theater goers more of a reason to revisit September 11, 2001 in the year 2003 -- as Portraits does not.
Other reviews of plays inspired by the events of 9/11:
The Guys
The Mercy Seat
Recent Tragic Events
Omnium Gatherum
| Portraits
Written by Jonathan Bell Directed by Mark Pinter Cast: Anjali Bhimani, Barbara Bosson, Roberta Maxwell, Dana Reeve, Victor Slezak Set Design: Andy Knapp, with costumes by , lights by , sound by and Costume Design: Charles Schoonmaker Lighting Design: Aaron Meadow Sound Design: Ray Schilke Original Music: Joshua Pearl Running time: 95 minutes Union Square Theatre, 100 East 17th Street {off Park Avenue South) 212/ 505-0700 Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., with matinees on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets: $65; student rush, $15. Reviewed by Amanda Cooper based on September 24th performance To an early grave: Last performance 10/05/03 |
Mendes at the Donmar
Our Review
At This Theater
Leonard Maltin's 2003 Movie and Video Guide
Ridiculous!The Theatrical Life & Times of Charles Ludlam
Somewhere For Me, a Biography of Richard Rodgers
The New York Times Book of Broadway: On the Aisle for the Unforgettable Plays of the Last Century
6, 500 Comparative Phrases including 800 Shakespearean Metaphors by CurtainUp's editor.
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