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
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
The Unseen
|
Is this what you think about when we're not talking?.—
Valdez No, this is what I think about when you're talking.—Wallace: |
Wallace and Valdez manage to keep from going insane by weaving elaborate fantasies and speculating as to the actual nature of the prison. How is it constructed? How many other people are being held prisoner? Is there a third prisoner in the cell between theirs? Smash has his own spiritual and psychological issues with the regular cycle of pain and torture, though he is more immune to it than he thinks. Ultimately his feeble conscience wins out, enabling a meeting for Wallace and Valdez in a completely unexpected way.
The small cast isexcellent job, especially Thomas Ward as Smash. He has just enough doubt and fear to be dangerous; any less, and he'd be a soulless automaton. His brutal physicality, full of yelling, stomping and spitting, is the perfect backdrop for his limited sort of moral exploration.
Sarah Brown's set is somewhat loftier than you'd expect for a prison, but still a fine embodiment of the endless twists and turns Wright mentions. My only quibble with the production is that it is far more concerned with the particularities of daily prison life than the subject matter would suggest. Kafka's The Castle, for instance, worked largely because there were no particularities—the lack of specificity, both made the tale more maddening and more universal because any regime/government/bureaucracy could be seen to fit. The same holds true for other existential works, like Beckett's Waiting for Godot.
The Unseen has that same maddening lack of specificity. We don't know any more about the prisoners' crimes or fates than they know. But director Lisa Denman has chosen to highlight the few details that exist in the prison—the seemingly random buzzers, the tin plates and spoons, the lighting, the pattern of stonework, the bloody work that precedes Smash's inarticulate rage. The actors, too, channel their search for detail into Wright's precise language; trapped as the characters are, the actors aren't able to explore any range of motion, other than Wallace's fiddling with random scrounged objects and Valdez's aimless wandering. This makes the play less a commentary on political prisoners and the corruption of power than a simple story of two men who have largely given up. It's a fine story, to be sure, but this production lacks the broader context the script hints at.
|
The Unseen Written by Craig Wright Directed by Lisa Denman With Steven Pounders (Wallace), Stan Denman (Valdez), and Thomas Ward (Smash) Set Design: Sarah Brown Lighting Design: Travis Watson Costume Design: Carl Booker Sound Design: Dustin Chaffin Running Time: 85 minutes with no intermission Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street; 212-239-6200 Tickets $45 Tuesdays through Sunday at 8 pm, Saturdays at 2 pm, Sundays at 3 pm March 5th — 28th Reviewed by Jenny Sandman based on March 7th performance |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
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. You can also contact us at Curtainup at Facebook or Curtainup at Twitter |
Try onlineseats.com for great seats to
Wicked
Jersey Boys
The Little Mermaid
Lion King
Shrek The Musical
South Pacific
In the Heights
Playbill 2007-08 Yearbook
Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide
Wicked
Jersey Boys
The Little Mermaid
Lion King
Shrek The Musical
South Pacific
In the Heights
Playbill 2007-08 Yearbook
Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide