Theater Thunderbodies The Ferryman

SEO TEXT: Article Content for Search Engines

More Create Blog Sign In SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2018 THEATER: "Thunderbodies!" and the Glorious Mess of "The Ferryman" THUNDERBODIES *** out of **** THE FERRYMAN *** 1/2 out of **** THUNDERBODIES *** out of **** SOHO REP At the beginning of Thunderbodies (which, honestly, should be styled THUNDERBODIES! ) a string of letters spelling out Thunderbodies is bannered across the stage, much as you'd spell out Happy Birthday for a friend. Music starts playing, the banner starts bouncing up and downand then more ferociously and then it pauses only to start wiggling side to side. Either you start smiling or you're in for a long 90 minutes. I started smiling, as Thunderbodies is the latest in a string of plays that seem right up Soho Rep's alley. Do they put out a request for plays that are formally playful, silly, avant garde, daring, extravagantly on the edge and yet just plain fun? I think so and with this piece by Kate Tarker directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, they've presented another one.It's utter nonsense, rat-a-tat goofy, impeccably directed and mountedand performed with gusto by a very game cast. Thunderbodies has just enough of an emotional core to make you feel something might be atstake, if not quite enough to make you genuinely care. If you're in a game mood, this is a promising work and an excellent showcase for one and all, especially Deirdre O'Connell as Grotilde. Sheknew her performance needed to go big and then wisely decided twice as big would be a nice place to start before really taking off.MICHAEL GILTZ AT WORK Michael Giltz is a freelance writer based in NYC and can be reached atmgiltz@pipeline.com FAVORITE LINKS Americablog Five O'Clock Lightning baseball blogDeep Pop -- Lori Lakin's Blog The Back Page -- Jason Page on ESPN Radio Cine-Blog -- George Robinson's Blog Documents On Art & Cinema - Daryl Chin's Blog Brucie G's Wondrous Blog Of Adventure and Mystery -- Bruce Greenspan's Blog BLOG ARCHIVE ► 2019 (7) ▼ 2018 (34) ► December (7)To describe Thunderbodies is to kill it, but here goes. The war has ended and desk jockey General Itterod (Juan Carlos Hernández) proposes to his true love, the dismissive and frightening Grotilde. Howcan she marry without her son safe at home? But her son (Matthew Jeffers) has refused a direct appeal from the President (Ben Horner) and refuses to come home from the war. Itterod heads reluctantly intoenemy territory, hoping he can bring the lad back before fate (or thelovely refugee played by Monique St. Cyr) interferes. And that tells you precisely nothing. There is dancing and singing (about thunder bellies and thunder butts and thunderunmentionables) and a candy colored multi-level set (courtesy MattSaunders) that feels like a baby's playpen crossed with the desolate landscape of Beckett (with a recliner in the corner). The President speaks to his soldier via drone -- and the tiny little drone ismanipulated by the actor playing the President which is somehow farmore amusing than it should be. The General and his lady love plan to get divorced first so they can end in wedded bliss rather than the usual way around. And on and on it goes. It's unfair to single out the set because every tech element is on spot. Director Blain-Cruz keeps the pace moving so that when the storymomentarily flags, you barely notice. Jeffers and St. Cyr create a sweet yearning for peace that is the closest the play gets to an emotional core. But that other couple (the general and Grotilde) have theirmoments too and Horner consistently amuses as the President. Theyall manage the difficult task of being silly rather than acting silly. But none better than O'Connell. Growling out her lines in a barking command, dominating the stage with a loose-lipped sneer, straddlingthat recliner like Cleopatra, O'Connell lasers in on the endless self-regard of her part and makes it hilariously real. In her hands, the leastlikable, most over-the-top grotesque of Thunderbodies is the most believable and lovable of all. She and the rest of the cast make this nonsense -- which pulls off a moment of genuine pathos thanks to an"Oh shit!" fade out -- worth catching.► November (4) ▼ October (6) THEATER: "Thunderbodies!" and the Glorious Mess of... THEATER: 'Fact" Vs Fiction; Pale "India" THEATER: "Love's Labour's Lost"...But A Good Meal ... THEATER: "Mother Of The Maid" Lacks Fire THEATER: "Oklahoma" Is (Just) OK THEATER: Bill Irwin Clowns (A Little), The Constit... ► September (1) ► May (5) ► April (6) ► March (4) ► February (1) ► 2017 (6) ► 2016 (2) ► 2015 (14) ► 2014 (2) ► 2013 (5) ► 2012 (18) ► 2011 (15) ► 2010 (10) ► 2009 (43) ► 2008 (86) ► 2007 (781) ► 2006 (2412) ► 2005 (5)THE FERRYMAN *** 1/2 out of **** BERNARD B. JACOBS THEATRE What a glorious, well-acted ballsy mess of a play. That's no surprise coming from Jez Butterworth, a very hit or miss writer who broke out with Mojo in 1995 and then wandered far afield until 14 years later he scored a home run with Jerusalem . As with all his plays, I found Jerusalem scattered and unstructured (in a bad way). But he's always had a gift for dialogue and creating vivid characters and few loom aslarge as Johnny "Rooster" Byron, especially (or perhaps only?) whenembodied by Mark Rylance. I wouldn't have missed Rylance but his Falstaffian turn papered over a lot of problems. The play was admired in New York yet seemed to strike a profound chord in the UK. Sadly, Butterworth followed thattriumph with his Emperor-has-no-clothes drama The River. Like a yoyo, Butterworth has rebounded again, this time with the mostsatisfying piece by him I've seen yet. It has the virtues and flaws Butterworth usually has -- reams of terrific dialogue and memorable characters, but no real idea what to do with them. Here, however, he boldly tackles that quintessential drama, the Irish play about the Troubles. Drawing deeply on Sean O'Casey and the like, Butterworth doubles down on every cliche imaginable, not to mention every tried and true plot point. Large family? Check. (The childrenkeep coming and coming in the opening scene, pouring out of cabinetsand doorways and trouping downstairs until you can't help thinkingit's a Monty Python skit taking the piss.) Drinking to excess? Checkand check (and check again). A traitor. A mad old loon who bursts into song and truth tells. A boastful fool. A doomed romance. A righteous (or mad) obsession with vengeance against the British. Country vs city.The violent vs. the pacific. And stories? As many stories as there arechildren. And that's saying something. Butterworth was born in London but this is a defiantly Irish work and he dares you to call him on it. How can you, when he's underlined andwhooped and celebrated every trope possible before you've evenfigured out who is who in the cast? As a bonus, paying homage to O'Casey and the like has given him the bones of a well-structured play and that's what allows The Ferryman to be his best yet. I was with him every step of the way (misgivings and all) until the inevitably sour anddoomed finale. I expected no less but still somehow it didn't add up.That's a small price to pay for some of the best acting on stage this season.You don't know the plot but you know its type. It's 1981 and the hunger strike embodied by the late Bobby Sands is in full force. For the first time in ages, the sympathies with the world are aligned with the Irish Republican Army and they want to keep it that way.Unfortunately, a body has been found of an Irish traitor who wassummarily executed and dumped in a bog. Now that it's been recovered, tongues may start wagging and reporters may start probing. A priest is quickly dispatched to make sure Quinn Carney (PaddyConsidine) keeps mum over the death of his brother. The IRA hadabsolutely nothing to do with it and they want to make sure Quinnunderstands that and his brother's wife (now widow) understands that and all two dozen or so of their children understand that. Shut your mouth and we can all remain friends and the focus will remain on thehunger strikers and not revert to the bloody violence the IRA doles outto those that cross them. About a hundred other stories and plots and subplots are also involved in this corker of a play divided into three parts and lasting some 200 minutes. (Only an act of God presumably talked Butterworth out offive acts.) Quinn is actually in love with his brother's wife Caitlyn(Laura Donnelly), which may be why Quinn's actual wife (GenevieveO'Reilly) has slowly retreated to her bedroom with a host of "ailments." Aunt Patricia (a wonderfully waspish Dearbhla Molloy) practically spits every time she hears of Margaret Thatcher, in partbecause her beloved brother died during the Easter Uprising. AuntMaggie Far Away (Fionnula Flanagan) stays in a chair nodding off inher own dreamland until suddenly she comes out of her daze and answers any questions put to her by the wee ones, as if she's the oracle at Delphi. She can tell you how many children you'll have, why AuntPat is so bitter, and regale you with her own lost love all before fadingback into the mists. Tom Kettle (Justin Edwards) is a hulking British man who's a bit slow and somehow washed up on the Carney farm, quietly tending to the animals, producing apples out of his pocket andnursing a soft spot for the lovely Caitlyn. Have you got time? I couldintroduce a dozen other tales if you've the time. Full credit to director Sam Mendes and his creative team, especially the set by Rob Howell, dominated by the kitchen of the Carneyfarmhouse, a warm and expansive space with a sloping roof that youcan imagine funneling all these characters down towards the back wallin a big jumble. (Life is complicated and all their stories areintertwined.) When a reference is made to the Corcoran lads coming over to help with the harvest, I thought well surely THEY at least will remain offstage. But damned if more actors don't get thrown into themix as well. Nonetheless, Mendes juggles them all with ease. Any time a quiet moment is needed, somehow everyone vanishes this way and that inthe most natural manner possible. (The backstage of this play must be the most crowded space on Broadway, if not all of New York.) It's like a magic trick and then Mendes does it in reverse and the room fills upagain in a flash. Full credit to Butterworth's genuine gifts since thereare so many characters and yet I feel like I know them well. I may notremember all their names at first blush, but when I see them I know them completely. Nonetheless, the play's bold embrace of cliches sinks it at the very end. The gentle and sweet Tom Kettle is a nod to Lenny in Of Mice andMen but the play fails to make clear how much of a nod until far too late. Other last minute actions simply feel unnecessary. We knowwithout doubt things will not end well; actually showing us how badlythings will end somehow belabors the point. And yet, it's a funnypiercing boisterous ride right up to the crash. Truly, everyone is solid, right down to the little kids who might have cracked a smile once or twice (they're having a grand time) but are still specific and unique. Let them all take a bow but Paddy Considine inparticular makes a marvelous stage debut. Donnelly has quite the giftfrom her husband Butterworth in a role that let's her shine. And TomGlynn-Carney (who played the almost angelic son of Mark Rylance in Dunkirk ) is wonderfully physical as the dickish, hard-drinking and boastful Shane Corcoran. (You know as soon as he's strutting about that Shane will be a trouble maker and his own worst enemy.) For all my problems with the play, too many scenes are too good for me to do anything but wish I could see it again. The spell Aunt MaggieFar Away casts when she tells her tales, the late night drinking of theCorcoran and Carney lads (with Shane put in his place in a deflatingmanner), the gentle and unwished for proposal from Tom Kettle, the way Mary Carney finally shows some spine and lays down the law with her husband Quinn and on and on. When the Ferryman comes forButterworth, the playwright will surely be able to delay the inevitableby simply saying, "Let me tell you a story...." THEATER OF 2018 Homelife/The Zoo Story (at Signature) *** out of **** Escape To Margaritaville ** Broadway By The Year: 1947 and 1966 *** Lobby Hero *** Frozen ** Rocktopia *Angels in America ** 1/2 Mean Girls ** 1/2 The Sting ** Mlima's Tale ** 1/2 Children Of A Lesser God ** 1/2 Sancho: An Act Of Remembrance ** 1/2 The Metromaniacs *** Summer: The Donna Summer Musical * The Seafarer ** Henry V (Public Mobile Unit w Zenzi Williams) * 1/2 Saint Joan ** Travesties *** 1/2 Summer and Smoke ** 1/2 My Fair Lady ** 1/2 Broadway By The Year: 1956 and 1975 ** 1/2 Bernhard/Hamlet * 1/2 On Beckett *** What The Constitution Means To Me ** The Winning Side * Oklahoma ** Mother Of The Maid * Love's Labour's Lost ** 1/2 The Lifespan of a Fact ** India Pale Ale * Thunderbodies *** The Ferryman *** 1/2 Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the creator of BookFilter, a book lover’s books online the way you do in a physical bookstore, provides comprehensive i offers passionate personal recommendations every step of the way. He’s also t podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day with to available for free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website. Download his p called Popsurfing and also available for free on iTunes. POSTED BY MICHAEL GILTZ AT 11:35 PM NO COMMENTS: Post a Comment Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)Newer Post Older Post Home

Theater Thunderbodies The Ferryman

📄 Theater Thunderbodies The Ferryman

SEO TEXT: Article Content for Search Engines