Theatre Critic Jim Santella reviews some of the area's major theatre offerings.By Jim Santella
Buffalo, NY – Tuesdays with Morrie by Jeffery Hatcher and Mitch Albom is directed by Gavin Cameron-Webb. It runs at the Studio Arena, 710 Main St., 856-5650, through March 6th.
Plot: Mitch Albom (David Rzeszutek) is a success driven sports journalist who is challenged by his college sociology professor Morrie Schwartz (Imanuel Fried) to slow down and take some time to smell the roses.
Pros: This warm and fuzzy true story is adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name. Albom?s achievements (writer Detroit Free Press, syndicated radio host and 13 time winner of top sports columnist award by Associated Sports Editors of America) bear out Morrie?s claim that A personaliy Mitch doesn?t seem to allow much time for reflecting on the important things in his life, like love.
Mitch sees his cancer ridden instructor on Ted Koppel?s "Nightline" and stops by Morrie?s apartment to renew his acquaintance and ease his conscience. Mitch made a promise, 20 years ago, to visit his instructor regularly. A promise he reneged on.
The story centers on Mitch?s realization, through Morrie?s persistence, that he?s spent too much time chasing the American Dream and not enough time living it.
His stock response to all of Morrie?s questions is that he doesn?t have time for anything more than his career. Even his marriage is worked in between assignments.
Over a period of weekly Tuesday meetings, the dying professor gets Mitch to understand that he has to control his time not the other way around.
Both Fried and Rzeszutek are more than capable for their roles. In fact there are times when they seem more capable than the sentimental material allows.
Cons: Performed in one-act, Tuesdays With Morrie falls somewhere between being truly touching and an afternoon with Oprah and Dr. Phil. The set filled with rolling carts, a suspended window and an autumnal tree seems strangely out of place for a story that is so straight forward.
Less would definitely be more in this Aesop?s tale that soars on the ability of the actors to overwhelm the material they?re given.
Summary: An opening night audience rose as one to give the actors a standing ovation. It?s difficult to be harsh with a story that focuses on love as the only rational act.
Rating: Three out of five stars.
Top Dog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks and directed Philip Knoerzer, this Pulitzer Prize winning drama is performed by Ujima, at TheatreLoft, 545 Elmwood, 883-0380, through Feb 27th.
Plot: Lincoln used to be the master of three-card monte, a street card game that is half hustle and half poetry. His younger brother Booth can?t understand why Lincoln would give up the excitement of the hustle to put on white-face and play a dead president at a shabby arcade. However, their harsh verbal profanity becomes poetry in the hands of 2002 Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks - the first African-American woman to win a Pulitizer for drama.
Pros: Top Dog/Underdog is an intense examination of the relationship between Lincoln and Booth, two competitive black brothers named by their father as a joke.
Playwright Parks could be using Cain and Abel as her model for brotherhood. One brother is a "retired" card shark; the other is a petty thief "boosting" anything he can get his hands on. Violence is always just a profanity away.
They are barely getting by in a cheap one-room apartment paid for with Lincoln?s arcade earnings.
Three elements make this production riveting: the script, the actors and the subject matter. Parks doesn?t just write dialogue but makes poetry out of the harsh, brittle clash of street language.
Preach Freedom as the older brother brings a world-weariness to the role. He could be Atlas supporting the world on his shoulders. His wife left him, his hustling days are behind him and he?s reduced to playing an "uncle Tom" role at an amusement park. Customers are given a pistol and the opportunity to enact the assassination of the 16th president of the United States.
Amilcar Cabral Hill?s Booth is brimming over with street energy, shake ?em on down attitude and a burning desire to learn his brother?s hustling craft. Together the two actors perform a dance of mythic proportions played out against the jazz like riffs created by Parks dialogue.
You have to follow this non-linear play on at least three levels. Lincoln and Booth are Cain and Abel, blood brothers and ultimately they share the common heritage and history of being black.
Con: There?s not a whole lot wrong with this production. The blocking is rather loose leaving room for the actors to "take some stage." The hermetically sealed, oppressive world of the brother?s poverty might have benefited from a smaller, confining set. But, ultimately the play soars on Parks language and the sparks created by the two male actors.
Summary: Top Dog/Underdog has all the inevitable drama of a Greek tragedy. Parks has blended fantasy, myth and culture into a story expressed in metaphor and poetry that takes the language of urban mean streets and transforms it into a comic-tragedy.
Rating: Four out of five stars.
Private Viewing by Jon Alston is a cutting edge drama from Road Less Traveled Productions at the New Phoenix Theatre, 95 N. Johnson Park, 629-3069,through Feb 28th.
Plot: The American government employs psychics to collect intelligence on a grand scale. Is it real, moral or even possible are the complex questions posed by the playwright in this conspiracy driven drama.
Pros: Alston has a fine ear for dialogue that is always filled with conflict and tension. He gets into a scene late and gets out early. He doesn?t waste words rambling. A pitch perfect cast, excellent directing and a moody stage make this work engaging.
One of the primary subjects of Private Viewing, is the conflict between government experiments training psychics for espionage and the personal havoc it wreaks on individual liberties.
Tom Chick (played oily smooth by Peter Palmisano) has perfected "associated remote viewing," a name given to the technique used by espionage trained psychics. When his devoted assistant Fae (Lisa Vitrano) comes upon Art (Joe Wiens) a near perfect natural practitioner of the phenomenon, personal and governmental goals get intermingled and familial secrets get revealed.
The hermetically sealed suspense driven work is ambitious, provocative and challenging. The excellent cast which also includes Dan Walker as George Norton, the CIA-like loose canon; Ryan O?Byrne, Dawn Woollacott, Bob Grabowski and Luke Wager keep the cinematic scenes moving briskly.
While strictly speaking not a mystery, the story unfolds in a slow crescendo of revelations
Cons: Although the play is ambitious in its theme and construction it could benefit from some trimming or consolidating of scenes. Director Scott Behrend has designed a set that keeps the action flowing nimbly from all directions.
I would have liked to have seen a little more time spent on the main themes and less on the plot points. Sometimes more is just more.
Summary: Private Viewing not only makes a political statement but it does so in the context of characters that you care about. It is one polish away from being magnificent.
Like its predecessors Project and The Interrogation Room poses complex questions that only hint at being answerable.
Rating: Four out of five stars.