What fresh hell? Enda Walsh brings "Arlington" to Brooklyn

The world beyond whatever literal, metaphoric or metaphysical rooms or shelters we construct for ourselves is a precarious place--is it not, now more than ever?--and any time spent hiding from it will be limited. Even your own body, in fact, can be thought of as a room or containing structure--illusory, in its way, and unstable.

In his 2016 play, Arlington, Irish playwright and director Enda Walsh--who collaborated with the dying David Bowie on one of his last works, the musical Lazarus--imagines the loveless, meticulously sterile environment of a waiting room, a transitional space continuously and increasingly imposed upon by a ravaged and ravaging external world. Neither the artificial potted tree (easily toppled) nor the aquarium (where are the fish?) provide reliable signs of life and warmth. And surveillance monitors deny even the solace of privacy as you wait for your number to be called.

Staged in its American premiere at St. Ann's Warehouse and co-presented with the Irish Arts Center as part of IAC's Enda Walsh in New York project, the 90-minute play overlaps its three characters' actions with radio voiceovers and highlights the physical quality of their desperation with Emma Martin's ingenious choreography. Alarming sounds, malfunctioning lights and even a small shower of what looks like blood-red ash intensify the situation for Isla (Charlie Murphy), stuck in a room in a tower, a gawky young man (Hugh O'Connor) tasked with keeping an eye on her from his monitor-cluttered security office and another oddball (Oona Doherty) who, in the midst of it all, bursts onto the scene to unleash an extraordinary dance solo. It is Doherty--in her fiery, doom-eager vigor--who dares to raise the banner for life. Although her appearance certainly kicks this play up several notches, there's continuous interest for fans of dance throughout--in particular, the brilliant angularity of Murphy's embodiment of Isla, easily a Duchamp/Marcel Marceau/Pee Wee Herman collab.

Arlington is a disturbing, bracing collage of Walsh's text, Martin's movement, music (Teho Teardo), sound (Helen Atkinson), video (Jack Phelan), scenic design (Jamie Vartan), lighting (Adam Silverman) and the riveting work of its three performers.

Arlington continues through May 28 at St. Ann's Warehouse. For information and tickets, click here.

Rooms--the companion production in the Enda Walsh in New York series--continues through May 28 at Cybert Tire, site of the future home of the Irish Arts Center. For complete information and tickets for Rooms, click here.

St. Ann's Warehouse
45 Water Street, Brooklyn
(map/directions)

Cybert Tire
726 11th Avenue (near 51st Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Donmar Warehouse brings all-woman "Tempest" to St. Ann's

Harriet Walter, above,
and Jade Anouka, below,
in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Tempest
(photo: Teddy Wolff)

How seductive--and risky--to interfere in the natural course of things for one's own ends. In The Tempest, Shakespeare's magician Prospero does just that. An aggrieved man--stripped of his noble status, surviving banishment and near-death--he fully believes in the rightness of uncommon power to control everything from the forces of nature to the romantic life of his daughter. He can twist to his designs everything from the quicksilver spirits of the air to a more fleshy, animal-like Other. Here, on his island of exile, he has enslaved two of each--Ariel, a clever sprite, and Caliban, considered uncivilized and monstrous--yet will come, at last, to learn he is the least free being of all.

As re-imagined by director Phyllida Lloyd for London's Donmar Warehouse and presented now in its US premiere run at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, The Tempest unfolds the elaborate fantasy of an inmate doing hard time in a women's prison. Played with attentive, full-throttle investment by Harriet Walter, 66-year old Hannah has served thirty-five years of a 75-years-to-life sentence for her role as getaway driver in a robbery and murder that, she explains, had radical political motivations. We first glimpse her fellow inmates--most, women of color; she is white and Jewish--as they file through the lobby and into the theater ahead of us. When we enter, we ring their performance space on all sides as if it were a basketball court shrunk in size to give us close-up views of all the action. Characters climb or dash up and down the stairs or park themselves on the highest tiers and, at one point, we even get to play a role in the visual atmosphere of the play.

The first sensations we perceive are unyielding, mercilessly metallic--from the theater's own stark, technical features to the "cell doors" positioned at the top of the audience aisles to the grinding, rumbling, thunderous sounds that suggest the deadly, unnatural storm secretly conjured by Prospero/Hannah. That initial act of will sets the play's characters on a path that will expose and undermine a magician's desire to interfere with reality.

Like previous parts of Lloyd's Shakespearean trilogy--Julius Caesar (2012) and Henry IV (2014), which I have not seen--this Tempest's male roles are played by women actors, all representing women prisoner characters you can meet in a series of short video clips here. So, reality continuously intermingles with fantasy. Lloyd's characters are based on the stories of real women inmates who collaborated with her team on the development of this work. In fact, New York's governor, Andrew Cuomo, recently commuted the sentence of Judith Clark, the model for Walter's Hannah, convicted for her role in the 1981 Brinks robbery.

Shakespeare's Miranda--a female role--is played with Black punk-dyke style and zest by young Leah Harvey. Sheila Atim, her nominally-male Ferdinand, the shipwrecked prince, arrives on their wedding day in a thrift shop outfit as whimsically girly/boy-ly as her own.

Overall, the understated suppleness and focused power of these performances should quiet any objection to the non-traditional casting. It's exhilarating to see how performers like Jackie Clune (Stefano), Karen Dunbar (Trinculo) and the especially vivid and vivacious Jade Anouka (Ariel) simply muscle their way past any gender-related expectations a viewer might have. They make their characters live, and you have no say in the matter.

Composer Joan Armatrading  and movement director Ann Yee throw their own charm into the mix, especially in the wonderful wedding celebration. But for Hannah, and her audience, it's soon time to let dreams and make-believe go and face what is.

The Tempest runs through February 19. Running time: 2 hours, no intermission. For information and tickets, click here.

St. Ann's Warehouse
45 Water Street, Brooklyn
(Google map/directions)

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St. Ann's Warehouse confirms move

Brooklyn Theater Group St. Ann's Warehouse Says It's Leaving Dumbo
by Marlon Bishop, WNYC Culture, July 20, 2011

St. Ann’s Warehouse: future in doubt

St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn Facing a Nomadic Future
by Patrick Healy, The New York Times, June 3, 2011

New warehouse for St. Ann's

St. Ann's Warehouse Approved to Take Over Tobacco Warehouse

by Erik Piepenburg, The New York Times, November 18, 2010

Toying around with theater

Last evening, the good folks from Great Small Works--hosts of the 9th International Toy Theater Festival--devoted time to teaching their audience the fundamental qualities of Toy Theater. It seemed critical that we actually absorb these fundamental qualities in a visceral way. Unfortunately, I cannot recreate that experience for you here, but I will list them.

Toy Theater is:

1. performed within a proscenium arch
2. small
3. made of paper
4. flat
5. something you can do yourself

Well, from what I saw at St. Ann's Warehouse--where the fest runs through Sunday--that definition doesn't always hold true. You can break free of the frame, use other materials besides paper and go 3D to the max. But the part that really gets me is this nice, democratic notion that you and your kids can do this at home.

Oh, sure you can.

Okay, maybe you can...do something...somewhat...like this. But, I can tell you, it will not be easy for the vast majority of us to recreate the visual wonders, heart, wit and surprising sophistication of this theater form at its most effective.

For inspiration, though, go tonight, your last chance to see Who's Hungry--West Hollywood, three lovely, poignant puppet plays by Dan Froot and Dan Hurlin, derived from interviews with homeless LA residents from their Who's Hungry project. The Froot/Hurlin pieces are running in a long, awkwardly-arranged and intermission-less program with works by Concrete Temple Theatre and Marsian, but they're worth the bother.

The Toy Theater Festival's Program 3 (with Froot and Hurlin and others) concludes tonight, with a 7:30pm curtain, at St. Ann's Warehouse, 38 Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn. The festival continues through Sunday.


Also, go early and view THE TEMPORARY TOY THEATER MUSEUM:

"the finest examples of historical and contemporary toy theaters, representing visual artists reinterpreting the Toy Theater form, and collectors, including a group of classic Spanish stages from the collection of Lucia Contreras of Valencia. FREE and open to the public one hour before showtimes."

Complete festival information and schedule

Ticketing or (718) 254-8779

Directions to St. Ann's Warehouse

Multimedia ‘Kamp’ tells Auschwitz story

‘Kamp,’ Auschwitz Tableau, Comes to St. Ann’s Warehouse

by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, June 1, 2010

St. Ann's will lose space

St. Ann’s Warehouse Is Looking for a New Home
by Patrick Healy, ArtsBeat, The New York Times, June 11, 2009

"Black Watch" closing Sunday

Farewell to one of the finest productions I've seen this season.

In ‘Black Watch,’ a Band of Brothers With Camaraderie Forged on the Boards
by Patrick Healy, The New York Times, December 16, 2008

My commentary on "Black Watch"

Go see "Black Watch" now!

Great news!

The return run of National Theatre of Scotland's Black Watch, at St. Ann's Warehouse in the Dumbo section of Brooklyn, has been extended through December 21. This rivetting, deeply-moving production explores the contemporary experience of a Scottish regiment deployed to Iraq and that regiment's renowned history.

I was knocked out by the imaginative, powerful staging and performances and, while writer Gregory Burke, director John Tiffany and every single contributor should be highly praised, let's give a standing ovation especially to Steven Hoggett, NTS's associate director for movement. Movement is an integral, essential, magical aspect of the storytelling in Black Watch and, as movers, the eleven actors could not be better.

Hurry and get your tickets!