Tom Gualtieri goes solo

Tom Gualtieri (photo by Rob Sutton)

He had us from "When shall we three meet again...?"

He never lets us go.

Tom Gualtieri is Macbeth.

And Lady Macbeth.

And pretty much everyone else, including that infamous trio of "secret, black, and midnight hags" that he embodies in fully-invested, tense and gnarled physicality.

Die drei Hexen by Johann Heinrich Füssli (1783)

I might still long to see Alan Cumming make his way through Shakespearean darkness alone (and, yes, yes, I do). But I'm not at all sorry to have spent eighty minutes in thrall to sly, supple Gualtieri and That Play: A Solo Macbeth at Stage Left Studio.

Even when not physically conjuring the three weird ones, he knows how to shape every minute tilt of the head or flick of the eye into telling elements along a winding, complex dance. His silky, sinuous, glittering snake of a Lady Macbeth could fill an entire performance on her own. You can feel how much he relishes his moments as her, his finest.

photo by Rob Sutton

A word of warning. Stage Left Studio--you may remember it from my review of Margaret Morrison's Home in Her Heart--is a tiny speck of space tucked away on the sixth floor of an unassuming building just south of Penn Station. Seating is not only scarce; it is virtually in the lap of any performer strutting and fretting his or her hour or so upon the slip of a stage. Audience and player(s) are both captive. And, in the case of That Play, you might find yourself fretting and sweating along with an increasingly desperate Scotsman, particularly when you're asked to recall...well, I'm not going to give that juicy part away.

Gualtieri and co-writer and director Heather Hill seem to take perverse pleasure in plunging each one of us into the shadows. For this is not just the "Scottish Play," but the Scottish Play with a clever, sometimes amusing Narrator who not only guides and comments but also obeys his own compulsion to, as he would put it, "write the darkness into the room."

Nominated for the 2013 Drama Desk Award ("Unique Theatrical Experience"), That Play: A Solo Macbeth concludes its extended run on May 25. Just five performances remain--Saturday, May 11; Tuesday, May 14; Wednesday, May 15; Thursday, May 16, and Saturday, May 25, all at 7:30pm.

For Stage Left Studio information and tickets, click here.
To visit the Web site of That Play: A Solo Macbeth, click here.

Stage Left Studio
214 West 30th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Margaret Morrison's "Home in Her Heart"

Margaret Morrison and Ericka L. Hart in Home in Her Heart

Home in Her Heart, a new play by Margaret Morrison--better known for her sharp and personable tap dancing--deals with the complexities of race and queer identity in a particularly fraught time for the world. It is 1939. Hitler's shadow looms over Great Britain, and two popular American entertainers based in London--a singing, tap dancing male-impersonator and her gifted pianist--face a wrenching decision. They must evacuate. Still, as difficult as it will be to leave secure careers, that may be the least of their problems.

Both women, they are deeply in love and, quite clearly, in lust. One is white and Jewish (Morrison), the other, Black and Christian (Ericka L. Hart). The dilemma of returning together, openly, as a couple to their segregated homeland and, in the case of the pianist, a potentially homophobic family, cause the lovers to painfully confront assumptions they have made about their individual lives and choices, their treasured, private relationship and how they relate to the outside world.

Someone told me that, since its initial showing in April at the 2012 Left Out Festival (created by the play's director Cheryl King), Home in Her Heart has been reworked to beef up the characterizations. After all, a two-character play--and one addressing issues of this magnitude and consequence--really needs to have characters with depth and plausibility. This enhancement, with more backstory for each character, occasionally makes the evening feel protracted. Luckily, the two actresses make it work.

Morrison brings her fine-tuned physical expressiveness and sincerity to every single moment, even if her personality sometimes projects a bit too much for King's tiny Stage Left Studio. Hart with her more understated gleam, her blend of gentleness and contained pride, seems better suited to the closeness of the studio's space. Claire Hicks (Hart's character) is a formerly straight, proper, church-going widow who likes to insist that the dynamic, devoted Jimmie LeRoy (Morrison) seduced her. The pair's erotic chemistry is frank and believable.

If all that's not enough, throw in a few brief tap routines for Morrison in a man-tailored stripe-suit, for which the great Brenda Bufalino was choreography consultant.

Cynthia Hilts contributed the soundtrack of piano solos.

Home in Her Heart continues at Stage Left Studio on November 2, 10, 13 and 27, December 4, 11 and 17 at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Stage Left Studio
214 West 30th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), 6th Floor, Manhattan
(map/directions)