Big-time congratulations to George Hunka and Isaac Butler for Sustaining, their workshop that opened last night at manhattantheatresource. Now, I'm calling it a workshop, because that's what Isaac and George are calling it, but this production has none of the tentativeness I normally associate with workshops. After only nine rehearsals, this production looks confident to me; it looks like a play.
George's script cleverly redirects the iconic power of some of Beckett's great imagery into situations more prosaic and immediate. A couple in their eighties, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson, are on their way to the bank to cash their social security check, and on the way there encounter two figures from their past and two strangers who cause them to take stock of their lives in different ways. The emotional turning point near the end is a lovely speech into the void by Mrs. Anderson that invokes "Was I sleeping while the others suffered?" from "Godot" but turns that more abstract meditation on powerlessness into something specific and keenly painful. To me, George's playwriting is Exhibit A in why playwrights need to be be well-read in the dramatic canon. There's amazing resources there you can tap into to feed something new and entirely your own. Otherwise, you're drawing from television.
When I read Sustaining I thought it was primarily a melancholy piece; Isaac's production changed my mind. Now I think it's a sad physical comedy. There actually were quite a few laughs; the Andersons are scrappier characters than I realized from my first read of the text. I really like Isaac's relaxed, unforced way of visually composing actors on the stage. He makes meaningful shapes out of groupings of people. The first play of his I saw, First You're Born, was accomplished at integrating these compositions with sets, but I kinda like it even better when he has no money and creates his visuals almost entirely with actors, like with this one and volume of smoke. The less he has, the more inventive he gets. (Isaac, in a perfect world, would probably rather have money and sets, but I'm just sayin'.) And his cast is really on the ball, really confident physically and tonally. The fact that everyone is much younger than their characters actually has a neat effect in a play about old people looking back.
It's running two more nights. See it if you can. Here is the info.
Thanks, Mac. It was great to see you at the show... as for your other question... i will probably write a post on whether or not I want money and sets or not... it's a constant dilemma of mine.
Posted by: isaac | January 17, 2005 at 08:03 PM
hey, if you're interested, i wrote that post i said i was going to. It's on my site.
Posted by: Isaac Butler | January 20, 2005 at 10:48 PM
Hey. Im isaac not you. whats the deal, i mean c'mon.
Posted by: Isaac Kois | November 08, 2005 at 09:42 AM
Well, I'm Kois, not you.
Posted by: Kois | November 17, 2005 at 09:51 PM
well my name is Isaac Kois, so i just one upped you. Jordon fades back... swoosh! and thats the game!
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Zing!
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