Novenas for a Lost Hospital

B-

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is presenting the world premiere of this ambitious environmental piece by Cusi Cram celebrating the 161 years of St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village and mourning its closure to make way for expensive condominiums. The evening begins in the courtyard of St. John’s-in-the-Village Church with a prologue that combines ritual ablution, chants, instrumental music and dance. The audience then moves next door to the Rattlestick space which has been configured with pews on three sides surrounding an array of hospital privacy screens displaying moments from the hospital’s long history. Each attendee receives an electric votive candle for use later in the evening. During the play proper, we meet Elizabeth Seton (Kathleen Chalfant), who founded the order that opened the hospital, two nuns who served there during the early years and an early surgeon. We also meet two nurses and a doctor from the hospital’s later years when it became a major care center for AIDS patients, as well as Lazarus (Ken Barnett), a patient who miraculously survives two near-death experiences, and JB (Justin Genna), a talented choreographer, who meet in the AIDS ward and become a couple. There are assorted other characters from various periods in the hospital’s history. The play draws parallels between the hospital’s role in the cholera epidemic of the 1840s and during the AIDS crisis. There are recriminations over the series of terrible decisions that led to the hospital’s closure and a lament over the impermanence of all things in New York City. The evening concludes with a ceremonial march past the new condos to the nearby NYC Aids Memorial where the votive candles are deposited. It’s a noble attempt to pay tribute to an important part of local history. The narrative is perhaps too ambitious in the number of stories it tells and runs a bit too long. The story of Pierre Toussaint (Alvin Keith), a freed slave who becomes an important NYC philanthropist, while fascinating, does not seem to be integral to the hospital’s history. Nevertheless, it all makes for an unusual evening and is to be commended for offering something different. Furthermore, it’s always a treat to see Ms. Chalfant onstage. I am not sure how much interest it holds for those who do not live in the Village and those who were not touched directly or indirectly by the AIDS crisis. Rattlestick artistic director Daniella Topol directed. Running time: two hours 20 minutes.