Sanctuary City

C

Over a year and a half has passed since I last set foot in a theater. My exile ended today with a visit to the Lucille Lortel Theatre for New York Theatre Festival’s production of Martyna Majok’s Sanctuary City. I felt a mixture of eagerness and anxiety when I arrived at the theater. There were two lines, one for people with tickets in hand or on their phone and the other for will-call. I showed my ID, Excelsior Pass and ticket and found my seat. Even allowing for deliberately leaving empty seats between theatergoers, the size of the audience was far from the capacity. The usher patrolled the house reminding people to keep their masks on properly.

My expectations were rather high since I had liked Majok’s Cost of Living a lot and had found her immigrant drama queens flawed but interesting. Once again she has turned to the immigrant community for her subject. This time the focus is on two Latinx “dreamers” in Newark who are 17 when the play begins shortly after 9/11. I was moderately taken aback that the two leading characters were identified only as B and G. The benefit of depriving them of first names was not apparent to me. B (Jasai Chase-Owens; The Tempest and A MIdsummer Night’s Dream at the Public) is a bright hard-working young man whose mother decides to return to her homeland, leaving him alone in Newark. G (Sharlene Cruz; Red Bull/Hunter’s Mac Beth), a friend since third grade, has a mother who has brought home a series of abusive boyfriends who sometimes have included G in their abuse. She has often “crashed” with B for safety. Their sleeping together remains chaste, which should set off alarm bells for what follows. Just before G turns 18, she becomes an American citizen by virtue of her mother’s naturalization. To save B from a bleak future, G offers to marry him so he too can become a citizen. They rehearse answering the immigration officer’s likely questions to authenticate a marriage, Without clinching the deal, G goes off to Boston on a scholarship. Up to that point, the play has been highly stylized, with sentences and even fragments of sentences being repeated either with or without variation. Short scenes are repeated out of sequence for no apparent reason. I did not feel that the stylization enhanced the material. The style of the play becomes much more naturalistic when it jumps ahead almost four years. G has returned from Boston on a school break. B is strangely hostile to her. We then meet the third character, Henry (Austin Smith; Hamilton, An Octoroon), whose presence gives us new information about B. The rest of the play is mainly a contest between G and Henry to win B’s exclusive company. I found the story more than a little implausible. Specifically, I could not believe that G could have been so blind to B’s nature. I had trouble understanding what motivated her. All three actors are attractive and do justice to their roles. The abrupt shift in style midway through the play puzzled me. Rebecca Frecknell, Associate Director of London’s Almeida Theatre, is listed as director, but Caitlin Sullivan (Hundred Days at NYTW) is credited as Remount Director. The set by Tom Scutt consists mainly of a bare elevated platform; his costumes did not draw attention. Finally, I feel that the title is a misnomer. What is commonly understood by "sanctuary city" has almost nothing to do with the play.

While it was a pleasure to be back in a theater, I am sorry that the occasion was a bit of a disappointment. Running time: 100 minutes, no intermission.

King Charles III ***

Playwright Mike Bartlett, whose plays “Cock” and “Bull” had successful New York runs, certainly deserves an “A” for audacity. In this ‘future history play,’ now on Broadway, he speculates on what might happen when Queen Elizabeth II finally leaves the scene. His portrayal of the surviving royals is less than flattering, so it is a tribute to British openness that this play could even appear on a London stage, let alone win a bunch of prizes. To up the ante, Bartlett has written the play in blank verse and filled it with allusions to several Shakespeare plays. When the aged Charles (a fine Tim Pigott-Smith) at last becomes king, the first thing he does is provoke a crisis by his principled but ill-advised refusal to sign a privacy bill that Parliament has passed because he feels it is too restrictive to the press. Considering the treatment by the press that he had endured over the years, his stand is ironic. During the more satirical first act, we meet all the members of the immediate royal family whose portrayal both supports and subverts our preconceptions, as well as the prime minister and the leader of the opposition. The 11 other cast members, all from the West End production, (Anthony Calf, Oliver Chris, Richard Goulding, Nyasia Hatendi, Adam James, Margot Leicester, Miles Richardson, Tom Robertson, Sally Scott, Tafline Steen and Lydia Wilson) are excellent. As the crisis deepens, the second act turns darker and more Lear-like. The splendid production, fluidly directed by Rupert Goold, has a simple but effective set by Tom Scutt with a large carpeted dais surrounded by stone walls with a few doors. There is a band high on the walls that at first looks like it is composed of round stones, but when the lighting changes they are revealed to be the suggestions of faces watching the action. The costumes are mostly black except for the ceremonial outfits worn on occasion by the three male royals. We are also treated to live music by Joyce Pook, played by two musicians in one of the boxes. The play has interesting things to say about the role of royalty in the 21st century and the current state of life in the UK. However, if you are not a devoted Anglophile or an avid follower of the royal family, you may find the evening a bit tedious. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes including intermission.

Constellations ***

After being underwhelmed by Nick Payne’s previous play with Jake Gyllenhaal, “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet,” two years ago (my review is at http://bobs-theater-blog.blogspot.com/2012/09/if-there-is-i-havent-found-it.html), I approached this MTC production of “Constellations” with low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this two-hander is a considerably more interesting and better written play. In just over an hour, it gives us the arc of a relationship between Marianne (the phenomenal Ruth Wilson, recently of Showtime’s “The Affair”), a quantum physicist, and Roland (Gyllenhaal, in fine form), a beekeeper. With the possibility that there are parallel universes where different versions of ourselves behave differently, Payne presents us with multiple short variations of scenes where things turn out differently based on as little as a different emphasis in a line reading. Some will find these variations fascinating, while others may find them just annoyingly repetitive. The love story has a beginning, middle and end; just don’t expect them to be presented in strict chronological order. As an opportunity for two fine actors to show their stuff, the play succeeds brilliantly. As a story, it appealed more to my head than to my heart. Michael Longhurst’s direction is completely assured. Tom Scutt’s scenic design of white balloons above a raised platform is simple and effective. Lee Curran’s lighting and David McSeveney’s sound design punctuate the scenes emphatically. Running time: 70 minutes, no intermission.