Illyria

D

I fear that playwright Richard Nelson is in danger of becoming a victim of self-parody. He seems to have succumbed to a one-size-fits-all solution to every dramatic problem: drag out a large table, some food and a bunch of actors and let the conversation begin. This worked out very well in the Apple family plays and somewhat less well in the Gabriel family plays, but he has definitely hit the point of diminishing returns in his latest effort for the Public Theater. Allegedly meant as a tribute to Joseph Papp and the other founders of the New York Shakespeare Festival as they struggled for survival during the summer of 1958, it sheds little light or heat. We meet Festival producer Papp (John Magaro; The Front Page), his actress wife Peggy (Kristen Connolly), press agent Merle Dubuskey (Fran Kranz), director Stuart Vaughan (John Sanders; Groundhog Day), his wife Gladys (Emma Duncan) who is Papp’s assistant; musician/composer David Amram (Blake DeLong), stage manager John Robertson (Max Woertendyke) and actresss Colleen Dewhurst (Rosie Benton). Not seen but frequently heard of is her husband, actor George C. Scott. Mary Bennett (Naian Gonzalez Norvind; How To Transcend a Happy Marriage) is a young actress auditioning for a role. Bernie Gersten (Will Brill; Act One), a stage manager, is a long-time friend of Papp’s. Vaughan, who has been cutting back his work with the Festival for more lucrative work elsewhere, is one of the few characters who comes across with any vividness. Most of the others, who, if you Google them, were fascinating people, are virtual ciphers here. We hear about fights with Robert Moses, the imminent destruction of Carnegie Hall, the razing of a neighborhood to build Lincoln Center, the fallout from testifying before HUAC, but these are mostly fleeting references. At the end of the long first scene, I was hopeful; by the end of the second, considerably less so. The rambling third scene squandered whatever positive feelings I had left for the play. Interestingly, what I feared most proved to be a non-issue: there were many complaints about difficulty hearing the actors. I was going to get a listening device but the line was so long I gave up and did without. From the far end of the sixth row, I had no problem hearing. If only there had been more worth listening to. The set design which mainly involved well-worn tables and chairs was by Susan Hilferty (who also designed the costumes) and Jason Ardizzone-West. The playwright directed. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission.

Tribes ****

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Director David Cromer, whose production of Our Town at Barrow Street Theatre was so widely acclaimed, is back with an Olivier-nominated family drama by Nina Raine about deafness and language. Billy (Russell Harvard), the deaf youngest child of an intellectual family headed by retired academic Christopher (Jeff Perry) and would-be novelist Beth (Mare Winningham), is a very skilled lip-reader, but was deliberately never taught sign language. His seriously depressed brother Daniel (Will Brill) is writing a dissertation on the inadequacy of language. His sister Ruth (Gayle Rankin) is an unsuccessful opera singer. His self-absorbed parents and siblings may hear, but they don't listen. Billy's feeling of isolation when he is left out of their intellectual battles goes unnoticed. When he falls in love with Sylvia (Susan Pourfar), a young woman active in the deaf community who is herself going deaf and who teaches him sign language, Billy's feelings toward his family change dramatically. A subplot about him working for the court system reading lips from surveillance videos misfires. The cast is uniformly excellent. The set by Scott Pask makes good use of the limited space. Staging the play in the round (in the square, actually) works quite well. The play presents interesting arguments about whether embracing deaf culture is liberating or limiting. It is far from perfect, but it is thought-provoking and deeply felt. It's not for everyone, but I was glad I saw it. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes including intermission.