| Issue #50, March 23, 2007 |
review: dying city...
by gordin & christiano
The Lincoln Center Theater production of Dying City, a new play by Christopher Shinn, directed by James Macdonald, is an engaging 90-minute journey into the troubled souls of three people impacted by the war in Iraq. The little play with much to say was originally produced in London last spring at the Royal Court Theatre and has been beautifully staged here at the Mitzi E. Newhouse theatre.
The story is set in July of 2005, where a young therapist named Kelly (Rebecca Brooksher) is home alone, watching television and packing. We soon learn that her husband died under questionable circumstances while on military duty in Iraq the previous year. There is a loud knock on the door and Peter (Pablo Schreiber) her husband’s identical, twin gay brother enters. He has just walked off stage in the middle of a performance of Long Day’s Journey into Night because his co-star made an anti-gay remark towards him while onstage. He has been trying to re-establish contact with Kelly ever since his brother’s death, but her phone has been disconnected and she has not returned his letters. At first, she behaves as if she didn’t know that Peter was in town.
In the middle of the first scene, the actor who plays Peter leaves the room and returns as his bother Craig, Kelly’s husband. Schreiber adopts different qualities and wears a different article of clothing as each character. The time shifts to a year earlier, on the night before Craig departs for Fort Bening. As the action evolves, the scenes alternate between 2004 and 2005, between Kelly and Craig and Kelly and Peter. This feels a bit confusing at first, but you do get used to it quickly. With each scene, more is revealed, increasing the emotional stakes. We learn not only of the complexities between Kelly and her brother-in-law Peter, but also of her husband’s deeply troubled nature.
James MacDonald helmed the London production, as well as several other plays at the Royal Court Theatre. In New York, he guided a well-received production of Caryl Churchill’s A Number at the NY Theater Workshop. His direction of Dying City conveys a seesaw of emotional ups and downs. He has drawn strong, understated performances from the two leads who give a layered nuances to the evening.
Although he has handled the tricky structure of the play skillfully, it still feels like a gimmick every time Mr. Schreiber leaves the set as one brother and returns as the other. Unfortunately, you always see it coming and it feels like a jarring contrivance.
The evening is enhanced by Anthony Ward’s understated set, consisting of a bare living room on a raised, revolving platform that turns the Mitzi Newhouse into a real theater in-the-round and places the emphasis completely on the actors. Pat Collins’s simple lighting compliments the setting as its starkness highlights the actors emotional lives.
The accumulation of events and revelations, although most interesting, don’t add up. You never quite understand what happened or why, but hey, that’s life. It may not matter, as long as you get involved and take the ride.
Dying City opened on March 4, 2007 at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, 150 West 65 Street, and will play a limited run through April 29. Tickets are available at www.telecharge.com, 212-239-6200, www.lct.org, or at the Lincoln Center box office.
Gordin & Christiano are theater critics. Barry Gordin is an internationally renowned photographer. They can be reached at bg6@verizon.net.
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