Blood Knot/Painting Churches/Hurt Village - 3 on 42nd St.

[skynyc]

Gentlemen, in the last week, I have had the pleasure of seeing three shows on the new 42nd St. Two at the very audience-friendly new Pershing Square Signature Center, and one at the Theater Row complex which is just East of there. Between these complexes and Playwrights Horizons, which sits neatly between them, I think some of the most interesting NY theater is coming to life.

 

I am not going to list them in the order I saw them, I am going to write about them in MY order of appeal.

 

Painting Churches got a lot of buzz for Tina Howe when it was first presented in the late 80s with Marion Seldes, Donald Moffat, and Elizabeth McGovern. The tale of a wealthy Boston couple, he's an American poet laureate, who have outlived their income, and are moving from their tony Back Bay home because they can no longer afford the taxes. Their only daughter, an art professor (and noted portrait artist) at Pratt Institute in NYC, has come for a visit, and to attempt to have her parents sit for her...at last. She's pretty clueless as to what's going on with her aging folks. Her father is clearing the middle stages of Alzheimer's and mom is wearing out from caring for him.

 

I have to say, I missed this play in the 80s, but heard about it from friends. It was filmed for American Playhouse (anyone remember that PBS treasure?) in 1989 again, with Donald Moffat playing Gardner, but Sada Thompson playing the role of his wife Fanny.

 

That's the history. When this cropped up on tdf, I was anxious to see it because of discussions of plays about the old moneyed families, and I booked a seat. I was especially pleased because it stars Kathleen Chalfont, and John Cunningham, both of whom are favorites of mine. Well, while the play disappointed these two consummate performers did not. The first act is a bit of a jumbled mess, and I thought the direction was pretty flimsy, and the actress playing the daughter did not impress.

 

However, in the second act, Gardner and Fanny have a sensational scene that made the evening worthwhile. I do think that there are real problems with the play in general, and part of this is why I thought the daughter was such a weak character...it's the playwright's fault. How this artistic and culturally fascinating couple are so unaware of their daughter's life...they don't know Pratt Institute for example. And the daughter's complete unknowing/denial of her parents significant aging also makes her a frustrating character.

 

But particularly since it was a tdf offering, I am glad to have seen the senior actors on the boards again.

 

Athol Fugard's Blood Knot has just closed as the inaugural production in the Signature Center's very nice new space, designed by Frank Gehry. An early Fugard work, it deals with two half-brothers, one of whom is light enough to pass as white. The chemistry between the actors, Scott Shepherd (who has just begin a run recreating his role as Nick in GATZ, last year's hit at the Public) and Colman Domingo (who received a Tony nomination for The Scottsboro Boys last year) was terrific, and while the play seemed very dated and predictable, it was interesting to see this piece, especially as the Signature is honoring Fugard's 80th birthday by doing two more of his pieces this year, (and the Roundabout did yet another).

 

And now on to the must-see of the three...Hurt Village by Katori Hall. Taking place in Hall's hometown of Memphis, we focus on the Hurt Village Projects in the recent past. Hurt Village (which is near where Elvis grew up) was a housing complex built in the 50s for white families, but became a impoverished African-American community by the late 1990s, full of gang tension and drug abuse. In 2001, the city of Memphis determined to relocate the remaining residents to bulldoze the community and build condominiums.

 

The play is set as the residents prepare to leave, and we follow Big Mama, her grandson's girlfriend and their daughter Cookie, who is now 13. A powerful and engaging piece that holds no punches in depicting the life of poverty, we were rapt for the 2 1/2 hours. Cookie is very bright and is now being bussed to an all-white school, where her learning has all ready outstripped all those in her household. Suddenly, Cookie's dad, Buggy returns, after ten years in the service and while he joined up to escape, he finds himself stuck back in the same old rut that he was running from.

 

Over the course of the evening, we encounter two young drug-runners, Skillet and Ebony, Buggy's old partner-in-crime, Cornbread and Cornbread's girl, Toyia. And of course, Tony C, the drug lord of the region, who has close connections to Buggy's past.

 

But don't think that this is a play about the drug culture and violence of the projects, that's too narrow a view. It's a very disturbing overview of the culture as a whole...of a grandmother who makes $238 too much at her job cleaning toilets at the VA hospital to qualify for public assistance; of women who use either abortion or crack as birth control; and of a generation of disenfranchised young men whose ONLY way to make enough money to escape the situation is to sell drugs.

 

The performances were uniformly terrific, but Joaquina Kalukango as the child/woman Cookie is extraordinary. Had this play been performed on Broadway, Ms. Kalukango would be serious competition for Stockard Channing, Linda Lavin, Linda Emond, and Cynthia Nixon for the Tony.

 

As we walked out we talked about when we've seen plays by Martin McDonough, etc, where it took twenty or so minutes to start to understand the accents. Well, the same applies here...but the efforts paid off, and I do recommend this to any serious theater-goer who likes their theater with a little meat on it.

[+ nycman]

I saw Hurt Village a few weeks ago and I thought it was amazing.

There were times when I was completely mesmerized by the

performances. Honestly some of the best theater I've seen in a long time.

It's not easy to write a play about drug culture and the projects that

doesn't come off as one big cliché'. I think this play accomplishes that

and then some. The entire show has a very Tennessee Williams feel to it.

Immense southern melancholia, preordained disaster, and a sense that

there was no escape from the minute the story began to unfold.

 

The show that I saw in previews still needed some editing and some of the parts

where I was obviously "supposed" to be moved, just fell flat. I sat next to the

playwright and she was taking copious notes, so hopefully the show is now even

more amazing.

 

I also agree Joaquina Kalukango gave a stunning performance as Cookie. The

entire show was wonderfully twisted, gut wrenching, and passionate.