Play Ball! Three strikes in "Ghetto Babylon"

There are some things so fundamental, they really don't involve choice For instance, you don't choose to breathe, do you?

Malik Ali, Alejandro Rodriguez, and Sean Carvajal in "Ghetto Babylon" at 59E59 Theaters.
Photo by Lisa Silberman

Worried about disappointing his "boys," -- the thuggish Spec (Sean Caravjal) and the tender Felix (Malik Ali)-- Charles Rosa (Alejandro Rodriguez) is in a fourteen-year-old's quandry. In "Ghetto Babylon," at 59E59 Theaters through August 18th, Charlie Baseball is the star pitcher on the West Farms Warriors. The team, after many seasons, seems finally destined to win the Bronx championship.  And Charlie, if he stays the course, is likely to get them there.

It's not everyone's dream to get out, even when the getting is out of poverty and ignorance. Spec, for instance, expects to have Rikers in his future. "I keep havin' this dream," he tells Charlie. "It be ten years from now. Felix be Felix, he all right, and we still tight. He like a captain at one of those fancy restaurants.... I be out from another bullshit bid upstate, Rikers, whatever...." 

Alejandro Rodriguez and Talia Marrero in “Ghetto Babylon” at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by Lisa Silberman

Charlie is a reader. His downstairs neighbor, Sarafina Santo (Talia Marrero) calls him Honor Rolls. For Charlie's cousin Felix, wearing the jacket the Warriors would win is a ticket to being recognized when they get to Theodore Roosevelt High School in the fall. Charlie has his own, very different ticket out, but it means ditching the final game for the Bronx-wide win. 

Alejandro Rodriguez acquits himself fairly well as the narrative figure in "Ghetto Babylon."
He is adequately supported by his castmates, especially the alluring Talia Marrero as Sarafina.

Michael Mejias has written a memory play with an extremely porous dilemma. His language alternately fascinating and downright uninspired. Mejias likes to sprinkle expressions such as "Anywho," in use by Sarafina and Spec. Or, "the wide wide world," which is used repeatedly as if it were an incantation. Mixing the mystical, the mythical and the magical by ijnvoking Charlie's dead mom, a hot love interest in Sarafina, and bringing in the Catcher from "Catcher in the Rye" just unfocuses "Ghetto Babylon." There is also some unfortunate ghetto stereo-typing in "Ghetto Babylon" that probably shouldn't get a pass. 

For more information about "Ghetto Babylon," please visit 59e59.org.

Work is a special kind of hell in "Bull"

Sam Troughton and Eleanor Matsuura in Mike Bartlett's "Bull," part of Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters.
Photo by Carol Rosegg

If the only intriguing thing about Mike Bartlett's "Bull" were that he had a recent success off-Broadway with a play called "C**k," it might be enough for some of us. But "Bull" is far from a mere companion set-piece, offering the cutely indulgent possibility of being labelled "C**k" and "Bull." 

Eleanor Matsuura and Adam James in Mike Bartlett's "Bull," part of Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters.
Photo by Carol Rosegg

"Bull," in a Sheffield Theatres production at 59E59 Theater's Brits Off-Broadway festivities, through June 2nd, is in fact, a rather brilliantly brutal study of humiliation and dominance.

Sam Troughton and Adam James in Mike Bartlett's "Bull," part of Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters.
Photo by Carol Rosegg

Thomas (Sam Troughton) is alternately bewildered and out-manned by his co-workers, Isobel (Eleanor Matsuura) and Tony (Adam James) as he struggles to survive at work. The team is about to be pared down by their boss, Carter (Neil Stuke) whose visit the three are anticipating in an office made to look like a fight ring, designed by Soutra Gilmour.

Sam Troughton, Neil Stuke, Adam James, and Eleanor Matsuura in Mike Bartlett's "Bull," part of Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by Carol Rosegg

"Bull" is a cage match, with Carter as reluctant referee. Thomas' being cut is a foregone conclusion. Carter, unctious and self-assured, describes his mission to downsize as "a cull to save the species, by which I mean the rest of us, from extinction."

Eleanor Matsuura, Sam Troughton, and Adam James in Mike Bartlett's "Bull,", part of Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by Carol Rosegg. Choreography by Allistair David and Fight Direction by Christian Thomas.

The actors move about aggressively-- or in Thomas's case defensively-- with choreography by Allistair David and Fight Direction by Chrisitan Thomas, in a Darwinian dance of death. The ensemble, under Clare Lizzimore's direction, is superb.

"Bull" creates the very definition of a hostile work environment.

For more information about "Bull," visit www.59e59.org.