If Memory Serves... "The Good Mother" and "The Great God Pan"

If "the past is prologue," what follows for those who are stuck in the past?

In their latest work, playwrights Amy Herzog and Francine Volpe focus on protagonists who are diminished by their past.

In Volpe's "The Good Mother," at the New Group in the Acorn theater through December 22nd, personal history sets up a pattern of self-destruction and delusion.  Larissa (Gretchen Mol) is held back by an infantile crush on her teen counsellor, Joel (Mark Blum.) Larissa exerts her considerable allure to entangle the men in her life in webs of intrigue.

Mark Blum as Joel and Gretchen Mol as Larissa in "The Good Mother."  Photo by Monique Carboni.

Memory is a double-edged sword of nostalgia and dread in Herzog's "The Great God Pan," at Playwrights Horizons mainstage through  Januaray 6, 2013. It may be that Jamie (Jeremy Strong) is stymied by suppressed memories. Jamie has a middling career. He is not fully committed in his long-term relationship with Paige (Sarah Goldberg.) His mother, Cathy (Becky Ann Baker) worries that is not happy. Jamie is stumbling along with his life when he reunites with a boyhood friend, Frank (Keith Nobbs).Frank's unwelcome revelations make Jamie and his father, Doug (Peter Friedman) uneasy.

Jeremy Strong as Jamie with Sarah Goldberg as Paige in "The Great God Pan." Photo by Joan Marcus.

Keith Nobbs cuts a splendidly fierce goth-like figure. His Frank is straightforward and secure. Jeremy Strong's Jamie is appropriately listless and uncertain.

Keith Nobbs as Frank and Jeremy Strong as Jamie  in "The Great God Pan." Photo by Joan Marcus.

The pathologically self-absorbed Larissa in "The Good Mother," on the other hand, willfully provokes a series of incidents that unsettle her peace and comfort. She victimizes Angus (Eric Nelsen), Joel's troubled son, and leaves him bewildered. After a one-night stand, she calls upon the protective and equally befuddled Jonathan (Darren Goldstein) and then dismisses him.

Gretchen Mol as Larissa with Darren Goldstein as Jonathan in "The Good Mother." Photo by Monique Carboni.

Larissa is a temptress and a user. She doesn't seem to care that her schemes, like her troubled past, all seem to backfire. It's easy to see her triumphant smirk from ten rows back as she draws in the long-ago jilted Buddy (Alfredo Narciso.)

Fans of HBOs Boardwalk Empire will be happy to again see Gretchen Mol in person. She acquits herself brilliantly in this psychological thriller.

The many lingering questions Amy Herzog leaves unanswered in "The Great God Pan" are part of its dramatic power. Carolyn Cantor directs the superb cast in even and compelling performances. Volpe's "The Good Mother," under Scott Elliot's direction,  is satisfyingly complex. 

Larissa and Jamie are both hampered by their childhoods, and haunted by their pasts.

For more information about "The Good Mother," visit http://www.thenewgroup.org/. To learn more about "The Great God Pan," go to www.playwrightshorizons.org     

Doomed to repeat past mistakes in "The Good Mother"

If "the past is prologue," what follows for those who are stuck in the past?

In their latest work, playwrights Amy Herzog and Francine Volpe focus on protagonists who are diminished by their past. [More on Herzog's play after opening on December 18th.]

In Volpe's "The Good Mother," at the New Group in the Acorn theater through December 22nd, personal history sets up a pattern of self-destruction and delusion.  Larissa (Gretchen Mol) is held back by an infantile crush on her teen counsellor, Joel (Mark Blum.) Larissa exerts her considerable allure to entangle the men in her life in webs of intrigue.

Mark Blum as Joel and Gretchen Mol as Larissa in "The Good Mother."  Photo by Monique Carboni.

The pathologically self-absorbed Larissa in "The Good Mother," willfully provokes a series of incidents that unsettle her peace and comfort. She victimizes Angus (Eric Nelsen), Joel's troubled son, and leaves him bewildered. After a one-night stand, she calls upon the protective and equally befuddled Jonathan (Darren Goldstein) and then dismisses him.

Gretchen Mol as Larissa with Darren Goldstein as Jonathan in "The Good Mother." Photo by Monique Carboni.

Larissa is a temptress and a user. She doesn't seem to care that her schemes, like her troubled past, all seem to backfire. It's easy to see her triumphant smirk from ten rows back as she draws in the long-ago jilted Buddy (Alfredo Narciso.)

Fans of HBOs Boardwalk Empire will be happy to again see Gretchen Mol in person. She acquits herself brilliantly in this psychological thriller.

Carolyn Cantor directs the superb cast in even and compelling performances. Volpe's "The Good Mother," under Scott Elliot's direction,  is satisfyingly complex. 

For more information about "The Good Mother," visit http://www.thenewgroup.org/

Apocalypse Now in "Through The Yellow Hour"

War is chaotic.

In "Through The Yellow Hour," at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater through October 28th, playwright and directorAdam Rapp visits an apocalypse on New York City.

Rapp is no stranger to the odd and allegorical. ("Dreams of Flying , Dreams of Falling" is one that comes to mind as a for instance.)

Photo © Sandra Coudert.
Alok Tewari, Danielle Slavick,
Hani Furstenberg, Matt Pilieci,
Vladimir Versailles, Brian Mendes,
and Joanne Tucker 

Everything in "Through The Yellow Hour" is site specific. The city has been attacked by the Egg Heads, who are systematically killing off the populaton. Ellen (Hani Furstenberg) is holed up in her East Village apartment, waiting for her husband Paul to return. She is the ultimate survivor, trading for foodstuffs and drugs through a network outside her well-fortified door. The first of the nightmares from outside creeps in through a window and ends as the Dead man (Brian Mendes), slumped on the floor for the rest of the play.


There is safety in Pennsylvania, as Maude (Danielle Slavick) tells her when she drops off her baby girl in exchange for a fix.    "There are barges you can get on. They’re traveling south along the shallows of Lake Erie," she says. When Ellen responds that her plans for escape are "risky," Maude says  "No riskier than staying here." Gunfire and the occasional explosion punctuate the dialogue, in "Through The Yellow Hour," like a soundtrack of terror, designed by Christian Frederickson. 

Hani Furstenberg as Ellen and Vladimir Versailles as Darius in Adam Rapp's "Through The Yellow Hour."
Photo © Sandra Coudert.

The end of times vision  in "Through The Yellow Hour" is further accentuated by the elaborately derelect sets by Andromache  Chalfant, and moody lighting of Keith Parham. This is a mesmerizing and puzzling drama, with a superb cast led by Hani Furstenberg.

For more information about "Through The Yellow Hour" and tickets, visit Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

Darkness in "Red Dog Howls"

Sometimes it seems like it's hard enough to know who we are when no one has deceived us about our identity.

Kathleen Chalfant as Rose and Alfredo Narciso as Michael in "Red Dog Howls." Photo by Joan Marcus. 

In "Red Dog Howls," an elegiac new play by Alexander Dinelaris, at New York Theatre Workshop through October 14th, a young writer stumbles onto a devastating family history.

After his father's death, Michael Kiriakos (Alfredo Narciso) follows the return address on letters left in a box under his father's bed to an apartment in Washington Heights. There he meets Rose Afratian (Kathleen Chalfant), the author of this unread correspondence.

Florencia Lozano as Gabriella Kiriakos and Alfredo Narciso as Michael Kiriakos in "Red Dog Howls." Photo by Joan Marcus.

With Rose as his guide on his journey to self-discovery, Michael neglects his pregnant wife, Gabriella (Florencia Lozano.) "There are some sins," Michael tells the audience as "Red Dog Howls" opens,  "from which we can never be absolved."

The disturbing and shocking in  "Red Dog Howls" is softened by the humanity of its characters. The astonishing Kathleen Chalfant reaches deep in to reveal a raw and  harrowing emotional energy.


Rehearsal Photo ©Stephanie Warren. Kathleen Chalfant,
Alfredo Narciso, and director Ken Rus Schmoll.







The Armenian Genocide of 1915 is a touchstone for a personal story of heritage-found in 
"Red Dog Howls." Dinelaris, along with his excellent cast, and with the aid of director Ken Rus Schmoll, paints an absorbing tale of great scope in short intermissionless ninety minutes.



For more information and tickets for "Red Dog Howls," visit http://www.nytw.org/.