Stage Voices

Graham & Frost, part of the 3^rd Annual Festival of Irish Theatre, seems unfinished, as if the author, Belinda McKeon is letting us in on work from her sketchbooks.  It might take you, as it did me, into a rereading of Aristotle’s Poetics–I wanted to think further on the play’s action, which is open to debate (you might also feel that there is a second act to be written).  The actors have set pieces to work around–such as a tumbrella drum or a butcher’s knife (which is overly used as a threatening device)–but the play is still mostly verbal and needs to find its linearity and physical fluidity.  Set in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, three men make plans for the reopening of a restaurant, although their motivations are not always apparent.  Two are young, the future of a trendy neighborhood: an American cook (Dan Shaked) and an Italian, the inheritor of the property (Enrico Ciotti).  Steven Randazzo, as the older, Italian-American character, Benny, is a reminder of the struggles before gentrification.  The actor gives a textbook example of how to show grief on the stage toward the end of the play, covering his face with his hands: it works every time. McKeon offers insight into Pirandello and Ibsen, and the looseness of the script and production allow the show a rehearsal quality. Thomas G. Waites directs.     

© 2010 by Bob Shuman