The Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon
Thirty-four-years Young and Still Going Strong
By: Susan Hall - May 27, 2013
Marathon 2013
Ensemble Studio Theatre
New York, New York
Through June 29, 2013
The five one act plays presented in Series A at the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s 34th marathon promise a bang up series in 2013.
At the top of the evening was John Patrick Shanley’s Poison, about which the characters should have had much doubt. Not the audience however who bought in immediately and hopefully as a young woman, rebuffed by her boyfriend, seeks a fortuneteller’s help in getting him back. Souls are at stake here, as they will be in each of the next four plays. One acts usually have one big twist or reversal, but you can’t count the number Shanley succeeds in seamlessly packing into his piece. Jacqueline Antaranian, Alicia Goranson and Aaron Serotsky all delivered spells and fell under them with compelling charm, despite a dark night with dead souls.
Playwright Dan O’Brien dramatizes the struggle of a journalist in Afghanistan bringing a bright young student to be educated in Canada. He reminds us that in the very real world of contemporary politics, souls are often good and helpful. Each in their own way, Lily Balsen, Abraham Makany and Jay Patterson portray hope for the future.
Surely the most unusual setting of the evening was drawn by playwright Eric Dufault in Something Fine. An interstate truck driver Beth, played with suave grit by Cathy Curtin, is having trouble delivering an ice cream birthday cake to her daughter. Iconic figures of the Virgin Mary and a hula dancer sit in miniature on her dashboard. The real or rather ‘action’ figures of the two stand behind Beth and the truck’s cabin, commenting, surprising, keeping the audience’s attention on the perils of this kind of ride. Lucy Devito and Diana Ruppe make the figurines come to alive.
You Belong to Me by Daniel Reitz was the tour de force of the evening. The subway cars are real. The improbability of encounters is quickly forgotten by anyone who rides the IRT and the BMT regularly. Every day the subway rider has at least one unexpected encounter. Not always enchanting.
In this play, Patricia Randell and Scott Parkinson pull off a difficult reunion with grace and excrutiatingly sensitive performances. Their characters graduated from Columbia 18 years ago. Scott Parkinson portrays Robby, now homeless. He regards his admission to an Allen Pavilion psychiatric program as a great triumph. Patricia, as Susan, has been buffeted around, but lives comfortably on the now posh upper West Side and invites Robby to stay in an extra room. What then happens preserves each character’s dignity and feels right, although the conclusion is sad. Souls are intact.
Curmudgeons in Love by Joshua Conket. The title tells the story. It is wonderful to see Ralph and Jackie, who have always been in love, but kept apart but the mores of the times, finally find themselves a place together. They are supported by two grandchildren and a nursing home attendant. All the players strutted their stuff to the tunes of September and other songs. December can be warm indeed for the soul.
The 500 members of the Studio illustrate how the idea that “extraordinary support yields extraordinary work,” can work stunningly for an audience.
Series B and C run through June 29, 2013.