You Belong To Me: The Fifth Installment of the Death of Nations Project is a three part theater piece taking place in the US south on the last day of the American Civil War, in Germany on the last day of World War II, and in a present-day US military hospital in Germany. This was my first encounter with the Death of Nations Project and The International WOW Company for that matter. Maybe they are an acquired taste – by the third part I was really enjoying You Belong To Me, but it was really rough going. Act I – Belongings – has none of the humor of the final two Acts, and it's sorely missed. The style of Act One is part Robert Wilson, part Reza Abdoh, part Heiner Müller, and at times it crosses over into avant-garde parody. But things pick up considerably after the first intermission. Act Two is very funny (on purpose) and Wagnarian in scope. And Act Three is just trippy, but enjoyably so. So if you are planning to see You Belong To Me – don't leave at the first intermission – or better yet, just second and third act it.
Sarah Ruhl's The Clean House is a great play. It should be quickly entered into the cannon or great American dramatic literature. It's funny and smart and moving. It filled with brilliant visuals and juicy bits of wisdom. The Clean House concerns Matilde, a maid from Brazil who doesn't like to clean. She is on a quest to find “the perfect joke” and cleaning makes her depressed. Her employer, Lane, a successful doctor is at her wits end – so in steps Virginia, Lane's sister to offer to clean Lane's house on Matilde's behalf. It's a terrific premise, dealing with class, privilege, work, finding one's place in life, and about a dozen other ideas. So it's sad to report that the expensive production currently at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center only rises to the occasion of this wonderful script in Act Two, when the top-notch cast really finds its stride. Jill Clayburgh's portrayal of Virginia seemed a little too much of cartoon but Blair Brown's Lane is much more sturdy and really blooms in Act Two. As Matilde, Vanessa Aspillaga is very good, finding the right note pretty much throughout. The Clean House is worth a visit, but I don't think this the perfect production that this play deserves.
Great Small Works' The Rapture Project is inspired by classic Sicilian puppet theater’s Orlando Furioso cycles, which performed the epic clash of Christians and Muslims in the 1800’s, proving in explicit marionette style, that everything old is indeed new again. Despite an occasional sloppy presentation and sometimes confused narration, The Rapture Project is a riveting political polemic with a cast of characters that include fundamentalist Christians giving a tour of the Grand Canyon, punk Muslims in Buffalo, and American CEO supplying faulty armor to the US soldiers in Iraq and the ghost of Susan Sontag. Along the way to the inevitable blood-bath of a climax is a terrific sound-scape, songs and music composed and performed by Jessica Lurie. And the visual of the Anti-Christ walking down Jay Street is my favorite theater image in a long time!
OK, maybe that's an exaggeration...but it is another reason to avoid Broadway if possible. Cara Joy David's article in The New York Times about the instances of eating during Broadway shows made me depressed. I gave up on the movies long ago (pass the nachos) – but et tu Broadway? And to hear that the Nederlander's are encouraging it just underscores the fact that Broadway is a real estate business, not an artistic venture. In a larger sense, this is just a symptom of charging higher and higher prices on Broadway and having the audience paying these inflated prices dictate the rules.
