notes from the black boxes
“Off-Broadway” has always been a nebulous term. For the actor or writer trying to sound brave to their family over Thanksgiving dinner, it means anything that is not “on Broadway.” As far as Actor’s Equity is concerned, it’s a theatre with no fewer than 99 seats and no more than 499—plus a cot backstage for sleepy actors. Anything smaller, we call Off-Off Broadway.
These days, an Off-Broadway play is a multi-million-dollar venture with a hefty publicity machine and whatever name actors can be lured in with juicy roles or a spot on the marquee. I’m talking about the current run of Little Shop or venues like MTC and Playwrights Horizons. For that reason, I’ll posit here that “Off-Off” is the new “Off,” and “Off” (see above) has become a kind of mini-Broadway with comparable production values and, ahem—ticket prices.
Today’s new works presented on a shoestring budget are the smaller productions you’ll find in little theatres or “black boxes” like Urban Stages or La MaMa, and the shows can be hit or miss—to put it politely.
This week, I had the pleasure of checking out two hits.
At Soho Playhouse, the winner of last year’s Lighthouse Festival was proving its well-earned win with its moody domestic drama, (Un)conditional. The play introduces two married couples with some (un)conventional problems in the bedroom. In the first scene, Kyle gets quite a surprise from his wife Valerie the night she announces that she would like to peg him with a purple strap-on. He naturally wants to think it over—but it’s a dealbreaker for her if he doesn’t grab his ankles ASAP.
I found it a little (un)believable that some kind of ass-play hadn’t come up in ten years of marriage, but people change, I guess. Both Kate Abbruzzese and Brooks Brantly, as Valerie and Kyle, are delightful and convincingly married, delivering energetic performances.
But the purple strap-on isn’t even what the trigger warning in the playbill is about.
The other couple has bigger concerns. Hank is a meat-and-potatoes white guy who seems very uncomfortable in his own skin—and with good reason. His wife, Lenox, is portrayed with Stepford-like queasiness by Annalisa Chamberlin. And here comes the trigger warning: Hank believes he may be a pedophile. Lenox wants kids—even though he’s told her he doesn’t trust himself around little girls.
It all comes to a Kubrick-like head when Hank is left in charge of Valerie and Kyle’s daughter in a truly tense and (un)settling scene.
Director Ivey Lowe and the design team make the most of the small space in a play that jumps locations nearly every scene. (Runs through October 26.)
At AMT Theatre on West 45th Street, Angelica Gorga writes and stars in Lost and Found, a wonderfully “New Yorkie” drama about loss and grief that manages to deliver plenty of laughs along the way. Thank goodness for producers like Melissa Chamberlain (Waiting for Godot, The Outsiders), who take the time to shepherd new works by up-and-coming talents like Ms. Gorga.
Set in a Brooklyn laundromat during the blackout of 2003, Ivan Marcel (Lost) plays a quietly heartbroken guy just doing his dead-end job when “Found” rushes in, demanding to do a last-minute load of laundry. Pauline Walsh’s set is full of charming functionality—with working coin slots and tons of laundry for the nervous, uncomfortable strangers to fold while they wait.
The play has the courage to be quiet and let certain moments speak for themselves, while Gorga’s realistic and honest writing gracefully sidesteps all the tropes and clichés of two good-looking young people alone with some alcohol during a blackout. The result leaves the audience a little heartbroken—but mostly hopeful.
Special shoutout to Nelly Savinon as the delightful, tension-breaking Dominican neighbor upstairs. (And we all have one of those!)
