Other Clybourne Cities in Fur - or How Many Tony Nominated Shows Can You See in 2 Days?

Answer:  Three!

Believe it or not, Trish and I decided to partake in a pre-Tony theatrical orgy by taking in Other Desert Cities, Clybourne Park and Venus in Fur all within a 48 hour period.  That's alot of drama in two days.  But since TDF was offering discounts for all three, we decided to go for it.

But don't worry, between all that highfalutin theatre we made sure to sneak in a late afternoon viewing of Chernobyl Diaries between the Saturday matinee and evening shows.  There's nothing like zombies and a few clueless college kids on Spring Break to cleanse the mental palate. 

Alas, several weeks have since passed and my 42 year old brain isn't quite as nimble as it used to be.  So I'll just jot down my general thoughts on each.

Other Desert Cities
Booth Theatre
Friday, June 1, 8pm performance

Trish and I both agreed ODC was our favorite of the three.  I know most critics and many in the online community were complaining that the characters seemed unrealistic and soap opera-ish.  To them, I send an open invitation to attend any large Pineda family gathering.  The Wyeth's have nothing on us.

Crazy aunts?  Dysfunctional sibling relationships?  Equal parts screaming and crying?  Family secrets no one talks about?  Please, that’s just your average day on the Pineda ranch.   I’m not even exaggerating.  But I'm saving it all for my memoirs.  You’ll have to wait until I’m dead to hear the really juicy dirt.  But back to the play…

Stockard Channing, Stacy Keach and Judith Light are all remarkable. Even with their rigid, botox-ed and tucked faces, this trio is able to convey an emotional honesty free of the actor-y artifice I see displayed by many young performers.  I’m so glad I got to see them all live onstage together.

As for the twist at the end - also controversial and deemed unrealistic by many critics - I’ll just say that I have no doubt my parents would do the same for me or any of my siblings under similar circumstances.  I actually didn't find the reveal the least bit shocking - surprising, maybe - but shocking?  No.

The play is by no means ground-breaking, intellectually challenging or even that original.  But it’s solidly written, never boring, brilliantly acted and always interesting. 

Clybourne Park
Walter Kerr Theatre
Saturday, June 2, 2pm performance

Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park is a sarcastic, dark and funny examination of racial politics and their effect on economics, specifically real estate.  I know, sounds like a snooze-fest from my description, but it’s actually quite entertaining and very funny.

The performances here are all top notch, but much more stylized than in ODC, almost to the point of caricature.  But I think that is the author’s and director’s intent.  In the first act we see all the typical archetypes - June-Cleaver-esque mother figure, depressed father coping with loss of son in (insert war here), secretly sassy black maid, the do-gooder preacher figure, the I-have-nothing-against-black-people-but-don’t-want-one-living-next-door conservative white dude - you get the picture.  But every character is just a little off-center enough to shake up the stereotype, thereby creating more fully realized, three dimensional characters.

The second act takes place in the present day and uses the same let’s-shake-up-the-stereotype formula to make the characters seem fresh yet retain that whiff of familiarity. 
The dialogue is smart and sit-com quick, especially in the second act.  But I think the second act also suffers from a lack of any real action.  There’s a lot of talking, a lot of misunderstanding, a lot of latent racism but not much forward momentum. 

It’s an interesting and thought-provoking evening, but ultimately I guess I just didn’t relate to it as much as ODC.  Maybe living in such a racially diverse city has left me a bit numb to it all.  But what do I know, considering it won the Tony, the Olivier and the Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Venus in Fur
Lyceum Theatre
Saturday, June 2, 8pm performance

Venus in Fur is by far the most intellectually and artistically ambitious of the three plays we caught this weekend.  And sadly, I enjoyed it the least.  On paper it seems right up my alley, a psycho-sexual drama full of gender politics, role play and S&M.  What’s not to like, right?

Maybe my brain was already at full theatrical capacity following ODC and CP, but the subject matter and language was just a bit too heavy and cerebral for a Saturday night, even with the hunky Hugh Dancy begging to be dominated by a scantily clad Nina Arianda. 

It also didn’t help that our seats were in the second balcony, seemingly about a block away from the stage.  The distance left me disconnected from the action on the stage and I didn’t feel viscerally connected to the sexual tension between these two very sexy actors.  Of course, that’s my own fault for being a cheapskate. 

Nina Arianda is a force of nature, switching from ditzy blonde to sadistic dominatrix at the snap of a finger.  I’m sure we’ll lose her to Hollywood any second now.  Hugh Dancy also impresses as the narcissistic director who eventually gets whipped (literally) into submission.  But man does he sweat.  I’m not sure why the costumer would choose a fabric and color that would accentuate the sweat rings under his arms and on his chest.

Though I didn’t love it, I do appreciate the ambition and scope of the play as well as the extraordinary actors performing in it.