10-27-06
The Kids Steal the Show in Dead End
John Dixon, Steve Gensler, Russ Armstrong, Chuck Filipov and Joe Goldammer are the Dead End Kids in Griffin’s Dead End. (Photo: Michael Brosilow)There once was a time, long long ago, when theatre was the dominant performing art form in this country. And though it might be hard to believe now, with CGI soaked visual spectacles dominating the big screen, films of that era were far more like plays: plot and character-driven little numbers that often were adapted from successful stage scripts.
Nowadays, of course, such transitions are increasingly rare, last year’s film version of Rent notwithstanding. But Griffin has brought back a stage play better known for becoming a film starring Humphrey Bogart than for running on Broadway for 18 months. And if you’re familiar with the movie, you’re not going to see too much to surprise you in the stage play, which didn’t change much in its transition from Broadway to Hollywood.
If you haven’t seen the film – and one can presume that most of its audience won’t have – then be prepared for a strangely stylized look at life on the streets in Depression-era New York. Focusing primarily on a gang of “Dead End Kids” who occupy the alley behind a wealthy apartment building, Dead End focuses on how the choices of childhood, particularly in a community of people just barely getting by, can lead to the problems of adulthood. A former Dead End Kid, Baby Face Martin (Paul D’addario in the Bogart role), returns home with the law on his tail to see his mother and seek out the girl he left behind. He meets another adult member of his former gang, Gimpty (Dylan Lower), now an out-of-work architect. It becomes clear to Gimpty that the best most of the Dead End Kids can aspire to is to end up like Martin: rejected by his mother and repulsed by his former girl who has become a prostitute.
There’s also a somewhat obligatory love story between Gimpty and a woman who has ascended out of the slums by virtue of a relationship with a wealthy man. But that’s somewhat beside the point. Most of the fun of this noir-ish play lies in the antics of the Kids: Charles Filipov, Dan Foster, Steve Gensler, Joe Goldhammer and Russell Armstrong, led by John Dixon. Most are current or recent Northwestern students, and they’ve developed a strong on stage chemistry that makes them easily the most arresting thing about the production. Their portion of the plot – one of the Kids rats out Tommy (the leader) to the cops – may not be deep, but it’s engaging because you develop a strong sense of each of the kids as people.
Unfortunately, the “adult” performers offer far more uneven portraitures, with the exception of Cora Vander Brock as Tommy’s sister, whose end-of-play breakdown is the most emotionally genuine moment in the show. Still, the play belongs to the Dead End Kids, which is probably as it should be. In the ensemble, they seem to make the most sense of the slightly-over-the-top style in which the play is written.
It would have been interesting to see a more complicated playwright like Bertolt Brecht tackle this subject matter, as it clearly intends to have a social message. But that message doesn’t carry the same kind of impact with the Depression such a distant memory. Sure, poverty still exists, but this production’s addition to that discussion is so well known it’s taken for granted. Nowadays, Dead End is more of a curiosity than anything else, more interesting for the antics of the Dead End Kids than for anything of relevance the playwright’s trying to say.
Dead End – Griffin Theatre Company
Chris Jones, Tribune – “Dead End is a tricky show. By today’s standards, its plotting unravels slowly and ponderously. Its sentiment can seem excessive. And its sense of impending doom can create the kind of thunderous mood that makes one long for escape. Remarkably, [director Jonathan] Berry avoids most of the potential traps. He has an uncommonly shrewd sense of the rhythm of the piece – allowing the action to slow down and lighten up where needed, and then nailing its signature individual crises. In particular, two of those moments are intensely moving.”
Albert Williams, Reader – “Sidney Kingsley’s 1935 drama, a shocker in its time, remains a powerful and prescient study of bonding and betrayal in the urban jungle. Featuring a huge cast, it focuses on the residents of a dead-end New York street along the East River, where posh high-rises butt up against waterfront slums… The Griffin Theatre’s well-acted production of this rarely revived classic combines bumptious comedy, suspense, and aching honesty.”
Tim Sauers, Gay Chicago – “It takes a strong hand to make this succeed, and director Jonathan Berry is certainly up to task as the mood, rhythm and atmospheric qualities are dead-on. However, the piece overall lacks urgency and arousal, the actors’ stakes not strong enough to fully realize the playwright’s vision. It plays as if Berry wasn’t quite assured of his course, when truth is told, he understands the script and its intent quite well.”
Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City – “Reviewed at a preview performance, the play’s emotional lines were well-defined, but several scenes were stiff and slow. Young director Jonathan Berry’s intentions were clear, but he hadn’t achieved consistent pacing or uniform acting quality… The gang member actors – all recent theatre school grads or current students – scored high for slender looks, energy and a sharp attack but weren’t completely comfortable with the sometimes-stylized 1930s slang and East Side diction. They’ll get there. John Dixon as Tommy and Russell Armstrong as mean-spirited Spit were first among equals; we’ll see more of them.”
American Buffalo – Raven Theatre
Nina Metz, Tribune – “The junk-shop setting should be jammed with so much useless castoff material and unidentifiable debris that your eyes water from all the dust and rot. The revival currently at the Raven Theatre in Edgewater does not disappoint… If the production itself is somewhat less persuasive, that’s not necessarily the kiss of death. True, director Michael Menendian (who is also set designer) elicits performances that are either too much or not-quite-enough. And the play’s inherent comedy never really surfaces, with the exception of a fight that pits shovel against skillet. And yet, even an OK version of American Buffalo has a charm that is indestructible despite the odds.”
Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald – “The showiest role belongs to Brian McCaskill, in a bravura turn as the volatile Teach, a fidgety, frustrated guy who insinuates himself into Don and Bobby’s scheme to steal some valuable coins. McCaskill commands the stage the moment he bounds onto it to deliver an opening invective that is nothing short of operatic… From its quiet passages to its towering crescendos, maestro Menendian conducts the play beautifully. The timing’s pitch-perfect. The comedy works. As for the tension, let’s just say that knowing this modern classic as well as I do, I still flinched during the violent climax.”
Albert Williams, Reader – “In David Mamet’s 1975 drama, set in a Wrigleyville junk shop, three small-time crooks plot the heist of a valuable buffalo-head nickel. Acutely observing the dynamics of trust and treachery, Mamet provides both an effective character study and a darkly witty indictment of the way American business ethics destroy loyalty and honor. Director Michael Menendian’s vigorous staging captures the crackling comedy and explosive violence of this Chicago classic, but the actors fail to convey the pathos beneath their characters’ blustery bravado.”
Brian Kirst, Free Press – “Under director Michael Menendian’s smooth hands, the three co-stars handle the verve and rhythms inherent in Mamet’s language with aplomb. The rest of the brilliant production staff underscore Mamet’s seamy world with an acute eye for detail and mood. The pawn shop is littered with useless, damaged products and trash, giving these three desperate characters a true home to reside in. Ultimately, there is poetry in truth. Obviously, there is poetry in Mamet’s language. Definitely, there is poetry in Raven Theatre’s beautifully mounted revival of American Buffalo.”
Scotty Zacher, Gay Chicago – “American Buffalo, Mamet’s first play, is short. Barely 90 minutes, which includes intermission, it clips along at an aggressively frenetic pace. But this hyperactive tale is presented by the Raven Theatre team with controlled finesse, and they have uncovered every artistic gem that has made Mamet’s first work an American classic. Thank you, Raven, for your contribution to Chicago’s bragging rights as the most happening place for theatre in America.”
In Times of War – Stage Left Theatre
Nina Metz, Tribune – “Yet despite the intimacy of the scenes, there is something stolid about the play. It feels like a civics lesson: Here’s an argument in favor of military commissions; now here’s argument against them. Director Ann Filmer allows the rhythms to become predictable – often culminating in a you-can’t-handle-the-truth-like fury – and the production is saddled with atonal piano plunkings, courtesy of sound designer Edward Reardon. With the issues at hand, a less arty touch is needed.”
Misha Davenport, Sun-Times – ”[Playwright David Alan] Moore’s script and Ann Filmer’s superb direction manage to create tension and conflict in what is essentially a historic event the outcome of which we already know, in part because we are living in a time when history appears to be repeating itself. Kurt Sharp’s smart stage designs feature a dank prison cell and an office of approximately the same size, highlighting how both prisoner and attorney are essentially captive to events above and beyond their control. If there is anything unsatisfying about the drama, it is perhaps the fact that Moore shrewdly lays out all the arguments and doesn’t take a side.”
Kerry Reid, Reader – “David Alan Moore’s corker of a courtroom drama addresses the debates over national security vs. civil liberties. The fact-based plot concerns eight German saboteurs arrested on Long Island in 1942 and subjected to a secret military tribunal. Paul Dunckel plays the Germans’ fictional defense attorney, an American Jew, as a policy wonk – the kind of guy whose stolid attention to constitutional details is often the only barrier between freedom and tyranny. Jeremy Sher is multilayered as ringleader Georg, and Don Tieri exposes some raw nerves as a swaggering American colonel.”
Editor’s Note: Kevin Heckman is the artistic director of Stage Left.
The Pillowman – Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Chris Jones, Tribune – ”[Director Amy] Morton’s production compensates by focusing on powerful acting. [Tracey] Letts and [Yasen] Peyankov make the kind of malevolent double act beloved by fans of the plays of Harold Pinter. Peyankov could do to be somewhat nastier early on, but once it gets fired up, their relationship makes for some blistering theater. Superbly cast and dominant, Letts fires on every one of his combustible cylinders. [Jim] True-Frost, looking like a dangerous, vulnerable, brilliant geek, is a tad more eccentric than the character needs, but it’s rich acting, amply matched by [Michael] Shannon, who dances on a knife edge that few actors reach.”
Hedy Weiss, Sun-Times – “Shannon is mesmerizing and hilarious as the battered young man with the damaged sense of judgment (and a memorably itchy body part). Letts is caustic and droll as the cop with literary pretensions of his own. And Peyankov, his head shaved like an egg, brings a winning authenticity to Ariel (no doubt drawing on his own upbringing in communist Bulgaria). He is perfect. Elizabeth Rich and Danny McCarthy have brief, stylized turns as Edward Scissorhands-like parents, with Abigail Droeger charming as the little ‘green girl.’”
Justin Hayford, Reader – “Martin McDonagh’s black comedy focuses on a self-absorbed young writer in a totalitarian state who is interrogated about similarities between his stories and a series of gruesome murders. McDonagh skillfully blends dark humor with toxic violence, and Amy Morton directs a stellar cast (including Jim True-Frost, Tracy Letts, and Yasen Peyankov) that finds nearly all the play’s morbid humor and works overtime to compensate for McDonagh’s uncharacteristic lack of coherence.”
Nina Metz, New City – “The point – like that of any ghost story – is to both thrill and make the skin crawl. In that, McDonagh (and director Amy Morton) succeed. Act Two, however, does no one any favors. It offers nothing new about the characters or their fates, and the play could end quite satisfyingly after Act One. The second half is really just an opportunity for more storytelling – from the characters on stage, and from McDonagh himself. At some point, though, enough is enough.”
Lawrence Bommer, Free Press – “Overall, Pillowman is such an exercise in excess that it’s a tribute to Jim True-Frost’s fervid Katurian, Michael Shannon’s crazed brother, Yasen Peyankov’s dogged destroyer of child abusers and Tracy Letts’ comparatively rational co-inquisitor that they almost make this nightmare normal. But as for McDonagh’s clumsily comic depiction of torture, that may be the last thing an American audience needs to see right now.”
Jonathan Abarbanel, Windy City – “Superbly directed by Amy Morton – who’s emerged as one of Our Towns’ best – and acted with wanton theatrical relish and verbal dexterity by Jim True-Frost (Katurian) , Michael Shannon (his brother) , Tracy Letts (good cop) and Yasen Peyankov (bad cop) , The Pillowman is a cruel, cold play about ugly people. It’s crafted with a tremendous sense of language – hey, that’s McDonagh’s Irish heritage – and a dazzling sense of macabre fancy, yet not one of its four passionately dangerous principal characters really is likeable, much less embraceable.”
Quote of the Fortnight:
“One of the few benefits of our tangled, troubled times has been the surplus of passionate, well executed and thought-provoking theater.” – Brian Kirst reviewing Northlight’s production of Inherit the Wind in the Free Press.”
Correction: The Tribune review of Strawdog’s production of Marathon ‘33 was actually written by Kerry Reid, not Chris Jones as was indicated in my column. My apologies for the error.