Smudge

GRADE: B-


Photo by Carol Rosegg
By Rachel Axler. Directed by Pam MacKinnon. The Women's Project at the Julia Miles Theatre. Through Feb. 7.

Critics seem engaged by Rachel Axler's dark comedy about childbirth, in which a couple gives birth to an indescribable deformity; the word "interesting" comes up in even a few of the less admiring reviews. But while a number of critics find no fault with the play's sharp, unpredictable humor, with Pam MacKinnon's brisk direction, or with the performances, particularly Cassie Beck as the horrified new mom, many find fault with the play's craft and execution, with responses ranging from admiring but puzzled to intrigued but dismissive. Axler's background as a writer for the TV shows The Daily Show and Parks and Recreation gets mentioned as either an asset or a liability, depending on the critic.

Time Out NY A
(Adam Feldman) The mysterious newborn in Rachel Axler’s smart, piquant Smudge is not lovable-looking...The remarkable Beck, who has quickly become one of the city’s essential actors, gives Colby an original comic edge and a sympathetic stubbornness, with strong support from Greg Keller as Colby’s earnest, philosophically adrift husband and Brian Sgambati as his frat-boyish older brother. In some sense, Axler’s dark comedy—alertly directed by Pam MacKinnon for the momentum building Women’s Project—is a horror story: a parent’s nightmare rendered with sometimes lyrical surrealism...A meditation on ambiguity and ambivalence, Smudge also illustrates ambition: a parent’s, thwarted, and a playwright’s, achieved.

Variety A
(Marilyn Stasio) For signs of intelligent life in the theatrical universe, I hereby refer you to "Smudge," Rachel Axler's pitch-black comedy about a young couple reacting to the birth of a severely deformed child. In the horridly funny tradition of "A Day in the Death of Joe Egg," the traumatized mother discovers that a dark, despairing sense of humor proves a more effective way of coping with the tragedy than rage, denial or hubby's self-delusional acceptance of the unacceptable...For all the improbability of the play's macabre premise (reflected in the visual severity of Narelle Sissons' stark set), the overall style of Pam MacKinnon's stringently focused production is grounded in realism.

The New York Times B+
(Rachel Saltz) Parenthood never looked weirder or more terrifying than it does in “Smudge”...Ms. Beck plays the freaked-out Colby just right. She is smart, reasonable and wry, and confronted with a nightmare for which she is responsible. Mr. Keller is good too, even if Nick seems more contrived, as does his job...“Smudge,” stylishly directed by Pam MacKinnon and given a spare, almost clinical look by Ms. Sissons, can feel dramatically underpowered at times. Still, it’s nearly always interesting. Ms. Axler has a comic’s gift for language that is precise and imaginative, but never showy. What gives the play its charge is how Ms. Axler taps into a primal fear — giving birth to a monster — and then calmly considers it from all angles. She has a lightness of touch, especially in the scenes with Colby, that makes the dark undertow all the more affecting.

Theatermania B
(Andy Buck) What better way is there to mark the age of Jon, Kate, and Octomom than with a play that explores the creepy secrets of childrearing? Look no further than Emmy Award-winner Rachel Axler's dark, serious, and very intelligent comedy...The problem, however, with writing a play that centers around a smudge (even one with the elaborate name of Cassandra) is to engage not only the minds of the viewers but their hearts as well, as the couple's marriage begins to crumble under the weight of this tragedy...Director Pam MacKinnon's frequent use of distancing effects, such as when Beck marks the end of Colby's pregnancy by yanking the padding out of her shirt and handing it abruptly to her fellow actor, adds to the problem. Given Axler's already outrageous premise, occasional monologues, and snappy one-liners, such Brechtian moments seem unnecessary.

New York Post B
(Elisabeth Vincentelli) In an era of supermoms, it's rather refreshing to see that lack of motherly instinct, and the show never turns into an against-all-odds love story. Instead, Axler quickly and successfully sets up an ominous mood: Cassandra's big, clunky pram recalls the one from "Rosemary's Baby," and the unseen baby seems able to telepathically control her feeding tubes...Directed with brisk matter-of-factness by Pam MacKinnon, "Smudge" at its best recalls the work of author Judy Budnitz, who brilliantly describes surreal domestic nightmares with a logic all their own. But Axler doesn't go far enough...Mental illness, the expectations placed on mothers, the very issue of what makes someone human are no small topics, but here they're brushed off almost as soon as they're raised.

Village Voice B-
(Alexis Soloski) Though it flirts with satire and absurdism, it ultimately settles for a disappointingly conservative resolution...The play is at its best when Axler uses lively language to detail Colby's ambivalence, as when she torments the baby with a stuffed animal made entirely of arms and legs. "I call him Mister Limbs," says Colby. "He has everything you don't. Plus? Water-absorbent." Alas, the play's arc is rather soppy, and Axler's barbs give way to a sentimental conclusion—trading unsettling dissonance for a stale lullaby.

Backstage C
(Karl Levett) There is a distinctly ambitious imagination at work here, and the effort is certainly brave, if, unhappily, not very successful...Axler is unable to find a cohesive style to express this tricky material. In reaching for a kind of comic edginess, the play walks a rocky path between naturalism and absurdity in its attempt to convey a situation that is unspeakably sad. These two aspects, unfortunately, have a way of neutralizing each other, often resulting in an exercise in uneasiness. Just as the playwright is brave, so are the performers, under the sure direction of Pam MacKinnon.

Nytheatre.com C-
(Martin Denton) I kept wondering: is Cassandra a human baby? Has she a heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, skin, and so on? Is she not as malformed as Colby believes? Is she a thing of science fiction (though the naturalistic trappings of the play constantly argue against that thesis)? Is Smudge some kind of allegory? In the end, I have to say that I gave up trying to figure out what a smudge/baby might be. Axler's primary theme seems to be that people need to listen to each other—to really hear each other—and the play's arc tracks Colby and Nick's movement toward appreciating that idea and the power of their coupling. But Axler and, especially, MacKinnon put a lot of stuff in the way of that simple story of love and discovery, stuff that seems to be important but that I couldn't make much sense of...Axler's ideas here are intriguing and the play has an interesting haunting quality that lingers. But her craftsmanship feels inconsistent.

That Sounds Cool D+
(Aaron Riccio) The cute charms of this awkwardly dark comedy fail to develop--the downside of a background in sitcoms. Nick attempts to parent his intubated, limbless, and non-responsive baby with a stuffed and smiling carrot; Colby tells her child how much she doesn't love it, chopping sleeves off of onesies and downing cheesecakes; and the nerdish Nick's outsized brother--and boss--Pete (Brian Sgambati), shows up in order to verify that the baby is not some Albee-ish metaphor for a failing marriage...It's not that Smudge isn't interesting--it's that it's written sloppily and executed poorly, almost as if Axler were trying to give birth to a good play, only to somehow, well... smudge it.

Time Out NY A 13; Variety A 13; The New York Times B+ 11; Theatermania B 10; New York Post B 10; VV B- 9; Backstage C 7; Nytheatre.com C- 6; That Sounds Cool D+ 5; TOTAL: 84/9=9.33 (B-)

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Or,

GRADE: B+

By Liz Duffy Adams. Directed by Wendy McClellan. Women's Project at the Julia Miles Theatre. (CLOSED)

Most critics are more or less seduced by Liz Duffy Adams' playful, sexy take on Restoration playwright Aphra Behn, with kudos for the attractive cast and Wendy McClellan's crisp, energetic direction. A number of admirers voice one quibble or another--Do the parallels between the 1660s and 1960s really hold up? Does Andy Paris' drag turn go a camp too far?--while a few count themselves frustrated by the piece's gossamer lightness and farcical focus.

New York Post A
(Frank Scheck) Rollicking, bodice-ripping farce...Echoing the door-slamming, bawdy style of Restoration comedies, the play scores its satirical points in highly entertaining fashion, aided by director Wendy McClellan's fast-paced staging. Siff's Behn is suitably smart and sexy, and Hutchinson and Paris are wonderfully amusing in their multiple, cross-dressing, quick-changing roles.

Back Stage A
(Gwen Orel) Liz Duffy Adams' historical romp of a backstage sex farce about Restoration playwright Aphra Behn displays style, humor, and jaw-dropping wit. Whether speaking in rhymed couplets or hiding in closets, Adams' characters surprise and appeal. It's a workout for all three actors. Two play multiple roles at a great clip, and Behn is onstage constantly. Director Wendy McClellan shines with the storytelling and pace.

CurtainUp A
(Deborah Blumenthal) Maggie Siff...is a spirited, lively, and seductive Aphra...The play’s title, complete with its grammatically clever comma, would lead you to believe it to be more of a rumination on language than it really is. It is quite linguistically rich, and boasts rhyming verbal acrobatics, but the fascinating ruminations on the titular word come only in momentary explorations. Instead, the unexpected is a pleasure —- a sexy, witty and irreverent comedy, and a playful take on history. Those stuffy seminars where I first heard about Aphra Behn should have been so much fun.

The New York Times A-
(Charles Isherwood) A playful, funny and inventive comedy...[Ms. Adams'] language has a natural period flavor and a formidable wit; her characters possess the spark of fully animated spirits; and she weaves into her story both biographical detail and cultural context with grace. More remarkably, the play succeeds on its own terms as a potted pastiche of Restoration comedy as well as a lively showcase for the actors...The director, Wendy McClellan, orchestrates the farcical mechanics with the necessary precision...At the play’s center is Ms. Siff’s lovely turn as the ambitious but sensual Behn, who is ultimately more interested in pursuing her artistic freedoms than indulging her amorous ones. Although the play’s sexual politics can be a little overstated and self-congratulatory, Ms. Adams’s smartly conceived unraveling of figures corseted in history honors the remarkable facts of Behn’s ground-breaking career.

Theatermania A-
(Sandy MacDonald) More comic bodice-ripper than feminist tract, Liz Duffy Adams' sprightly farce Or,...perfectly suits its inspiration, the 17th-century playwright and poetess Aphra Behn...Adams' text -- enhanced by Wendy McClellan's energetic direction -- toggles adroitly between the 1660s and the 1960s, and between the formalities of iambic pentameter (as in a curtain-opener speech containing the obligatory cell phone warning) and a more contemporary sensibility. It's a tribute to Adams' nimble wit that the three-century leap always amuses, never jars. She has also done a brilliant job inserting imaginative "what ifs" into the sketchy details available concerning Behn's colorful career...Your mind may take a little hike as Aphra gives rein to an impulse to deliver a brief blank-verse paean to her vision of a Golden Age, a pastoral paradise in which free love supplants war and strife -- but give the visionary her due.

That Sounds Cool A-
(Aaron Riccio) Though Adams is intent on illustrating the ambiguity of character, Wendy McClellan directs with a crisp, clean hand. Even the intentionally sloppy bits, where characters are peeking only parts of their body out of the various rooms and closets in which they've hidden, are done with precision. And rightly so: the play Behn is attempting to finish is the one that she's actually in, and it would be impossible to crack as many jokes at the play's structure if it were not so impeccably upheld...Adams might have gone a bit further--as is, the historical double-meanings are lost, especially among people unfamiliar with Behn. However, there's nothing wrong with a blatant farce, and once can't fault Adams for sticking to her game plan: "Compose yourselves for pleasure," announces Hutchinson at the start of the show. That's perhaps the one thing in Or, that has no alternative.

Nytheatre.com B+
(Lynn Marie Macy) Our heroine, irresistibly brought to life by the talented Maggie Siff, is charming, intelligent, undeterred, courageous, and triumphant...Kelly Hutchinson shines with versatility and spirit in the multiple roles of Nell Gwynne, the Jailor, and Maria, Aphra's loyal servant; and Andy Paris does extraordinary work in the roles of King Charles II, William Scott, and Lady Davenant...Wendy McClellan has directed the piece with heart, creativity, excellent pacing, and grounded humor throughout but for one instance. While it was perhaps, understandably difficult to resist a "campy" approach to Lady Davenant's tour de force monologue, the braver choice may have been to play the character for truth and trust the actor's abilities and Adams's wonderful text to convey the comedy of the scene...This brief departure from theatrical truth also tends to lessen the stakes for us and for Aphra when things get truly dicey later on.

Show Showdown B
(Wendy Caster) While Or, is funny, fast, and well-written, and the three actors (Kelly Hutchinson, Andy Paris, and Maggie Siff) are skilled and entertaining, I wanted more for--and about--Aphra Behn...Aphra Behn pretty much invented the idea of a woman making her living as a writer, and while it's a fun concept to have her involved with both royalty and a famous performer, focusing on her sex life doesn't do her justice. Also, the supposed parallels to the 1960s didn't add much for me...Overall, the period dialogue convinces, the plot amuses, and the characters engage, and the doors slam frequently and farcically, just as they should. I just wanted more.

Time Out NY B
(Helen Shaw) For much of Or, Adams and director Wendy McClellan effectively juggle the ridiculous (the designers deliberately conflate the 1660s with the 1960s) and the sublime. Adams can write mock-Restoration-style nonsense that positively ripples—in the prologue she promises to “show a vast unsettled world within/that open o and nosing thrust of r”—though as a farceur, she has less success at getting multitasking actors into cupboards and out of costumes. Unfortunately, therefore, the play attains headlong speed, but never the element of surprise. Luckily, Siff’s Behn reposes catlike in the center of the maelstrom, exuding predatory zing even when her prey (usually the underwhelming Hutchinson) doesn’t zing back. Paris, however, occasionally gives Siff worthwhile competition.

New Yorker C+
The tissue-thin, self-conscious plot feels like an excuse to have Paris and Hutchinson play multiple characters. The shenanigans are funny at first, but when they get old, the play feels empty. Zane Pihlstrom’s beautiful set brings together the sixteen-sixties and the nineteen-sixties, driving home the point that those eras had a certain relaxed morality in common.

Variety C
(Marilyn Stasio) While this cheeky pastiche artfully mimics the period style and playfully references the highlights of Behn's colorful career, its plot and dialogue lack the flashing wit and biting social commentary of high comedy of manners. Behn was no Congreve or Wycherley, but she was still a member of the club and deserves better than this overly mannered production of what is essentially a trivial sex farce...Once the dramatic situation has been set up, Adams more or less relinquishes any claim to intellectual content or stylistic wit. With Siff ("Mad Men") reduced to playing Behn's omnivorous sexual appetite, and Paris and Hutchinson hopping all over the stage in multiple comic roles, the play devolves into low farce...Helmer Wendy McClellan goes for the obvious, forcing the farcical elements and pushing the actors into mannered performances. Like Zane Pihlstrom's cartoonish set design, the frantic proceedings do engage the brain -- but only to give it a really bad headache.

New York Post A 13; Back Stage A 13; CurtainUp A 13; The New York Times A- 12; Theatermania A- 12; That Sounds Cool A- 12; Nytheatre.com B+ 11; TONY B 10; Show Showdown B 10; New Yorker C+ 8; Variety C 7; TOTAL: 121/11=11 (B+)

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Freshwater

GRADE: B-


By Virginia Woolf. Directed by Anne Bogart. A Women's Project and SITI Company production at the Julia Miles Theatre. Through Feb. 15.

Critics seemed surprised, more or less pleasantly, to find that Virginia Woolf's only play, conceived as a sort of inside joke, is a light, absurd-ish lark. They were less certain what to make of SITI Company's all-stops-out production, with some finding it overcooked and others appreciating its tireless zaniness. James Schuette's sets and costumes receive nearly universal praise. A note for Variety's Marilyn Stasio: The "tall, lanky" man playing the "regina ex machina" Queen Victoria is quite obviously Tom Nelis, doing his best Terry Jones voice. And to Backstage's Adam Perlman: Nice use of the director's name as a verb.

Backstage A-
(Adam R. Perlman) Departing from the existential experimental lyricism that marked her prose, Woolf composed a drawing-room trifle smacking with the wit of a smarty-pants schoolchild...The gleam of an inside joke makes the material more than a bit trying. That Freshwater lives up to its name, then, largely owes to the ideal interpretation of director Anne Bogart and her ever-versatile SITI Company...What's most impressive about the evening--as with the best of SITI's work--is the way the company functions in sync, not in synchronicity, with members reacting to one another and their environment.

NY Daily News B+
(Joe Dziemianowicz) "Freshwater" isn't deep. It's 75 minutes of plotless antics set at the sunny home of 19th-century photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (Ellen Lauren) and her legal-eagle husband, Charles (Tom Nelis, who double-duties as Queen Victoria). Things are most fun when English actress Ellen Terry (Kelly Maurer) banishes the boredom of posing for painter-husband George Frederick Watts by dreaming up a hunky Lt. John Craig (Gian Murray Gianino). Anne Bogart's staging is colorful, the cast is game, and though it's far from a laugh-out-loud frolic, Woolf-hounds are bound to be tickled.

New Yorker B+
The folderol, a kind of family knees-up, makes fun of artistic ambition and Bloomsbury snobbism, and has never been produced before. The director, Anne Bogart, gives this hokum as rollicking and handsome a production as it is ever likely to get. Be prepared to get up and sing “God Save the Queen,” which is the only ceremony Woolf stands on.

American Theatre Web B+
(Andy Propst) A raucous, absurd dash through the world of some Victorian literary and artistic giants...If one thinks about the sort of familial chaos that runs through Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You, and then imagines that play being written by French absurdist Eugene Ionesco, the sense and feel of Freshwater can almost be realized...Bogart and her fine company have enjoyed layering their own playfulness onto Woolf's and nothing here should be taken that seriously, simply enjoyed.

Variety B
(Marilyn Stasio) Delivered in the broad style of an English music-hall entertainment, this comic spoof sends up an earlier clique of literary swells, the cool late-Victorian crowd who hung out at photographer Julia Margaret Cameron's house on the Isle of Wight. While helmer Anne Bogart deftly conveys the sophomoric glee behind the original giddy enterprise, the over-bright and over-brash production puts a certain Yankee spin on the Brits' intellectual antics...Because the piece was written for private consumption, it wasn't Woolf's job to make its topical references relevant to a modern aud. Unfortunately, neither Bogart nor dramaturg Megan E. Carter has done much in that department, either. What the helmer has done, though, is direct our focus to Terry, whose intelligence and impatience come through nicely in Kelly Maurer's clean, unaffected perf.

That Sounds Cool B-
(Aaron Riccio) The play has enough doors opening and closing to be a farce, save that for all the entrances and exits, nobody ever really goes anywhere or does anything. So far as ham goes, Bogart's seasoned Woolf's recipe as well as she can and it does stand at a lean 70 minutes, but you'd better not come hungry for much more because--true to today's starving artists--the table is pretty threadbare.

The New York Times C+
(Charles Isherwood) Anne Bogart, the experimental director who leads the SITI Company, might seem an apt choice for this exuberantly nonlinear play...But for all its silly imagery—special guest porpoise included—“Freshwater” on the page delights primarily with its mad, lyric language...Ms. Bogart either does not appreciate the play’s gossamer charm or does not expect the audience to absorb it naturally. She does not have a delicate ear for text, to put it mildly, and the house acting style of the SITI Company favors movement over literate interpretation. The unfortunate result is a light comic lark played as if it were a laugh riot...It’s all a great shame, particularly because the physical production is lovely and appropriate.

Time Out NY C+
(Rob Weinert-Kendt) The theatrical equivalent of cotton candy: all spun-sugar brightness wrapped around thin air. It’s roughly as nourishing, and as headache-inducing...On the page, the satire is brittle and gossamer-slight, if inarguably fascinating as a glimpse of the novelist’s lighter side; onstage, in its U.S. premiere, director Anne Bogart and her tireless, tight-knit ensemble have turned it into an effortful, galumphing goof...While there is no small degree of joy in witnessing this crack ensemble cut loose...the insistently farcical tone, imposed on a text with so few actual jokes, soon becomes assaultive.

Offoffonline C
(Valerie Work) While Freshwater is undeniably both less developed and lighter in tone than many of Woolf’s other works, this interpretation is overly simplified, and the production is the weaker for it...The energy of Freshwater lies primarily in its language, which is lush with imagery and wordplay that are consistently underexplored. If Bogart and her cast had paid as much attention to developing the spoken text as they did to the developing the piece’s physical vocabulary, it would be a much stronger production. As it is, the actors are absorbed in their mission of presenting the play as if it is the lightest of all possible fictions. Frequently, their efforts are irritating.

Theatermania C-
(Sandy MacDonald) Director Anne Bogart and her SITI Company have pushed the puerility up several notches, achieving a Three Stooges-level of crude inanity, rather than trusting the text to yield sufficient humor. Moreover, what was obviously just a playlet has been padded with all sorts of extraneous unfunny business in order to stretch out the evening's "entertainment" to an hour...In the end, a production that honored Woolf's actual comedic accomplishment without burying it in over-the-top clowning would make for a more appropriate--not to mention more enjoyable--homage than this one.

Village Voice C-
(Michael Feingold) Anne Bogart's determinedly self-conscious production stomps on both truth and fun, equating heavy overdoing with humor and shouting with Victorian solemnity. Ellen Lauren and Tom Nelis, as Mrs. Cameron and her spouse, each snatch a few moments of reality in the general din, but it's puzzling that Bogart, with her scrupulous intelligence, should care so little about the reality behind Woolf's jape, the ideas embedded in it, or the skills needed to execute it convincingly onstage. Even at their most mawkish, the artists Woolf pokes fun at here had a sharper sense of Beauty than that.

Backstage A- 12; American Theatre Web B+ 11; NY Daily News B+ 11; New Yorker B+ 11; Variety B 10; That Sounds Cool B- 9; The New York Times C+ 8; TONY C+ 8; Offoffonline C 7; Theatermania C- 6; Village Voice C- 6; TOTAL: 99/11=9 (B-)

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