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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

The Midtown International Theatre Festival Goes on Strong.-

The Fab Marquee News Desk.

There’s Still Time to Check Out
The Midtown International Theatre Festival
…but only until August 10!!

mitf

With 60 shows in seven different venues (all within a block or so walking distance of each other) the Ninth Avenue Midtown International Theatre Festival is shaping up to be our most successful and enthusiastically received offering to date. Our Festival, with its many eclectic shows and musicals, is receiving rave reviews from the media and the audience, “rivaling the Fringe in terms of sheer weirdness” (New York Post) and is “giving a boost to Off-Off-Broadway” (New York Sun).

When it comes to the MITF, the Chelsea Clinton News said it best: “Why not spend the summer
hopping from theater to theater instead of bar to bar?” (We’ve got that one covered too; you can enjoy a reasonably priced selection of beers, soft drinks and snacks at several of our venues before and after the show.)

If you haven’t done so already, and even if you have, you’re invited to check out the Midtown International Theatre Festival and see shows that make you laugh, think, cry and, most importantly, make you want to come back time and again – but do it fast, as there’s not much time before the curtain comes down on August 10!

“I am very happy with both our product and the audience response,” noted MITF founder and executive producer John Chatterton. “Our submission vetting process, which included extensive hands-on input from the various Festival artistic directors, yielded some excellent entries this year, many of which have viability beyond our Festival and will move on to other venues.”

Some of our Festival’s most outstanding offerings include:

o Bubby’s Shadow - a ghostly grandmother goes to extraordinary lengths to reunite her
fractured family

o Cleopatra: A Life Unparalled - a rock-operatic, hip-hop flavored, Latin and reggae
influenced musical about one of the most powerful, sensual and cunning women of all time

o Couldn’t Say - a marriage comes apart on a lonely strip of highway

o Exit Cuckoo - Lisa Ramirez’s one-woman show about motherhood, nannies and children

o Flies in the Snuffbox - three hilarious one-act comedies by Anton Chekhov

o Hillary and Monica - a comedy that asks the question: what would happen if these
two women happened to meet BEFORE a certain infamous incident?

o Intimate Exchanges - a series of comedies by Alan Ayckbourn, with a cast imported
directly from London for the Festival

o OPA! – a joyous musical about the celebration of love and life on a tiny Grecian island

o Love, Incorporated - a musical about a successful career woman who develops a sound business plan to land the man of her dreams

o Penang – a deeply felt drama about two soldiers on leave in wartime, and how they
begin to rediscover their lost humanity

o Prince Trevor Amongst the Elephants - a hilariously fractured fairytale comedy in
naked (and epic) Shakespearean style

o Sympathetic Division – a taut exploration of falling apart and finding your way home

o Writer’s Block – several hilariously awful plays within one very comedic play about
a writer who is on the brink of becoming a one-hit wonder

(Exit Cuckoo, OPA! and Love, Incorporated are all part of the newly formed MITF Commercial Division, featuring shows with an eye specifically on future production beyond their Festival runs.)

Running now through August 10th, the Ninth Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival is being performed at these 7 theatres in 3 locations:

o June Havoc Theater & Dorothy Strelsin Theater, The MainStage Theater and the
TBG Theater, all located at 312 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues) on
the 1st, 4th and 3rd floors, respectively

o Where Eagles Dare Theatre and Where Eagles Dare Studio Theatre, located at 347
West 36th Street on the ground and 13th floors

o Stage Left Studio, located at 438 West 37th Street (between 9th & 10th Avenues), Suite 5A.

Tickets to all MITF shows are $18.00, $15.00 for students and seniors.
Reservations: 212-279-4200 or www.ticketcentral.com.

For complete up-to-date information, go to the MITF website at www.midtownfestival.org.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Review- The Wendy Complex (Midtown International Theatre Festival)

The Fab Marquee review by David Stallings.

Play Festivals are produced in New York to serve as a showcase to producers. They see a script or production that, with improvement, may warrant future development. Productions are often restricted with minimal sets and lighting—not to mention fractional tech or set-up time in the space. It is always with an open and enthusiastic eye that an audience member enters the Festival World. That being said, I was shocked by the technical value and sophistication of Midtown International Theatre Festival’s presentation of the Vagabond Theatre Ensemble’s, The Wendy Complex.

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Atley Loughridge, Sarah Ann Masse & Dillon Porter
photo credt: Chris J. Rivera

Writer/Director, Jeremy Bloom, has a true handle on magical realism. He is able to tell a theatrical story where language and imagery combine in a fantastic evening of storytelling. Bloom’s aesthetic reminds audiences that with Anne Bogart, Charles Mee, Mary Zimmerman, and Julie Taymor at the helm, theatre is rapidly parting the realism of film—searching to yet again reinvent itself.

The Wendy Complex has a simple plot. Famed daredevil, Janvier (Kevin Reed), is about to make history by flying in a hot air balloon to the tip of the Earth’s stratosphere—where he will free-fall with nothing but a parachute to save him. His stunt is financed by a Prince (Dillon Porter), and a socialite Funder (Meredith Florenza). Janvier’s wife, Wendy (Atley Loughridge), is simultaneously distraught over her husband’s obvious suicide jump and glorified that he is fulfilling his dream of never growing up but always defying structure.

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Dillon Porter
photo credit: Chris J. Rivera

The play itself defies structure as Bloom has invented magical staging that allows his characters to sleep on walls, create the heavens with light, use small fans to create wind, and even fly. All of this is done without rigging or any sophisticate instrumentation. His open eye allows the audience to relax and allow his poetic language to seem natural.

The cast is altogether talented, although they seemed a bit young for their roles. They were all early twenty-somethings playing forty-somethings who still believed they were twenty-somethings. While one understands the power behind using a young cast to portray this sentiment (I am reminded of Merrily We Roll Along), I would also be interested in seeing the play portrayed by an older cast. That being said, Atley Loughridge proves herself to have all the makings of a dramatic leading lady in her turn as the tortured Wendy. Also an immense standout, Sarah Billington Stevens shines as Ramona—an analytical journalist following the story. Her journey is beautiful and the audience is rapturous as they join her in her discovery of the magical.

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Atley Loughridge, Meredith Forlenza,
Sarah Ann Masse & Dillon Porter.
photo credit: Chris J Rivera

Another standout in the production is Stephanie Tucci’s fantastical set. It seems simple at first, six white panels hung upstage. The initial eye does not see that some of the panels may stretch across the stage to create other areas and be used by the performers during the magical sequence. The simplicity worked to create a clean aesthetic. Also gorgeous are Erin Schultz’s costumes—all chic and mature, with clean lines and a sophisticated palate. Whimsy is introduced as the performers do not wear shoes—although their wardrobe is mature.

An overall magical experience, The Wendy Complex is a play I would enjoy to see in the future—and everyone should keep an eye out for Jeremy Bloom’s invigorating direction.

———-
Vagabond Theatre Ensemble &
The Midtown International Theatre Festival present
Jeremy Bloom’s
The Wendy Complex
Workshop Mainstage

*This production closed on Sunday, July 27th, 2008. For more MITF shows visit www.midtownfestival.org

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Quote of the Day.-

Estelle Parsons

‘I believe in things that move people, if the audience isn’t deeply caught up and moved to either laughter or tears then I don’t think it is theater.

-Estelle Parsons

Estelle Parsons steps in for Deanna Dunagan as Violet Weston in August: Osage County at The Music Box Theatre. For more information visit www.augustosagecounty.com

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Quote of the Day.-

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‘I love doing live theater more than anything: you get an immediate reaction, whether it’s good or bad.’

-Jane Krakowski

You can catch Jane Krakowski as Lola in City Center’s Encores series of Damn Yankees. For tickets visit www.nycitycenter.org.

Nominees for The New York Innovative Theatre Awards Announced

New York, NY: On July 21, 2008, the IT Awards (New York Innovative Theatre Awards), the organization dedicated to celebrating Off-Off-Broadway, announced the 2008 nominees at a standing-room only event at “Our Lady of Pompeii” located at 25 Carmine Street. The 2008 Nominees were selected from an adjudication pool of over 3,000 artists. Nominees include 127 individual artists, 47 different productions and 40 theatre companies.

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Among the nominees are a husband and wife team, Jack and Rebecca Cunningham, who share a nomination for Outstanding Set Design for Mill Fire, which was produced by their daughter, Heather Cunningham. Three artists; Dan Bianchi, Michael Kramer and Qui Nguyen are each nominated for more than 1 production. And although most of the nominated productions have already closed, two of them, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind and Elizabeth Rex continue to have performances in the new season. “To have done this amazing play to packed houses and then make the move to an Off-Broadway Premiere is a great experience. And now to be honored with two IT Award nominations is just the icing on the cake! The judges and audience votes have just been really terrific and the whole cast is incredibly pleased and excited for our August run at Center Stage” states Stephanie Barton-Farcas, Actor and Artistic Director, Elizabeth Rex produced by Nicu’s Spoon.

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Elizabeth Rex

A major announcement was made: Blue Man Group, the wildly popular Off-Broadway sensation at the Astor Place Theater and international entertainment phenomenon which combines music, comedy and multimedia theatrics to create a totally unique form of entertainment, will be performing the opening number at this year’s award ceremony on September 22nd, 2008.

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Blue Man Group

“We are excited about participating in this New York tradition of honoring diverse theater in NYC,” states Blue Man performer, Wes Day. “Blue Man Group celebrates its New York roots and is proud to be grounded in this vibrant New York theatre culture.”

Outstanding Ensemble
Tanya Calamoneri
, Heather Harpham, Lisa Ramirez, Cassie Terman
Art of Memory, Company SoGoNo

Jessica Burr, Zenzele Cooper, Dave Edson, Jason Griffin, Anna Kepe, Eunjee Lee, Celli Pitt, Matthew Sincell, Darrell Stokes, Laura Wickens
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project
, Blessed Unrest

Elena Chang, Noshir Dalal, Jon Hoche, Kelley Rae O’Donnell, Melissa Paladino, Maureen Sebastian, Andrea Marie Smith, Paco Tolson, Temar Underwood
Fight Girl Battle World
, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company

Michael Crane, Andrew Guilarte, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Rock Kohli, Ramiz Monsef, Gita Reddy, David Sajadi
The Leopard and The Fox
, Alter Ego Productions

Danny Ashkenasi, Matt W. Cody, Paul Daily, Tatiana Gomberg, Emily Hartford, Ned Massey
The Night of Nosferatu
, Rabbit Hole Ensemble

Joe Basile, Christopher Borg, Jeffrey Cranor, Kevin R. Free, Ryan Good, Eevin Hartsough, Jacquelyn Landgraf, Sarah Levy, Erica Livingston, Rob Neill, Joey Rizzolo, Justin Tolley, Jenny Williams
Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, New York Neo-Futurists

Outstanding Solo Performance
Dana Berger

Washing Machine, Fist In The Pocket Theater in association with The Chocolate Factory

Andrea Caban
You Got Questions? I Got Answers!, Coyote REP Theatre Company

Taylor Mac
The Young Ladies Of…, HERE Arts Center

Petronia Paley
On the Way to Timbuktu, Ensemble Studio Theatre

Jonathan Pereira
American Cake, Prickly Pear Productions in association with the FRIGID Festival

Melle Powers
Whence Came Ye Scarlett O’Hara O’Hanrahan?, 53 Hysterics in association with the FRIGID Festival

Outstanding Actor in a Featured Role
Tom Bain

The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side, The Amoralists Theatre Company

Jason Griffin
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project, Blessed Unrest

Greg T. Parente
Night of Nigro, The Strain Theatre Company

Rob Sheridan
The Two Lives of Napoleon Beazley, Incumbo Theater Company

Matthew Sincell
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project, Blessed Unrest

Paco Tolson
Fight Girl Battle World, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company

Outstanding Actress in a Featured Role
Britney Burgess

Professional Skepticism, Zootopia Theatre Company

Megan Byrne
No End of Blame, Potomac Theatre Project

Kaylin Lee Clinton
The Round of Pleasure, New Stage Theatre Company

Catherine Correa
The Round of Pleasure, New Stage Theatre Company

Tatiana Gomberg
The Night of Nosferatu, Rabbit Hole Ensemble

Erica Terpening
Night of Nigro, The Strain Theatre Company

Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role
Michael DiGioia

Elizabeth Rex, Nicu’s Spoon

Alex Draper
No End of Blame, Potomac Theatre Project

Peter Judd
You Can’t Take It With You, T. Schreiber Studio

Cameron J. Oro
The Accidental Patriot: The Lamentable Tragedy of the Pirate Desmond Connelly, Irish by Birth, English by Blood, and American by Inclination The Stolen Chair Theatre Company

Maximilian Osinski
Cherry Docs, Theatre of the Expendable

Bobby Steggert
Yank! A New Musical, The Gallery Players

Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role
Abby Baum

Triumph of Love, Astoria Performing Arts Center

Stephanie Barton-Farcas
Elizabeth Rex, Nicu’s Spoon

Laura Heidinger
Six Degrees of Separation, The Gallery Players

Lauren Kelston
Mill Fire, Retro Productions

Kira Sternbach
Gerald’s Method, Gallant Arts

Kristen Vaughan
Mill Fire, Retro Productions

Outstanding Choreography/Movement
Julie Atlas Muz

The Round of Pleasure, New Stage Theatre Company

Barbara Charlene
The Accidental Patriot: The Lamentable Tragedy of the Pirate Desmond Connelly, Irish by Birth, English by Blood, and American by Inclination
The Stolen Chair Theatre Company

Kelly Hayes
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project, Blessed Unrest

Patrick Hogan & Robert O’Neill
Echo Lake, Embodiment Productions

Anabella Lenzu & Qui Nguyen
(RUS)H, HERE Arts Center

Qui Nguyen
Fight Girl Battle World, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company

Outstanding Director
Edward Elefterion

The Night of Nosferatu, Rabbit Hole Ensemble

David Gow
Cherry Docs, Theatre of the Expendable

Emma Griffin
Removable Parts, HERE Arts Center

Richard Romagnoli
No End of Blame, Potomac Theatre Project

Robert Ross Parker
Fight Girl Battle World, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company

Damen Scranton
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project, Blessed Unrest

Outstanding Lighting Design
Christopher Brown
(RUS)H, HERE Arts Center

Deborah Constantine
Same Train, Algonquin Theater Productions

Kevin Hardy
The Night of Nosferatu, Rabbit Hole Ensemble

Kerrie Lovercheck
Mill Fire, Retro Productions

Philip Sandstrom
Echo Lake, Embodiment Productions

Benjamin C. Tevelow
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project, Blessed Unrest

Outstanding Costume Design
Rebecca Cunningham
What I Did Last Summer, Retro Productions

Leon Dobkowski
The Leopard and The Fox, Alter Ego Productions

Jessica Sofia Mitrani & Ildiko Nemeth
The Round of Pleasure, New Stage Theatre Company

Mioko Mochizuki
Art of Memory, Company SoGoNo

Bobby Pearce
The Chaos Theories, Shotgun Productions in association with The Resistance Theatre Company and MILJam Productions

Jessica Wegener
Fight Girl Battle World, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company

Outstanding Set Design
Sean Breault
Art of Memory, Company SoGoNo

Jack Cunningham & Rebecca Cunningham
Mill Fire, Retro Productions

Michael Kramer
Proof, Astoria Performing Arts Center

Michael Kramer
Triumph of Love, Astoria Performing Arts Center

Travis McHale
The People vs. Mona, Ground Up Productions

Tim McMath
Six Degrees of Separation, The Gallery Players

Matt Ward
Mary Trilogy, Mir Productions

Outstanding Sound Design
Amy Altadonna
Mill Fire, Retro Productions

Dan Bianchi
The Invisible Man, Radiotheatre

Dan Bianchi
The Island of Dr. Moreau, Radiotheatre

Miguel Frasconi
Art of Memory, Company SoGoNo

Damen Scranton
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project, Blessed Unrest

Patrick Shearer
Fight Girl Battle World, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company

Outstanding Original Music
Dan Bianchi
The Invisible Man, Radiotheatre

Dan Bianchi
The Island of Dr. Moreau, Radiotheatre

Mark Bruckner
Same Train, Algonquin Theater Productions

Larry Lees
The Magic of Mrs. Crowling, Royal Circus in association with Horse Trade

Pete Mills
The Rockae, Prospect Theater Company

Mitun Sinha
The Leopard and The Fox, Alter Ego Productions

Min Xiao-Fen
On the Way to Timbuktu, Ensemble Studio Theatre

Outstanding Full-Length Script
Bekah Brunstetter

You May Go Now, Babel Theatre Project

Qui Nguyen
Fight Girl Battle World, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company

Matthew Opatrny
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project, Blessed Unrest

David Pumo
Auntie Mayhem, Gato Flaco Productions and Wings Theatre Company

James Scruggs
(RUS)H, HERE Arts Center

Stanton Wood
The Night of Nosferatu, Rabbit Hole Ensemble

Outstanding Short Script
Andrea Caban
You Got Questions? I Got Answers!, Coyote REP Theatre Company

Bronwen Denton-Davis
Pealing Figs, Mind The Gap Theatre

Daniel Gallant
Gerald’s Method, Gallant Arts

Philip Gawthorne
Modern Life is Rubbish, Mind The Gap Theatre

Nancy Harris
Girl in a Bath, Mind The Gap Theatre

Aliza Shane
The Three Sillies, The Looking Glass Theatre

C. Denby Swanson

Potato Feast, The Drilling Company

Outstanding Performance Art Production
Art of Memory
, Company SoGoNo

The Island of Dr. Moreau, Radiotheatre

Removable Parts, HERE Arts Center

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, New York Neo-Futurists

You Got Questions? I Got Answers!, Coyote REP Theatre Company

The Young Ladies Of…, HERE Arts Center

Outstanding Production of a Musical
Conjur Woman
, LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club

Honor, Prospect Theater Company

The People vs. Mona, Ground Up Productions

The Rockae, Prospect Theater Company

Triumph of Love, Astoria Performing Arts Center

Yank! A New Musical, The Gallery Players

Outstanding Production of a Play
Burn, Crave, Hold: The James Wilde Project
, Blessed Unrest

The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Hipgnosis Theatre Company

Cherry Docs, Theatre of the Expendable

Fight Girl Battle World, Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company

No End of Blame, Potomac Theatre Project

The Night of Nosferatu, Rabbit Hole Ensemble

Tickets for The New York International Fringe Festival are now on sale!

If you haven’t picked your show yet at FringeNYC, now is the time. Ticket sales started Friday, July 18th. This seems to be another promising year for this festival.

To peruse the show listings visit www.fringenyc.org

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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Review- Life in a Marital Institution (The Deep end Productions)

The Fab Marquee review by Peyton Wise.

Life in a Marital Institution gives exactly what the title promises: a witty tale of a crazy marriage. The extent to which you enjoy it depends entirely on your point of view.

Let me start by admitting that I am not this piece’s target audience. The characters are of a certain age and income level and the most appreciative audience members appeared to be in that group. For the young and single, whether happily so or on the partner prowl, pieces about marital problems can feel like getting your palm read in a pawn shop. You may notice that shameless romantics tend to prefer stories that end in marriage to those that begin with it.

James Braly
James Braly (writer-performer)

In this well-constructed one-man show, writer/performer James Braly depicts moments from his combative marriage to a woman who samples the full range of the New Age buffet. Under Hal Brooks’ polished direction, Braly moves seamlessly between these scenes and the frame story of his sister’s deathbed marriage. (It’s funnier than it sounds.) Both Braly’s writing and performance are so clear that you can literally see the action as it unfolds. The story of his sister’s wedding maintains suspense through the episodes of his own marriage, although one conflict of his sister’s wedding feels unresolved at the end of the show. Michael V. Moore’s simple set makes the action more intimate and suggests multiple locations while confining the story to none. Lucrecia Briceno’s lights sharply delineate time and place, although at times the backlighting can be a bit hard on the front rows.

There is, in fact, so much talent involved and care taken with this show that I can’t help wishing they were telling a different story. There are some shows that mine the details of a particular human frailty to touch something universal. This is not one of those shows. It’s an entertaining hour and change about people with the benefits of wealth and education who seek relationships that make them miserable. There are certainly many people like that in New York and this show may very well be a good date play – there’s nothing like seeing how bad it could be to make you feel good about where you are. But why spend so much energy on a show that will leave your mind like a wave on the sand? Mr. Brooks’ previous productions of No Child…and Thom Pain (based on nothing) proved he is a gifted interpreter of solo performances and Mr. Braly is an evocative writer/performer. I hope the partnership continues and for its next story seeks a subject relevant to more than just Mr. Braly’s peers.

—————–
The Deep End Productions presents
James Braly’s
Life in a Marital Institution
June 26-August 31, 2008
Soho Playhouse

Tickets are $40-55. To purchase tickets, call the Soho Playhouse at 212-691-1555, or visit www.sohoplayhouse.com. For more information visit www.LifeInAMaritalInstitution.com.

The Soho Playhouse | 15 Vandam St between 6th Ave & Varick | Manhattan.

Friday, July 4, 2008

Review- Marko the Prince (Immigrant’s Theatre Project & John Stark Productions

The Fab Marquee review by Peyton Wise.

Marko the Prince tells a compelling story from the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars. That is more difficult than it sounds. Our minds, at least the empathetic parts, tend to shut down in the face of devastation. It’s a difficult trick to convey mass violence, while allowing us to care for the survivors when people are dying all around them. Playwright Jovanka Bach does this admirably, spinning a suspenseful mystery set amidst the onslaught of civil war. As the plot climaxes, so does the resonance between its story and the war against which it is set.

marko the prince
Herman Petras as The Guslar & Trezana Beverley as Mila.

The playwright and production frame the tale as a heroic folk story, which allows us to stay emotionally invested in the characters and the state of their world. A Slavic minstrel, the Guslar (Herman Petras), performs folk ballads that comment on the story and narrates the story in verse. While there are times where a little context would help the tales resonate with an American audience, the Guslar functions like the Chorus of Henry V, deftly weaving images that help us process what we’ve seen and prepare for what’s to come. Art Rotch’s set neatly captures this heroic spirit by abstracting old Eastern European architecture and enshrining a grainy print of a village square in the central arch.

The play is set in Sabor, a town on the border between Serbia and Bosnia, where the population is at war over which ethnic group owns the single cemetery. A prominent Muslim man and a prominent Serbian man have been murdered and their sons, childhood friends, grieve and search for the killers. Their efforts are manipulated by the corrupt police chief and his assistant.

Marko the Prince
is part of a trilogy about the Yugoslav Wars. While it’s meant to be performed independently, the play begins mid-action, with the fight over the cemetery having begun in the previous play. There is also little explanation of each character’s nationality and how they relate to burgeoning national conflict. It requires attentive listening through much of the play to place the character’s actions within the backstory of the previous play and the larger context of the war.

Engagement, however, has its rewards. Hristo Hristov and Tony Naumovski are charismatic and intriguing as Vuk and Cerni, the villainous police. Even when you don’t know their reasons, it is clear they believe they have justice on their side and this makes them fascinating even when they are loathsome. Jelena Stupljanin and Josh Clayton are charming as two people from different worlds finding commonality in confusion. While the play’s final scenes contain several powerful portraits of grief, Ms. Stupljanin does something extraordinary. She manages to fall apart without hysteria, showing us a mind trying to retain control while the body is raving.

The Serbian son, Chicha (Aaron Lohr), drives the play in his efforts to find his father’s killer and protect his fiancee, Boyana, (Lanna Joffrey) and his widowed mother, Mila (Trezana Beverley). His journey, unfortunately, is where the production falters. The writing, especially the narration, seems to be calling for a charismatic leader, and for much of the play Chicha is abrasive and dismissive of family and friends. The narrator describes Chicha and Boyana as an eternal love, but even their halcyon scene they spend talking past each other. Mr. Lohr deals well with difficult twists of language and builds his climactic speech into a soaring revelation. One can only imagine what a different interpretation of Chicha could have yielded.

While this is not a flawless experience, it is an impressive effort. It depicts the cycle of retribution without falling into propaganda or complacency. And it does so with a story that keeps your mind intrigued even as your heart is moved.
——————
Immigrant’s Theatre Project &
John Stark Productions present
Jovanka Bach’s
Marko the Prince

June 20-July 13 (Wed-Sun @ 7:30pm; Sun matinee @ 2:30pm)
The Barrow Group Theatre

Tickets are $20 available at www.theatermania.com or by calling 212-352-3101. For more information visit www.immigrantstheat.org

The Barrow Group Theatre | 312 West 36th Street, between 8th & 9th Aves. | Manhattan.