Review: Walking with a Ghost

Saying goodbye is never easy. Sometimes you don't get the closure you desired so the past continues to haunt. Presented by The Assembly, Kate Benson and Emily Louise Perkins’ haunting I Will Look Forward to This Later, a family, and some outliers, mourn the loss of their beloved patriarch while maintaining any sense of self.
With a Kabuki backbone, I Will Look Forward to This Later is more than a grief play. It's a study of maintaining and finding connections after loss. Written by Kate Benson and Emily Louise Perkins, the play follows the Holloway family after infamous writer Wyatt passes away. How this loss affects each individual is the meat of this play. Widow Betsy goes on a rampage of revenge against his mistress Miranda.  Older son Samuel wallows in a litany of sorrow. And younger son Robert engages in an intimate affair with Wyatt's former colleague and occasional companion Agatha. As each goes on their way, Wyatt haunts them, getting them to come to terms with the new reality. What's interesting about the family Benson and Perkins have crafted is this is a family that lets things be by avoiding questions. To us, some revelations are shocking. To them, there's a sense of ambivalence. And it comes across as odd. There are no questions asked when Betsy discovers her son is sleeping with the much older Agatha. Samuel and Robert don't really broach the fact that Miranda is basically an indentured servant to Betsy. It calls attention to just exactly who these people are. And frankly, they are hard to care for. Their sense of entitlement is bothersome. But no matter how you fell about this family, they are family nonetheless. What these people care more about than each other is legacy. How will they be remembered familiarly and broadly. Each character has a tie to the arts, whether it be as a writer, sculptor, or artist, they search for a way to create their master opus. Plot and character aside, the dialogue that Benson and Perkins bring is sharp and intentional. Even when it reaches moments of poetry, it’s accessible.

photo by Nick Benacerraf

I Will Look Forward to This Later is an ensemble piece that required cohesiveness. And this was a cohesive bunch. But due to the nature of the characters’ intentions, some performances were grating. Emily Louise Perkins took on Miranda as well as part of the text. Her Miranda was a bit whiney and feeble. There was an interesting evil queen vs princess dynamic between Miranda and Linda Marie Larson’s Betsy, but it’s never a good sign when you want the bad guy to triumph. Larson’s Betsy was firmly grounded, bringing the strongest performance of the bunch. Betsy plays into a world of façade yet Larson gave her a tinge of humility. James Himelsbach had possibly the hardest role of the show. Finding a way to balance truth with the supernatural is not easy. Yet Himelsbach sprinkled in the humor and lightness that this production needed. Had Himelsbach jovial aura been more haunting, I Will Look Forward to This Later easily could have been gravely too heavy.
As noted, Kabuki influences were present but also domineered elements of the storytelling. The way director Jess Chayes introduced them were not subtle. You have to wonder what could have been had they been removed from the final product. Certainly some theatricality would be lost but the moments of movement hindered the flow of the show. That being said Chayes should be regarded greatly for her impeccable staging. Production designer Nick Benacerraf threw challenge after challenge at Chayes and she knocked them out of the park. While the smell of plywood pervaded the air of The New Ohio, the world of wood brought opportunity. There was a consistency when it came to, what should be called, the crates of wonder. At the start, the stage is filled with crates. And as each locale is introduced, the crates would reveal everything from a workroom coffee station to the tools for molding. But the most dynamic feat was the fabulous casket turned bar. Thanks to the addition of the stunning lights by Christina Watanabe, the images that were cast were magical. As a whole, Watanabe’s design was strong. She relied on colors that melted into one another. As mentioned in the program note, the production’s design featured the “hanamichi.” It is a platform that goes into the audience used in Kabuki theater that allows for grand entrances and exits. The intent was interesting but the payoff was minimal. Unless you were right next to the runway, the dramatic was missed and lost the effect.
I Will Look Forward to This Later is a fascinating examination on art-making and legacy. The Assembly offered something potentially worthwhile but if you lack empathy for the characters, you’re likely to feel like them; ambivalent.

Review: Great Specificity

We all have dreams for ourselves. Sometimes we have dreams for others. Some would even say we have great expectations. Inspired by Charles Dickens’ classic “Great Expectations,” The Assembly has lifted the characters from the page and transported them to modern times and ideals, exploring just exactly their great expectations. That Poor Dream is one of the most daring and innovative pieces to grace the indie stage recently.
With the majority of the action occurring on a train from New York to Fairfield, Connecticut, That Poor Dream follows endowed Pip and a mysterious traveler who was a huge part of Pip’s past. On their journey, the action jumps back into dreams and memories that inform the future and tackles the themes of the piece. Devised by the company, That Poor Dream began as an exploration of class and economic disparity using the structure of the Dickens’ novel as the source material for a modern spin on American Dreams. That Poor Dream is a very specific play. The investment by the company is strong and the clarity and vocabulary of the devised world will always be strongest to them. Sometimes in a devised piece specificity may not translate properly to the audience. One of the most specific moments in this play was the fourth wall breaking monologue section where the characters are no more and the actors address the thematic Dickens title. Up until this moment, the world of the play was character driven. With no warning or explanation, a series of presumably autobiographical thematic actor monologues halt the action. While individually they were quite beautiful and impactful, in the overall arc of the piece, especially knowing the characters will immediately resurface, its placement is bound to be a polarizing moment for the audience. Where it failed was its ability to allow the audience to understand exactly why the actors broke character. After T. Ray Campbell offers his stunning monologue, he rightly becomes emotional. But moments later he’s whisked back to portraying Miss Havisham, who’s not necessarily supposed to have those emotions. With the blurred worlds now coming to the forefront, the impact of the ending, something that had potential to be quite powerful, is lost. An argument can be made that the actor is playing both actor and character as one as a comment on the dream of being a working actor, but again, the clarity is lacking. Despite this singular moment, the overall devised piece is wildly innovative with a captivating use of past and present.
The entire ensemble brought their heart to That Poor Dream. It was evident and clear through their performance. When creating this world, the characters may have a tinge of real hidden deep within, but those who were able to tap into the character world were by far the most interesting on stage. The most invigorating performance was Emily Perkins-Margolin as Jaggers. Perkins-Margolin’s characterization was brilliant, hilarious, and touching. The voice itself made the character fresh. The chemistry between Edward Bauers’s Pip and Jocelyn Kuritsky’s Estella left something to be desired, it was the moments between Bauer and Terrell Wheeler’s Magwitchthat drove the show. Wheeler offered a heartbreaking performance as Pip’s benefactor.

photo courtesy of Nick Benacerraf

Director Jess Chayes had a mammoth task of guiding the That Poor Dream train, and fortunately her effort was sublime. Despite a gigantic gap between audience and actor due to the large downstage playing space, Chayes discovered a way to keep the piece intimate. Production and scenic designer Nick Benacerraf had an overall winning design on the stage of The New Ohio. Again, the gap between audience and actor was a bit of hindrance, he greatly made up for it with his brilliant creation of a train. Benacerraf and lighting designer Derek Wright utilized the space wonderfully, especially through the exploration of the upstage world behind the train. Wright’s precise light shifts helped keep the action moving with his clean and distinct tones. On the innovation front, Ray Sun deserves much credit for the going above and beyond. However the overall video arc was inconsistent and muddied. Sure, the audience should always be able to allow their imagination to run free, but for those nitpicky few who know the realistic landscape could never be seen out the window of this specific train as the video was showing a trainless highway in New Jersey, it’s a bit jarring. Additionally in the specificity realm, the live feed delay used during the miss Haversham scenes was a bit confusing. Technological advances in theater should always be welcome as long as they’re being done properly.
That Poor Dream is a captivating and daring journey of innovation. The heart of the project came to the forefront and shined. While there were many moments of clarity lacking, the expectations of something special were achieved.