Review: Oh the Horror!

It takes bravery to take a risk. Especially in theater. Sometimes that one risk you take can alter an entire production. Such is the case in Pipeline Theatre Company's The Gray Man by Andrew Farmer. But more on that later.
The Gray Man is a haunting ghost story about a man named Simon as he navigates reality and perception. Following the death of his mother and a string of child disappearances, Simon sets out to regain control all while remembering the story of a boogeyman type character who tempts and lures children from their home. What The Gray Man does flawlessly is great storytelling. Farmer is sharp by allowing the story to unravel through bits and pieces. What Farmer and director Andrew Neisler do well is play upon our greatest fears. Haunting and scaring an audience takes expert precision and their collaboration did just that. But in a live theatrical piece, sensory trucks are just as important. Darkness is a great fear. And depriving the audience of seeing was brilliant. The live music soundscape was vivid and necessary to get inside the audiences head. Playing with echoes and vibrations allowed the harsh reality of darkness settle in. But when darkness was abandoned for light once again, the audience needed to see the fear that they projected. And that's where that huge risk comes in.

photo by Suzi Sadler

There's a line from The Producers where Max Bialystock boasts about being the man who invented theater in the square where nobody had a good seat. And it's even more so true with a rectangle. But the biggest risk The Gray Man made was made was placing a giant scenic piece smack dab in the middle of the stage. The giant structure by Andy Yanni was stunningly crafted but it caused some massive issue. To say The Gray Man had horrid site line problems is a severe understatement. Depending on your seat, it's quite possible you missed key parts of the show. Whether it was character interactions, sudden appearances, or a scenic transformation, complete visibility was nonexistent. It was a giant risk that Neisler and Yanni took and sadly it hurt the overall production. While it felt immersive, it was just an intimate experience. Finding a way to share this vision in a three quarter thrust with the centerpiece toward the back, the payoff could have been grander. You may have been able to see everything you were intended to see. Regardless, the intent was bold and you have to commend the team for taking a giant risk.
Capable storytellers were brought together to bring this tale to life. As the perpetually fearful Simon, Daniel Johnsen captured the essence of mystery. By playing scared and weary, he allowed the audience to tag along on his journey. As the curious best friend John, Shane Zeigler found a way into Simon's psyche. Katharine Lorraine and Claire Rothrock took on the dual roles of maternal storyteller and neighborly comic relief. Both Lorraine and Rothrock happened to be wonderful reciters of fear. As Simon's neighbor and confidant Grace, Tahlia Ellie was youth on display.
When it comes to engaging the audience, Neisler succeeded. The goal was to spook the audience and he did just that. As previously stated, Neisler focused deeply on senses and it was a fascinating psychological experiment. Lighting designer Christopher Bowser capitalized on the use of light and lack there of. During the darkness montage, Bowser and Neisler allowed the company to navigate the stage safely, bringing the story all around the space. As a transformation occurred, the space filled with fog and when Bowser brought the lights up, the throw of the light cast seemed to play tricks on your mind. These snapshots were short and forced the audience to quickly find the voice and the light.
The Gray Man is a winning production when it comes to distinctive storytelling. There is nothing more exciting that knowing you’re about to be scared and attempting to prepare yourself for it. But that set! It’s unfortunate that an experience could be altered by one giant element.

Spotlight On...Andrew Neisler

Name: Andrew Neisler

Hometown: Lilburn, GA

Education: BFA from NYU Tisch (Playwrights Horizons Theater School)

Favorite Credits: Adam Szymkowicz's Clown Bar with Pipeline Theatre Company. Vinny Deponto's Charlatan at Ars Nova. The epic, ensemble musical Folk Wandering at Joe's Pub. Also have loved working on a few new things still in development: The Elementary Spacetime Show with Cesar Alvarez and Bull's Hollow with Jaclyn Backhaus and Mike Brun.

Why theater?: Because laughing is so much more fun when you are doing it with other people. Screaming is more fun with other people. Sitting is more fun with other people. Drinking is more fun with other people. Crying is more fun with other people. Also, because, as an artist, I love working so closely with other people. I love being delighted by the people around me. I love what happens when a team of artists commit to something bigger than any of them individually.

Tell us about The Gray Man: The Gray Man is a quiet, spooky little ghost play that I've been developing for the past 4 years or so with playwright Andrew Farmer. I really don't want to give too much of it away. But it's about a young man in tenement-era Manhattan who has just lost his mother. She was all he had, and she kept him very, very close. And now that she is gone... he is starting to come to terms with the world that she wouldn't let him see.

What inspired you to direct The Gray Man?: Andrew Farmer and I started talking a long long time ago about wanting to devise/write/create an adaptation of "Hansel and Gretel". After a while that sort of fell away, but we were still obsessed with what makes scary stories so fun to tell and so fun to listen to. I hate scary movies, but I love going to see them with big groups of friends, and I love listening to Andrew Farmer tell a scary story. We also became obsessed with the idea of a story (or a play) that is itself haunted. I think these were the real tent-poles of the piece for us, and the rest of it came from things we found in research, other ghost stories, and scary things that happened to us along the way. And from the many amazing artists who have helped develop this project.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: I don't know that there is a kind of theatre that speaks to me most. What I do know is that I love big, ballsy, brassy things on stage. I love being surprised. I love silliness and riskiness. I love theatre that makes me walk out of the room wanting to live my life more fully. I love theatre that turns a room full of strangers into great friends. I am inspired by the people around me: by my friends and their hilarious stories, by my collaborators and their stupidly brilliant ideas.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: This is cheating but here are just a few: Meryl Streep, RuPaul, Emma Thompson, and Pixar.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: I haven't seen any of the workshop iterations of it, and it hasn't even started yet, but I've been telling everyone to get their tickets to Futurity. I am absolutely obsessed with all the people involved and am never let down by either Ars Nova or Soho Rep so what is there NOT to be super pumped about!?

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: Either Ben Savage or Fred Savage in "I KNOW WHAT I MEAN"

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Oh man that's tough. I really would love to go see some wild Greek play during the City Dionysia Festival in... let's say 391 BC. Also I missed ERS's Gatz and I think about that all the time.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Drinking beer or wine in the shower at all times of the day

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Traveling the world shooting wildlife documentaries trying to be the next David Attenborough OR a college football coach.

What’s up next?: Directing a sexy, weird night of theatre with Spring Street Social Society this fall. I'm not supposed to tell you much (they take their secrets seriously), but it's a new play by T. Adamson and it's totally bonkers. Also, the non-profit arts incubation company I co-direct, Fresh Ground Pepper, is ramping up to launch our 2016 season! And always working with Jaclyn Backhaus and Mike Brun on a new musical trilogy called Bull's Hollow.

Spotlight On...Andrew Farmer

Name: Andrew Farmer

Hometown: Between Laconia, NH and Palm Beach Gardens, FL

Education: Tisch School of The Arts, NYU (Playwrights Horizons Theater School)

Favorite Credits: Oh man. Nearly impossible question. But the most fun I have as a writer is when I'm building with a director, actors and designers from the ground up. Some recent favorites include I Heard Sex Noises (with Annie Tippe, Ryann Weir and Claire Rothrock) and Boats And (with Nate Weida and Andrew Neisler) both at Ars Nova.

Why theater?: Well, I've always loved storytelling. Even before I could talk, I would babble plots of "Fraggle Rock" episodes to my family. Actually, that's still kind of what I'm doing. But the reason I've applied it to theater specifically is probably due to the ludicrously supportive drama teachers I had from 6th grade through college. They taught me how exciting the obstacles of creating a story in a room with an audience can be and I find that challenge really energizing.

Tell us about The Gray Man: It's a ghost story play about the bogeyman, New York at the turn of the century and what lengths people go to avoid being alone. I think the best ghost stories are about characters you grow to care about. The more invested you are in someone, the more terrifying it is to see a shadow sneak up on them.

What inspired you to write The Gray Man?: It began when the director Andrew Neisler and I wanting to make a "haunted play." Something that wasn't about jump scares or body horror, or blood and gore, but rather a story that people would hopefully keep with them for a while afterwards. Ideally right after they turn out the light before bed. So he read "It" by Stephen King and I began researching the bogeyman. Its first incarnation was me reading a story by lamp-light to a group of people in an empty, dark warehouse, then later that year we took a bunch of great actors into a remote house in the woods and began experimenting.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Stuff that has to be theater. Stuff that takes into consideration that there a living, breathing, people in the space who are there to share an experience. And stuff that balances plenty of spectacle with characters I can fall in love with. Oh and risks! Lots and lots of risks! For that reason, I'm most inspired by artists who go for broke; who try tackling impossible things and seeing if they work and learning from them if they do or don't. Actually, I won't even limit that to artists. People in general who do stuff like that.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Too many. But first folks that came to mind; Dave Malloy and The Debate Society. In very separate ways, their work somehow juggles being funny, human and full of gasp-inducing surprises, perfectly. I've left every show of theirs absolutely spent and desperate to talk about it with friends. Oh, also I'd work with Catherine O'Hara in any capacity, even if we're just making a salad together or something.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Recently? Men on Boats by Jaclyn Scoville through Clubbed Thumb's series. I would see it again and again. And it still wouldn't be enough viewings for me. It should be produced everywhere and often.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I'm told I bear a strong resemblance to the T.V. alien A.L.F. but I'm going to indulge myself here and say Meryl in a beard. And the film would be called "I Broke My Back On The Brooklyn Cyclone" and it would be very true to life.

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Hands down, An Octoroon. It physically pains me to have missed it, but now it lives forever in my mind through people describing it to me which is also pretty wonderful.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: "America's Funniest Home Videos." I will stop everything I'm doing to watch it. Always. It happens a lot in airports.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: A historian. Or at least somebody who works in the witch trial recreations in at museum in Salem.

What’s up next?: A bunch of weird disparate things! My sketch and improv group "Gentlemen Party" is doing a show at MoMA followed by a run at The PIT. I'm working on a couple new musicals with composer Andrew Butler; a Theatreworks USA commission and a folk-story musical about Florida called Finn The Fearless that has a workshop showing at Ars Nova this December. Also, this Christmas will be the third year (in a 40 year project!) that I'll be doing a two-hander Christmas Carol with Andrew Neisler and Ryann Weir. For updates, shoot me an email at andrewduncanfarmer@gmail.com!