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A CurtainUp Review
Any Given Monday
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In order for free will to mean something, man has to have the opportunity to respond to challenges in life. And those responses break down into two choices: you respond virtuously or violently. — Sarah. Can’t ya just ignore it? Mickey. What? Sarah. Third choice. Ignore it. That’s what most people’d do. . .Walkin’ downa’ street and see a guy getting’ mugged in an alley. Mugger’s gotta gun so it’s kind dangerous. You could be what-‘virtuous?’ ‘Please Mr. Mugger, could you stop that?’ Or violent. Pull out your own piece and blow ‘em away. But you know what 99 percent of folks would do? Ignore it. Keep on walkin’. Maybe call 911 when they’re all safe a block away. Ignore it. Choice three. Mickey. |
Michael Maestro
(Photo: Carol Rosegg) |
After two decades of marriage, Lenny’s wife Risa has left him for a pretentious businessman who builds Wal-Marts. Lenny, played by Paul Michael Valley, has no idea why. He is so despondent that not only is he ignoring Monday Night Football, but he even discourages his daughter, Sara, from visiting. On this Monday, he is slumped alone and hapless on the sofa with a pizza box and the TV playing his favorite movie, To Kill A Mockingbird.
His childhood buddy, Mickey, shows up to watch the game but he also has something more important on his mind. Mickey, a loud-mouthed racist and bigot is especially hyped tonight, raging against everyone — the obese, minorities, the poor, and the wealthy. Performed with riveting energy by Michael Mastro, he paces the room with rants that are so offensive you hate to laugh, but you do. (“We’re the only country inna world with fat homeless people”). Finally he admits he has done something that Lenny (and everyone else) will think reprehensible. He has gotten rid of Lenny’s problem but while his plan is shocking and illegal, it is surprisingly well thought out and offers a somewhat convincing sense of justice.
When Sarah suddenly appears from college, she overhears the plan. Initially, she is horrified but then becomes intrigued enough to want to discuss Mickey’s reasoning and use it for her senior philosophy thesis. Sarah acts as a conduit for the playwright’s analysis of social, philosophical, religious issues, and the increasing contemporary violence in the streets. She overanalyzes everything, is obviously close to her parents and is not happy about her mother’s adulterous action. Lauren Ashley Carter portrays the girl with an earnestness honed with sharp wit.
Thoughtfully played by Hillary B. Smith, Risa has lost her sense of self. She was bored with her steady, reliable husband, so decent that he carried her suitcase out to the car when she left their Philadelphia home. About choosing her lover, she says, “Frank walks into a room you notice him. . ..electric thing. A tension. . .Lenny walks into a room and everyone relaxes.” Yet, though she also admits that in her list of “Stay” or “Leave,” she had noted a dozen things under “Stay” and nothing telling her to go, she tore up the list and left her family.
Does a short dose of chemistry erase a steady marriage? Risa faces her marital crisis with the wry understanding that after everything, she still knows she can still return to her husband and he will forgive her. Does this make her distain him? There are debatable questions about Graham’s views of what women really want and Act II has intermittent slow, trite moments.
Lenny used to describe good marriages as fire and stone. Lenny is the stone and as such, Paul Michael Valley has the most understated role which he plays it with restraint. Sarah compares her father to Atticus Fitch in To Kill A Mockingbird. “Scout thinks her dad’s a wimp but then finds out he’s a sharpshooter. Guess I kept waiting for my dad to. . .to. . .I don’t know. . .do. . .something.” It is not until the end that Lenny shows everyone he can be a sharpshooter.
Directed by Bud Martin, Bruce Graham’s colloquial dialogue between the characters shines. Set designer Dirk Durossette, with Paul Miller’s lighting, fashions a dim, neglected den, now Lenny’s man-cave with sofa, bar, and a TV. Risa is situated in a niche on one side of the stage for most of the play where she discusses her life in well-written, often amusingly and revealing monologues.
Winner of the 2010 Barrymore Award for Best Play, Any Given Monday cleverly balances the ignoble politically incorrect with high and low humor and various compromises. Evident is the question, “What would I do?” While the comedy backs away from going totally black, it has a lot going for it and draws you in with Michael Mastro delivering a winningly loathsome highlight performance.
Any Given Monday by Bruce Graham Directed by Bud Martin Cast: Lauren Ashley Carter, Michael Mastro, Hillary B. Smith, Paul Michael Valley Set Design: Dirk Durossette Costume Design: Bobby Pearce Lighting Design: Paul Miller Sound Design: Jacob Subotnick Running Time: 2 hours with intermission. Theater: 59E59, 59 East 59 Street. Between Park and Madison Avenue. Tickets: $35. ($24.50 for 59E59 Members) Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org. Performances: Tues.- Thurs. at 7:15 PM. Fri. at 8:15 PM. Sat. at 2:15 PM, 8:15 PM. Sun. at 3:15 PM. Opens 10/06/11; Closes 11/06/11. Review by Elizabeth Ahlfors based on performance 10/9/11 |
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