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A CurtainUp Review
City of Glass
By Paulanne Simmons
Paul Auster's 150-page novella, City of Glass, was originally published in 1985, and later incorporated into The New York Trilogy. Its three stories mix the classic detective genre with the nouveau roman. Thus, like many "new novels" these detective stories address the existential issues of time, space, identity, and the nature of reality. Although such work can be difficult reading, Auster managed to give his short novels enough suspense and color to make them best sellers/
City of Glass is about a onetime poet, Daniel Quinn, who now writes detective fiction under a pseudonym. A phone call from a man asking for a detective named Paul Auster sends Quinn on an adventure that leads him through the streets of New York City and into the homes of a rich madman named Paul Stillman Jr. and eventually a writer who may or may not be the real Paul Auster.
Edward Einhorn, who writes in the program notes, "When I first read City of Glass, I had the had the strong sense that I had written it," has undertaken the formidable task of creating a dramatization of the novel and also directing it. Having established his feeling of kinship, Einhorn continues his program note as follows: "Most of all, this is a play about brokenness. Daniel Quinn is a broken version of the author. haunted by the ghosts of his wife and son. Peter Stillman Jr. is an example of a man who is deliberately broken by another."
Einhorn expresses that brokenness by dividing his characters into their spoken words, delivered by the narrator (Robert Honeywell) and their physical selves portrayed by a silent man (Mateo Moreno) and a silent woman (Dina Rose Rivera). The ambiguity is emphasized by mixing up the gender roles. A scrim that also serves as a screen allows the actors to appear as shadows and projected images.
The detective genre is communicated with eerie lighting, suspenseful music, fedoras, trench coats and Honeywell's brilliant acting that enables him to transform himself from a hardboiled detective to a femme fatal and a raving maniac. Nevertheless, existential philosophy does not necessarily make for dramatic moments. For that we need real characters who have lives we can relate to in some way.
For the first ten minutes, it's hard to figure out what's going on. In the second ten minutes we gradually get it. We may even admire what Einhorn is trying to do. But after a while, the various devices he employs grow stale.
City of Glass will be just fine for people who like to see intellectual exercises on stage. All others should go rent a copy of Double Indemnity and watch Fred McMurray as the wounded and washed up Walter Neff succumbing to lust and greed and kill Phyllis Dietrichson's husband in a botched attempt to collect his life insurance.
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Quinn no longer wished to be dead. At the same time, it cannot be said that he was glad to be alive. Quinn had long ago stopped thinking of himself as real. If he lived now in the world at all, it was only at one remove, through the imaginary person of Max Work.—Quinn
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Robert Honeywell as Daniel Quinn.
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City of Glass is about a onetime poet, Daniel Quinn, who now writes detective fiction under a pseudonym. A phone call from a man asking for a detective named Paul Auster sends Quinn on an adventure that leads him through the streets of New York City and into the homes of a rich madman named Paul Stillman Jr. and eventually a writer who may or may not be the real Paul Auster.
Edward Einhorn, who writes in the program notes, "When I first read City of Glass, I had the had the strong sense that I had written it," has undertaken the formidable task of creating a dramatization of the novel and also directing it. Having established his feeling of kinship, Einhorn continues his program note as follows: "Most of all, this is a play about brokenness. Daniel Quinn is a broken version of the author. haunted by the ghosts of his wife and son. Peter Stillman Jr. is an example of a man who is deliberately broken by another."
Einhorn expresses that brokenness by dividing his characters into their spoken words, delivered by the narrator (Robert Honeywell) and their physical selves portrayed by a silent man (Mateo Moreno) and a silent woman (Dina Rose Rivera). The ambiguity is emphasized by mixing up the gender roles. A scrim that also serves as a screen allows the actors to appear as shadows and projected images.
The detective genre is communicated with eerie lighting, suspenseful music, fedoras, trench coats and Honeywell's brilliant acting that enables him to transform himself from a hardboiled detective to a femme fatal and a raving maniac. Nevertheless, existential philosophy does not necessarily make for dramatic moments. For that we need real characters who have lives we can relate to in some way.
For the first ten minutes, it's hard to figure out what's going on. In the second ten minutes we gradually get it. We may even admire what Einhorn is trying to do. But after a while, the various devices he employs grow stale.
City of Glass will be just fine for people who like to see intellectual exercises on stage. All others should go rent a copy of Double Indemnity and watch Fred McMurray as the wounded and washed up Walter Neff succumbing to lust and greed and kill Phyllis Dietrichson's husband in a botched attempt to collect his life insurance.
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City of Glass Based on the book by Paul Auster Adapted and directed by Edward Einhorn Cast: Robert Honeywell (Daniel Quinn); Mateo Moreno (Silent Man); Dina Rose Rivera (Silent Woman) Composer: Freddi Price Choreographer: Patrice Miller Scenic Designer: Christopher Heilman Lighting Designer: Christopher Weston Video Designer: Gil Sperling Costume Designer: Carla Gant Stage Manager: Berit Johnson Running Time: 95 minutes, no intermission Untitled Theater Company No. 61 at The New Ohio 154 Christopher Street, between Greenwich Street and Washington Street 888-596-1027 or www.untitledtheater.com From 2/19/16; opening 2/24/16; closing 3/12/16 Wednesday at 7 PM; Thursday - Saturday at 8 PM; Sunday at 5 PM. Added performance on Saturday, March 12 at 2PM; no performances on Sunday, February 28 or Wednesday, March 2 Tickets: $25 - $30 Reviewed by Paulanne Simmons Feb. 20, 2016 |
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