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A CurtainUp Review
The Last Bohemians
by Eric Beckson
| When I was a child I played by myself in a corner of the schoolyard all alone I hated dolls and I hated games, animals were not friendly and birds flew away. If anyone was looking for me I hid behind a tree and cried out "I am an orphan." And here I am, the center of all beauty! writing these poems! Imagine! ---Autobiographia Literaria, Frank O'Hara - |
Nobody parties like those wacky bohemians who made up the New York School of poets and artists in the 1950's and '60's. In The Last Bohemians, a wearisome new bio-play at the Medicine Show Theater, Frank O'Hara, Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher and Joe LaSueur are the guests of Patsy Southgate in East Hampton. If you were unaware of their artistic fame and the set were removed, you might think you were looking through a keyhole of an unattended psychiatric ward.
The sickest character seems to be Larry Rivers (Ian Tomaschik), the Bronx born bisexual musician/painter who gives and receives fellatio, makes love to a chair, shoots heroin, throws up, passes out and wakes up, urinates over his friend's possessions (looked like the real thing to me), and otherwise yells incoherently in an accent that is more West Virginia than Bronx. Tomaschik closely resembles the young Larry Rivers. The set includes two reproduced paintings that look very much like Rivers' work.
Another highly disturbed character is Patsy Southgate (Melissa Silver), the wealthy host who spends as much time weeping as Rivers does yelling. Whereas Rivers seems motivated by jealousy and regret, Southgate's sadness is mysterious--perhaps some chemical imbalance (or is it a premonition of O'Hara's untimely death?). Silver doesn't look at all like Southgate and has a foreign accent, though according to the program notes Southgate was American). However, she is attractive (even lascivious), lively (when not weeping), gives convincing fellatio to Rivers, and would have given it to two other male characters were it not for the whisky dick (hence the weeping?).
Jane Freilicher (Esther Barlow) possesses more equanimity, but one wonders what she's doing with these losers (oh yeah, they're famous and brilliant). She tells Rivers to get lost (inspiring the pissing) and takes an early train back to the city, but not before boffing Golden (Lucas Steele), O'Hara's bisexual bimbo de jour.
A central focus is O'Hara's death in 1966 after being hit by a dune buggy (but that occurs at the very end of the play). O'Hara (Ewan Ross) is ethereal at times as he traipses across the stage wearing nothing but two handkerchiefs tied together. Ross has a very soft voice that is at times difficult to hear--especially over the incessant music featuring Billie Holiday, Ray Charles, Erik Satie, and Judy Garland. At times, he sits down and types a poem while reciting it, although the amount of keys struck is far too few for the spoken words. In at least one instance, the poetry is awkwardly contained within his dialogue without it being identified as poetry (which I recognized from my reading of O'Hara's work.)
As a coda, Rivers and Southgate read eulogies, praising O'Hara's genius, warmth, and uniqueness. But their praises won't wash with the depiction of a somber, dull-witted O'Hara in such pathetic circumstances.
There is no dramatic tension and the dialogue is stale, aside from the forced poetry. The talented figures on which this lengthy play is based should make for an interesting drama -- but not as written and directed by Stellios Manolakakis.
| THE LAST BOHEMIANS Playwright/Director: Stellios Manolakakis Cast: Esther Barlow (Jane Freilicher), Carla Brandberg (Berdie Berger), Ewan Ross (Frank O'Hara), Melissa Silver (Patsy Southgate), Lucas Steele (Golden), Ian Tomaschik (Larry Rivers) Set Design: Elias Kasman Costume Design: Robert Koehl Lighting Design: David Zeffren Painting Reproductions: Chaalene Lanzel Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including one intermission. The Medicine Show Theatre 549 West 52nd St., 3rd Floor From September 8th to October 2nd Tickets: $15 Reviewed by Eric Beckson based on September 9th performance |
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