THE HANGOVER REPORT – Jordan Harrison’s THE AMATEURS at the Vineyard is bizarre, wondrous

Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Jennifer Kim, Thomas Jay Ryan and Kyle Beltran in Jordan Harrison's "The Amateurs" at the Vineyard Theatre.

Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Jennifer Kim, Thomas Jay Ryan and Kyle Beltran in Jordan Harrison’s “The Amateurs” at the Vineyard Theatre.

Last night, Jordan Harrison’s bizarre and absolutely wonderful new play The Amateurs opened at the Vineyard Theatre. I’ve been a fan of Mr. Harrison’s  works in the past; Marjorie Prime at Playwrights Horizons a few seasons ago gorgeously explored humanity vis-à-vis technology in a way I thought was rigorous yet totally original. His latest play depicts a scrappy troupe of players as they struggle to avoid the Black Plague, let alone successfully make it through their “productions”.

About halfway through the piece, Mr. Harrison turns the play’s world on its head by introducing another character – the playwright himself. The Amateurs then becomes a philosophical exercise in connecting seemingly disparate human experiences across the ages. I’m usually not a fan of such meta-theatrical trickery (in the end, it’s all artifice, isn’t it?), but it’s a tribute to Mr. Harrison’s considerable intellect and gifts as a playwright that I found this unexpected detour to be charming, entertaining, and insightful.

The Vineyard Theatre staging is helmed by director Oliver Butler with a sophisticated eye towards maintaining the piece’s specificity while injecting the production with instances of unexpected, haunting theatricality. His direction is also rather funny in subversive, often times raw ways. His cast is superb – Kyle Beltran, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Michael Cyril Creighton, Greg Keller, Jennifer Kim, and Thomas Jay Ryan all beautifully bring their idiosyncratic quirks as actors to their respective roles. In particular, the always-dependable Ms. Bernstine is absolutely radiant as the player with the play’s central “aha” moment.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

THE AMATEURS
Off-Broadway, Play
Vineyard Theatre
1 hour, 25 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 18

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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