Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Massive “DADDY” issues: Jeremy O. Harris’s ambitious new play provokes as it frustrates

• By drediman
• March 6, 2019
• No Comments

Alan Cumming, Ronald Peet, and Charlayne Woodard in the New Group production of Jeremy O. Harris’s “Daddy” at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Photo by Matt Saunders.

There’s little doubt that Jeremy O. Harris’s searing Slave Play, which ran in the fall at New York Theatre Workshop, would make many people’s list of important new plays of the season. Along with playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (the soon to be remounted Fairview, which recently won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, as well as the current Marys Seacole for Lincoln Center Theater), Mr. Harris represents an exciting new voice that’s unafraid to provoke thematically and topically – particularly as it relates to the intersection of race and sex – and experiment with form vis-à-vis theater’s unique attributes. Last night, the New Group and the Vineyard Theatre unveiled Mr. Harris’s anticipated new play “Daddy” at Off-Broadway’s Pershing Square Signature Center.

The play tells the story of Franklin, a young black artist and his developing relationship – ahem, daddy fetish – with an older, filthy rich white art collector. Very little of the play is anchored in naturalism, which I suspect will prove divisive. Indeed, as in his Slave Play, Mr. Harris inverts the artificial but extreme conventions of melodrama to create, to varying degrees, surreal, heightened landscapes in which to unabashedly explore taboo topics. At nearly three hours in length, the play is an ambitious and often times frustrating (the third act devolves into near incomprehensibility, suggesting much larger daddy “issues” at play). Indeed, there’s plenty of knowledgeable but redundant talk of art, fashion, and religion, not to mention A LOT of skin. But one thing’s for certain, “Daddy” demands your attention through its gutsy and fearless theatricality.

Clearly, a lot of money and resources have gone into Danya Taymor’s production – including a stage-hogging Bel Air pool that’s frequently used in the play (warning: note that the first two rows are significantly prone to getting splashed on). Luckily, Ms. Taymor keenly understands the play’s oft-surreal nature, which she handles skillfully in her staging. The cast is led by Ronald Peet as Franklin in a bold, emotionally (and physically) exposed performance that’s an indisputably brave piece of acting. As his older lover and patron, film and stage star Alan Cumming is compelling, giving a performance that’s both charming and menacing. Charlayne Woodard provides an intense counterpoint, playing Franklin’s very religious mother, who vies body and soul to reclaim her son from his “daddy”.

RECOMMENDED

“DADDY”
Off-Broadway, Play
The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center, co-presented by the Vineyard Theatre
2 hours, 50 minutes (with two intermissions)
Through March 31