Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Madeleine George’s masterful satire HURRICANE DIANE maximizes hilarity and heartache

• By drediman
• March 14, 2019
• No Comments

Michelle Beck, Kate Wetherhead, and Danielle Skraastad in Madeleine George’s “Hurricane Diane” at New York Theatre Workshop, a co-production with WP Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.

This week, I had the opportunity to catch up with Off-Broadway’s Hurricane Diane, Madeleine George’s latest play at New York Theatre Workshop and a co-production with Women’s Project Theater. Ms. George was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Watson Intelligence, which I saw at Playwrights Horizons a few seasons back. Although I applauded that previous play’s wide-eyed inventiveness, it was also overwrought.

Happily, Hurricane Diane – which tells the story of the final comeback (in a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac, of all places!) of the Greek god Dionysus before the world dissolves into an environmental apocalypse – is sensationally focused playwriting. Ms. George’s audacious and wildly entertaining cautionary satire never veers out of control (an unfortunate common trait amongst many a contemporary play of more adventurous bent), thanks to her complete command of pop culture, which she’s summoned and calibrated into her play masterfully, maximizing both hilarity and heartbreak.

Leigh Silverman’s production is equally on point, careening impressively and fluidly between presentational aesthetics – from biting theatrical satire, to an episode of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey”, to full-on ritualistic/bacchanalian fervor. Kudos also to the dazzling and ferociously good quintet of actresses, including the charismatic Becca Blackwell as the desperate demigod, who ensure that the play is heightened but never strained.  All in all, Hurricane Diane is impressive theater that was a delight to watch.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

HURRICANE DIANE
Off-Broadway, Play
New York Theatre Workshop
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through March 24