Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – The thorny UNDERGROUND RAILROAD GAME returns to New York, ferociously

• By drediman
• June 13, 2019
• No Comments

I recently had a chance to revisit Ars Nova’s acclaimed production of Underground Railroad Game, which has returned to New York for a strictly limited run at the Greenwich House Theater (the theater company’s new home base). Here’s an excerpt from my review from two years ago. My thoughts on this thorny, ferocious little play have not changed.

Jennifer Kidwell and Scott Sheppard in Ars Nova’s remount of “Underground Railroad Game” at the Greenwich House Theater. Photo by Scott Suchman.

“… Then you have the terribly exciting new play Underground Railroad Game, which just recently opened at the small but mighty creative hotspot Ars Nova in Hell’s Kitchen (the birthplace of the extraordinary Broadway-bound musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812) [as noted above, the company is now based at the Greenwich House Theater in the West Village]. Jennifer Kidwell, Scott Sheppard, and Lightning Rod Special’s shape-shifting two-hander ambitiously dares to excavate the truth about black-white race relations America via the Civil War. And boy does their play dig deep. They’ve set the piece in an elementary school located just south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Caroline (black) and Stuart (white) – sensationally played by Ms. Kidwell and Mr. Sheppard with delicious verve and commitment – are romantically-involved fifth grade teachers who attempt to engage their students in the Civil War (and, inherently, in race relations). In order to do so, they’ve have concocted a ludicrous game based on the Underground Railroad, which involves smuggling slave dolls to “safehouses” within the school. But that’s just the premise. Over the course of the play, Ms. Kidwell and Mr. Sheppard take the audience on playful but audacious flights of fancy, as well as to semi-lit subconscious realms that artfully reveal the musty tangle beneath the surface-level race rhetoric we’ve become accustomed to (spoiler alert: there are no answers here). Despite the labyrinthine nature of Underground Railroad Game, it’s to director Taibi Magar’s great credit, as well as his excellent design team, that production holds together stylistically. Ars Nova has consistently exhibited an impressively high level of polish and and invariably infused its productions with distinctive visual flair. Underground Railroad Game joins the club with aplomb.”

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

UNDERGROUND RAILROAD GAME
Off-Broadway, Play
Ars Nova at the Greenwich House Theater
1 hour, 15 minutes (without an intermission)
Through June 15