Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – La Mama celebrates 88 years of theater-making from Mabou Mines and Talking Band

• By drediman
• February 7, 2016
• No Comments

Last week at La Mama, I was able to catch a pair of world premieres from two heralded downtown companies, Mabou Mines and Talking Band. Collectively, these two iconic companies, which have staged shows at La Mama on countless occasions over the years, have been making theater for 88 years.

I remember my first exposure to Mabou Mines’ deconstructionist antics more than a decade ago in Chicago when I saw their biting, satiric adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (appropriately entitled Mabou Mines’ DollHouse). That experience left me giddy and lightheaded. Their latest creation at La Mama, Imagining the Imaginary Invalid (RECOMMENDED) is a multifarious reboot of Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid, which also cleverly comments on the process of creation itself. If Mabou Mines’ most recent effort, which stars the irrepressible Marylouise Burke and is smartly directed by Tricky Saddle’s Clove Galilee, feels more like a witty academic exercise than a fully satisfying evening of theater, so be it. If you’ve seen as much theater as I have, not all performances need appease both heart and mind.

Talking Band’s quirky and delightful Burnished by Grief (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), however, does both. Ellen Maddow’s new work is a playful and deliciously subversive “romantic comedy” about the travails of a landlord with a heart of gold (the excellent Will Badgett, who here is the very epitome of the everyman) with his downright evil tenant (Mary Shultz, in an irresistible, scene-stealing turn). Indeed, the play, which is lovingly directed by Paul Zimet, is an endearing celebration of community with a disarmingly droll sense of humor.

BURNISHED BY GRIEF – A ROMANTIC COMEDY
Off-Broadway, Play
Talking Band at La Mama
1 hour, 25 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 7

IMAGINING THE IMAGINARY INVALID
Off-Broadway, Play
Mabou Mines and Trick Saddle at La Mama
1 hour, 25 minutes (without an intermission)
Through February 7