VIEWPOINTS – Absurdity, expertly rendered, in Arlekin Players’ Ionesco adaptation DELIRIUM and Hell in a Handbag’s QUEEN FOR A DAY

Absurdity and a spontaneous sense of play have always been some of live theater’s most alluring calling cards. Even more so than other art forms, conjured chaos in performance spaces serve as eye-opening representations of the churning world around us. Read on for my thoughts on a pair of current/recent Off-Broadway plays that have rendered absurdity, expertly.

Andrey Burkovskiy and Chulpan Khamatova in Arlekin Players’ production of “Delirium”, adapted by Igor Goyak after Ionesco, at The Space at Irondale (photo by Austin Ruffer).

DELIRIUM
Arlekin Players at The Space at Irondale
Through November 7

Earlier this week, Arlekin Players’ production of Delirium (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) opened at The Space at Irondale, which is located in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. Adapted and directed by Igor Golyak from Eugène Ionesco’s 1962 play Frenzy for Two, or More, the two-hander tells the story of an aging couple who are trapped in a decrepit apartment as a violent civil war rages on in the city streets outside. Taking place in a world on the brink self-destruction — and one that’s lost all sense of meaning — Delirium is a timely work that spends much of its time blurring reality and delusion, much like our own world is beginning to. This topsy-turvy sensibility is even reflected in the couple’s constant disagreements and intense bickering, which eventually take on an oddly affectionate co-dependency that indicates their intense devotion to one another. By the end of the play, their tug-of-war rapport transends the turmoil of earthly existence, concluding the play on an existential, profound note. The production features a pair of sensational, fearless performances by Andrey Burkovskiy and Chulpan Khamatova. Burkovskiy previously proved his mettle to New York theatergoers in his striking performance in Seagull: True Story. Khamatova, who I was not familiar with, is actually an exiled Russian actress of great renown, and she proves why with a layered performance of uncanny depth. Both brilliantly draw from the clowning and avant-garde theater traditions. And even though English isn’t their first language, they navigate the subtleties of the text with impressive nuance and expressiveness. Suffice to say, their turns are delivered with panache and impeccable timing. Golyak has come up with a highly sensory fun house production — the collapsing apocalyptic set by Jan Pappelbaum is a character in and of itself — complete with falling debris, simulated explosions, and ultimately the demolition of the fourth wall (and a fish in an aquarium).

Will Lidke and Tyler Anthony Smith in Hell in a Handbag’s production of “Queen for a Day” at The Tank (photo courtesy of Hell in a Handbag).

QUEEN FOR A DAY
Hell in a Handbag Productions at The Tank
Closed

Then over at The Tank, there was the brief Off-Broadway stint of Hell in a Handbag’s production of Queen for a Day (RECOMMENDED), Tyler Anthony Smith’s inspired sendup of queer iconography. Based in Chicago, Hell in a Handbag is a gem of a theater company with a long and notable history invested in concocting works of absurd theater, and Queen for a Day is no exception to that trend. Set circa 1984 in New York, the fever dream of a play conjures an imagined surreal scenario in which an ailing Queen Elizabeth I consults fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick to design a funeral dress for her. Over the course of their fraught negotiations, a drugged-up Liza Minnelli enters the picture to preview her chaotic new Broadway act to Halston. Like Golyak’s aforementioned Delirium, Queen for a Day eventually reveals itself to be — if only a glimpse — a rather tender and vulnerable examination of a relationship beyond the play’s histrionic excesses. As scrappily directed by Stephanie Shaw in The Tank’s smaller space, the scenes popped with wit and kinetic energy. All three performances — Smith as Elizabeth, Will Lidke as Halston, and Dakota Hughes as Liza — expertly walked the fine line between larger-than-life caricaturization and emotional gravitas. Although Hughes’ cocaine-fueled appearances seemed extraneous to the central drama between Halston and Elizabeth, she dove into Minelli’s delirious verbal pyrotechnics with show-stopping aplomb. Ultimately, despite being delighted by the play’s bold quirks and finely-tuned turns, its relative brevity and extreme farcical tendencies made it hard for the work to fully break free from its haphazard sketch-like premise.

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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