VIEWPOINTS – Early Shakespeare and Chekhov, masterfully treated: Red Bull’s visceral TITUS ANDRONICUS and New American Ensemble’s riveting IVANOV

In an intriguing development this spring theater season, you’ll find two largely passed over early works by William Shakespeare and Anton Chekhov receiving masterful treatments Off-Broadway. These would be Red Bull Theater’s visceral production of Titus Andronicus and the newly minted New American Ensemble’s emotionally riveting production of Ivanov. As always, read on for my further assessments of these purposeful, on-point revivals.

The company of New American Ensemble’s production of “Ivanov” by Anton Chekhov at the West End Theater (photos by Bronwen Sharp).

IVANOV
New American Ensemble at the West End Theater
Through April 12

One of the most gratifying things about regular theater-going is the opportunity to witness talent and institutions bloom under the radar. A case in point is the newly-formed New American Ensemble, a theater company with a focus on intensive/extensive rehearsal time and the worthwhile goal of salarying its actors. For its maiden production at the West End Theater in the Upper West Side, the company has chosen to revive the relatively rarely staged Ivanov (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which is notable for being Chekhov’s first play of significance (I’ve only previously seen the play twice, once in the West End with Kenneth Branagh in the endlessly frustrated and frustratingly indecisive title role in 2008, and then with Ethan Hawke Off-Broadway in 2012). In essence, the play is a meditation on the fragility of mental health — namely depression — in the face of romantic and financial disillusionments, and the havoc such devolving psychological states can wreak when left unchecked and unaddressed. In the play, Chekhov also meddles with themes and character types that would spring up, in more refined manifestations, in his later more mature and well known plays. The production’s stroke of brilliance is its unapologetic decision to portray the characters’ emotional turmoil in full throttle mode, thereby largely camouflaging the flaws of the early-career play and bringing an almost vaudevillian glee to the proceedings. This Pagliacci-type approach boldly disrupts the delicate tragedy-to-comedy ratio that many a modern Chekhov production attempt to maintain. Here, there’s no mistaking that these humans are clowns through and through. True to the company’s mission statement, each member of the tight knit ensemble — particularly the spectacularly catatonic Zachary Desmond as the unraveling Ivanov — is giving sharply etched, highly physical performances. They’re clearly thoroughly and instinctually on the same page, and it’s delicious to see them let it rip.

The company of Red Bull Theater’s production of “Titus Andronicus” by William Shakespeare at the Pershing Square Signature Center (photo by Carol Rosegg).

TITUS ANDRONICUS
Red Bull Theater at the Pershing Square Signature Center
Through April 19

Also on the boards is Red Bull Theater’s revival of Titus Andronicus (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) at the Pershing Square Signature Center. In this early-career work, Shakespeare, perhaps inadvertently, straddles camp and tragedy in the guise of a vicious revenge yarn. Much like New American Ensemble’s aforementioned take on Chekhov’s Ivanov, director Jesse Berger — Red Bull’s founder and longtime artistic director, who has made a name for himself via his highly visceral stagings of the classics — has also taken the emotionally maximalist route, giving a winking nod to the ridiculousness of the gory violence built into the play, but also showing enough restraint to stop just shy of resorting to all out camp to take care to bring clarity to the theatrical storytelling. The result is an uncannily clear rendition of the play in which the labyrinthine plot points are transparently rendered, yet leaving enough opportunities for the actors to bask in the play’s notorious extremities. I also applaud the staging for its clean look and immersive tendencies, particularly in its full use of the verticality of the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre proscenium and how the action occasionally spills out into the auditorium’s aisles and boxes. In the title role, Patrick Page continues to demonstrate why he is one of our very finest Shakespearean actors. Expertly modulating his inherently commanding stage presence and imposing vocal delivery, Page’s portrayal of Titus’s transition from gullible Roman war hero-cum-politician to potentially delusional revenge maniac — I can see the character as a precursor to Hamlet — firmly alters the emotional texture of the play right before our eyes. With the exception of Enid Graham’s dignified Marcia and Olivia Reis’s tragic Lavinia, the rest of the cast pretty much lean in on the camp with force and self-awareness. Especially captivating to watch are the villainous trio of Tamora, Aaron, and Saturninus as mouthwateringly portrayed, respectively, by Francesca Faridany, McKinley Belcher III, and Matthew Amendt.

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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