Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Solo shows depicting women pushed to the extremities of their sanity: Elf Lyons in THE WOMAN ON THE EDGE, Paul David Young’s LIVIA

• By drediman
• October 29, 2026
• No Comments

Over the past week or so, I was able to catch a pair of Off-Broadway solo shows depicting women pushed to the extremities of their sanity. These would be Elf Lyons in The Woman on the Edge at SoHo Playhouse and Paul David Young’s new play Livia: A Roman Tragedy at The Flea Theater. As per usual, read on for my thoughts on these downtown excursions.

ELF LYONS: THE WOMAN ON THE EDGE
SoHo Playhouse
Through November 8

Performance art meets stand-up comedy in Elf Lyons’ The Woman on the Edge (RECOMMENDED), a deliriously surreal one woman show that has arrived in New York at Off-Broadway’s SoHo Playhouse after receiving strong word of mouth across the pond at the Edinburgh Fringe. These performances mark Lyons’ first appearance on the New York stage, and judging from the inspired antics I encountered, it may well not be her last. The premise of the solo show is simple — when the lights dim, an announcement tells the audience that the role of Lyons will be played by one of her absurd chameleonic creations. Altogether, the piece paints a picture of a frazzled woman who is just looking for love and happiness (the work was instigated by the implosion of Lyons’ real life wedding engagement). But as we all know, staking genuine claim on these elusive feelings is challenging, especially in our increasingly fractured world. Throughout, the work pays homage to Hitchcock films (particularly Vertigo), the feel-good docudrama film Apollo 13, Leoncavallo’s popular one act Italian opera Pagliacci, music concerts, and the art of lip syncing. Statuesque and fearless, Lyons performs much of the show traversing tipsily back and forth across the stage on the tip of her toes — as if a Hitchcockian heroine in invisible heels (my, the endurance!) — all the while unpredictably and frantically careening from one genre to the next. It’s a dazzling comedic and technical display that amounts to a performance aesthetic completely her own. And despite her imposing presence, there’s something endearing and goofily accessible about her quick-witted, visual gag infested performance. In summary, The Woman on the Edge is a deeply personal story wrapped in dizzying, kitschy layers of cultural references. Shoehorning a happy ending, the show ends on a jarringly sentimental note. It’s a daring fairy tale conclusion that may well be just an imprint from the cultural ether.

LIVIA: A ROMAN TRAGEDY
The Flea Theater
Through November 15

Veering away from autobiography is Paul David Young’s Livia: A Roman Tragedy (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED), which is currently playing at the subterranean Siggy space at The Flea Theater in Tribeca. In short, the fictional one person play is a portrait of one Livia, a woman whose idealistic lover has gone off to war, leaving her alone with her own increasingly distraught thoughts. Set in an Ancient Rome uncannily similar to our own current times here in America, the piece describes a society — also ruled by a self-centered and unstable man — that’s on the verge of collapse and revolution. Unfortunately, not long after it begins, repetition creeps into the well-researched monologue — which is comprised of chunky thematic blocks, like a sermon, that at times abrasively brush up against one other — with Livia’s escalating political rants spiraling repeatedly into the same topical territories. The piece could benefit from judicious cutting (perhaps excising a third of the text), taking a cue from Caryl Churchill’s similarly set and themed Triumph — also set in a corrupt Ancient Rome and can currently be seen at the Public Theater — which does its job, effectively and succinctly, in a mere twenty minutes (you can read my review of that production here). Livia: A Roman Tragedy has been fluidly staged by director Danilo Gambini, who does a good job of camouflaging some of the play’s flaws by giving it the kind of kinetic energy and variety of stage pictures (particular kudos to Nicole Lang McDonald’s lighting design, which strikingly highlights different nooks and crannies of Jimmy Stubbs artfully evocative set design) that’s unusual for a solo show. Luckily, the production also features a valiant and skilled performance by Baize Buzan in the title role. Indeed, it’s a slow-burning performance that simmers to an urgent boil with purpose and inevitability. Her unwavering commitment to the play and its central character are nothing short of impressive.