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We all get those invites from our pals to witness their various musical and/or theatrical endeavors, and despite the best of intentions, quite often we’re left wracking our brains figuring out the kindest thing to say afterwards, if indeed there is anything to say at all! So it’s always a thrill and a welcome treat when such obligations turn out to be not only palatable, but enjoyable beyond your wildest expectations.
Such was the case in discovering the intricate, mind expanding joys of Literary Dis(r)uption
which recently premiered as part of the 11th Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival. The interesting (if somewhat a little familiar feeling) story unfolds rather like taking a puzzle apart, a piece at a time, and pondering the jumbled mess left in your hands. Suffice to say, it deals with the quick hire of an attractive young professor to fill an opening in the English department of a small upstate college, who bit by bit reveals (and yet doesn’t) herself to her colleagues. Nothing is quite what it seems, to her fellow teachers, nor to us, and when all is laid bare, it is suitably surprising, engrossing and thought provoking. Although the characters are perhaps a bit stereotypical (the former hippie, the bookish nerd, the Maya Angelou obsessed African-American), some of the dialogue a tad overwrought and some of the situations a trifle predictable, the basic premise is quite fascinating and with some disciplined tweaking here and there, this piece has an excellent chance to become a work of art that might just have a future Off-Broadway or beyond! A mind bender in the tradition of Oleanna or Proof, it never lost my attention for a moment.
When a cast is uniformly excellent (or the unfortunate opposite), there is generally only one explanation. The terrific director here is Paula J. Riley, and she has led her cast to all the right places and pulled compelling, nuanced performances from each of them. James Cronin, Barbara Miluski, Bobbi Owens and Ben Sloane are all remarkable, but the standouts are Emilie Soffe in the role of a sarcastic, hipster girl who sits in (as a student representative) on the faculty staff meetings, that form the bookends of the action. She is delightfully funny, believable and quite affecting when she is finally forced to lower her guard. And mostly, in the pivotal central role, Olivia Horton is quite simply a revelation. Beautiful, amusing, smart and tender, this lady is a star in the making. Remember I told you so! The setting (by Stephen Octavius Hill) though cramped, is ingenius with clever touches such as simply changing the lamp on a desk to move us from one office to another.
Last but certainly not least, in the featured role of a Texan mother, Ann Dawson takes what could have been the worst kind of clichéd role and breathes real honesty and even compassion into it. She had only two small segments, but the audience obviously ate her up and she ran right off with the show. Let’s hope this intriguing piece finds new life sometime soon.
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