UNiVERSAL HEALTH CARE Brad Fryman in “Occasionally Nothing,” set in the near future in a dystopian America where no one tells the truth and everyone is just waiting for the end.
“WAITING FOR GODOT” was written in 1959, when Eisenhower was in the White House, Elvis was at the top of the pop charts and cigarette commercials — starring young, happy, healthy, beautiful smokers — ruled the airwaves. Samuel Beckett’s story of two shabby men waiting in a barren landscape for an appointment with a man who will never come turned into a classic of hopelessness and absurdity.
Which brings us to the question: In the current political atmosphere, can absurdist or extremist theater have an impact? A couple of Off Off Broadway productions gave it a try last month.
THE CONDUCT OF LIFE
Ana Grosse, left, and Monica Steuer in “The Conduct of Life” at Teatro Circulo.
THE CONDUCT OF LIFE Teatro Ciírculo, 64 East Fourth Street. By María Irene Fornés. Directed by Elena Araoz. Sept. 7-30, 2018.
I COUNTED THE PUSHUPS that Dakota Granados did in the opening scene of “The Conduct of Life.” There were 54, I think. Then he crossed the stage and started again. María Irene Fornés wrote this drama in 1985, and more than 30 years late, its power is muted.
CHARACTER STUDY You know Orlando (Dakota Granados) is an evil man because he says, “There are people who bleed like pigs.”
Granados’s character, Orlando, is the protagonist here, He must be evil because he pushes women around (literally) and explains himself with lines like “It is a desire to destroy” and “I was born this way, and I must have it.” Whenever the lights go low (lighting design by María-Cristina Fusté), he rapes someone.
This is a bright and shiny production. Regina García’s scenic design is particularly well done, although I was never sure whether the family’s dining room looked like a conference room — or if they were always eating at a conference table..
Fornés, who is still alive but suffering from dementia, was born in Cuba and grew up in the United States. She was a major player in the Off and Off Off Broadway push of the 1950s and has something like nine Obies on her bookshelves. But more than 30 years after its first production, “The Conduct of Life” seems to be saying something pretty basic: Some human beings are monsters and deserve to be shot.
For my money, the most fascinating character is the maid, Olimpia (Monica Steuer). While everyone else quakes in fear of Orlando, she manages to get what she wants from him, even if it’s just a decent grocery-shopping budget. And her practiced obliviousness whenever Orlando and his wife, Leticia (Ana Grosse), are canoodling right in front of her speaks volumes about pain, privilege and the price of dignity.
OCCASIONALLY NOTHING
END-OF-THE-WORLD PARTY Brad Fryman (left), Maiken Wiese and Sean Hoagland, facing the bleak — and brief — future together in “Occasionally Nothing.”
OCCASIONALLY NOTHING Theater for the New City, 150 Ninth Avenue. By Natalie Menna. Directed by Ivette Dumeng. Sept. 8-16, 2018.
SOMETIMES A PUBLICITY RELEASE captures a show perfectly. “Occasionally Nothing,” the publicists wrote, was “a bleak glimpse at life in the wake of a dystopian presidency, where wars will abound, words will have lost their meaning, and people will have lost their way. “
You had me at “dystopian presidency.” And I rushed down to the East Village to see “Occasionally Nothing,” which was playing just a few performances as part of the Dream Up Festival 2018. What I found were three characters in search of exposition.
Harry (Brad Fryman) is the older man, who is eating sardines from a can as the play opens. . Clay (Sean Hoagland) is the younger man, who sits on the floor in front of a trunk with a copy of van Gogh’s “Starry Night” propped up against it.
Eventually, Luella (Maiken Wiese), who is said to be Harry’s wife, turns up. Some of the playwright’s finest absurdism is in the concept: All three characters are described as British expatriates living in the United States. Luella is additionally described as a Sephardic Jewish former Rockette.
Both Natalie Menna’s script and the production offer some nifty touches. Clay, for some reason, talks like Yoda. “Killed it I did.” (A pigeon.) The action takes place with the sound of bombing or artillery in the background. Despite living in the end times, Luella has managed to consult a life coach, who advised her not to watch the news. (One presumes television still exists? Or did when she visited the life coach.)
We listen for hints about how it all came down. When having a baby is mentioned, Harry says, “It was outlawed, remember?” Characters refer to the days “before the revolution.” Clay observes at one point, “Nobody gets a death bed anymore.” Tell us more. Please.
“Occasionally Nothing” feels like the beginning of a deliciously gloomy idea. But the references to the title concept — e.g., “Nothing is never something. Sometimes.” — went right over my head. And I never really wanted to identify with the characters fully. I’ve probably been watching too much MSNBC.
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READ ABOUT all the heroines (from poets to politicos) in the New York fall theater season so far.