OFF-BROADWAY REVIEW
MY EVENING IN A GLASS HOUSE..
Reviewed by Megan Pipoli
Published 2010-06-02
What a treat to witness acting at it's finest in June Finfer's Glass
House with leading lady Janet Zarish(Public Theatre, Primary Stages
appearances), who plays the self-sufficient Edith Farnsworth and it's
leading man Harris Yulin, a prominent Broadway actor (Hedda Gabler,
Julius Caesar) and film star as Mies van der Rohe, a German architect.
Directed masterfully by Evan Bergman and appearing in conjunction with
Henrik Ibsen's The Master Builder, Resonance Ensemble's, The Glass
House, tells the true story of a German architect, Mies van der
Rohe(1886-1969), and the opportunity he was given to create a live-able
work of art for Chicago Doctor Edith Farnswarth who was in search of a
weekend getaway. Well, true in the fact that it is based on actual
people, not necessarily events. Writer June Finfer took Mies
and her other characters and created an emotionally driven play chopped
full of affairs, betrayals, and passionate 4th wall monologues with
Mies talking to the audience about his desire to create this skin and
bones glass house not only for Farnsworth, but for his own desire to
create something new, something with purpose.
Taking place over a ten
year period(1945-1955), we see the developement of not only the house,
but of the relationship between Mies and Farnsworth, which comes to a
crashing halt in the last 20 minutes of the oddly blocked show. A
play that not only forces you to question what is art and its role in
the modern world, but to what extent art can frame the way in which an
individual leads his/her own life.
The highlight of the evening, for me, as an actor, was witnessing
impecable and flawless acting by Zarish and Yulin. Yulin's performance
was perfection. Emotionally she connected bravely with her high
strung, indecisive Doctor and had I not known that I was watching a
play I would of thought that she was merely a stranger who had wandered
off the streets of midtown, found her way on to a stage and begun a
conversation with Yulin. Her naturalistic style is refreshing and
inspiring and it never falters at any point in time throughout the
play, but instead grows with every scene creating a living, breathing
human being that you expect, after the show ends, to go back to her lab
or wherever she came from and carry on with her life. And I'm sure
having Yulin as a support would make it even easier for someone who is
already as talented as Zarish to be able to create an even more
enriched performance. Yulin, I think, has heard enough praise to know
that he is one of immeasurable talent. I'm sure that many critics have
commented on the beauty and simplicity of his acting. I would, of
course, agree with their criticism as it is undeniable that Yulin's
talent exist beyond the capacity of words. I can merely say that it
was a joy to watch him perform and a honor to sit in a theatre with
someone of such seasoned skill. Not to mention that his German accent
was dead on and he played perhaps the best grumpy old man I have ever
seen. Not that your old, Yulin. In regards to both Yulin and Zarish
it was if the audience didn't exist and they were both carrying on with
their lives, playing off each other smoothly, creating tension, love,
hate, co-existing and growing within the ten years, and portraying how
in real life, it all ends. Quite simply, a magnificent work of Art.
In all my awe and although, in general, I highly enjoyed Glass House,
there were a couple of things that bothered me. Number 1, the sets.
Now, it didn't bother me so much that between the succession of each
year the lights dimmed, jazz music played, and the set was changed,
what bothered me was that the set moves seemed, for lack of a better
word, pointless. With no more than maybe two chairs and a desk on
stage, it seemed distracting to me that stage hands, dressed smartly in
the decades attire, would come on to move a desk in a different
position, change the utensils on a table, or to take away every other
scene the same table and chairs. Had it been done quicker it might not
have been much a nuisance, but I found myself concentrating on how long
it would take for the sets to be changed rather than what was going to
happen next. With such a strong play that has so much to say about art
and life and with such strong point of view, why would you distract by
creating unnecessary obstacles such as moving the same desk 10 times?
Less, as Mies would have seen it, would have been more in this instance.
Number 2: The two minor actors. Gina Nagy Burns(Skylight, The
Heiress), who plays Mies' ex-love Lora Marx, delivers a tolerable
performance, but lacks the fire that it acquired of her character. As
Meis' artist lover, a sculptor, who takes it upon herself in the
earlier scenes to break her relationship with Mies due to his drinking
and dependency, I find that the character may have required someone
with a more powerful presence. Someone who could stand up to Mies when
he forcefully asked her why she was leaving. Someone that could center
herself, stand her ground, and deliver the well thought out text with
powerful purpose and zeal. Here it seems that when Meis and Marx are
conversing, Mies seems to be having one-sided conversations, and at
points he leans in hard to distract from the actresses not delivering
her lines with intention. This may be because I am over critical or
it could be because this actress may not have fully understood who her
character was and was not given good direction.
The second minor character, Philip Johnson, played by David Bishins(We
Declare You a Terrorist, Incident at Vichy), who is Mies' protege and a
curator at the MOMA, actually delivered a commanding performance, but I
find, and this may be silly, that the voice he chose to use for his
character was distracting. It is a shame because you can tell, from
the audience, that Bishins is actually a very talented actor, but he
made a bad choice and that in some parts he falls out because he is
thinking more about his smoker voice rather than his beats. From the
minute he opened his mouth at the beginning of the play, I knew that it
would be a problem. While I realize that the span of the plan takes
place in the 50's and 60's and that the cliché is the raspy, sexy voice
of a male cigar smoker, when you begin to lose the actor's words,
therefor the text, therefore the play, it becomes a problem. And
besides this forced, if I think about it makes my throat hurt, raspy
voice, his performance was actually delightful, light, airy, and an
almost comic relief from the sometimes heavy tension that lived between
the three other characters. Charming and snub at times, Bishins played
a convincing role of student and what it is not only to please your
teacher, but to find out that at some point you have to live your own
life. What an interesting lesson for Art to teach.
For more information on The Glass House or for tickets click here
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