I haven’t left a theatre feeling entirely great in the past year. There have always been one or two major things that just bug me, sometimes a not so great script, sometimes an actor who should never have left drama school, sometimes a director who has gotten too conceptual and lost focus of the play. Whatever the case, full length modern drama has failed to impress me as of late, until seeing Kids with Guns production of Delaney Britt Brewers’ WOLVES at 59E59 Theaters.
WOLVES is a play within modern suburbia, and while a lesser skilled writer would turn this into a kitchen sink drama, Brewer has created a piece that glows and lifts off the page into an amazing world. Sets and lighting by Maruti Evans beautifully lend themselves towards the audiences’ imagination.
The physical specificity of the world and varying locations is so sharp and evocative, even with the minimal set dressings and stage pictures, I was fully engaged in the various locations as if they were really in front of me.
Josh Tyson and Elizabeth A. Davis work remarkably well together as their characters enter their three year period together. Tense and cautionary (yet with that suburban relaxed overlay) they are countered and balanced by Richard Saudek and Sarah Baskin, the hilarious and yet sad clown couple of the evening. One laughs most at the sad clown, but they work hard to keep you looking at the balloon in their hand and not at the tears streaming down their faces. Tyson, Davis, Saudek and Baskin make a wonderful quartet together and their scenes literally flow like music.
Megan Tusing, as the wrench in Tyson and Davis’ relationship, does a great job playing a heightened state and making it believable.
The scenes between Megan Hart and Doug Roalnd, as the sister and brother coping with their mothers death, are very touching and familiar. Some of the most heartfelt material of the evening and yet hysterically funny while still tragic. Brewer has mastered writing for the sad clown hero, and seems to like setting up opportunities for several of them to meet. Julie Fitzpatrick gives a star performance in the second and third acts with a massive character shift in between the two acts. Run to see her work, which resembles play.
A performance highlight was the onstage relationship between actors Elizabeth A. Davis and Sarah Baskin, who play old college friends. The two cultivate such a wonderful bond together, that you can at once see two old friends who have grown apart, trying to rekindle a friendship with shorthand tricks that worked in their college years, yet, neither really invested in a positive or negative outcome. In short, they’ve managed to completely encapsulate the suburban way of life in a single relationship and series of exchanges. Two extremely grounded, honest and active performances from two very talented actresses.
While the men are great in the piece, the women are absolutely incredible. If you have read this far and haven’t already booked your tickets to WOLVES, punish yourself and order now.
Running now through August 21st. Tickets over the phone at 212.279.4200 or online at 59e59.org.
