Noble Prize | The Sleepless Critic

REVIEW: Packing and unpacking Praxis Stage’s impactful ‘The Birthday Party’

Posted on May 4, 2024 by The Sleepless Critic

‘What came first, the chicken or the egg?!!’

This line of interrogation provides an element of a number of surprises delivered by a pair of possible gangsters in Noble prize-winner Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party. Harold Pinter’s thought-provoking work and style inspired many famous playwrights as well as greats in film and television. For example, it is rumored that Quentin Tarantino, inspired by Harold Pinter, patterned gangsters Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield and John Travolta’s Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction and their absurdist style of dialogue to Goldberg and McCann in The Birthday Party. The art of the chicken and the egg conversation to a dialogue about a Royal with Cheese gets curiouser and curiouser.

Keenly directed by James Wilkinson, Praxis Stage presented Harold Pinter’s comedy of menace The Birthday Party live and in person at Chelsea Theatre Works in Chelsea, Massachusetts through Sunday, April 28. Click here for more information.

Zair Silva, Daniel Boudreau, Kevin Paquette, Darya Denisova, Paul Valley, and Sharon Mason in Praxis Stage’s ‘The Birthday Party’ Photos by Alex Aroyan

Taking place exclusively in a seaside boarding house, The Birthday Party focuses on unassuming Petey, depicted with an air of laidback serenity by Paul Valley, his anxious and chatty wife Meg, portrayed with tightly wound cheerfulness by Sharon Mason as well as boarder and unemployed pianist Stanley in an impressively mercurial performance by Zair Silva. With Petey and Stanley’s mixed participation, Meg navigates her daily routines at the boarding house with a plastered smile and a meticulous, yet monotonous zeal. However, a monkey wrench is thrown into the equation when two mysterious guests named Goldberg and McCann suddenly rent a room and everyone anticipates their imminent arrival while Stanley instantly feels a sense of doom.

Make no mistake, The Birthday Party is indeed about a birthday party which is a joyous occasion celebrating a milestone, but what if it is also merely an annual ritual done on any given day in which one is expected to celebrate?

The Birthday Party may render you speechless, a bit disoriented and frustrated, yet you will find yourself invested in this peculiar production’s motivations and outcomes. This dark comedy examines human nature from a Noble prize-winning playwright’s absurdist perspective leaving much to interpretation. Pinter shakes up each character’s expectations and was known to loath explaining his craft and or his characters’ real motivations.

This gripping cast is more than up to the challenges this complicated show offers with quick witted timing as moods and situations change on a dime often with breakneck speed. Mason’s Meg instinctive caretaking habits build a warm rapport with Petey while she shares a bizarre maternal affinity toward Stanley with the exception of a scene using the unnerving word, ‘succulent.’ Beautiful Darya Denisova as adventurous and flirtatious Lulu has ideas of her own.

Kevin Paquette in Praxis Stage’s ‘The Birthday Party’ Photo by Nile Scott Studios

Daniel Boudreau as Goldberg and Kevin Paquette as McCann make an intriguing, focused and stealthy pair. An avid and smooth storyteller, Boudreau is a natural as Goldberg, swaggering with unmitigated charm and authority while brawny McCann is a sly sidekick. Whether they are deliberate and threatening or schmoosing with feigned gallantry, each of Goldberg and McCann’s movements keeps the audience guessing. Some of the most intense and challenging sequences occur between Silva, Boudreau and Paquette demonstrating a rollercoaster of emotions that will leave you at the edge of your seat with questions left unanswered.

The Birthday Party is shrewd, shocking, and suspenseful, even over what seems like the ridiculous. More often than not, Pinter’s work is not what it seems and reality is often blurred. However, order, chaos, and delusion all play massive roles in this cast of ambiguous characters. Where there is warmth, there is order. Where there is panic, there is chaos and where there is delusion, compassion creeps in.

Keenly directed by James Wilkinson, Praxis Stage presented The Birthday Party, a comedy of menace, live and in person at Chelsea Theatre Works in Chelsea, Massachusetts through Sunday, April 28. Click here for more information.

REVIEW: Boasting two stellar leads, Central’s Square’s ‘The Half Life of Marie Curie’ full of inspiration and crackling chemistry

Posted on November 26, 2021 by The Sleepless Critic

For revolutionary physicist and chemist Marie Curie, not everything can be solved through a calculation.

On the verge of her second Noble Prize for Chemistry, anxious and introspective Marie Curie finds herself embroiled in a scandal and at one of the lowest points of her life. Quite literally bursting onto the scene is brilliant and charismatic electromechanical engineer and suffragette Hertha Ayrton ready to bring humor and optimism to what seems like a bleak situation.

Lee Mikeska Gardner as Marie Curie Debra Wise as Hertha Ayrton Photo courtesy of Nile Scott Studios

Brimming with crackling chemistry between Lee Mikeska Gardner as Marie Curie and Debra Wise as Herthe Ayrton, Central Square Theater opened their fall season with Lauren Gunderson’s The Half Life of Marie Curie continuing through December 12 at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The show is 85 minutes with no intermission. Click here for more information and tickets.

The stage is deceptively serene for Lauren Gunderson’s The Half Life of Marie Curie. Lindsay Genevieve Fuori’s colorful, innovative, and functional scenic design comes to life as stirring sound effects and a mysterious and foreboding piano score by sound designer Elizabeth Cahill make an intriguing combination fused with Whitney Brady-Guzman’s dynamic and surreal lighting.

A production that picks up from the very start, these two driven pillars of science with contrasting personalities are a fascinating pair to watch and listen to their musings. Gunderson’s sharp script strikes a delicate balance between intellectual prowess and absorbing dramedy. They share their views on life, family, and work with wit, humor and candor, yet instinctually encourage each other forward with respect and admiration. Both are widows and mothers who struggle with how women were perceived in the early 20^th century, but their sheer determination and passion for science ultimately make an indelible mark on the world.

Lee Mikeska Gardner as Marie Curie and Debra Wise as Hertha Ayrton in 1910s swimwear Photo courtesy of Nile Scott Studios

Adorned in a lovely feathered black hat and flowing emerald green dress, Debra Wise brings gravitas, confidence, ego, and clever charm as Hertha Ayrton. From the moment Ayrton bursts onto the stage with a confident cock of her head, gleam in her eye, and cheerful intonation, a lightheartedness sets in to her passionate and outspoken persona as opposed to Curie’s darker sensibilities. Dressed demurely in a rich purple dress, Gardner skillfully embodies tense Curie in her careful and calculated movements. You can practically see the wheels turning in Curie’s constantly analyzing mind and consider the lengths she would go for the sake of her work.

Marie Curie and Hertha Ayron’s exchanges are no ordinary gabfests. From sexual politics to love to family and everything in between, Wise and Gardner, as different in their approaches are and as opposite their personalities, they understand each other as equals, colleagues, and kindred spirits. Celebrating each other’s triumphs and supportive in hardship, theirs is a true testament to unyielding and enduring friendship and it stands at the center of this auspicious and biographical story.

Directed astutely by Bryn Boice, Central Square Theater presents Lauren Gunderson’s The Half Life of Marie Curie through December 12 at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The show is 85 minutes with no intermission. Click here for more information and tickets.