1. The Madras House by Harley Granville Barker. The Shaw Festival
[http://shawfest.sympatico.ca] was at
the absolute top of its form with this all-too rarely performed examination
of gender politics. No Shavian archness here; rather an evening of
intellectual passion and emotional indirection. Blair Williams's
interpretation of the outwardly cool and intellectually mischievous Philip
Madras provided a strong center for this panoramic discussion play.
2. Permanent Brain Damage by Richard Foreman. One of Foreman's angriest and
most anguished pieces, revived by the Lake Ivan Performance Group for Todo
con Nada's thirs annual Foremanfest. In director David Finkelstein's
assured hands, there was less Foremanian hysteria, and more Beckettian
exhaustion. Agnes de Garron's sonnambulistic potrayal was an astonishing
achievment of sustained intensity.
3. Life is a Dream by Calderon de la Barca. The Royal Lyceum Theatre
Company, under the direction of Calixto Bielto, found the passion and
drive that infuses this masterpiece, and grounded it in portrayals of
incredible visceral power. George Anton's daring and electric performance
of Prince Segismundo released both the exhiliration and danger of
untrammeled desire. Thanks once again to the Brooklyn Academy of Music
[www.bam.org] for bringing this to New York.
4. House/Lights by The Wooster Group [http//www.thewoostergroup.org]
Gertrude Stein's "Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights" meets the pulp "Olga's
House of Shame," in a witty, inventive, sexy and ultimately very disturbing
piece on power and structuring of subjectivity. As one expects from the
Wooster Group, the ensemble was superb, though I had a special fondness for
Ari Fliakos as the Dog.
5. Le Cid by Pierre Corneille. A second "thank you" is due to the Brooklyn
Academy for Declan Donnellan's inspired presentation of this classic
tragicomedy. The production, which began at the Avignon Festival, did full
justice to the emotional range of the material, from tragic obsession to
the ludicrous double binds of infatuation, while focusing on the shaping of
individual desires to the needs and wishes of the state. High point: the
barechested duel-to-the-death between Rodrigue (William Nadylam) and Don
Gomes (Philippe Blancher)