4 Cents Review – When 2 reviewers each give their 2 cents.

Bill Connington as Hamlet (photo by Beau Allulli)

Today Stephen Tortora-Lee and Karen Tortora-Lee give their 4 Cents about The Princes Of Darkness which is playing at Theater for the New City.

Before The Princes of Darkness (written and performed by Bill Connington)  even begins there’s an ambiance created by sound designer Sean Gill that does its best to set a tone of creepy nervousness.  Resonating within the small theatre, which is completely draped in black cloth,  is the kind of music reserved for the scenes in movies that have the most startling effect – a subtle drop of blood oozing down a table, a shadow crossing a deserted hallway.  Let yourself get pulled too deeply into the sounds and you’ll find that you’ll jump when the seat behind you thuds down.

Equally effective is the lighting design by Kia Rogers.   Satan cast down into a lake of everlasting fire in the beginning of the play makes for a scorching moment as red lights dance along the floor and lick at the heels of the fallen angel.

Don’t worry.  The mood lightens from here.   Under Rachel Klein’s direction Lucifer’s decent into the netherworld transforms him from maddened outcast angel to Cabaret-style  Master of Ceremonies a la Joel Grey.  Indeed, he even has the makeup down.   This Satan isn’t just sitting around, however, he starts his show with a few parlour tricks and then immediately begins to rant at God and dare mankind (specifically the mankind that is sitting in the audience) to do a better job of ruling the universe.

Soon, the illustrations begin as The Dark One highlights the lives of three Dark Princes – Hamlet, Oedipus and Dracula – and uses their human failings as indications of where Man has gone wrong in the past.  The real lesson to draw from The Princes of Darkness is that the tue darkness we have to worry about are not the big ones like genocide, incest or suicide but the more subtle ones like codependency, self absorption, and insecurity.

Hamlet leads off the trio.  Hamlet, so bored with the constant “wake, eat, work, sleep” of his life, who dares to question why does it all matter anyway?  Next up is Oedipus who appreciates the significance and the value of good, but is doomed by his inability to accept things for what they are. The final character we are given the chance to explore through the eyes of Satan’s viewfinder is Dracula. He, like the other characters, exposes his true nature through interaction with voice-over quotes taken directly from literature.    While, as with the others, his scene turns on his insight into the nature of humanity and his divine shadow self, Dracula actually gives a surprising fatal flaw.

Dracula shows the evil we expect of wanting to be as God; all powerful and immortal and outside the confines of morality. But the surprising sin which is drawn out by Lucifer is co-dependency. Dracula’s need to be needed by those he “turns”  by his need to be appreciated for his “gifts” of unnaturalness. His need to not be appreciated for his “self”, but rather his commitment to non-self. “I won’t last a day without you“ he cries, singing the Carpenter’s hit in a dissonant and plaintive entreaty.  It’s as heartbreaking as it is uncomfortable to watch.  Dracula in pain?  Yes.

What we see in The Devil’s journey with us in this hour is how the little things that might seem to hold us back in life – such as commitment, empathy and restraint – don’t  keep us down . . . they actually hold us together. Lucifer’s fall is not really from God’s favor, but rather by him abandoning God’s Order, which shows that by putting yourself at the center of the universe, you trap yourself in your own bottomless pit; as chaos implodes your hopes and dreams into nothing but thinner and thinner caricatures of meaning. It takes the slick Beelzebub we often see in the media and makes us see that the Laws of nature and decency “aren’t just rules  . . . but a good idea”.

Connington’s play highlights the idea that perhaps, in the end, Lucifer’s true punishment is self inflicted. Instead of being forced to be imprisoned in the bottomless pit of Hell it seems that really, by him being able to abandon the rules of God more than any other, his own sense of Egoism and rebellion from Order caused the contradictions which doom him to continual dissolution of his own purpose and constructions.

Through deep story telling and strong imagery Connington attempts to, and for the most part succeeds in, giving a lesson in the true nature of what is evil and what we should aspire to.  Perhaps the real power of this piece is the devil’s sympathy of us, his encouragement to “save the world”. Perhaps his attempt to become the highest part of heaven is truly an inspiration. If it weren’t for that fall we may not have been given a great gift. Even the greatest Princes of Darkness give us a lesson: Evil is not a great force that threatens to rip apart the universe through sheer determinism. Evils is taking the easy path which damns us to the horror of facing what happens when a vacuum is made in Good.

~~~

Princes of Darkness
written and performed by Bill Connington

directed by Rachel Klein

Theater For The New City
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets)
For more information: Click Here .

Related Posts:

• Let The Nightmare Begin – An Interview With The Creative Minds Behind Princes Of Darkness
• Bill Connington Is Unstoppable With *Zombie* And *The Thornhills Of Park Avenue*
• “ZOMBIE” To Be Screened At NYC International Film Festival
• The Land Whale Murders Is A Whale Of A Tale and The Tale Of A Whale
• Clandestine: It’s A Secret {But Tell Your Friends} . . . (Planet Connections 2010)

Bill Connington as Oedipus (photo by Beau Allulli)

When looking for a quote to use as a title for this fantastic interview you’re about to read I had so many, many wonderful choices.   Ultimately I went with a more benign line from the Megadeath song but I urge you to check out the Alice Cooper ode to the dark one as well as the more contemplative song brought to us by the Indigo Girls.  Maybe even play it in the background to set the tone as you settle in to read my interview with Rachel Klein and Bill Connington.

If those names sound familiar it may be because Rachel Klein has done amazing work with shows like  All Kinds of Shifty Villains and Go-Go Killers! while Bill Connington garnered  raves in Fringe ’08 with Zombie.  Ms. Klein now teams up with Mr. Connington to not only direct a show he has written and is performing in, but to create dance and movement pieces for it as well.  I got a chance to chat with Klein and Connington about their new collaboration, Princes of Darkness, and hear first hand about good and evil,  how go-go dancing can still be dystopian, and how, often, a Jesuit education will lead to raising children who write shows starring Lucifer.

Rachel Klein

Rachel, when you were first approached to direct this story of men who carry a weight of darkness how did you immediately envision it? What were some of the images that came to your mind?

Rachel Klein: My immediate response to the piece was that these men live in a world of expressionistic theatricality with a cryptic makeup design, flashy costumes, and large movement sequences. Bill chose the characters very specifically—all men are burdened by darkness, yes, but also these men are characters from other plays. Lucifer, Oedipus, Dracula, and Hamlet have all experienced centuries of stage time, so to do them justice, our production uses visual bravado to escalate the presentation of the darkness they carry.

Do you think in order to understand good we have to explain evil?

RK: To me Princes of Darkness is not war between good and evil, or even defining what those terms mean, but rather a showcase of human emotions—pain, suffering, frustration, fear, desire and longing to name a few. All mankind must deal with the darkness within—and the glitter without.

Bill Connington

Bill Connington:  To understand good, we have to understand evil – that’s probably true. It’s like classic pre-war New York apartment bathroom floors. All those black and white tiles. The two colors are opposite. The extremes make it dramatic. The contrast also makes the white whiter, and the black blacker. You understand each color better having them next to each other.

Does The Princes of Darkness address that issue ?

BC: The play tells you where you can get black and white tiles — wholesale. I guess the nature of “good and evil” must be one of my themes as playwright. (I know this because a close friend told me so.) Joyce Carol Oates suggested that I adapt her novella into a solo play. I did, and performed it at the FringeNYC and off-Broadway. It tells the story of a Jeffrey Dahmeresque serial killer. Obviously, it’s easy to condemn a guy who abducts and kills young guys. But the genius of Joyce’s writing is showing his humanity. Showing that he isn’t a “monster”, he’s a human being, with human impulses. What makes him different than the rest of us, is we can control our negative impulses, and he can’t. The character of “Quentin P.” in ZOMBIE is a negative example. We, the audience, don’t want to be like him.

In Princes of Darkness Lucifer is charming, in a slightly sinister way. He’s the “life of the party,” and he gives you (the audience) self-help advice that sounds good on the surface, but, at heart, is really selfish and narcissistic. Lucifer is definitely a negative example. Hamlet, Oedipus, and Dracula (all literary characters – not real people – as far as I know) are also used as negative examples for the audience: “Don’t be like this!” But it’s all done in a fun way. “Good” can be boring. Bad is more fun. Bad is rad.

There’s a playful element to all the characters. The play is not a sermon: that’s the last thing I want to present! I’ve been such a “good boy” my whole life. As the actor, it’s a whole lot of fun going completely the other direction. Being absolutely as “bad” as possible. I’m the kind of guy who belonged to the “Honor Society”, got a “perfect attendance” award, and tried to do what the Cub Scouts taught you – do three “good deeds a day.” In this play, I get to do the complete opposite! Send three Souls to hell a day . . .

Without tipping the plot – what’s your favorite scene in the show?

RK: Amidst the constant movement and action in the show, there is a moment of stillness and slowness that we constructed, and every time that moment comes, it’s so creepy and so beautiful at the same time.

BC: As Hamlet, I get to do a slow motion dance with a skull. I never thought I would get to slow dance with a skull. It’s awesome. I wish I could do it every night. For the rest of my life. Oh wait – I guess I want to play other parts too . . .

I love the idea of choreography in a play about darkness and devils.  For some reason, you just don’t see a tortured soul doing, say, a polka or swing dancing. What role does movement play in layering in the personalities of these characters?

RK: It is unfortunate that there is a lack of tortured soul swing shows! In Princes, each character is being channeled through Lucifer, whose physicality must change every time his essence changes. As far as the choreography goes, it isn’t entirely dance, but also a lot of movement, sometimes flowing, sometimes very ridged. Physical nature informs everything else. To me a character’s posture and gestures are equally as important as the lines they are saying.

Rachel, the shows you’ve been working with lately all seem to center on darker themes. What is it about the Shifty Villains and the Go-Go Killers and the Princes of Darkness that draws you in and makes you want to bring the script to life?

RK: I have a deep fascination with the macabre. When a story is tragic in nature or has doomed characters, I can tinker around with the presentation, and craft the piece to my personal aesthetic. In All Kinds of Shifty Villains and in Go-Go Killers! I was able to experiment with blending genres. With Villains it was film noir and circus elements; with Go-Go Killers! there was a lot more genre blending, all of which were cinematic in origin—from 1960’s go-go dance films, to Italian secret agent films, to exploitation films, to post apocalyptic distopian stories. Princes of Darkness is less about fusing genres and more about bringing a style and sense of glamour to the grit and sorrow of the characters.

Bill, Princes of Darkness has the tag line: “If God is so great, why is the world such a mess?” That question rivals “What is the meaning of life?” as one of the toughest questions to tackle. What made you decide to take it on?

BC: You mean it’s not something everybody talks about over breakfast? Gosh, it just seemed like a natural to me. Both my parents went to Catholic schools – grade school through college. My Dad was taught by the Jesuits. My Mother by the nuns. These kind of questions popped up all the time.

The Jesuits take on the “big questions.” So did my Dad. With a lot of intelligence, and a sense of humor. It can be frustrating, because how can you ever successfully answer these questions? But they’re really worth asking. The play Princes of Darkness takes on the question in an absurdist way. Somehow, that takes the pressure off. It’s satiric – things are exaggerated, rather than realistic. In some sense it makes the question easier to look at. Parts of the play are silly fun. Absurd. It’s been great working with director/choreographer Rachel Klein. She’s got a wonderful and wild sensibility: lots of movement, high drama, and sequins. I saw a production of the new musical “Lizardman” she directed, and I thought, “I have to work with that woman. She’s hyper-dramatic.” Oh wait, I just realized – that’s the wrong tag line for Princes of Darkness. The tag line was supposed to be something about burping air out of Tupperware.

You play Lucifer in your show; and you tell the story of Hamlet, Oedipus, and Dracula.  Were there any modern “devils” or tortured souls that you wanted to incorporate but then  decided to leave out?

BC: A friend suggested I include a certain fairly recent figure from public life, but I didn’t go with that. I wanted to stay with Hamlet, Oedipus, and Dracula – three great roles from literature. If I started adding all the real, contemporary evil people out there, the show would be seventeen years long. What does this say about modern society?  Yikes.

And finally – do you have a favorite devil role – someone who played it so perfectly that every time you think of the devil, you envision that person?

BC: Jack Nicolson seems to play the devil in real life: he’s charming and funny, with a hint of sinister malice underneath. The perfect devil.

_____________________

Thanks, Bill and Rachel.  You can check out Princes of Darkness starting  Sunday, August 8th, 2010 at Theater For The New City located at 155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets).  And also, check back here to read a review of the show. For more information: Click Here .

Related Posts:

• 4 Cents Review: The Princes Of Darkness – They Just Need Love Too
• “ZOMBIE” To Be Screened At NYC International Film Festival
• Bill Connington Is Unstoppable With *Zombie* And *The Thornhills Of Park Avenue*
• Clandestine: It’s A Secret {But Tell Your Friends} . . . (Planet Connections 2010)

What kinds of secret do you know?

Is it classified?  Is it torrid?  Do you feel it’s necessary to preserve your identity?  Do you have a secret identity?  Is it ruining your life?  Is it a second life? Is it real or just pretend? Do you need to expose it to be free?  Do you need to preserve it just to stay sane?

The blurb for this Planet Connections  show was very brief:

It’s a secret.

I want to keep the surprise as well so you can find the answers for yourself by coming to the play.  So the questions that are sparked within you will hopefully expose new truths to you, or make you laugh in surprise at the craziness of a situation, or cry at the irony, or smirk in bemusement at an unexpected twist, or revel in satisfying conclusions.  Or hopefully lead you on to examine yourself deeper and find new secrets about yourself.

But I will tell you one thing . . .

This show is 5 one-act plays that has a running time of 100 minutes and is a strong showcase of playwrights who have other longer pieces in this festival (Duncan Pflaster who wrote and directed Thyme of the Season,  Jonathan Wallace who wrote A Dream about Sunflowers and Glory Bowen who adapted and directed The Picture of Dorian Gray) as well as others don’t have multi-act plays in this festival, but are also cutting edge playwrights:  Nandita Shenoy and Alex Goldberg.

When looking through the program of shows in a festival like Planet Connections (such as Frigid, Fight Fest, or that other little one coming up – Fringe (here’s its schedule))  . . . How do you decide which plays to go to?  You can’t get to them all, so you have to pick and choose.  Therefore, the blurb becomes an artful attention grabber – one where you have to pick and choose your words carefully to reach the right balance.

The same can be said about a one act play.  You only have a small amount of time to get your story across and almost always you’re going to be grouped with a number of other one act plays.  It’s gutsy to have only a three word description of the play.  And it worked for me.

In the same spirit, below are “micro-reviews” of each of the one acts you’ll find in Clandestine.  But overall this is a great show with Chae-kyung Lee as House Manager, Nicole M. Smith as Stage manager, and very dramatic  lighting effects done by Eric Kasprisin and further design by Jessica M. Burgess (lighting), Dan Ozmininkowski (light) and Jacob Subotnick Sound.  NewGround Theatre Collective did a great job in getting everything in this show coordinated together and  I look forward to seeing their work in the future.  Hopefully they’ll consider putting this show together again as the components fused together really well.

UFO Weather by Jonathan Wallace
Directed by Rachel Klein

Shane (Teisha Bader) and Lainie (Mariel Matero) finish walking up the side of a small mountain so they can either see some UFO’s in the fog, or figure out what they really want to do with their lives.  The answers should surprise you.  Great sound and lighting design on this one.

Fabulous by Glory Bowen
Directed by Cindy N. Kawasaki

When two old friends meet for coffee, one keeps secrets of her liberal nature from her friend while the conservative one just keeps being inadvertantly offensive. The secrets they have from each other quickly escalate from simple small talk to accusations and much more as misunderstandings create many funny situations to keep the audience laughing throughout.  This fast paced play showcases Mariel Matero as Jean and Rosebud Baker as Clara.

Rules of Engagement by Nandita Shenoy
Directed by Luke Harlan and Assistant Director Brendan Naylor

Nora (Bona Tek) and Eugene (Eugene Oh) meet at a cafe over lunch break from the company they both work at.  Eugene tells her his secret – he loves her.  Nora says he can’t love her because they only made out that one time at a party, and she doesn’t date guys like him.  Like what?  And she tells him.  And tells him.  And tells him.  She seems to have every possible reason to not want to start a relationship with.  Eugene tries to pop each of these secret “rules” with charisma and intelligence, and Nora finds out some secrets about herself.

Lying Naked by Alex Goldberg
Directed by Michael Schwartz and Assistant Director Samantha Cooper

In this intense play Lily (Rosebud Baker) and Carter (Dominic Spillane) start off naked on a bed furiously ravishing each other.  “Naked” that is in all ways except in how they really feel about all the layers of secrecy they have in order to maintain their illicit relationship with each other.  We see in this play how being intimate and being together aren’t the same thing without honesty.  The choreography of the bedsheets is almost as good as the witty dialogue and surprising twists all packed into this one act play.

The Russet Rascal by Duncan Pflaster
Directed by Luke Harlan and Assistant Director Brendan Naylor

In this play the powers of derring-do and good reporting live in a fun and zany world with caped crusaders, super-villains and a female butler named Bertha (Leslie Nemet).  Can the Russet Rascal (Doot-doo-doo) played by Kate Michaud keep her secret identity as a rich industrial tycoon safe when a nosy reporter by the name of Alice “Ace” McAllister comes around looking for a scoop about the disappearance of an experimental prototype of the dangerous freeze-ray molybdenum gun  is stolen from her nearby factory?  Who is the likely culprit?  None other than the Spanglish Fly (Fly…Fly… Fly…) played by Matt Carr, who drops in to cause trouble in the middle of the play.  Alice and the Rascal learn each other’s secrets and Bertha finally gets what she really wants for Secretary’s Day.  This play does a great job at laughing at as well as appreciating the ridiculousness of those old super hero shows of the 50′s and 60′s (especially Bat Man and Robin).

Only one show left, Sunday June 20th at 2:30.  If you can make it you won’t be sorry.  If you can’t check out some of the other works by the playwrights of this show.

~~~

Related Posts:

• Entrevista: The Starship Astrov and Asian Belle (Midtown International Theatre Festival 2010)
• The Thyme Of The Season: Even Better The Second Thyme Around (Planet Connections 2010)
• Planet Connections Q&A: The Picture Of Dorian Gray / The Thyme Of The Season
• The Taint Of Equality Or, I Want Your Sex (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• The Empress of Sex (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)