BWW Reviews: Nilo Cruz's ALICE N. A Vibrant Portrait of Grief

Freshly imagined historical theatre delights the mind, and in a play-reading setting, can be a divine imaginative light slipping into a dark corner of the past. Focusing on famed expressionist painter Alice Neel, Nilo Cruz peels back some of his personal experiences to make a colorful and psychological portrait of Neel as more realistic than fiction in Alice N. Collaborating with director Louis Tyrrell, one of the first to bring Cruz' works to life two decades ago, the first reading of Alice N. promises a new, fascinating period of Cruz' writing for the stage.

Structuring Alice N., rather than the heights of her work and career, is Neel's time in a private sanitorium where she engaged in discussion with Dr. Seymour Ludlum. Instead of her past being a device she must grasp and re-enage, Cruz allows Neel to deliberately tell her tale over time and withhold it as a tool of her craft. Ludlum pieces her pains together as Carlos Enriquez, her husband, lover, and collaborator, joins sessions to attempt repair on both Neel's depression and their failed love.

Cruz had not heard this narrative come off the page until this week, an experience intimately shared with Theatre Lab's Playwright's Forum and Master Class Series. With four skilled performers, one an actor who has already originated three roles with Cruz, Alice N. took its first steps into the world, a world in need of Cruz rhythmic, poignant dictation. The work, while still being work-shopped and drafted, feels to be the most traditional narrative Cruz has ever told, while never losing an ounce of the magic that won him his many honors.

Helming the reading was Elizabeth Price as Neel, bringing hesitant shades to dramatize the already painful tale. Her silences were as loud as Cruz wrote, masterfully masking the passions Neel put onto canvas underneath a cold glare. Her lover, Armando Acevedo's Carlos Enriquez, dripped every bit of passion and pain she refused to return. Acevedo builds his character before audience's eyes, a scroll unraveling that contains the keys to Cruz' work. Alice N. is a show that rests totally upon the believability of Price's Neel and the devotion of Acevedo, a dynamic delicately handled by Tyrrell, and moreso by the couple. Both Price and Acevedo are immovable forces, towering in their pain and the oceans between them full of stinging salt.

The two supporting roles, Dr. Ludlum and Carlos' father Don Enriquez, are split narrative and comedic parts. Cruz is still work-shopping the father's involvement, and the historical parts of Ludlum, but at this initial reading, Paul Carlin and Carlos Orizondo nailed down the support. Carlin and Orizondo held a swagger, a naïve certainty of their worlds that make Neel and Enriquez a more mythical and fantastical pairing in their juxtaposed narrative. While Carlin was respectful and warm as Ludlum, Orizondo's cold bureaucratic notions were all too familiar and delightfully sinister as the Cuban doctor.

Seeing Cruz' work this fresh, raw, and vibrant feels all too akin to meeting a lover as they are half dressed. The delights, the passions are felt unbridled, as you are overwhelmed by the guilty glimpse at everything - but time is not yet ripe. Alice N. is not yet slated for a workshop or production, and this reading was a gaze into the starry mind of an innovative step from Cruz. Tyrrell was a smart choice in leading this exploration into Neel's life, with the cast breathing color into Cruz' portrait, a reading not easily remembered. Having rounded out the Playwright's Forum and Master Class Series' weekend with such a treasure, next weekend's workshop will be much anticipated.

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The next show of Theatre Lab's Playwright's Forum and Master Class Series is 1000 Miles by Vanessa Garcia. The reading will be held at the Theatre Lab, October 13th at 7:30pm. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door. Garcia will hold a master class October 15th at 10:00am.