BWW Reviews: Center Stage's Concert Play Readings, April 23-25

For those unfamiliar with what Center Stage has been offering the past three week-ends in the Head Theater, imagine actors standing on a bare stage with scripts open on a music stand, and they actually read the play with an individual reading the stage directions. 

During week one, the play After the Quake by Haruki Murakami (adapted by Frank Galati) was presented.

Week two featured three separate plays and combined they were given the title of Wrestling with Angels: New Perspectives on the Middle East.  The three plays were: Only Who Guard the Mystery Shall by Unhappy by Tony Kushner, Seven Jewish Children by British playwright Caryl Churchill, and "Benedictus" by Israeli playwright Motti Lerner.

Kushner's play was certainly strange. Can you imagine Laura Bush (played by a terrific Mia Dillon who even looked like Bush) addressing a large group of dead Iraqi children with an Angel (played by Tony Award winner Jefferson Mays in a dead pan wonderful performance) next to her describing the children.

The controversial play by Churchill (which has been banned in New York and Israel) was a short ten minutes (with Dillon, Mays and Ana Goldseker) about the horrors of war throughout history. Churchill has said of her play that "It's a political event, not just a theatre event".  She has stated that it shows "people being persecuted...and the defensiveness of their threatened position, leading to further violence."  She wrote the play as an immediate reaction to the 2009 bombing of Gaza.

The final part of the trio Benedictus was an incredibly timely play which concerned an impending U.S. attack on Iran following the knowledge that Iran's nuclear capability had been achieved.  The cast was superb.  Center Stage veteran John Ramsey played multiple roles, Bill Cwikowski (so terrific in the Center Stage production of Hearts a few years ago, played a former Iran hostage who served as a  U.S. Ambassador, Robert  Montano, an Iranian Jew who was an arms dealer located in Israel whose sister was still in Tehran, and Alex Courtney, an Iranian politician attempting to stop the bombing of his country.

The three plays were directed by Jason Loewith.  Center Stage Resident Dramaturg Gavin Witt lead post play discussions along with playwright Lerner which were both stimulating and educational. Lerner commented he was grateful to Center Stage and planned to work on the play in Israel utilizing the many comments he received in Baltimore.

As of this writing I have not yet seen the final play East of Berlin. I was able to observe a fascinating discussion by the cast ( Jacob H. Knoll, Tom Pelphrey, and Beth Wittig), director Connie Grappo, and Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch.

This play, set from 1969 to the present, occurs in Paraguay and Berlin. The play concerns a young man living in a "German" section of Paraguay, learns his father may have been involved in Nazi atrocities, travels to Berlin and meets and falls in love with a young Jewish woman from New York whose mother was killed in Auschwitz.

Center Stage has invited the theater community to attend rehearsals for free by going to their web site - www.centerstage.org/readings and click on Rehearsals.

Tickets are available for performances, Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, April 23-25. For tickets call 410-332-0033.

In the Photo: L.to R. Playwright Hannah Moscovitch, Director Connie Grappo. Photo Credit: Charles Shubow

For comments, write to cgshubow@broadwayworld.com.

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