Pipeline's The Ash Girl: a fairly luminous fairy tale

The Pipeline Theatre Company has been an ATFG favorite for a couple of years now and I've always been impressed with their versatility. Thursday night, they proved their chameleon character to me again during a preview of their new show The Ash Girl.

Director Jessika Doyel's The Ash Girl is a stirring adaptation of Timberlake Wertenbaker's play, which itself is a beautiful take on the Cinderella story. The play adds layers and weight to the conventional Cinderella plot with its personification of the Seven Deadly Sins (including Sadness as a loner, who is reluctant to be a group member but is an equally dangerous eighth villain), funny and wise animals that do more than help with chores, a less than wicked and more pathetically covetous stepfamily, and a prideful and homesick foreign Prince. The Sins fuel the actions of others, stirring up inner demons that the characters must fight off or end up giving into. Ashgirl, played with wonderful intricacy by Meagan Kensil, is a melancholic Cinderella-like young woman who, with the help of The Fairy in the Mirror, uses inner-strength and hope to fight off the eight literal and figurative demons as she finds solace in the company of an equally tormented Prince.

Despite the fantastical and mythical aspects of the play, Pipeline's adaptation of The Ash Girl has a subtle quality, helped in part by its low-key set and lighting design. With their productions of Felix & the Diligence and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Pipeline impressed by proving that they could utilize a large stage and orchestrate well with a large cast, but with The Ash Girl they decide to subdue the audience into awe. The audience is seated directly on the stage, in a three-fourths of an in-the-round setup with cast members entering and exiting from numerous doorways and ladders. And despite the relatively sizable cast, the show creates an intimate feel with its small stage, dark lighting, limited props, and mostly muted costumes. The eight villains slink in and out of the shadows setting a menacing and ominous tone for the audience. There is a chilling bareness at the beginning of the show that slowly creeps and crescendos into an overflowing turmoil of Ash Girl's inner-conflict as she longs for happiness but struggles to believe she can obtain it. The play eventually eases us into the inevitable warm, happy ending only after making us yearn for it and believe its possibility, just as Ashgirl resolves to believe for herself. Kensil's eyes vividly standout throughout the play as she portrays Ashgirl's sway between sorrow and hope. She captures a forlorn gaze and a look of longing with equal finesse. Teddy Rodger and Sam Chapin help cheer up Kensil's Ashgirl and do a lovely job of counterbalancing the show's haunting feel with their warm and funny performances as her animal friends Mouse and Otter, respectively.

Fueled by Wertenbaker's sophisticated text, the entire cast and crew do a wonderful job of creating an eerily ethereal yet engrossing show. The Ash Girl opens tonight and I urge you to go see it and get wrapped up in the dark but oddly tender fantasy.


THE ASH GIRL
Written by: Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by: Jessika Doyel
April 21–May 5, 2012
Wednesdays–Saturdays, 8PM
The Connelly Theater
220 E. 4th St. (between Avenues A & B)
Tickets: $18 for general admission, $13 for students (with a pay what you can show on Wednesday, April 25!)
For tickets and more information, go here.
Please also consider donating to their fundraising campaign here.

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Pipeline's Maritime Merriment

Over the weekend, Pipeline Theatre Company premiered their new play Felix & the Diligence . It's an absurdly silly and fun show written by Colby Day and directed by Daniel Johnsen. Set on the Atlantic Ocean, against the backdrop of World War II, the play features a slew of ridiculous and comical characters thrown together under the guise of "high stakes cod fishing."

More about this seafaring show, after the jump!


I went into the play knowing very little about it and left pleased and smiling. I'll steer away from any detailed plot description, with the hope that you'll have a similar experience. Part Shakespeare, part Disney, all absurdly funny and crude, Felix & the Diligence takes the audience on a nautical adventure, narrated by an old blind sailor named Henley (a crew member on the Diligence). And of course, Henley is played by a young woman with perfect-vision. In addition to cross dressing and secret identities, the show includes singing, sword fighting, sea monsters, sailor mouthes, Nazis, and even Amelia freakin' Earhart, all on a perfectly constructed ship deck of a stage.



Set designer Andy Yanni does a great job creating a superb stage for the actors to use. Felix & the Diligence is definitely an ensemble piece, with every actor succeeding in bringing to life the detailed nuances and idiosyncrasies of writer Colby Day's crazy characters. While all the actors give solid performances in this tightly-acted and well-paced play, Nicole Spiezio was particularly hilarious as Henley. In a masochistic way, I totally loved her constant cursing at the audience! And kudos to Meagan Kensil for stepping in for Alastair Falk and being such a charming Captain Chapman (yeah, I fell for the understudy bit, and you will too despite this telling review).

Overall, Felix & the Diligence is just a fun, comically chaotic play on an awesomely designed stage. I've come to expect a good theater-going experience from the folks at Pipeline and I'm happy to say that they've delivered again. If you haven't seen one of their shows, Felix & the Diligence is a fine place to start.

Felix & The Diligence, Or A Play About Fisherman in the 1940's
Written by Colby Day
Directed by Daniel Johnsen
Produced by Burton T. Frey Jr.

Featuring: Willy Appelman, Samuel Chapin, Fernando Contreras, Glenn Apollo Hergenhahn, Nathaniel Katzman, Meagan Kensil, Katelyn Manfre, Brad Mielke, Benj Mirman, Edward Raube-Wilson, Arielle Siegel, Allison Smith, Nicole Spiezio, and Mike Steinmetz

Performance Schedule:
September 27, 28, 28, 30 at 8pm
September 25 at 3pm
October 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 at 8pm
October 1, 7, 8 at 10:30pm
 
Connelly Theater
220 E 4th Street (between Ave A & B)
New York, NY

$20 general, $15 for students (code STU15)
For tickets, please click here.

 

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Pipeline Triumphs With Their New Production of Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle

Taking on The Caucasian Chalk Circle would be a challenge for any theater company, even a veteran one. So it is an awe-inspiring surprise to see the fairly young Pipeline Theatre Company tackle one of Brecht’s “epic theatre” pieces. With a refreshing boldness, under the direction of Anya Saffir, Pipeline masterfully rises to the challenge in their production of Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play within a play that connects two stories both dealing with the right of possession. The play opens with a frame story set in Post-World War II Russia where two agricultural communes are debating over land ownership. While accusations of thievery are thrown around, the communes come to the agreement that the land should go to the commune who will tend to and use it best. To commemorate the reached settlement, the commune that retains the land performs a musical (led by a famous, hired singer and his band) for the conceding commune. What unfolds then is a folkish musical lead by the omniscient narrator-like character, The Singer. The tale of the new play, set against the backdrop of civil war, revolves around Grusha, a maid trying to keep an aristocratic child she saved and raised after it was abandoned by his biological mother. When the mother comes back for her child, a ridiculous but poignant custody battle ensues in the courtroom of the crafty judge Azdak. At the end of the trial and the musical, the message that resonates is the same as the one in the original frame story: “what there is should go to those who are good for it.”



Intertwining drama and music, all on a bare but constantly alive and changing set, The Caucasian Chalk Circle triumphs in style and technique. Every actor plays numerous roles, rotating between the two plays as well as serving as musicians and singers. The entire cast and crew are fantastic as they work seamlessly to bring together this layered, complicated, ensemble-driven play. Cormac Bluestone’s original music manages to be both lush and delicate as it adds to the folklore nature of the play. The songs also help to break the fourth wall. They speak to the audience by renouncing and celebrating the emotional ups and downs of the plot and actions of the characters. But they also carry the plot and action by fluidly connecting scene to scene and the play within a play.

Beyond its aesthetic and entertaining qualities, The Caucasian Chalk Circle also provokes the audience to truly think about Brecht’s themes. The desire for justice and attempts at charity and goodness during the power struggles of war are all manifested through the actions of two of the main characters Grusha and Azdak. Both characters, driven by a strong sense of justice, help others despite knowing the threat of trouble their selflessness and helpfulness attracts. Maura Hooper shines as Grusha. She brings an amazing duality of sensitivity and strength to the character. Thanks to her performance, we admire Grusha; we sympathize with her but never pity her. Gil Zabarsky bolts onto the stage as Azdak, providing us with the play’s main bulk of humor. He brilliantly embodies the character’s cunning and verbose wit. He leads us through the second half of the show with his pitch-perfect comedic timing and commanding presence.

Like Grusha walking off with the baby into the mountains, I walked out of The Caucasian Chalk Circle feeling like I had stolen something from Pipeline...something very special that demands my admiration and respect. It is a show that not only possesses the power to alter the minds of the audience but has successfully transformed Pipeline itself into a theater company to be reckoned with. While discussing epic theatre, Brecht once wrote: “instead of sharing an experience the spectator must come to grips with things. At the same time it would be quiet wrong to try and deny emotion to this kind of theatre.” This seems to be the best way to describe my viewing experience of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Watching it is an ideal but rare theater-going experience--you will be entertained, emotionally engaged, and you’ll find yourself challenged intellectually and philosophically. The performance will stay with you, urging you to revisit and contemplate its beauty and meaning. Do not miss out on this experience. Go watch The Caucasian Chalk Circle immediately. To not see it, would be a true injustice.


The Caucasian Chalk Circle
By: Bertolt Brecht
Directed by: Anya Saffir
Music by: Cormac Bluestone
Running now through March 19th at the Theater for the New City
For more information, please visit: http://www.pipelinetheatre.org/

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FAT KIDS ON FIRE

Last night I saw the Pipeline Theatre Company's Fat Kids On Fire, an original play written by Bekah Brunstetter and directed by Peter Frechette. It was a funny, well-acted show that excellently captured the social awkwardness of teenagers with low self-esteem due to body image issues.

Fat Kids On Fire is about Bess, an insecure teenager who gets the opportunity to lose weight and build up her self confidence by going to Fat Camp for the summer. As the skinniest girl there, Bess immediately becomes admired and popular. But all the attention replaces her endearing quirkiness with bitchy egotism. In the end, being the hot, popular girl at camp turns out to be more isolating than being the invisible, slightly chubby girl back home.

The humor and the solid performances help keep the play's familiar themes fresh. During certain scenes, I genuinely felt uneasy watching the characters' insecurities unfold. All the actors did a great job of showing the gawkiness of being uncomfortable in one's own skin. Concepts like eating one's emotions or bullying as a means of projecting one's own insecurities onto others were also well-conveyed. Sydney Matthews did an especially fantastic job portraying Bess' character arc.

I really recommend that you go catch Fat Kids On Fire in its final week at The Wings Theatre. It's playing September 29-October 2; all 8 pm showings. For tickets and more info, please visit www.pipelinetheatre.org.

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