Usher nonsense #31 – BUG
BUG - By Tracy Letts; directed by Dexter Bullard; sets by Lauren Helpern;
lighting by Tyler Micoleau; sound by Brian Ronan; costumes by Kim Gill;
Baroow Street Theatre at Greenwich House, 27 Barrow Street, Greenwich
Village.
WITH: Shannon Cochran (Agnes White), Amy Landecker (R. C.), Michael
Shannon (Peter Evans), Michael Cullen (Jerry Goss) and Reed Birney (Dr.
Sweet).
See, now, this is where it gets completely subjective. I saw the same performance
Ben Brantley saw. He adored it, (see his review 3/1/04) and I and walked out
thinking - what is the POINT of this?
This is the story of a lonely woman in Nowhere Oklahoma who lives in a motel
because it's safe and undemanding. Her past was neither. Into her life comes a man
who charms her by what he witholds combined with his desire to protect her. They
also share a liking for cocaine, liquor, crack, and hope colored with suspicion. From
the minute they meet life begins to crack like glazed glass. They float off and then
down together willingly because being together in a great adventure is better than the
nothing that they were without each other.
The production is stunning in every aspect. There is brave direction that risks
silences that are only moments when the characters do not put sound on the breath.
You can feel them thinking and inching their way further along their path. The use of
light and sound pulls you into this little motel in a nearly physical way. The cast is
dead on. The production is all of a masterpiece.
Michael Moriarty said once that the audience wants to go to the dark places. It's one
of the reason we go to the theatre - to have a journey that we would not take alone.
But he also said that if you lead them into the basement, you have to remember to
leave the door at the top of the stairs unlocked. In this production, the author took us
to the basement, then retracted the staircase and glued shut the door. I prefer my
darkness with a sliver of light on the side.
©2004 Tulis McCall
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