Through February 17, 2008
Reviewed by Steve Callahan
The
Upstream Theatre, under artistic director Phillip Boehm, is proving to
be one
of our most interesting and accomplished new theatre companies. Do not
be put off by their rather gassy
Mission Statement, which offers theater that is "spiritual &
sentient, witty & engaged, multi-layered & syncretic". Let
that pass; this group really delivers the goods--solid,fascinating,
deep, imaginative, top-quality theatre with an international
flavor. They've been at it for three years now.
Their world premier production of The Polish Egg Man, by Alexander Borinsky, is one of the finest pieces I've seen in quite a
while. It's an impressively mature work,
considering that the playwright is a Yale undergraduate. We watch a relationship between a boy and a
girl as it grows from intimate childhood play into a marriage. The young woman, Molly, suffers from some
sort of anomie. The word "spiritual" is
so overused, and I'm usually not even sure what it means--but Molly's
unhappiness might best be described as a spiritual angst. It's expressed in ways that are so painfully
familiar to anyone who has ever shared a difficult relationhip--the subtle, yet
inescapably articulate shunning of a touch;
the accidental or careless leaving of hints of suffering. The denied sharing of the problem: "Is
something wrong?" "No, no." "Are you OK?" "I'm fine."
All of this, in the normal world, might be seen as
simple sexual incompatibility. But
Borinsky's world has the simplicity of a parable, and here Molly's angst takes
on a deeper, existential tone.
The young man, Angus, is given a strong portrayal by
Christopher Hickey. He's able to evoke
all our sympathy.
We do not sympathize with Molly--she's far too closed
and self-obsessed. But we simply cannot
take our eyes away from Magan Wiles!
Blessed with rare physical grace and investing each performance with
such utter, utter commitment, Miss Wiles is a truly remarkable actress.
Standing outside this fable, and relating the tale to
us is the Polish egg man himself--Alan Knoll.
Mr. Knoll has been delighting St. Louis audiences for many years with
his delicious comic gifts. Here he
achieves what, for me, is a climax of his career. He's thoughtful, philosophical, sentimental, sensitive,
sad--and of course funny. You'll see
touches of Tevye in this sweet, anguished peasant gentleman who searches for
sorrow.
Though the playwright is American-born I sensed
something Polish in the stylization, the theatricality of the piece.
There's a bit of Mrozek in Borinsky. Lovely violin music is performed
by a young
Pole, Ludek Sklodowski. And, of course,
the play is directed--beautifully directed by Wieslaw Gorski, fresh
from Warsaw
and Szczecin.
Don't miss this strong, beautiful production--The Polish Egg Man, at the Upstream
Theatre. It plays through February
17.
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