A program note by Corinne Jaber, the playwright who is making her debut with Munich Medea: Happy Family, says that her work is meant to “shine light into places that are difficult to look at” and not “judge nor accuse, but to reveal.” She accomplishes that, but the story line of her fairly static, albeit well-cast, play feels like one we’ve (unfortunately) seen before. At this point, more than 25 years after How I Learned to Drive won the Pulitzer Prize, sexual abuse is no longer a novel subject for the stage.
A Good Day to Me Not to You
In her new solo show, A Good Day to Me Not to You, writer and star Lameece Issaq plays a wonderful, quirky, neurotic aunt—the type who makes you feel safe. It’s a character (identified only as Narrator) who is at odds with her situation in the play: according to a shaman, she carries “a spiritual infection” that has metastasized to her body, in the form of genital warts, or possibly from her body to her soul—it’s in both, and presents itself in a fear of sex, a fear of loneliness, and the Narrator’s withdrawal from the messiness of life to a nunnery. Even there, her life isn’t completely without angst—she meets a deranged woman, who greets her with “A good day to me, not to you.”
Oratorio for Living Things
Oratorio for Living Things, Heather Christian’s new music-theater piece, was supposed to open on March 30, 2020. Two weeks before that, New York City’s playhouses closed precipitately in response to Covid-19. On the second anniversary of the aborted premiere, Oratorio has returned. After 24 months of isolation and loss, there’s a miraculous feel to this piece of theater.