Review - City Of

Last Friday, I went to see a new Off-Broadway play written by an old friend of mine, so you can take my praise with a grain of salt.  I'll never forget the first play of his that I saw - it was about a melting ice cube.  Really!  I was so taken with his imagination and whimsy and I still am.

City Of is a rumination on Paris, dreams and love.  It was inspired, according to playwright Anton Dudley's note in the program, by Rousseau's painting "The Dream," a surreal work where you're not quite sure what's real and what's a dream.  This is a theme that permeates Anton's play.  City Of  is a fantasy, where four random people journey to Paris to fulfill a dream.  While they're searching for personal connection and dream fulfillment, we also see their dreams and how they maneuver through them.  Along with the four people, we also see the charming dreams and longings of a gargoyle and pigeon.  There are absinthe-fueled dreams, love-struck dreams, death-filled dreams, with many surreal and fantastical touches.  I found much of the play simply gorgeous, with beautiful imagery and language.  It's also terrifically designed - the play is presented in the small Peter Jay Sharp Theater space in the Playwrights Horizons building (but not presented by PH) and the director and designer have found some ingenious uses of space, props and lighting to make you feel as if you're in the Paris Opera, the catacombs, several museums and the top of Notre Dame.

photo credit: Matthew Murphy

Terrifically acted by a small ensemble, I was especially happy to see Suzanne Bertish again on stage - she was quite mournful and lovely as a woman who wants to reconcile the death of her father before her own impending death.  But all of the acting was good and they all had chemistry with each other.  You could feel that what happened to one mattered to the others.  And you could feel how Paris changed them all.  Seeing the play naturally causes you to think of transforming experiences while traveling and how you're looking for places outside yourself to solve some internal problems - I had many moments of deja vu, thinking back to my unsuccessful trip to Paris, and the play just reinforced my desire to get back there.

photo credit: Matthew Murphy

Although I was quite enchanted with most of the play, I did also feel that it tried to do too much, and maybe there was one too many wrinkle to be untangled, but there was so much that was unexpected and surreally beautiful that I really enjoyed myself throughout.  I liked how the play could be interpreted in many ways and I liked the way it opened my mind throughout.  I will also acknowledge that several audience neighbors did not share my experience and couldn't keep their dissatisfaction to themselves.  I think this kind of piece is always going to be divisive, so your mileage may vary, but a play so different that reaches for a totally different feel should be applauded and supported.  At least in my opinion.  Check out City Of, I don't think you're regret it.  Je ne regrette rien.  Or something.  Excuse me while I go find my Edith Piaf CD...

Oh, and before I forget again, my handsome friend and I went to Pigalle after seeing You Can't Take it With You and I got a delicious glass of cote du rhone and had an amazing salad with duck confit and goat cheese.  I highly recommend them both, maybe after seeing a play that takes place in Paris!  Synergy!  :)