Three Plays
As a born New Yorker, I have always felt that it is a distinct privilege to be close to the New York cultural scene. The “Great White Way” now sparkles with the three plays I am about to speak of.
Freud’s Last Session was played at the West Side YMCA on 63rd Street at what is called the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theater. After 79 years and $2 million, this theater is a charming place to view a play, right off Central Park.
The play stars two intellectual giants at odds over religion and philosophy. A young C.S. Lewis, recently converted to Catholicism, debates an older, dying Dr. Sigmund Freud, born Jewish but leaning heavily towards atheism. The time is September 1939, and Hitler is about to attack Poland and begin World War II.
Freud is suffering from throat cancer, but his vitality in the discussion is unflagging. Freud’s medical writings on dreams and the unconscious have caused much controversy, but he is the founding father of psychoanalysis. Martin Rayner is brilliant in his portrayal of the dying Freud.
C.S. Lewis in this situation has yet to write his The Chronicles of Narnia or The Screwtape Letters. He is 41, while Freud is 83 and sickly. Their verbal jousting and clashing is timeless, and makes for wonderful theater.
Good People is a two-act play by the Manhattan Theater Club that centers on two people brought up in the lower-income Southie, Boston. They knew each other as teenagers, fell in love and then parted ways.
Frances McDormand as Margaret remains in Southie, recently fired and desperate for a job to sustain herself and her sick child. One can never forget McDormand in Fargo as the pregnant police chief. Mike breaks away from his Southie past and becomes a wealthy physician. Tate Donovan is superb as the successful doctor. When wisecracking Maggie enters his office seeking a position, the fireworks begin. The second act is the most dynamic and dramatic of anything I have seen in the theater in a good while; definitely worth seeing.
Colin Quinn: Long Story Short- As Lorraine and I entered the Helen Hayes Theater, we were surprised at the exciting mix of theater-goers. There was both a young college crowd and an over-60 group, together.
I thought I would be bored by just one performer onstage for 75 minutes (no intermission), but Colin Quinn is a versatile, experienced performer. He took us (the audience) on a world tour of history and the foibles of many cultures. The projected slides behind him enhanced his ideas and delivery. His montage caused the audience to give him a standing ovation. The play was directed very ably by Jerry Seinfeld, and some of Seinfeld’s trademark humor showed through.
See it if you can!
