Broadway Bob’s

“Girl Interrupted” at The Public is an adaptation of the 1999 movie that landed Angelia Jolie an Oscar for best supporting actress. Here the play is directed and acted beautifully. Even though the play is set with music, the music is never overbearing nor consuming, and it adds subtly to the show.

Director Jo Bonney keeps the story close to Martyna Majok’s book. The story is the mid 1960’s and Susanna (Juliana Canfield) has checked herself into a mental hospital in Belmont Mass. She believes that she will be there for 72 hours but it turns into 18 months. The aspiring writer does not see any problems mentally with herself what-so-ever.

In this brilliant show, Canfield is exceptional in the way she commands the stage; more importantly how she explains her state of mind, how she brings forth the mental instability of the other inmates as well.

What was most enjoyable about this deeply moving show is that Jo Bonney gave us a show of what the East Village theaters used to be. The Village used to put forth raw, edgy and deep plays that made you think, made you feel the show deeply. Here, “Girl Interrupted” checks off all of those boxes as an in-depth play that moves the audience for 110 intermission less minutes.

Not only does the direction move this play along for the most part nicely (it can get slow at parts), the lighting (Heather Gilbert), the sound (Dan Moses Schreier), the costumes (Sarah Laux) and the brilliant set all make this a first rate show indeed!

We get a dose of the time period in Majok’s book, Bonney too just touches on enough of it to bring forth what Susanna and the rest feel about the era that is the war torn Vietnam era as well as the 60’s protests and the assassinations, the murders as Susanna will tell us.

As in the movie, the play more so brings out how many of these girls are comfortable being institutionalized. Sure they all complain about being there, however, Bonney does well in showing us just how Grace (Mia Pak), Tori (Gabi Campo), Lisa (King Princess) as well as Daisey (Katherine Reis) know that they may not be able to be out in an open society without the kind of help that they get inside this facility that protects them from the world.

The Public Theater has for years been at the forefront of creative, edgy theater. “Girl Interrupted” was as creative as I have seen at the public. From the cylinder chamber above the stage that came down usefully when needed to underscore a scene, to the great all around staging of this play, The public continues to show us why it’s history is so rich and respected.

“Are You Now or Have You Ever Been” is playing at the City Center. Eric Bentley, an English writer wrote this in 1972 and it is directed by Anna D. Shapiro. The play has a rotating cast with Andrew McCarty having the biggest role last night playing Larry Parks.

The plot is based on the 1950’s UN-American Committee with the “Hollywood 10” under fire. Many of the actors try to wiggle through the committee by fencing with the committee. The various answers are never sincere for the most part. They tell the committee that they know little, or they take the 5th.

The show is running for 15 weeks. I thought the hour and forty five minutes went fast. The action, the staging (Andrew Boyce), the lighting (Donald Holder) were terrific. The projection was the most innovative works of the evening. Brittany Bland fires the historic facts at us all evening keeping us abreast of the time period. Shapiro too keeps the action moving as both sides get contentious at times.

When Eric Bentley first wrote this, he had it as a docudrama. Today, it maybe more relevant than it was in the 50’s. This time, more with China than Russia, we debate what communism is and what it can do to the American way of life. When the “Hollywood 10” was questioned, we had actors like Bogart, writers like Arthur Miller who were at the peak of their careers. These people could influence the American people just by their endorsements. Lillian Hellman, Jerrome Robbins were as big of names and were called to Washington to answer the charges of being Communists.

The writing here, and the direction do twofold: the actors did not want to give up their friends, the direction brings out what the actors went through to dance around giving answers. Caught in a quandary of losing their jobs, or losing their friends, the people called before the committee were in a no win situation. While the writings on this subject have always favored their own, there is no mistake that these actors were either communists, or communist supporters. At a time when Hollywood was more conservative than it certainly is today, people were fired for being left leaning. Today, Hollywood by majority is very left leaning, and has been for quite sometime; when movies, or plays are made today, it usually supports the people who were called in front of the committee. In “Are You Now”, it fairly gives both sides but still favoring the actors though.

This period of time was contentious, it is probably the reason that it has been written about quite a lot. It brings great debate even today amongst Americans. Did congress have the right to investigate? Did Americans want communists in our mist, especially in Hollywood, the place where movies are made, the place that controls a lot of the ways that Americans think? This play drew a lot of that out in the hour forty five minutes.