 |
Caturah Brown (far left), Erin Noll (center left), Raiane Cantisano
(center right), Dolores Avery (far right) | Photo by Joan Marcus |
I brought an unsuspecting friend along to Good Friday: an LA friend who was in town. She is a movie producer who has ADD and a lack of patience for the experimental or self-important work. If anyone can serve as a more entertainment savvy, please-no-artsy-bullshit test audience it’s my friend. We sat down as playwright and movie producer: two coasts, two mentalities, one play. By the end, we were united in one feeling that this Good Friday was not only an urgent and compelling play, but it’s one that never ceases to entertain with strange twists and surprising reveals.
Let me first say that there are a lot of surprises in Good Friday. I will avoid spoilers and stay away from discussing plot details. But just know the set up: a feminist book club is meeting to discuss Ibsen’s A Doll House (persnickety point from a dogmatic theatre professor because the play is listed as A Doll’s House. There is no apostrophe in A Doll House. The entire meaning of the play changes with that and Professor Gary Vena would kill me if I added that into that into the description…but I digress). An active shooter situation erupts on campus. The professor and students barricade themselves in the classroom as the terror spreads. The trapped students in the room represent a wide socio-economic and ethnic swath of women. Their histories and secrets overlap as the drama unfolds outside.
And that’s all I’m going to say. The rest you have to experience for yourself.
Playwright Kristiana Rae Colón has managed an impressive feat. She’s taken two current issues – mass shooting and the #metoo movement- and mixed them together into a drama that manages to transcend ‘the afterschool special’ trap of well-intentioned many contemporary dramas. Good Friday is grounded in the temporal present but elevates itself into art that is timeless.
Colón writes in deceptively broad strokes. The characters come across as left-wing caricatures at first. But as the play progresses, you realize that the playwright has been saving several key pieces of background stories. It’s the accumulating small details that turn cardboard cut-outs into flesh by the end.
Director Sherri Eden Barber coaxes depth and layers out of a young group of performers from The Bats, the ensemble of actors at The Flea. The multimedia use of video, phone, and pictures adds rich layers of meaning that are coded in social media as well as religious iconography.
There are slight bumps in the road, rocky transitions that may be smoothed out as the run progresses, small moments that actors may still be working through in previews. But the drama is there. The passion is present. The fire is being brought by the cast and crew.
Good Friday is the best play I’ve seen so far in The Flea’s “Color Brave” season and that’s saying something. My friend said she could see this play as a movie, which is the highest praise you could get from an LA person.
GOOD FRIDAY
by Kristiana Rae Colón
directed by Sherri Eden Barber
Featuring The Bats
Dolores Avery
Caturah Brown
Raiane Cantisano
Charly Dannis
Clea DeCrane
Ure Eghuho
Arielle Gonzalez
Renee Harrison
Artrece Johnson
Erin Noll
Pearl Shin
Scenic Designer-Kate Holl
Costume Designer- Christelle Matou
Lighting Designer-Paige Seber
Sound Designer-Megan Deets Culley
Project Designer – Jess Medenbach
Violence/Intimacy Choreographer – Rocio Mendez
Assistant Director – Rachel Karp
Opens February 11 / Closes November 18
The Flea
20 Thomas Street
New York, NY. 10007
Aurin Squire is a playwright, reporter, and tv writer from South Florida. He is a New Dramatists resident playwright, as well as a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America. In 2017 he won the Helen Merrill Prize for Emerging Writers and was nominated by the WGA for his TV work. His plays have been produced in New York, London, Los Angeles, and Chicago. His play FIRE SEASON was an Emerald Prize winner and received its world premiere at Seattle Public Theatre in January 2019. CONFESSIONS OF A COCAINE COWBOY world premieres in March 2019 at Miami New Drama, and he has two commissions for new plays in the 2020 season. In TV, Squire was a staff writer on the CBS political comedy BRAIN DEAD and story editor on the NBC drama THIS IS US. Currently, he is a co-producer on the CBS legal drama THE GOOD FIGHT. He graduated from The Juilliard School and Northwestern University.
, Erin Noll (center left), Raiane Cantisano (center right), Dolores Avery (far right) | Photo by Joan Marcus I brought an unsuspecting friend along to Good Friday: an LA friend who was in town. She is a movie producer who has ADD and a lack of patience for the experimental or self-important work. If anyone can serve as a more entertainment savvy, please-no-artsy-bullshit test audience it’s my friend. We sat down as playwright and movie producer: two coasts, two mentalities, one play. By the end, we were united in one feeling that this Good Friday was not only an urgent and compelling play, but it’s one that never ceases to entertain with strange twists and surprising reveals. Let me first say that there are a lot of surprises in Good Friday. I will avoid spoilers and stay away from discussing plot details. But just know the set up: a feminist book club is meeting to discuss Ibsen’s A Doll House (persnickety point from a dogmatic theatre professor because the play is listed as A Doll’s House. There is no apostrophe in A Doll House. The entire meaning of the play changes with that and Professor Gary Vena would kill me if I added that into that into the description…but I digress). An active shooter situation erupts on campus. The professor and students barricade themselves in the classroom as the terror spreads. The trapped students in the room represent a wide socio-economic and ethnic swath of women. Their histories and secrets overlap as the drama unfolds outside. And that’s all I’m going to say. The rest you have to experience for yourself. Playwright Kristiana Rae Colón has managed an impressive feat. She’s taken two current issues – mass shooting and the #metoo movement- and mixed them together into a drama that manages to transcend ‘the afterschool special’ trap of well-intentioned many contemporary dramas. Good Friday is grounded in the temporal present but elevates itself into art that is timeless. Colón writes in deceptively broad strokes. The characters come across as left-wing caricatures at first. But as the play progresses, you realize that the playwright has been saving several key pieces of background stories. It’s the accumulating small details that turn cardboard cut-outs into flesh by the end. Director Sherri Eden Barber coaxes depth and layers out of a young group of performers from The Bats, the ensemble of actors at The Flea. The multimedia use of video, phone, and pictures adds rich layers of meaning that are coded in social media as well as religious iconography. There are slight bumps in the road, rocky transitions that may be smoothed out as the run progresses, small moments that actors may still be working through in previews. But the drama is there. The passion is present. The fire is being brought by the cast and crew. Good Friday is the best play I’ve seen so far in The Flea’s “Color Brave” season and that’s saying something. My friend said she could see this play as a movie, which is the highest praise you could get from an LA person. GOOD FRIDAY by Kristiana Rae Colón directed by Sherri Eden Barber Featuring The Bats Dolores Avery Caturah Brown Raiane Cantisano Charly Dannis Clea DeCrane Ure Eghuho Arielle Gonzalez Renee Harrison Artrece Johnson Erin Noll Pearl Shin Scenic Designer-Kate Holl Costume Designer- Christelle Matou Lighting Designer-Paige Seber Sound Designer-Megan Deets Culley Project Designer – Jess Medenbach Violence/Intimacy Choreographer – Rocio Mendez Assistant Director – Rachel Karp Opens February 11 / Closes November 18 The Flea 20 Thomas Street New York, NY. 10007 For tickets and more information: http://theflea.org/shows/good-friday/ Aurin Squire is a playwright, reporter, and tv writer from South Florida. He is a New Dramatists resident playwright, as well as a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America. In 2017 he won the Helen Merrill Prize for Emerging Writers and was nominated by the WGA for his TV work. His plays have been produced in New York, London, Los Angeles, and Chicago. His play FIRE SEASON was an Emerald Prize winner and received its world premiere at Seattle Public Theatre in January 2019. CONFESSIONS OF A COCAINE COWBOY world premieres in March 2019 at Miami New Drama, and he has two commissions for new plays in the 2020 season. In TV, Squire was a staff writer on the CBS political comedy BRAIN DEAD and story editor on the NBC drama THIS IS US. Currently, he is a co-producer on the CBS legal drama THE GOOD FIGHT. He graduated from The Juilliard School and Northwestern University.){kind=link}