Off-B'way Review: Pre-Existing Condition; In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Lupita Nyong'o in Pre-Existing Condition.
Credit: Jessica Kourkounis

Marin Ireland is one of our most versatile and talented actresses, usually turning up as conflicted and struggling mothers, daughters, wives, or girlfriends in perceptive, searing Off-Broadway plays. With her play Pre-Existing Condition, now at the Greenwich House Theater after an engagement at the tiny Connelly Center last season, she joins the ranks of promising playwrights. In 80 shattering minutes, she documents the wrenching experience of an unnamed woman A, vainly attempting to come to terms with exiting a toxic relationship after her ex assaulted her. The protagonist turns to the law, counseling, therapy, friends, and new relationships, but none offers her resolution or closure. “I don’t know what I want,” she cries more than once. Often she tells whoever will listen (except her distant mother whom she can’t bring herself to tell about the violence she has endured) she just wants the feeling of powerlessness and victimization to go away. But there is no resolution other than the slow process of unpacking her emotions and facing them. 

Ireland painstakingly documents A’s journey through rage, self-blame, and guilt through a

Lupita Nyong'o and Jeff Keller in
Pre-Existing Condition.
Credit: Jessica Kourkounis

series of short, fragmented scenes that flow smoothly thanks to Maria Dizzia’s subtle, graceful staging and Isabella Byrd’s sensitive lighting. The entire play takes place on Cate McCrea’s bare set which resembles a nondescript, support-group meeting room. The play opens with A leaving numerous voicemail messages for a lawyer. He finally returns her calls and informs her there is little legal recourse for her situation since there were no outside witnesses, the police weren’t called, and the laws are antiquated. From there A tentatively embarks on dating, attends individual and group therapy sessions and meets with a friend offering an apology from the former boyfriend. 

In an interesting casting choice, the lead role will be played by a series of different performers during the show’s limited engagement. Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o opens the run and delivers a complex, deeply-felt performance as A. She charts the main character’s circuitous path from numbness to rage to hard-won reflection. She  bubbles with anger, flirts with humor, and hards back tears. She jiggles her leg nervously in one scene, giggles with suppressed anxiety during a first, tentative date in the next. A bravura range of reactions to a ruptured romance. (Philipa Soo, Edie Falco, Hari Nef, and Susanna Flood will follow.)     

B'way Update: 12th Night, Last Five Years, Etc.

Peter Dinklage, Lupita Nyong'o, 
Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Sandra Oh
will star in Twelfth Night next summer.

Initial casting has been announced for the Public Theater's Summer 2025 production of Twelfth Night at the newly renovated Delacorte Theater in Central Park. (The theater is closed this summer as the upgrades are in progress.) The company will be headed by Emmy winner Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) as Malvolio, Tony winner Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family, Take Me Out) as Sir Andrew Agucheek, Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o (Twelve Years a Slave) as Viola and Golden Globe and SAG Award winner Sandra Oh (Killing Eve). 

"Twelfth Night is the epitome of joy," said director of the upcoming production and Public Theater Associate Artistic Director/Resident Director Saheem Ali. "It also happens to be the first production I ever saw at The Delacorte, as a college student taking the Chinatown bus from Boston. I'm delighted to be reuniting with my dear friend Lupita Nyong'o, joined by fellow Public Theater alums Peter Dinklage, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Sandra Oh. Free Shakespeare in the Park is a gift to our city. I'm honored to be helming this production as we reopen The Delacorte after an extensive and essential revitalization."

This will be the seventh production of Twelfth Night presented by the Public in Central Park. Previous revivals were seen in 1969 (directed by founder Joseph Papp), 1986, 1989, 2002, 2009, and a musical adaptation for Public Works in 2018. 

Ellen and the De-Glamorization of the Oscars

The Oscar selfie retweeted by several million people
 including me.

Right after the Oscars, I received several Facebook posts from detractors of this year's host Ellen DeGeneris. I absolutely loved her. I thought she hit exactly the right note between cynical debunking of Hollywood and acting as a surrogate for crazed movie fans. It was clear she loved being there close to the stars and enjoyed kidding them gently. Her whole shtick was to tell the audience, see these big film people are just like you and me. They get hungry, they eat pizza, they pose for selfies. It was a big improvement over last year's snarky Seth McFarland who was determined to be as nasty and lowbrow as any of his Family Guy characters. I'm still cringing from the "We Saw Your Boobs" choral number and the endless, unfunny opening bit with William Shatner.

Film Awards Season Overview: 'Gravity' vs. '12 Years a Slave'

Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong'o, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in
12 Years a Slave

The film award season has already started and the battle lines are drawn: 12 Years a Slave and Gravity are the main contenders for Best Picture, with Her a possible spoiler. I can't believe Gravity is actually a possibility to take the top Oscar. Special effects, OK. Maybe even Best Director. But the Best Picture Award over the masterful 12 Years? My partner points out that Gravity is an "up" picture (no pun intended) with Sandra Bullock triumphing over adversity in the end (just like Tom Hanks in Capt. Phillips and Robert Redford in All Is Lost). Yes, Chiwetel Ejiofor does escape from his bondage at the end of 12 Years, but the film is so dark and uncompromising in its depiction of a national disgrace many would rather forget, it may be bypassed.