Displaying items by tag: Adam Poss

In “Two Sisters and a Piano” written by Nilo Cruz and directed by Lisa Portes,  we soon learn these two women have been trapped for years under house arrest in an aging manor in Cuba. One is a writer, the other a musician —and that’s her baby grand piano on stage. Maria, the writer (Andrea San Miguel in a darkly rich performance), awaits news of her husband who escaped to freedom in Sweden five years before, yet his letters never arrive. The musician, Sofia (Neysha Mendoza Castro is a delight) is a free spirit, chafing under the constraints of always being at home.

It is 1991. The sisters home is a decaying Spanish Colonial manor house, with colonnades and columns. A spiral staircase leads to the bedrooms above, and the Caribbean Ocean beyond is visible through the windows (Brian Sidney Bembridge is Scenic Designer.) 

The Russian policies of perestroika and increased market openness that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, causes Russia to withdraw from its Cuban client state. Though this sounds timely given current events, playwright Nilo Cruz (who won a Pulitzer for “Anna in the Tropics”) uses the circumstances only as backdrop for something deeper. The political shift dispenses a sense of tumult and change. 

A military officer, Lieutenant Portuondo (Adam Poss), arrives on the scene carrying satchels of correspondence from Maria’s husband from his safe harbor in Sweden. Portuondo appears sinister at first, and we gather that he thinks the letters may be masking plans for Maria’s escape. But we soon learn that is not his game, as he taunts Maria, then whittles away at her strong resistance, exposing her vulnerabilities by reading selections from the pile of sometimes ardent letters. 

Her sister Sofia plays that piano at times, mostly reluctantly, but her soul is suffering as she feels cut-off from humanity. Even their radio dies, silencing their only source of news. We learn that neighbors loyal to the government monitor their activities, and no one visits. 

Eventually a permissible opportunity allows a piano tuner to be summoned: Victor Emmanuel (Arash Fakhrabadi), an open-hearted and warm fellow whom Sofia charms into returning to visit her again. 

Thus we have two parallel relationships which the playwright explores, but to my mind, not effectively. At times we have to do too much work to gather the motivations of the characters. The playwright may think them self-evident. We can see that Lieutenant Portuondo has fallen in love—perhaps because he has read so many of the letters from Maria’s husband? We get rather melodramatic expressions of aspirational longing. 

“There is something about you and your sister that’s different,” says Lieutenant Portuondo. “You’re pure.” And yet he keeps these pure beings under arrest. There is much talking about, reminiscing, but not enough action. In one such conversation, Lieutenant Portuondo says “I think people die there from looking at the cows.” To which Sofia replies, “Moo!” Which earns a laugh, but to me it also sounded like an actress trying to save a play. 

In fact the most engaging moments are those comic antics that Neysha Mendoza Castro’s Sofia drums up, along with her accomplice Fakhrabadi’s Victor Emmanuel. Nilo Cruz is a skillful playright, the sert-up is intriguing, and the turning points and rising action and resolution show up. But the most interesting parts are the relief provided by the scenes with Victor the piano tuner and Sofia, who finally cracks under the oppressive weight of her seclusion. That piano is not played enough to warrant its billing in the title. And the repetitive arrivals of Lieutenant Portuondo and the continuous voice of alarm in Maria’s complaints offer drama more on the order of soap opera—going not very far, ultimately. 

Somewhat recommended, if only for the excellence of the overall production, “Two Sisters and a Piano” runs at Writers Theatre through March 29 in Glencoe, IL.

Let's cut to the chase on this review: Queen is the best show in town. 

Having its world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater, in Queen, Madhuri Shekar has delivered a knockout script, deftly directed by Joanie Schultz, and brought to life by a strong cast. 

Two PhD students - Sanam Shah (Priya Mohanty) and Ariel Spiegel (Darci Nalepa) - have spent six years examining a true-life dilemma: why honey bees are dying – a real-world environmental crisis.

Ariel does the field research, and Sanam – a highly regarded math wonder - crunches numbers for the data, which point to a farm chemical from Monsanto as the culprit. Or so five years of data have shown. But something is amiss.

Queen is a gripping account of academic intrigue laced with ethical challenges, along the lines of David Auburn’s provocative Proof, but with a much livelier pace.

The two are working under Dr. Philip Hayes (Stephen Spencer) who is to deliver within a few days a presentation on their work to an influential scientific group. The paper based on their research has been accepted for the journal Science. Dr. Hayes is gleeful about the prospects for his program, and promising access to big funding for the University.

A crisis looms as the latest research data does not support the earlier findings. Believing it stems from a glitch in the programming, Sanam searches desperately through the code. The pressure is on to bring the numbers in line with expectations.

If this sounds drab, it is anything but. Shekar lays out the science, and describes the culture of academia, in digestible bites. The human side of the drama comes to the fore in the relationship between the two women researchers, Sanam and Ariel, as the pressure mounts to get the results required by their academic overseer. BFFs, the two struggle through this growing professional chasm.

But it is the side-story about Sanam and a potential mate, Arvind Patel (Adam Poss) that leads to some exceptionally well-played scenes that steal the show – at least for me. Sanam’s diffidence about a date with Arvind (set up by her parents back in India) eventually leads to an unexpected romance.

Patel plays Arvind with a smooth, purring, throwaway manliness of that on-the-make single guy everyone knows. Sanam, who parries Arvind’s advances with vigor as he helps her puzzle out the math (he’s a math guy too, an investment manager who works in quant theory), and debate the ethical issues. To see the chemistry between Mohanty and Poss is worth a trip to the converted Biograph Theater.

Queen has been portrayed as an Earth Day oriented story, and a story of friendship among women. But it's also a showcase of great writing and acting.  Don’t miss Queen. It runs through May 14th and it's very highly recommended. 

For more show information click here.