Theater Review by Marcina Zaccaria . . . .
For almost 15 years, I lived on Greenwich Street, a long road that extends north from downtown Manhattan, past the World Trade Center site, all the way to Greenwich Village. So, I am still stunned when I encounter the WTC Memorial. The havoc of 9/11, so long ago, reminds me of the frailty of the city.
Opened in the past year, the Perelman Arts Center stands strongly on the ground next to the Memorial. Walking to the Perelman through the new underground subway passage, almost four city blocks, I had to embrace the necessity of physical structure above unforeseen disaster. Will we ever be strong enough? How do we find the stamina to speak about what really matters?
Over 50 productions strong, the Obie Award-winning performance group Talking Band welcomes the collaboration of 600 Highwaymen in their 80-minute production, The Following Evening. The production finds its strength in a meditative longing, with a ferocious undertone surrounding the departed. Ellen Maddow and Paul Zimet conquer a syndrome of silence, finding a freedom in playing the piano or riding a bicycle. Zimet speaks of his journeys in New York through the years, past 1963, 1985, and 2022. Cycling downtown and uptown, he adapts to an ever-changing city. Perhaps the increase of movement and changing of storefronts has been absolutely jarring, rocking our foundations. After seeing the crowds on Second Avenue, he yearns to say, “Walk now, the end is coming.” It is prophetic and harrowing. With his realization that so many will not be here forever, the emptiness of emotion remains deeply disquieting.
In years past, Paul would simply walk to Ellen’s apartment on Mercer Street. The world of downtown theater opened to reveal the hope of a new production, just down the street. These values, celebrated by Joseph Chaikin’s Open Theater at La MaMa, and elsewhere, have inspired theater artists for over 50 years. The need to make theater with one another grows over time. The creative cycle is so delicate, but these actors keep finding the process of playmaking fortifying.
It’s beyond the use of the body, the way we find strength in the space that we are constantly reimagining. With the movements of the body, there is the right to be gentle to ourselves, embracing any imperfection. The battles we face against time, against permanence, can be won by taking a long reach to the skies, lengthening a shadow form. We are not puppets, devoid of emotion, but fierce survivors, having already seen so much.
Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone enter into Ellen and Paul’s story, appearing as Playwrights, Directors, and Performers. A generational study of life in the arts, The Final Evening becomes more deeply theatrical with the addition of original music by Avi Amon with sound design by Avi Amon and Ryan Gamblin. Browde and Silverstone tell their road story. At only 40-something with a baby on the way, they, themselves, are like the children of the avant-garde. Browde and Silverstone attend to the making of the arts with a concern for detail and a need to find relevance in their years. Their presence occurs to the viewer as more directorial, but their need to make the next work is equally essential.
At 80, Zimet, near Maddow, continues to re-assert his message. Again and again, life will occur and the arts will be resurrected. Newer companies will take their chance to make a legacy, treasuring the necessity of creation along the way.
The Following Evening. Through February 18 at the Perelman Performing Arts Center (251 Fulton Street at Church Street in the World Trade Center complex, lower Manhattan). www.pacnyc.org
Photos: Maria Baranova
