Directed by Nathan Autrey
Set Coordinator - Samuel Harless
Costume Design - Annell Brodeur
Lighting Design - Dave McKee
Sound Designer - Alex Worthington

CAST : Whitney Holotik and Joey Folsom

*REVIEWED 02-05-10 PERFORMANCE.

Reviewed by Mary L Clark, Associate Theatre Critic for
John Garcia's THE COLUMN

____________________DANNY AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA___________________

Reviewed by Mary L Clark, Associate Theatre Critic for
John Garcia's THE COLUMN

Finding the location for Broken Gears Project Theatre's production was about as
out of the way and remote as the setting for their play, Danny and the Deep Blue
Sea . Small, dark and non-descript – the perfect place for both a play of such
starkness or a NY bar for those who wish to get lost.

John Patrick Shanley wrote Danny and the Deep Blue Sea early in his writing
career. He went on to write dozens of plays and several film or TV scripts –
most notably Moonstruck and Doubt. Raised Catholic in the Bronx of the 1950's,
his life bleeds into his works – lower income, hard-working people with huge
doses of Catholic guilt coursing through their veins.

This one-act comes with a cast of two very angry, very hurt, very damaged
people. Right from the first words, the hatred pops like firecrackers on a
sidewalk. So much pent up hostility was being spewed by two complete strangers.
Yet neither turns away or backs off. They both come back for more and the more
they fight, the more they need to keep it going for some physical interaction at
any cost. It's the only way they know how to communicate, the only way to be
with someone. The drunken physicality leads to sexual physicality which goes to
their heads and to their hearts as love. Or love as they always dreamed it to
be; love as they witnessed it through other people's lives. Their mental games –
or "mind f***s" as this rough-hewn pair would say - are constantly bounced off
one another. The final scene culminates with some level of merciful redemption
but we are left on a precarious ledge of hope. It is not at all the perfect
ending.

A two person play is always a hard draw. You need to be consciously in the
moment. You can't wander off mentally; there is no break. Add the physical and
mental stamina this play requires and the draw becomes an endurance test. Both
actors were more than equal to the test and made Director Nathan Autrey's job a
whole lot easier. Whitney Holotik and Joey Folsom as Roberta and Danny were a
walking tour de force. The play started out on a high note and never let up even
as the characters let down some of their guards and allowed themselves the
courage to believe again. The language was coarse, the physicality even more so.
Neither of them lost concentration – how could you while being pushed, punched
or thrown around.

I did question the first half of the play in the bar as some of the dialogue
shifted gears and built up too quickly. While I could not get a copy of the
script before this review, I felt huge cuts were made and that is my question.
The play is not that long in its entirety and I wonder if the cuts were for the
high tech immediacy of our now cell phone texting youth who happened to make up
the majority of that night's audience. If so, may I briefly stand on my soap box
and beg all directors to not reduce theatre to the level of "get `em in and get
`em out" mentality. Leave that to TV one-hours because theatre is the last
vestige of real, in the moment, face-to-face interaction between people (the
actor and the audience) we have left. I thank you for listening.

Those strange builds and transitions in dialogue may be the reason for Ms.
Holotik's one note inflections She responded too emphatically to all Folsom's
venom though her character would have used the quick retort as her wall of
defense. I mention this because it improved so dramatically in the second half.

Both actors wielded their dialects like a badge of honor for their Bronx
neighborhoods. And Folsom held nothing back in wearing Danny's emotions for all
to see. Actually, that was a problem. The onstage lighting was too low. I can
understand Director Autrey's and Lighting Designer Dave McKee's use of dim
lighting for the bar and Roberta's room because of the late hour; it's possible
use to represent the character's dark lives, etc. but it was too dark.

We had to figure out that Danny was beat up and bleeding because we simply could
not see his face. All his important expressions were lost. Several times the
actors walked into nothingness. There were plenty of lighting instruments – ISP
is a video studio – so I was baffled at the decision. Also, if you have Roberta
sitting in the bar as the audience enters, it might be a good time to have her
doing something – maybe drink her beer, get another, get a bit drunk and
progress further downward for the later explosions to come. Then her first lines
wouldn't be so out of the blue.

Samuel Harless was listed as Set Coordinator and a simpler set could not have
been assembled – two tables, four chairs, a mattress and a box nightstand pretty
much says it all. Costumes by Annell Brodeur were rumpled jeans and T-shirts
appropriate. Sound Designer, Alex Worthington, found some good bar music with a
little Prince and Hendrix thrown in. The program says he performed two songs so
if that wasn't Leonard Cohen, good on ya!

Playing time says 85 minutes though I clocked it at much less (it started very
late so I could be off a bit). Danny and the Deep Blue Sea is a tightly wound
package of a play and, though it can sometimes be difficult watching and
listening, the catharsis of Danny and Roberta and the magnificent pairing of
Holtik and Folsom made the package an honor to open, to acknowledge and to
savor.

Reviewed by Mary L Clark, Associate Theatre Critic for
John Garcia's THE COLUMN

_________________________________________________________________

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
Broken Gears Project Theatre
1957 E. Irving Blvd.
Through February 20, 2010

Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm.
Tickets are $25.
For information, reservations and directions, go to
www.info@brokengearstheatre.com