Reviews

How interesting that Eugene Ionesco wrote The Bald Soprano in 1948, nearly fifty years ago, with its absurd commentary on the isolation in human relationships, and it still rings true. I doubt that there's a married couple that couldn't identify with Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Phil Garfinkel and Donna Lee Michaels) as they sit in inane after dinner conversation at the opening of Break a Leg Productions first of Ionesco's ground breaking plays.

Their Maid (MarthaLopez Gilpin) announces the arrival of Mr. And Mrs. Martin (Teri Black and Jay Aubrey Jones) with authoritative energy, and the couple enters, sit across from each other, and proceed with the highlight scene of the play. Although they seem to note something familiar about each other, they can’t quite connect how they know each other until they realize that they share the same bed, and a child. Talk about marital alienation! And they capture it perfectly.

After a series of doorbell rings, The Fire Chief (Michael Edmund) arrives in search of a fire to extinguish. The two couples are appalled to find out that the Maid and Fire Chief are lovers, as they dance a comic sensuous dance before them.

The conversation continues between the two couples, and, as it escalates in volume and frustration, Ionesco gets his point across: that no one hears or really cares about what anyone else says or thinks.

Director, Joe Benenati kept the costumes and blocking of the play minimalist and contemporary. The show might have been better served by a more realistic take on the text. Nevertheless, The Bald Soprano keeps the audience’s interest and succeeds in the play’s original intention.

The second play, The Lesson , is quite another story as The Pupil (Judy Jerome) arrives at The Professor’s (Michael Gilpin) home to be tutored for an advanced degree in diplomacy. Ushered in by yet another Maid, (Joan Valentina), the play starts out normal enough, at least for Ionesco.

The Maid warns the Professor to take it easy on the new student or there will be yet another serious outcome to their session. The professor grills the pupil on complex math problems that she answers easily, but then when she can’t add or subtract simple arithmetic, he starts to get unhinged. Against the Maids warning, he changes the topic of study to philology, and, The Lesson spins further and further out of control.

Unlike in the first play, Director Christopher Bellis has steered or allowed Ms. Jerome and Mr. Gilpin to play it for real, and these two talented actors give tour de force performances. They connect with each other and the audience as The Lesson goes awry, with comical yet tragic consequences.

In addition to the craziness and repetition, The Bald Soprano and The Lesson examine class distinctions, yet The Maids in both plays are stronger and saner than their employers. For all the absurdity, Ionesco understood human beings in ways that still resonate with truth, and continue to secure his standing as a major playwright of the twentieth century.

The Bald Soprano and The Lesson through Sunday May 20th.

Sanford Meisner Theatre, 164 11th Avenue, New York, NY