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Having emigrated from the Big Apple, the weekend tips from Friday's Arizona Republic piqued my interest in "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea" with references to New York City. It said something about two down-and-outs falling in love. I'm always a sucker for a good romance like "An Affair to Remember". I was not disappointed.
Roberta and Danny are really two misfits sitting at adjacent tables in a cocktail lounge. She is desperate for companionship, while he is the 'tough guy' loner. When she casts her lines of ice breakers, they bounce off that tough Bronx exterior. She reacts with flip repartees like 'Who cares?' After a New York minute or two, he relents and takes a nibble. And so it continues till we find out that he is a 29-year old laborer/streetfighter and she, a 31-year old unemployed secretary/mother forced into marriage by her father. While each confesses their secret mortal sin, his borne out of violence, hers out of sex, each thinks that their cross is heavier than the other. So with their baggages of the past, they proceed to her room made out of a closet in her dysfunctional parents' apartment. (My parents converted a large pantry into my bedroom).
The next act is set in that closet-bedroom where they attempt to minister to each other in the night, by peeling away each others' callousness. Roberta gives Danny tenderness that defuses his violent nature. She asks for romance which Danny relunctantly accedes to, but in the end, concedes his whole heart. While the first act was characterized by violence, this scene is contrasted with smiles.
The final scene is the morning-after in the closet-bedroom. The daylight brings recantings, recriminations, betrayl, and violence. Finally, there is this miraculous transformation of absolution, forgiveness, and hope. Perhaps the playwright can get away with this because he knows the audience wants a happy ending. I like to think that what is more important is the message that to love is to forgive, especially oneself.
The theater is an office suite next to the Camelback Towers. It has the token lally column in front of center stage as at Planet Earth. The audience suffered doubly from the the air-conditioning and ceiling fans turned on low to hear the sometimes inaudible dialog. There are some 30 assorted chairs, and track lighting controlled by rheostats. Needless to say, there was minimalist scenery. There is no backstage, so the audience is forced to evacuate for each scenery change. But on the whole, it was better accomodations than in the Greenwich Village theaters that I attended.
I found the first act entertaining because the dialog is what I remember from my childhood. Both actors did an excellent job with their dialect, especially since I had seen Joey Dismore (Danny) with his German accent in "Bent". Razel Wolf plays an attractive Roberta. There were little touches of direction that added to the New York City mannerisms, but the toughest parts for both the actors and director were the scenes of violence that came off as awkward and restrained.
There is nudity, violence and language that some might find offensive. There is smoking and a lit candle on stage that could ignite a tragedy.
St George's Theatre Upstairs
Suite 206
4700 North Central Avenue
19 Sep-19 Oct 96
W-Sa 8pm
274-8307 264-8488
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