Animal
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Cititour.com Review
To play a “mad scene” well, as numerous actresses who have been tasked with portraying Ophelia or Lady Macbeth have done, is one thing. To spend an entire 90 minutes on stage portraying a woman who is losing – or lost – her mind takes a special kind of talent. Luckily, it’s one that is possessed by the mesmerizing, fearless Rebecca Hall, who delivers an indelible take on such a woman in Clare Lizzimore’s fascinating British import “Animal,” now at Atlantic Stage 2 under Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s savvy direction.
We know very little about Rachel (Hall); she has a loving if understandably frustrated husband, Tom (movingly played by Morgan Spector, Hall’s real-life spouse) and some kind of job that her enigmatic psychiatrist, Stephen (a fine Greg Keller) thinks she’s not ready to return to. And she is definitely sleep-deprived, prone, she says, to waking herself up in the middle of the night.
Whether that’s a symptom of her illness or its cause is part of the mystery Lizzimore brings to the play. Could Rachel be suffering some delayed trauma over what sounds like a strange upbringing by a cold mother? Is she harboring extreme feelings of guilt about how she treats her paralyzed, mostly mute mother-in-law (a pathetic Kristin Griffith)? Is her breakdown being caused by sexual frustration – a possibility given that she toys with the idea of having an affair with an extremely well-built, charismatic burglar (the excellent David Pegram), who breaks into her house one evening?
Indeed, Rachel isn’t given a diagnosis until shortly before the show’s end, but a sharp-eared or quick-witted audience member might well figure out what’s truly wrong much earlier. Others will find the denouement as surprising (and socially important) as I believe Lizzimore intends it to be.
Either way, the play’s fascination lies primarily in watching Hall (plainly costumed by Sarah J. Holden) as she goes through a shocking gamut of emotions and behaviors, from out-of-no-where laughter, uncontrollable anger and sheer terror to sly wittiness, sometimes in mere seconds. Hall’s Rachel often seems to be walking on a tightrope with no net underneath; yet even in her worst moments, we wouldn’t want to see her fall. It’s part of Hall’s gift as a performer that not only do we have nothing but compassion for Rachel, but we realize that no matter our gender or age, all of us could someday become Rachel.
Lizzimore smartly structures most of the play’s scenes (which take place on a small square of stage space, with the audience seated on either side) in one-on-one situations, as if Rachel is participating in some imaginary wrestling match. In the end, though – as we all should have realized - her true opponent is never the person opposite her.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://atlantictheater.org/playevents/animal
Cast
Rebecca Hall, Kristin Griffith, Greg Keller, David Pegram, Morgan Spector, Fina Strazza,
Open/Close Dates
Opening 5/24/2017
Closing 7/2/2017
Box Office
866-811-4111
Theatre Info
Atlantic Theater Co. Stage 2
330 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Map
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