Downstairs

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DOWNSTAIRS

Photo: James Leynse

Cititour.com Review
What would you do if you were one of the American theater’s most prolific playwrights, and one of America’s top actors asked you to write a play that would allow him and his even more-legendary sister to appear onstage together for the first time?

The result, Theresa Rebeck’s “Downstairs,” starring Tim and Tyne Daly, is now being given its New York premiere by Primary Stages at the Cherry Lane Theatre under Adrienne Campbell-Holt’s undistinguished direction. And while the work accomplishes its mission, even in some surprising ways, one wishes Rebeck could have concocted a plot that wasn’t as creaky as the steps leading to the basement (intricately designed by Narelle Sissons) where the entire 105-minute quasi-thriller takes place.

To her credit, Rebeck has put her two stars in roles that are distinctly against their traditional types. Mr. Daly, often cast as the handsome womanizer or the stalwart, heroic leading man, convincingly plays Teddy, a slightly disheveled and seemingly unstable middle-aged man taking refuge from the world in his older sister’s basement. Does he still work in an office? Has a former co-worker actually poisoned him? Did he really get the supposedly broken computer in the basement to work? These questions linger in the air – and our minds – and Rebeck adroitly keeps us guessing throughout the show.

Meanwhile, Ms. Daly, who has made a decades-long career portraying some of the stage and screen’s most formidable women – Mary Beth Lacey, Mama Rose, Maria Callas – is wonderfully believable as the seemingly sunny yet ultimately terrified and fragile Irene, a woman who has become scared of her own clothes, her feelings, and especially her domineering husband Gerry (an excellent John Procaccino), whom we meet about halfway through the play.

Which is too bad. First, there is a special chemistry between these real-life siblings; they don’t seem to be acting as much as being. And when they talk about the relative horrors of their childhood – being raised primarily by an angry, alcoholic single mother – the stories and actions feel entirely true. So does Irene’s protective behavior toward Teddy and her desire to make reparations for their past however she can (such as baking his favorite cake). I wish Rebeck had simply settled for a two-hander.

More problematic, once we meet Gerry – who turns out to be even more unpleasant than described – it becomes pretty obvious there’s only two or three ways this scenario can end. Worse still, Rebeck takes way too long getting there, especially thanks to an unnecessarily talky scene between Teddy and Jerry that quickly becomes repetitive, and another one where, at least, Ms. Daly finally gets to show a little of her trademark ferocity. (Okay, the ending wasn’t exactly the one predicted in my head, but it was close enough.)

To quote Elvis Presley, perhaps a little more action, a little less conversation could have transformed “Downstairs” into a top-drawer play, rather than a middling exercise for two of our most talented thespians.
By Brian Scott Lipton


Visit the Site
http://www.cherrylanetheatre.org/onstage/downstairs//

Cast
Tim and Tyne Daly

Open/Close Dates
Opening 11/18/2018
Closing 12/22/2018


Theatre Info
Cherry Lane Theatre
38 Commerce Street
New York, NY 10014
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