I Was Most Alive With You

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I WAS MOST ALIVE WITH YOU

Photo: Joan Marcus

Cititour.com Review
In a world that tests our strength on a daily basis -- whether we’re worrying about our (or our loved ones’) health, our civil rights, even our chances of literal survival -- there’s something very timely about “I Was Most Alive With You,” Craig Lucas’ undeniably heartfelt (and deeply personal) play about the importance of faith, now receiving its New York premiere at Playwrights Horizons.

Still, one wishes that Lucas, a remarkably talented writer, had chosen a less heavy and heavy-handed approach to this subject matter than this modern-day version of The Book of Job (used here both metaphorically and quite literally). For much of its two-plus hours, as it piles on disaster after disaster for its characters, the work feels almost like an exercise in cruelty, if not downright sadomasochism, redeemed partially by the excellent acting of its highly committed cast.

His main protagonist, Ash (an effective Michael Gaston), is a quasi-everyman: a recovering addict and alcoholic who is working on a pitch for a new TV series with his best friend and would-be-paramour Astrid (an appealing if slightly frantic Marianna Bassham). Creatively stymied, the pair hit upon the idea of re-telling the Book of Job, which all-too-neatly parallels the last few months of Ash’s life (told here primarily in flashbacks).

Ash’s troubles begin at an ill-fated Thanksgiving dinner (a whole subgenre of plays) when Rashad (Tad Cooley), the less-than-pleasant and less-than-wholesome new boyfriend of his grown son Knox (Russell Harvard), a deaf, gay, recovering addict, swipes a bottle of Carla’s pills. Shortly after their hasty exit, Ash discovers that his regal, worldly-wise mother Carla (the invaluable Lois Smith, once more bringing radiant inner and outer life to the stage) is not only finally dying of a recurring cancer but has lost all her money to an unnamed swindler (clearly Bernie Madoff) and can no longer fund his and Astrid’s long-running, money-losing TV series.

His life further disintegrates when he finds out, hours later, that Knox has been in a devastating car accident that causes the young man to both lose one hand and return to his hard-drinking, pill-swallowing ways, and which eventually drives Ash’s unhappy wife Pleasant (a brilliantly brittle if still vulnerable Lisa Emery) to realize that her life has been wasted as a wife and mother. (The letter she writes to Ash explaining her decision to leave her family is a gorgeous piece of writing!)

Lucas has stated his inspiration for the play was twofold: a terrible period in his own life and the desire to work with Harvard, who took New York by storm some years ago in the Off-Broadway play “Tribes.” The latter proves understandable: Harvard (who was born deaf but speaks almost perfectly) serves up a shattering performance that become this play’s true raison d’etre. He digs so deeply into Knox’s pain, exposing both his heart and body (literally if briefly) that you’ll want to rush the stage and either hug him or slap him (or both).

It should be noted that given the play’s subject matter, parts of the script are signed in ASL and subtitled in English, while the entire work is also enacted by an all-signing “shadow” cast perched on the second floor of Arnulfo Maldonado’s functional (if uninspired) unit set. It is a credit to co-directors Tyne Rafaeli and Sabrina Dennison that the ASL performers don’t distract the audience watching the main cast, while clearly allowing hearing-impaired audience members to appreciate the work.

Do you have faith that Lucas will provide us with an answer to our own spiritual dilemmas, or at least a glimmer of hope before the curtain falls? Well, that’s for me to know and you, if you choose, to find out.

By Brian Scott Lipton


Visit the Site
https://www.playwrightshorizons.org/shows/plays/i-was-most-alive-you

Cast
Marianna Bassham, Tad Cooley, Lisa Emery, Michael Gaston, Russell Harvard, Lois Smith and Gameela Wright, who are shadowed by a cast of deaf actors including Beth Applebaum, Sabrina Dennison, Harold Foxx, Seth Gore, Amelia Hensley, Anthony Natale and Alexandria Wailes

Open/Close Dates
Opening 9/1/2018
Closing 10/14/2018

Box Office
212-279-4200

Theatre Info
Playwrights Horizons
416 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
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