The Greeks Are Back on Grand Street, with a Vengeance (Several, Actually) at LoHo10002

MEDIUM TOTALLY THE MESSAGE

The Greeks Are Back on Grand Street, with a Vengeance (Several, Actually)

Last night on the steps at the Henry Street Settlement Abrons Arts Center amphitheater, the Greeks were back in force, with the tragedy of Antigone (girl meets dead brother, girl buries brother, king buries girl), with a troop from the Makor / Steinhardt Center. If ever the medium were the message, it was last night, at least for yours truly. For years I’ve been passing by those amphitheater seats, wishing for a day when real actors perform real plays for real LESers, right there, at the heart of the neighborhood, with buses and passers by and sirens and pedestrians.

Director Harriet Spitzer-Picker with amphitheater audience

Actually, watching pedestrians go by was nearly as exciting as watching the Oedipus progeny going through the final stages of daddy’s curse. Folks coming home from the subway would slow down, first to figure out what’s going on, then to hear better, and then the talented usher would be on them with a stack of programs and many of them would scoot onto the seats, mesmerized by the old master Sophocles. Parents with baby carriages were the best draw that way. In fact, as the play began, a real tragedy was prevented when a small child began choking and turning blue and needed to be Heimliched by a member of the audience (Hatzolah arrived in under 2 minutes, but the child was already out of danger – are we an educated neighborhood or what?).

Antigone (Lauren Gray) and less-brave sister Ismene (Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld) on the balcony

Director Harriet Spitzer-Picker (who was pacing the top step like mother hen at the wolves’ bar mitzvah) took advantage of the outdoorsy nature of the place not just as a means of perpetually attracting new spectators, but also in utilizing the slow-setting summer sun as a source of very dramatic lighting, with the characters’ world growing ever darker the deeper they step into their unavoidable fate. Spitzer-Picker also utilized well the balcony overlooking the amphitheater as the base for the Sophocles’s chorus.

As the play progressed, passers by were opting to fold up those baby carriages and get a seat on the steps

Others remained standing, quite transfixed, out on the sidewalk

The acoustic dimensions of the steps worked just as they were supposed to, but the street traffic required all the actors to belt it out considerably, which they did quite gracefully. Kudos to Russell Jordan as King Creon, whom the play keeps onstage for much of the action, and whose vocals never frayed; indeed, I suspect his angry hollering at poor, self righteous, little Antigone (played on the thin edge of a farce by Sarah Jessica Parker lookalike Lauren Gray) drew in a slew of innocent bystanders-turned-theater goers.

The chorus, up on the balcomy (from left): Abigail Ziaja, Akilah Jeffers, Marilyn Durye

Last night’s production lasted just under 80 minutes, which is a good pace for a Greek talkie. The director mercifully cut out a few speeches (the play survived). Marylin Duryea was impressive as the seer, clad in all-black like a widow straight out of Zorba.

Russell Jordan was the crowd favorite at ruthless tyrant crippled by self doubt, Creon

If the wise men and women of Abrons pay attention, they would do well to continue with this fledgling tradition. We want more stuff on the steps – and we’re ready to show up in droves to watch. Last night and on Saturday night the audiences numbered near 100. keep it alive!