New Works by John Kander and Nicky Silver Set for the Vineyard - NYTimes.com

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APRIL 4, 2013, 4:45 PM

New Works by John Kander and Nicky Silver Set for the Vineyard

By ERIK PIEPENBURG

The Vineyard Theater has announced that it will produce two premieres as part of its 2013-14 OffBroadway season. This fall brings the musical “The Landing,” with a score by the Tony Award-winningcomposer John Kander and book and lyrics by Greg Pierce. In the spring of 2014, the theater will mount“Too Much Sun,” a new play by Nicky Silver (“The Lyons”), with direction by Mark Brokaw. Run datesand casting were not announced for either show.

“The Landing,” to be directed by Walter Bobbie, is the first collaboration between Mr. Kander, who withthe lyricist Fred Ebb wrote the musicals “Chicago” and “Cabaret,” and Mr. Pierce, whose play “Slowgirl”was the inaugural production at Lincoln Center Theater’s new Claire Tow Theater last year. “TheLanding” is Mr. Pierce’s debut as lyricist and book writer. Consisting of three musical tales of love andobsession, the show returns to the Vineyard for a full production after having a developmentalproduction there last year. The Vineyard’s relationship with Mr. Kander dates to 1987, when it produceda revival of “Flora the Red Menace,” which had a book by George Abbott and Robert Russell, music byMr. Kander and lyrics by Mr. Ebb. In 2010, the Vineyard produced the premiere of the Kander and Ebbmusical “The Scottsboro Boys,” which transferred to Broadway.

“Too Much Sun” is a dark comedy about an actress who, in a time of crisis, descends upon the summerhome of her estranged daughter and her husband. The show continues Mr. Silver’s relationship with theVineyard, which most recently produced his play “The Lyons,” which transferred to Broadway last year.The Vineyard has also produced Mr. Silver’s “Pterodactyls,” “Raised in Captivity” and “The Maiden’sPrayer.”

The last show in the Vineyard’s current season is the premiere of “Somewhere Fun,” written by JennySchwartz (“God’s Ear”) and directed by Anne Kauffman. Previews are to begin on May 15 with openingnight set for June 4.

A Captive of Human Nature - The New York Times

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April 4, 2013THEATER REVIEW

A Captive of Human NatureBy CHARLES ISHERWOOD

Movie stars like Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro are celebrated for their ability to transform into thecharacters they play on screen, so that their very voices seem to take on new sounds, and their bodies newshapes. But, to my knowledge, they have not ever attempted adding several inches to their arms to embody acharacter.

That’s the unsettling achievement of the extraordinary London-based actor Kathryn Hunter — and it’s donelive, folks! No digital trickery possible.

Portraying a creature stranded between a human present and a simian past in “Kafka’s Monkey,” a spellbindingsolo show that opened on Thursday night at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Ms. Hunter has so thoroughlyassimilated the postures and physical tics of the “ape” her character once was that I would have sworn she hadmanaged, through serious dedication to certain yoga poses, to stretch her arms somehow so that they hungbelow her knees permanently.

They don’t, of course, but by hunching her shoulders slightly and keeping her knees in a slight crouch as shealternates between strutting and scampering around the stage, Ms. Hunter convincingly conveys ape-ness. Ifyou squinted, you would probably believe that the creature onstage was a real chimpanzee in white tie andtails.

But you would need to plug your ears, too, because this creature speaks so eloquently, and in such shapelytones. He relates his curious history in a frank and friendly manner, slightly tinged with the obsequiousness ofa performer who must ingratiate himself with an audience for a living. Although he now performs on thevariety stage, Red Peter, as he is called, cannot always hide his disdain for the culture to which he has socompletely adapted. As he says toward the end of the show, mixing sorrow and regret, “You see, I’m stillovercome with such an aversion to human beings, I can barely stop myself from retching.”

You may come to share that feeling by the conclusion of “Kafka’s Monkey,” which is adapted by Colin Teevanfrom the short story “A Report to an Academy,” and directed by Walter Meierjohann. Presented by Theater fora New Audience, this production, originally from the Young Vic in London, offers an hourlong immersion inKafka’s grim view of civilization. But it is delivered with such slyness that the dark messages about humanity’sbestiality come through gently, almost insidiously.

We in the audience are a scientific assembly gathered to hear the remarkable story of how monkey becameman. But as Red Peter announces at the start, much of his simian history has now become a dim memory.Gazing occasionally at a large projection of his original form as he begins his tale, he becomes quietly rapt, assadness, curiosity, embarrassment and amazement flicker across his agile features.

“I’d have to flay the flesh from off my bones to return to what I once was,” he says. “Your former lives as apes,

A Captive of Human Nature - The New York Times

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esteemed members of the academy,” he continues, “are as far behind you as mine is behind me.”

The dark joke embedded in that observation is illuminated by the history Red Peter proceeds to unfold. Shot inAfrica, he was held in harsh captivity aboard a ship transporting him to Europe. Describing the cruelty of hisconfinement, he recalls that he began transforming himself into a man simply because the brutal treatment hereceived made it clear that there was no other recourse left open to him: “The place for apes was in a cage,nailed to the wall,” he recalls, “so I had to stop being an ape.”

Ms. Hunter’s performance is perhaps the most physically remarkable I’ve ever seen on a stage. Although RedPeter moves his white-gloved arms in smoothly choreographed arcs, and occasionally breaks into a dance stepor two, he alternately reverts to his more apelike behaviors, including at one point scampering up to a womanin the front row and picking through her hair for tasty morsels of lice, which he then offers to share withothers, as a delicacy. At another point Red Peter clambers up a ladder on the wall and hangs by one leg as hecasually continues his narration.

But this is much more than a feat of actorly athleticism. Ms. Hunter imbues Red Peter with a wry wisdom, atouch of cheeky humor and, above all, a sense of dignity just slightly tinted with melancholy at the isolationthat Red Peter’s forced march up the evolutionary scale has brought. After an evening on the stage, or giving aspeech like the one we are hearing, Red Peter confesses, “I always return home alone.”

While he has learned to quaff rum, and spit like a sailor, and behave with the proper decorum among theupper crust, there remains a vestige of his inner self horrified by the way his new companions comportthemselves — and by how he has dutifully trained himself to behave.

“It’s nothing to do with the person in question, least of all your good selves, ladies and gentlemen of theacademy,” he says to us gravely, before loping off into the night. “It’s all humanity.”

Kafka’s Monkey

Adapted by Colin Teevan, based on “A Report to the Academy,” by Franz Kafka; directed by WalterMeierjohann; sets by Steffi Wurster; costumes by Richard Hudson; lighting by Mike Gunning; music andsound by Nikola Kodjabashia; production manager, Pamela Rapp; general manager, Theresa Von Klug;production stage manager, Christopher C. Dunlop. A Young Vic production, presented by Theater for a NewAudience, Jeffrey Horowitz, artistic director; Henry Christensen III, chairman; Dorothy Ryan, managingdirector; in association with Baryshnikov Arts Center. At the Jerome Robbins Theater, Baryshnikov ArtsCenter, 450 West 37th Street, Manhattan; (866) 811-4111, bacnyc.org. Through April 17. Running time: 50minutes.

WITH: Kathryn Hunter (Red Peter).