Miss-Delectable
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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/22/theater/reviews/22chil.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The Keen Company, a six-year-old group with a reputation for serious, convincingly performed drama, does not indulge in the fashionable glibness or ironic detachment of many small theater outfits. In fact, its mission statement sounds like the earnest sweet nothings of the dream boyfriend from a chick-lit novel. "We are not afraid of emotional candor, vulnerability or optimism," it announces, and as promised, all three are prominently on display in its revival of "Children of a Lesser God."
This sincere melodrama about a speech therapist, James Leeds (Jeffry Denman), who falls in love with one of his deaf students, Sarah Norman (the luminous Alexandria Wailes), receives an articulate if bloodless staging by Blake Lawrence. The central conflict of Mark Medoff's play is on whose terms the romance will exist: will Sarah learn how to read lips and talk, as James wants her to, or communicate only in sign language (what she calls a "silence full of sound")?
This drama offered an unusual peek into the deaf world when it opened in 1979 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, but its novelty has worn off since it found success on Broadway and in Hollywood, picking up the Tony Award for best play and a handful of Oscar nominations (including a best-actress win for Marlee Matlin). But there is no denying the emotional force of the play's second act, in which the tension over the divide between the two worlds hits its boiling point.
As the wry teacher who must speak most of the play's lines, Mr. Denman, who understudied Matthew Broderick in "The Producers," has a pleasingly musical Broadway voice. And Ms. Wailes radiates passion and anger without saying a word. But there is something missing in the chemistry between these performers that for most of the play keeps the temperature lower than it should be.
Still, this production deserves credit for not pandering to the audience with hysterics, a great temptation in this play. In the end, it's an honest, humble interpretation of a good-hearted drama with the best of intentions. If you could bring a production home to Mom, this would be the one.
"Children of a Lesser God" continues through April 9 at the Connelly Theater, 220 East Fourth Street, East Village; (212) 982-3995.
The Keen Company, a six-year-old group with a reputation for serious, convincingly performed drama, does not indulge in the fashionable glibness or ironic detachment of many small theater outfits. In fact, its mission statement sounds like the earnest sweet nothings of the dream boyfriend from a chick-lit novel. "We are not afraid of emotional candor, vulnerability or optimism," it announces, and as promised, all three are prominently on display in its revival of "Children of a Lesser God."
This sincere melodrama about a speech therapist, James Leeds (Jeffry Denman), who falls in love with one of his deaf students, Sarah Norman (the luminous Alexandria Wailes), receives an articulate if bloodless staging by Blake Lawrence. The central conflict of Mark Medoff's play is on whose terms the romance will exist: will Sarah learn how to read lips and talk, as James wants her to, or communicate only in sign language (what she calls a "silence full of sound")?
This drama offered an unusual peek into the deaf world when it opened in 1979 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, but its novelty has worn off since it found success on Broadway and in Hollywood, picking up the Tony Award for best play and a handful of Oscar nominations (including a best-actress win for Marlee Matlin). But there is no denying the emotional force of the play's second act, in which the tension over the divide between the two worlds hits its boiling point.
As the wry teacher who must speak most of the play's lines, Mr. Denman, who understudied Matthew Broderick in "The Producers," has a pleasingly musical Broadway voice. And Ms. Wailes radiates passion and anger without saying a word. But there is something missing in the chemistry between these performers that for most of the play keeps the temperature lower than it should be.
Still, this production deserves credit for not pandering to the audience with hysterics, a great temptation in this play. In the end, it's an honest, humble interpretation of a good-hearted drama with the best of intentions. If you could bring a production home to Mom, this would be the one.
"Children of a Lesser God" continues through April 9 at the Connelly Theater, 220 East Fourth Street, East Village; (212) 982-3995.