Review by Carol Montana, photos by Paul Cowell
ELLENVILLE, NY – Who knew? Shadowland Theatre’s season finale share’s its name with a weblog about everything Yankees, as well as a sports bar on East 161 Street in the Bronx.
But the “Yankee Tavern” in Steven Dietz’s play is a run down and ragged bar, just a few blocks from what has become known as Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center and the infamous attack of 9/11/01.
It’s a play about conspiracy theories and how much we often strive to believe something that may not be true.
Adam is a Master’s Degree student in International Studies. He inherited the bar and the condemned hotel that houses it after his father committed suicide. Together with his fiancée Janet, Adam putters about the bar playfully planning their wedding and playing nursemaid to Ray, a freeloading old coot who calls himself an “itinerant homesteader.”
Ray is a friend of Adam’s father. He lives in the hotel talking to ghosts of the residents and theorizing on an abundance of conspiracies including the murder of JFK, the moon landing, global warming, the Bay of Pigs, spore allergy attacks and countless others. Occasionally, Ray even throws Janet’s Starbuck’s coffee away, calling it “a cult in a cup.”
The geography and timing (it’s 2006) also mean that the World Trade Center attacks are prominent in Ray’s mind. “You can fight a war on a scary feeling as long as you want to,” he says, expounding on the who, what, when and where of 9/11. Ray subscribes to the “Truther” theory that rejects the mainstream account of 9/11. He implicates the owner of the World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein, the U.S. Government, numerology and Saudi Arabian princes among others. Ray, it seems, has made a great study of the subject.
Palmer, a mysterious patron appears on the scene ordering two beers, but only drinking one. A man of few words, he takes everything in, while adding to the mystery of the story and the unease of the other characters. Even the audience is left wondering. We have no idea who he is or why he’s there, or how, indeed, he fits into the strange world we’re watching.
The plot is further thickened by Adam’s trip to Washington, DC with a former professor. It is a platonic relationship as he assures Janet, right? Strange and stranger …
There are only four characters in “Yankee Tavern,” and there’s not a lot of physical action. And yet, the audience’s collective eyes flit from character to character, not resting, anxious to untangle this convoluted, conspiratorial story. Where oh where is it all going? And where will it end?
Performances are so true to life it’s almost scary. Elizabeth Raetz’s Janet is pretty and in love and oh so confused by what is (and isn’t) going on; Jason Downs’ Adam is highly intelligent and yet down to earth, or so it seems. Frank Mihelich is perfect as Palmer, dark, moody and quiet. And somehow you know that his character holds the key to a mystery.
Steve Brady’s Ray is bombastic and loud. His babbling, non-stop conspiracy theories are so wild that they are occasionally even funny. And yet … well, that’s what the play is all about, isn’t it? Brady’s performance accounts for a great deal of the humor in the play.
Congratulations to Brendan Burke, Artistic Director of Shadowland Theatre, as well as director of “Yankee Tavern,” on ending the season in such a fun and mysterious way.
“Yankee Tavern” plays through October 3, 2010 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m, and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. Call for reservations at 845-647-5511. Or find out more by clicking this link: Shadowland Theatre.
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