Exile - A New Play by Lindsey Ferrentino
"Only the misfortune of exile can provide the in-depth understanding and the overview into the realities of the world" - Stefan Zweig
Lindsey Ferrentino is a remarkable young lady. At the
tender age of 20 she is already an award-winning playwright and
judging by her latest production 'Exile' at Manhattan Repertory
Theatre, this trend will definitely continue.
Not only does she have musical theatre work in development with Broadway producers attached, in 2008 Lindsey won the Fusion Film Festival Documentary Pitch Award. She was also a finalist in the 2008 Shakespeare Theatre of Orlando's PlayFest and has won a slew of awards including the Cappies International Playwriting Contest (2006), Surfside Playwriting Contest (2008), New York Writer's Summit (Finalist 2008). As well as all that Lindsey has had four pieces produced at The Kennedy Center Theatre Lab, Washington DC and recently she has won the chance of working alongside Edward Albee, one of America's foremost playwrights, and one of the inspirations behind 'Exile' in the first place.
Things are definitely rosy for Ms. Ferrentino. Not so much for her characters, lost in a kind of purgatory, each in their own personal exile. A disparate group of figures comprising Vladimir Lenin (Luke Tudball), Albert Einstein (Ed Schiff), Bertolt Brecht (Tom Knutson), Leon Trotsky (Mauro Bossi) and Napoleon Bonaparte (Pascale Escriout) are joined in their journey by a nun (Margaux Susi), a strangely omniscient rubber ball and an almost impassable wall.
This is not an easy play to understand, but the cast deal very well with the ideas and dialogue, and there are some great moments of comedy amongst the bleakness of their location. Expertly and intuitively directed by Lorca Peress, intriguing and thought-provoking, the characters battle their own demons and differences in order to work together to achieve their ultimate goal - to cross the wall. But will getting to the other side really satisfy their needs? When, and if, they get to the other side, will it be everything they desire, or is the grass actually greener on the other side?
The casting in this show is great - right from the opening you are engaged. Ed Schiff (Einstein) finds some nice moments in his journey of discovery throughout and delivers appropriate pathos when needed, which contrasts spectacularly at times with the larger-than-life Tom Knutson as Brecht who literally takes over the stage rallying the 'troops' to action. The military metaphor works, especially with the inclusion of Pascale Escriout who completely embodies the swaggering Napoleon, lost and trying to find his battalion, but doomed never do so. Actually, one of the most interesting elements of this show is looking back at it once it has ended and drawing the connections between the characters exile and their real-life personal, spiritual, physical and emotional exiles.
The nun, a Catholic, but not based on a real person as such, is sensitivelyand emotionally played by Margaux Susi, another very promising young talent. Mauro Bossi also has some scene-stealing moments as the bombastic and eccentric Leon Trotsky - 'damned to self-quotation', dragging his soap box wherever there may be someone to listen. The cast is completed by Luke Tudball whose thoughtful and very personal portrayal of Lenin helps to draw all the threads together and yet, rip them apart at the same time.
Sitting in the small black box space that is Manhattan Repertory Theatre, the audience really get a sense of how it might feel to be trapped and have nowhere to go. While this would be a negative point for most productions, the space, managed by Artistic Director and Winterfest 2009 Festival Producer Ken Wolf, almost becomes one of the characters in the play, and certainly adds to the amazing atmosphere that the Multistages actors create. With so much promise in the cast, as well as in the production team, this play cannot help but have another life - just like the characters Ms. Ferrentino has created. I look forward to being exiled again in the very near future!
'Exile' was presented by Multistages and directed by Lorca Peress as part of Manhattan Repertory Theatre's Winterfest 2009, produced by Ken Wolf.
For more information on the company please visit www.eljallartsannex.com/multistages.htm
For more information on Manhattan Theatre Source, please visit www.theatresource.org
Not only does she have musical theatre work in development with Broadway producers attached, in 2008 Lindsey won the Fusion Film Festival Documentary Pitch Award. She was also a finalist in the 2008 Shakespeare Theatre of Orlando's PlayFest and has won a slew of awards including the Cappies International Playwriting Contest (2006), Surfside Playwriting Contest (2008), New York Writer's Summit (Finalist 2008). As well as all that Lindsey has had four pieces produced at The Kennedy Center Theatre Lab, Washington DC and recently she has won the chance of working alongside Edward Albee, one of America's foremost playwrights, and one of the inspirations behind 'Exile' in the first place.
Things are definitely rosy for Ms. Ferrentino. Not so much for her characters, lost in a kind of purgatory, each in their own personal exile. A disparate group of figures comprising Vladimir Lenin (Luke Tudball), Albert Einstein (Ed Schiff), Bertolt Brecht (Tom Knutson), Leon Trotsky (Mauro Bossi) and Napoleon Bonaparte (Pascale Escriout) are joined in their journey by a nun (Margaux Susi), a strangely omniscient rubber ball and an almost impassable wall.
This is not an easy play to understand, but the cast deal very well with the ideas and dialogue, and there are some great moments of comedy amongst the bleakness of their location. Expertly and intuitively directed by Lorca Peress, intriguing and thought-provoking, the characters battle their own demons and differences in order to work together to achieve their ultimate goal - to cross the wall. But will getting to the other side really satisfy their needs? When, and if, they get to the other side, will it be everything they desire, or is the grass actually greener on the other side?
The casting in this show is great - right from the opening you are engaged. Ed Schiff (Einstein) finds some nice moments in his journey of discovery throughout and delivers appropriate pathos when needed, which contrasts spectacularly at times with the larger-than-life Tom Knutson as Brecht who literally takes over the stage rallying the 'troops' to action. The military metaphor works, especially with the inclusion of Pascale Escriout who completely embodies the swaggering Napoleon, lost and trying to find his battalion, but doomed never do so. Actually, one of the most interesting elements of this show is looking back at it once it has ended and drawing the connections between the characters exile and their real-life personal, spiritual, physical and emotional exiles.
The nun, a Catholic, but not based on a real person as such, is sensitivelyand emotionally played by Margaux Susi, another very promising young talent. Mauro Bossi also has some scene-stealing moments as the bombastic and eccentric Leon Trotsky - 'damned to self-quotation', dragging his soap box wherever there may be someone to listen. The cast is completed by Luke Tudball whose thoughtful and very personal portrayal of Lenin helps to draw all the threads together and yet, rip them apart at the same time.
Sitting in the small black box space that is Manhattan Repertory Theatre, the audience really get a sense of how it might feel to be trapped and have nowhere to go. While this would be a negative point for most productions, the space, managed by Artistic Director and Winterfest 2009 Festival Producer Ken Wolf, almost becomes one of the characters in the play, and certainly adds to the amazing atmosphere that the Multistages actors create. With so much promise in the cast, as well as in the production team, this play cannot help but have another life - just like the characters Ms. Ferrentino has created. I look forward to being exiled again in the very near future!
'Exile' was presented by Multistages and directed by Lorca Peress as part of Manhattan Repertory Theatre's Winterfest 2009, produced by Ken Wolf.
For more information on the company please visit www.eljallartsannex.com/multistages.htm
For more information on Manhattan Theatre Source, please visit www.theatresource.org
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