Review Roundup: Equity-Approved HARRY CLARKE at Barrington Stage - What Did the Critics Think?

Barrington Stage Company has officially opened its one man show, Harry Clarke, starring Mark H. Dold.

Barrington Stage is one of two theaters in the country to have been given the greenlight by Actors' Equity to begin performances in the wake of the pandemic.

Let's see what the critics are saying...

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Steve Barnes, Times Union: While Dold embodies and delineates the characters brilliantly, allowing for a performance as free and expansive as any I've yet seen him give, this story of a chameleonic loner as social magnet, though different in its specifics, nonetheless feels familiar. As in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" or "Six Degrees of Separation," an individual with a soul hollowed by a traumatic past uses self-invention for escape and self-fulfillment. But you can never find yourself if you're being always being someone else.

J. Peter Bergman, The Berkshire Edge: The actor maneuvers the shifts with brilliance, deftly defining everybody vocally and sometimes also physically so there is never a moment of confusion. It is this ability that captures and holds the audience as much, if not more, as anything in the content of the play itself. The Newport sequence is the only part of the play that is easily lost in the performance setting as the traffic and the local passersby are intrusive here. When the monodrama is at home in the big city, the noises outside the tent are most often easily absorbed into the sound design of the play.

Jennifer Huberdeau, The Berkshire Eagle: Dold captures the simpatico relationship of the two personalities perfectly in his performance. Philip is timid, apologetic and all too willing to let the bolder Harry take over, to do things he can only dream of. Dold's Harry oozes confidence and sexuality, there's a bravado in his walk that Philip doesn't have. But for all his confidence, Harry needs an audience, even if that means, letting Philip have the stage for a minute or two. Together, they draw us in. We're fascinated as the tale unfolds, never questioning if our narrators are reliable. And it doesn't even matter if they are or not. Because, haven't we all, at some point, wondered what it would be like to be someone else?

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