Review: BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART at Bellissima Productions at Alleyway Theatre

The choices you make, or at times feel like you are forced to make, may have fleeting repercussions or lifelong consequences. In Donna Hoke’s new play BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART, a trio of characters must tackle difficult decisions that will most certainly affect every aspect of their lives.

It’s an unorthodox choice to sidle a young woman attending law school with the prospect of being a professional escort, but everybody has a story. And Abby must face the reality of paying for law school, no matter what it takes to fulfill her dream. Maybe it was her troubled childhood with a widowed mother constantly bringing different men into her home that led her down this path. 

We meet the sugar daddy right at the outset, an ultra-successful married man with two children, who speaks like an Oxford professor of Literature and has no patience for bad food or cheap wine. He lays out the rules of the relationship, with a bilateral NO STRINGS ATTACHED mandate. Both parties get what they want/need, and both agree to respect boundaries and not interfere in their other lives outside of the “arrangement.”

Abby and one of her male roommates, James Gould, declare their hidden love for each other in the next scene. But he is a troubled artist who can’t find a muse and leads the tortured life of a Bohemian.  Can Abby maintain this double life, being a kept woman while developing a burgeoning romance with the true love of her life?

Hoke uses grandiose yet poetic language when Grant  Parrish speaks, making his character pretentious at the outset, but also adding to the overall cunning that befits an adulterer. Greg Howze seems to be relishing this role of a man who controls and gets everything he wants, molding Abby ala Henry Higgins. Her lectures her on her bouts of bad behavior, rages of raw emotions and unpolished edges.

 Zoe Gonez plays Abby as naive, but not dumb. Her no-strings-attached agreement is manageable at first, but as she becomes “kept” in a fancy apartment, living away from James, she begins to unwind. She needs love, overnight companionship, financial and emotional support, yet freedom to love that man of her choice.

Johnny Barden languishes as James, a lone wolf who has never been in love, and beats himself up to find a muse to transform his technical talent into something artistically satisfying. His “aha” moment arrives soon after he declares his love for Abby. He will inscribe the anonymous confessions of others onto his art, all for the art world to ponder. Now his art has an inner meaning on it’s outward beauty. Barden is simply great, full of angst, enthusiasm, and raw emotions that come from a first love.

The relationship with Abby and Grant borders on “Fatal Attraction,” when love complicates the relationship. Abby’s jealousy can’t be tolerated by Grant, and Grant’s desire for ultimate control leads to the play’s denouement. Gonez and Howze are achingly convincing in their own raw portayals, and when Barden finally is in on their story, the emotions are intense. Can any of these three ever attain happiness knowing what has brought them to this point? The ultimate answer is a surprise that really should not have been shocking, yet was. Something wonderful happens when as an audience you try to understand the complicated mindset of each character, asking what you would do in such a situation, where each character has something major to gain, yet also to lose.

Hoke has crafted an intriguing story that captivates, but also felt drawn out in its exposition. The overly long first act needs some trimming, and some tightening of the pacing. Director Sabrina Kahwaty allows the actors to be free of fussy staging, letting each character develop naturally. The small black space of the Alleyway Theatre Cabaret puts  the audience on top of the action, eavesdropping into these characters oh so personal, intimate lives. 

BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART is produced by Bellissima Productions at Buffalo’s Alleyway Theatre through February 15, 2025. Contact bellissimaproductions.com for more information

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