BWW Reviews: Shanley Shines with Danny and the Deep Blue Sea @ Crown City Theatre

Danny and the Deep Blue Sea
by John Patrick Shanley
directed by John McNaughton/Crown City Theatre/through December 18

If you mention you're from the Bronx, eyelids rise, as one has come to expect to see the lowest of lowlife. John Patrick Shanley's early one-act Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (The Apache Dance) presents Roberta (Juliet Landau) and Danny (Matthew J. Williamson), two savory characters with rage, hatred and violence oozing from every pore. Two extremely unhappy individuals who want to be left alone, when forced to communicate - well, you get the picture; things can only get better. Shanley's lyrical, spiritual parable of salvation comes totally unexpected. One never envisions the outcome that slowly unfolds, and under John McNaughton's stellar direction and with magnetic performances from its two actors, Shanley's play could not be in more adept hands.

As with Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten, two lonely people, who seem to deserve each other - as no one else has or could tolerate that much of them, come together, at first with repulsion but that does lead to an ultimate purification of body and soul. Roberta changes Danny from a block-headed street fighter to a man, one who can actually see and appreciate beauty and want to spend the rest of his life surrounded by it. It's hard to believe, that such a drastic transformation could or would happen to two misfits. Shanley, true divergent spirit that he is, loves to make the impossible happen - remember his later screenplay for Moonstruck? What could happen under a full moon to convert a beast into a man, or was it the other way around?...well, it's pretty much the same picture in Danny, except that Moonstruck has much more humor. Danny's gravely serious mood stems from the fact that Roberta's sense of self-worth is as low as Danny's. Once she manages to lift him into the realm of humanity, it is then up to him to forgive her for her sins - almost in Christlike fashion, and to lift her up to his newfound level. If it sounds super complicated, the symbolism is really quite easy going with Shanley's fluid dialogue and both characters, despite their flaws, very appealing. Comedic or not, they do have appeal. Like victims of circumstance they ache for the moon and the nearby ocean, and all of the love and freedom these natural forms represent. Their simple act of touching each other gently is oh so satisfying to watch; its power is overwhelming...and Shanley's words to accompany it all, make for a minor feast.

McNaughton keeps a consistently rapid pace, but, since this is realism, he does allow individual moments of intense anger to come suddenly and naturally. Landau and Williamson are simply sensational. She, an individually striking beauty exudes such tremendous vulnerability and he, strong and with visceral bluntness like a Stanley Kowalski, shows equal ability to convey a remarkable sense of innocence, like when he admires the doll on her bedside and proclaims that he would like to be the bride in white. Talk about one extreme to the other, and Williamson as Danny essays it with such beautiful tenderness.

Shanley's display of contradictory behavior throughout, as seen in both characters, is what truly makes this play so engaging and thrilling. The moment to moment struggles over pain and gradual triumphant joys make it a truly great theatrical experience.