Tix Deals!-S. Florida Public Thea. 'And Then She Moved the Furniture'
By: Beau Higgins Mar. 10, 2006
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Due to Popular Demand The Public Theatre Has Added a Special Saturday Matinee at 1 P.M. on March 11, 2006Mention This OFFER When You Call to Reserve For Saturday 3/11 at 1 P.M. to receive 2 admissions for the price of 1 (at full-price) The Critics Applaud "AND THEN SHE MOVED THE FURNITURE"by Manny Diez Dave Amber of New Times Wrote: The Public Theatre, which recently presented the menacingly violent Barefoot Boy with Shoes On, somehow found a play to trump it, with And Then She Moved the Furniture, the first production of Miami playwright Manny Diez's chilling tale of army base domestic abuse. Here, finally, is a fresh, post-9/11 stage drama about war that truly hits home. . . Diez's graphic play is a fictional telling of a true story coming out of Fort Bragg in the summer of 2002. . . What's up at Fort Bragg? What's up, at least in the play, is that dysfunctional Special Forces sniper Todd Dawkins, played with unnervingly soft menace by Matt Stabile, is going on trial for beating to death his wife, Trish (Nikki Fridh). His weapon of choice is not a sniper's rifle, but the Plantation boy favorite — the baseball bat. Now with blood on his hands, Todd must explain himself. Through the play's juxtaposition of present and past, you learn all kinds of unsettling facts about life for soldiers coming home, as well as about life for soldiers' spouses. Most important, you learn about the sniper's "safe place," the den in his home, his sanctuary, which army wives are warned not to remodel while their husbands are off to war, or else face grave consequences. Furniture is a concise and powerful play. As Todd, in prison-orange jumpsuit or desert camo gear, with a shaved head and baby face, toggles between psychopathic precision killer and the prewar boy his wife found so endearing. . . . "When you have the target in your scope, it's a rush," this God-like killer gleams. Fridh is nothing less than brilliant as the warm, ill-starred wife Trish. Despite our fully knowing the tragedy waiting at the play's end, Stabile and Fridh work through their awry connections to keep surprising us, especially in a brutally soft rape scene that, because of the pair's talent, will haunt you for a very long time. Unlike the precision of the sniper in ...And Then She Moved the Furniture, Manny Diez's script is as blunt -- yet undeniably powerful -- as a sledgehammer. . . Based on four murders at Fort Bragg in 2002, Furniture focuses on Todd Dawkins (Matt Stabile), the abused son of a perfectionist career soldier, who became an eerily effective sniper for the Special Forces in Afghanistan. We meet him through Sgt. Anderson (Merry Jo Pitasi), the military lawyer assigned to defend him after he beats his wife to death with a baseball bat, ostensibly because she moved the furniture in the den while he was gone on assignment. . . Dawkins explains matter-of-factly, "She was my wife. Mine. I was the only one who had the right to kill her." Under Anderson's questioning, resembling a psychoanalyst's tough-love session, Dawkins flashes back through the origins of his love affair with Trish (Nikki Fridh), and their marriage's disintegration as he becomes unable to separate his stateside home life from the mental defense mechanisms he uses in his job overseas. The pivotal scene -- Dawkins raping his wife to reassert his claim over her -- is especially harrowing. Stabile, Fridh and director David Jay Bernstein stage it with an appropriate and terrifying brutality. Stabile's face betrays the violence under his usually limpid demeanor. Fridh's eyes emit waves of pain at the spousal betrayal and the shock that her beloved is capable of this. The playwright, director and actors also deftly construct a wordless, smooth montage of the sniper getting married, carrying his wife over the threshold and then leaving on a series of assignments that leave him colder and colder, all to the soundtrack of Barry Sadler's The Green Berets. |
ADVISORY: "And Then She Moved The Furniture. . ." Contains Adult Situations and Language Not For Children Nor The Faint of Heart Each Performance Will Be Followed By a Talkback With Experts In The Field and Members of The Cast and Crew All Sales are Final. All Productions and Dates are Subject to Change Without Notice The Public Theatre of South Florida at The Soref JCC - 6501 W. Sunrise Blvd. 3 Traffic Lights West of The Turnpike March 4 - March 19 (Special Saturday Matinee March 11 at 1 P.M.) Performances are Thursdays at 8; Saturdays at 2 & 8; Sundays at 2 Online Orders May Carry a Service Charge OR Purchase a Subscription and Get a SUBSTANTIAL DISCOUNT and have THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE reserved JUST FOR YOU!! For information & reservations: www.publictheatre.com or call (954) 537-3648 For Subscriptions and Groups (10 or more): Please Call (954) 427-0784 Funding for this organization is provided in part by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by |
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