Review - Urge For Going

"One man's facts are another man's fabrications," notes Ghassan (Ted Sod) as he and several other characters in Mona Mansour's Urge For Going try to explain to the audience the circumstances that brought this family of Palestinian Arabs to live in a South Lebanese refugee camp that has been serving as a temporary settlement for nearly 60 years.

Hamzi (Demosthenes Chrysan) tells how he first arrived at what was then a tent city as a young boy as part of the 1948 flight during the first Arab-Israeli war, but his sister-in-law, Abir (Jacqueline Antaramian) rejects his description of the events, calling it meaningless because there was no Israel before 1948.

Were the British ruling or occupying Palestine? Are the land's borders what they were for centuries or are they what some Europeans drew up in a conference room?

Though these points of fact or fabrication are treated with humor by the playwright, they convey how the interpretive nature of the Middle East conflict can get so subjective that even a family of six living in a cramped ramshackle dwelling can't agree on the circumstances that brought them there.

Refusing to take part in any political discussion is Abir's husband, Adham (Ramsey Faragallah), a literary scholar who finds personal tragedy in his education being wasted by circumstance. His son, Jul (Omid Abtahi), inherited his father's aptitude but a brain injury from a confrontation with a Lebanese soldier followed by inadequate medical treatment has rendered him a simpleton whose daily excitement comes from watching reruns of Baywatch.

The play is centered on the relationship between Adham and his 17-year-old daughter, Jamila (Tala Ashe), who shares his passion for knowledge. But since Lebanon is the only home she's known, she doesn't share her older family members' desire to return to Palestine. (An interesting touch in set designer Jason Simms' cinderblock building is that the sparse furnishings give the appearance that the residents have made no effort to make this a home and would be ready to leave at a moment's notice.)

When Jamila has an opportunity to take a test that could earn her a place in an elite school in Damascus, Adham is not as supportive as she would have expected. His distrust of a system that has limited his own achievement and his concern for the future of his people makes him hesitate at acquiring the necessary documentation to get her a spot.

Though Urge For Going sometimes comes off as a too-familiar coming-of-age drama, director Hal Brooks' company avoids the clichés of the genre and the play, particularly when Ashe is able to display Jamila's mixed emotions for dreaming of a future that does not include a close connection to Palestine, and provides many touching and realistically humorous moments.

Urge For Going is presented as a part of the Public LAB program and is considered a work-in-progress. With all tickets priced at $15, this fine mounting of an interesting work by an emerging playwright is certainly worth supporting.

Photo of Ramsey Faragallah and Tala Ashe by Carol Rosegg.

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"We talk about theatre museums filled with old costumes and things. What we also need is a theatre museum of the old routines on videotape. We are only the custodians of those techniques, and they should be preserved."

-- Jim Dale

The grosses are out for the week ending 4/10/2011 and we've got them all right here in BroadwayWorld.com's grosses section.

Up for the week was: THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT (16.5%), MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET (14.1%), AMERICAN IDIOT (12.7%), BABY IT'S YOU! (7.5%), DRIVING MISS DAISY (5.9%), THE ADDAMS FAMILY (5.8%), CHICAGO (5.3%), CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (5.1%), MAMMA MIA! (4.8%), JERUSALEM">JERUSALEM (3.0%), THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (2.9%), PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT (2.6%), ANYTHING GOES (1.8%), MARY POPPINS (1.8%), THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON (1.2%), LOMBARDI">LOMBARDI (1.2%), SISTER ACT (0.7%), JERSEY BOYS (0.7%), BORN YESTERDAY (0.6%), GOOD PEOPLE (0.4%), THE LION KING (0.2%),

Down for the week was: BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGDHAD ZOO (-20.5%), ARCADIA">ARCADIA (-9.1%), HIGH">HIGH (-9.0%), WONDERLAND (-8.3%), THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE (-8.2%), GHETTO KLOWN (-3.7%), SPIDER-MAN TURN OFF THE DARK (-3.1%), MEMPHIS (-3.1%), RAIN: A TRIBUTE TO THE BEATLES ON BROADWAY (-3.0%), HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING (-2.7%), BILLY ELLIOT: THE MUSICAL (-1.9%), THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (-1.6%), LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (-0.7%), ROCK OF AGES (-0.4%), WICKED">WICKED (-0.1%),

"This is kind of a weird play. I'll show you what I mean," offers Bernard (Brian Hutchison), the character who opens David Greenspan's Go Back To Where You Are with a nostalgic monologue about childhood summers at a family Long Island beach house that sets a tone somewhat akin to that of a Tennessee Williams memory play.

But suddenly, on Bernard's cue, we're witnessing an exchange between God (Tim Hopper) and Passalus (the author, Greenspan), a demon from Hell who spent his mortal years as a chorus boy in Ancient Athens. And while the heightened language of their brief scene suggests Greek drama, the play is primarily Chekhovian, with its rural setting and emotionally simmering ensemble of characters, though the gossipy dialogue often seems ripped from a Michael Musto column by way of Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude.

Passalus has the opportunity to free himself from eternal suffering if he can guide the future of a woman named Carolyn on a more positive path. But we never see Carolyn, though everyone talks about her. And he must accomplish the feat without in any way affecting the lives of anyone else, which becomes more and more difficult as, while taking the form of an aging British actress, he begins feeling emotions he hasn't experienced in thousands of years; compassion, empathy and love.

His never-present potential beneficiary is hosting family and friends at her own beach house to celebrate her birthday. Carolyn's mother, Claire (Lisa Banes), is a successful Broadway actress growing aware that her days of choice roles are dwindling as she prepares to begin rehearsals for The Seagull, while her good friend, Charlotte (Mariann Mayberry), has difficulty getting work in New York and is unenthused about her upcoming stint in a Cleveland production of Annie. Banes' mercilessly biting deadpan elegance and Mayberry's comedic desperation ("I'm just acting for health insurance these days!") not only make for outstanding individual contributions, but bounce off of each other wonderfully. Bernard is Claire's brother, a playwright who teaches for a living, and it seems his students have more success getting their work done than he does. Hutchison gives him a soft, self-effacing awkwardness that is very endearing.

When the other guests arrive - Claire's television writer son, Wally (Michael Izquierdo), her Seagull director, Tom (Stephen Bogardus) and his set designer partner Malcolm (Hopper) - it eventually becomes clear that everyone present is suffering from some kind of personal loss or professional disappointment, despite their carefree, witty chatter. It also becomes clear that each of them has some degree of awareness that they're in a play, judging from lines like, "There's been some erosion on the cliffs... I wonder if that means something about us. Erosion. Probably not," and "I bet there is no Carolyn - or at least she won't appear in the play."

Director Leigh Silverman handles all of the weirdness with a light, understated hand and her graceful ensemble keeps the brisk seventy-minute affair both charming and touching.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: David Greenspan and Brian Hutchison; Bottom: Lisa Banes and Mariann Mayberry.

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