Birth and After Birth

Someone recently asked me what my top five off-broadway theaters are, and the Atlantic certainly is on that list. (FYI the others are - in no order - The Public, Playwright's Horizons, NYTW, and Second Stage). Even when shows aren't great at Atlantic, they're still pretty good by comparison. For example, Spring Awakening (!!!) was the last show I saw there and other shows last season - Celebration and the Room and Lt. of Inishmore were all fantastic.

So the first show of their season is called Birth and After Birth, an abstract construct of a play by the Tina Howe. It begins on the morning of Nicky's fourth birthday. Nicky is the son, played by a large, grown man. The show is mainly about the interaction between Nicky and his parents - hardly the model parents for any child. Two of their friends, anthropologists fresh from travelling the world stop by for the birthday party and the show gets stranger and stranger. Several of the characters stop the action to interject their personal monologues. As a whole, it seems as if the playwright is trying to comment on contemporary parenting - but with the abstract dialogue and misleading direction - the play falls a bit flat.

Nonetheless, there were funny moments, especially from Nicky (played by Jordan Gelber) and the visiting Anthopologist wife (Kate Blumberg). I do expect that the next production at the Atlantic will be much more satisfying. ...stay tuned.