The Mysteries ***

No one can accuse Ed Sylvanus Iskandar of thinking small. After his previous two hits at the Flea Theater — “These Seven Sicknesses,” a 4 1/2-hour Sophocles mash-up (use this site's search tool to see my review) and the 3 1/2-hour “Restoration Comedy” — Iskandar is back with his most ambitious project yet, a modern version of a medieval mystery play cycle, covering Bible stories from Creation to the Last Judgment, as interpreted by 48 different playwrights. The cast of 50 (almost as many actors as there are people in the audience) are members of the Flea’s talented young resident company, The Bats. The staging is highly immersive, with the audience seated in facing sections of only two rows of seats. The actors also use runways behind the seats separated by a curtain of semi-transparent plastic strips. You are literally only inches away from the action. The four dozen plus playlets include a wide variety of styles and genres, ranging from the reverent to the blasphemous, the sophisticated to the sophomoric, the philosophical to the salacious. Some follow the underlying story fairly closely while others are original riffs on biblical themes. God is played by an actor who is about four feet tall. The angels Lucifer and Gabriel, whose competition is one of the threads running through the play, are played by women. Mary is first seen as a Valley Girl, worried about whether her pregnancy will prevent her from finishing high school. Pontius Pilate is portrayed as a Western sheriff. After the resurrection, Jesus’s first sighting is in Brooklyn. You get the idea. There’s nudity, which makes sense for Adam and Eve, but less so for Lazarus. Who knew that the Apostles were all so buff? There’s lots of music throughout with an angel chorus, a gospel choir and a band of musicians. There’s also dancing and some convincing fight scenes. Iskandar is credited as conceiver and director, with ample support from dramaturg Jill Rafson. CollaborationTown provided the interstitial text that, with varying success, glues the disparate segments together. As with any anthology, some stories work better than others. The third and final section, in my opinion, contained both some of the best and the worst material. After recruiting so many playwrights to contribute, the creative team may have felt bound to include all their work. This is unfortunate, because some judicious trimming would have significantly improved the work. Having the actors chat with the audience before and after the play and during intermission while serving us dinner and dessert is an integral part of Iskandar’s view of theater as a communal experience. During the first intermission, audience members were also invited to pose with some of the actors for a selfie as Jesus in a nativity scene. I compliment the Flea for this ambitious effort. At 5 hours, 35 minutes (including two intermissions), it was simply too much of a mostly good thing. 

P.S. Here's a link to the full credits: http://www.theflea.org/files/uploads/1397767768.pdf

These Seven Sicknesses ****

(Please click on the title to see the full review.)
The Flea Theater's clever adaptation of the seven surviving plays of Sophocles (Oedipus, In Trachis, In Colonus, Philoktetes, Ajax, Elektra and Antigone) was a New York Times Critic's Pick when it ran last winter. Now it is back for an encore run until July 1. Although the running time is about 4 1/2 hours including breaks for dinner and dessert (both included in the ticket price), the time passes very quickly. Sean Graney's clever reworking of the plays is greatly enhanced by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar's able direction and Michael Wieser's terrific fight direction. Performances by the 30+ actors, all members of The Bats, the Flea's young resident company, are all enthusiasic and, in most cases, very good. The actors also chat up the audience before the play starts and during the two breaks. They even serve the food. Unlike the original works, where violence always takes place offstage, lots of blood is shed here. Don't let that keep you away. There are several passages that speak to current events without being heavy-handed about it. The simple but effective set by Julia Noulin-Merat resembles two sets of facing jury boxes. Loren Shaw's costumes, both period-appropriate and modern dress, are excellent. The dinner from Macao Trading Company (tonight was eggplant curry over jasmine rice with pork buns) and the dessert from Billy's Bakery (miniature cupcakes) were delicious. It all made for a very enjoyable evening. My compliments to The Flea for taking on such an ambitious project.

Office Hours ***

A.R. Gurney's latest play is a series of related sketches taking place in the offices of the instructors who teach a required Great Books course at an unnamed university in the early 1970's. The play takes us from morning to evening, September to June, Plato to Shakespeare. Written for The Flea Theater's young resident company, The Bats, it provides the opportunity for 6 young actors (actually 12, because there are two alternating casts) to demonstrate their acting chops by taking on 5 roles each. Some of the sketch topics include plagiarism, faculty romance, the ambiguities of mentoring, emerging feminism, the difficulty of engaging students' interests and the fallout from the Vietnam War. Underlying all is the question of whether courses dealing strictly with "dead white men" are still valid. The quality of the sketches was a bit uneven, but the overall effect, for me, was positive. (Caveat: I have always been a Gurney fan and have found even his lesser efforts enjoyable.) On Tuesday nights, there are "pay what you can" performances.