Review
Absurd Person Singular
Biltmore Theater
October 27, 2005
by
VanLoan
vanloan@nyconstage.org
Alan Ayckbourn has been called the British Neil Simon. He is much better than that misnomer. At his best, he is able to bring an emotional depth to his classic door-slamming farces. Absurd Person Singular is one of his better crafted attempts at this formula. The play is basically three one-acts spread over three consecutive Christmas Eves. The same three couples are involved in all of them each getting primary focus in one playlet. Each couple is dysfunctional (aka unhappy) in their own way. Written in the early 1970's, there is also that element of the crass bourgeoisie encroaching upon the elite hierarchy that permeates British drama of the period. When all his gears are clicking, Mr. Ayckbourn can come across as the absurdist love child of Terrance Rattigan and Joe Orton.
Absolutely none of this is evident in the dishwater-dull revival at the Biltmore. Yes, doors are slammed, lines are shouted, and characters misunderstand and abuse each other. Yet, the overall feeling is one of a hyper-active child after too much sugar; nothing a good slap on the behind wouldn't cure. None of the actors approaches the sense of style and panache needed (although Deborah Rush and Paxton Whitehead come relatively close). John Tillinger's direction is lame and mechanical on some of John Lee Beatty's dreariest sets. With the price of theater tickets these days, Absurd Person Singular is one expensive yawn.
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