• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Body
  • Daily Resist
  • POLITICS
  • Travel
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Film
  • TV
  • Business
  • Men
  • Marriage Equality
  • Space
  • Trans Rights
  • Books
  • Science
  • Gay Iconography
  • TowleREAD

In ‘Three Tall Women’ and ‘Yerma,’ Stunning Portraits of Women on the Verge: REVIEW

Naveen Kumar March 29, 2018 Leave a Comment

Yerma 30

Two of the best productions in New York right now are knocking the wind out of audiences with vivid and bracing insights into the female psyche.

Edward Albee’s 1994 Pulitzer winner Three Tall Women, which opened last night in its Broadway premiere, receives a magnificent revival from director Joe Mantello, featuring master class performances from screen legend Glenda Jackson, the incomparable Laurie Metcalf, and Alison Pill, as one woman looking back on life from her deathbed. Across town at Park Avenue Armory, London’s Young Vic production of Yerma, a modern adaptation after Federico García Lorca, introduces American audiences to a virtuosic Billie Piper, as a woman gradually consumed by her struggle to conceive.

tall women 1

We meet Albee’s three women in a tastefully lavish pre-war bedroom (designed by Miriam Buether) belonging to the eldest among them, as formidable as she is fragile at just north of 90, brilliantly played by Jackson. With the matter-of-fact wit and grit that is Metcalf’s signature, in the play’s first part she plays the woman’s nurse and de facto sole companion. Pill is a young lawyer who’s come to look in on the old woman’s unpaid bills, clearly an outsider to the pat routine between caregiver and charge.

tall women

The play’s pivot point, which Mantello finesses with a visual flourish, finds all three playing the elderly character (said to be modeled on Albee’s adoptive mother) at different stages of her life, reflecting on her path and the choices she’s made.

tall women 2

As a firebrand facing death, somewhat helplessly in the first part and with great circumspection in the second, Jackson delivers an intricate, razor-sharp performance that already feels like theatrical legend. Metcalf is in top form in both roles, punching every syllable with vigorous interior life. Nearly as headstrong but far more naive, Pill’s younger characters are most often on the receiving end of hard-won wisdom, as the actress holds her own against two towering greats. The synergy among all three is a marvel, lifting Albee’s meditation on the mortality to soaring heights.

Yerma 1

The beginnings of life are the focus of writer-director Simon Stone’s arresting and sensory-pounding Yerma, a deft modern update of Lorca’s 1934 poetic drama. Billie Piper plays a successful London journalist (called simply ‘Her’ in the script) who’s just moved into a new house with her not-quite-husband John (Brendan Cowell). (“Follow the lesbians,” John says of gentrification.) She’s just north of 30, and as they lie sprawled on their new floor swigging Veuve Clicquot, broaches the subject of kids for the first time. John makes a gallant show of stomping on her birth control pills as they agree to start trying.

Yerma 2

Stone’s production is set between panes of glass in what essentially looks like a terrarium meant for humans (scenic design is by Lizzie Clachan). Seated on either side, audiences observe from a sort of scientific remove — but the action behind the divide feels startlingly real. As days, months, and years pass in blackouts between scenes, her determination only grows more intense as her prospects of becoming pregnant grow increasingly remote. Meanwhile, her sister Mary’s (Charlotte Randle) ambivalence toward parenthood only seems to make Mary more fertile, and their mother Helen (Maureen Beattie) is the furthest from maternal among them.

Yerma 33

Tracing a spiral that turns on hopes and anguish faced by countless women, Piper’s performance is a tour-de-force from blithe start to bitter end. The entire cast, like Stone’s visually surprising production, is fine-tuned to optimize the story’s jolting emotional impact, by drawing us in so close we could press our noses against the glass.   

Yerma 26

The spring arrival of these two visceral, thought-provoking productions focused squarely on the experiences of women feels like the season’s first gusts of fresh air.

Recent theatre features…
Chris Evans and Michael Cera Are Men in Uniform in Kenneth Lonergan’s Superb ‘Lobby Hero’: REVIEW
Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane Star in Electrifying ‘Angels in America’: REVIEW
A Slushy ‘Frozen’ Opens on Broadway: REVIEW

Jimmy Buffett Serves up ‘Margaritaville’ on Broadway, Tequila Goggles Sold Separately: REVIEW
Liberal Guilt Gets an All-White Canvas in Joshua Harmon’s ‘Admissions’: REVIEW
An Outdated Rerun in Off-Broadway Bow of ‘Jerry Springer: The Opera’: REVIEW
‘Cruel Intentions: The Musical’ Is a Wicked Delight for ‘90s Lovers: REVIEW
How to Save Civilization from Certain Disaster? Take a Cue from ‘SpongeBob’ on Broadway (Yes, Seriously): REVIEW

Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar
(photos: stephanie berger, brigitte lacombe)

Topics: Uncategorized More Posts About: Edward Albee, Entertainment, Joe Mantello, Laurie Metcalf, Naveen Kumar, New York, Review, theater, Theatre, Theatre Review

Related Posts
  • HRC Fires President Alphonso David Over Alleged Connections to Cuomo Sexual Harassment Scandal; David Promises Legal Action
  • Jesse Williams to star in Take Me Out
  • The “Inner Circle” That Kept Andrew Cuomo Governor Faces Scrutiny: HRC Investigates Leader’s Involvement; Roberta Kaplan Resigns From ‘Time’s Up’
  • Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black almost missed son’s birth

    Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black almost missed son’s birth

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black almost missed the birth of their son as they got stuck in traffic on their way to the hospital. The couple – who have been …Read More »
  • Ousted Rep. Madison Cawthorn Calls For ‘Dark MAGA’ To Rise Up, Take Over Political Right

    Ousted Rep. Madison Cawthorn Calls For ‘Dark MAGA’ To Rise Up, Take Over Political Right

      Published by Radar Online   MEGA Fresh off his loss in a primary election in North Carolina, soon-to-be outgoing Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn is now calling for a new party to form on the right. …Read More »
  • U.S. Justice Department releases $5 million for hotlines to report hate crimes

    U.S. Justice Department releases $5 million for hotlines to report hate crimes

    Published by Reuters WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department will release $5 million for states to establish hotlines to report hate crime, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday, as a mass shooting in …Read More »
  • Monkeypox Gay Cases Rise; Europe Hits 100 Total; Triggers Emergency WHO  Monkeypox Meeting; Symptoms Mild; Spain Connects Monkeypox virus, Sauna

    Monkeypox Gay Cases Rise; Europe Hits 100 Total; Triggers Emergency WHO Monkeypox Meeting; Symptoms Mild; Spain Connects Monkeypox virus, Sauna

    Published by Reuters By Jennifer Rigby and Natalie Grover LONDON (Reuters) -The World Health Organization was due to hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the recent outbreak of monkeypox, a viral infection more common …Read More »
Previous Post: « Lady Gaga Covers ‘Your Song’ in Tribute to Elton John: WATCH
Next Post: Bill O’Reilly: ‘LGBTs and Minorities’ Trying to Sweep ‘Whiteness’ Out of Power – WATCH »

Primary Sidebar

News

  • New York Attorney General Announces Investigations Into Social Media Companies For Role In Buffalo Attack That Left 10 Dead

    New York Attorney General Announces Investigations Into Social Media Companies For Role In Buffalo Attack That Left 10 Dead

  • Former Presidential Advisor Reveals Vladimir Putin Was Constantly ‘Frustrated’ With Donald Trump & ‘Had To Keep Explaining Things’

    Former Presidential Advisor Reveals Vladimir Putin Was Constantly ‘Frustrated’ With Donald Trump & ‘Had To Keep Explaining Things’

  • NYC Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Confirms Engagement To Longtime Love Riley Roberts

    NYC Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Confirms Engagement To Longtime Love Riley Roberts

  • Princess Diana’s tiara to headline exhibition at Sotheby’s

    Princess Diana’s tiara to headline exhibition at Sotheby’s

Break

  • Viola Davis was called by director’s maid’s name

    Viola Davis was called by director’s maid’s name

  • Kerry Washington infuriated Scandal co-stars with kiss confession

    Kerry Washington infuriated Scandal co-stars with kiss confession

  • Ryan Reynolds recalls brothers ‘saving’ him from dad’s anger with earrings

    Ryan Reynolds recalls brothers ‘saving’ him from dad’s anger with earrings

  • Upfronts 2022: Every new scripted series picked up by a broadcast network

    Upfronts 2022: Every new scripted series picked up by a broadcast network

RSS Partner Links

  • OMG, BROOOO! Billy Eichner will lead first gay rom-com by a major studio
  • Birthday Tribute: Scenes from Cher’s movies!
  • Celebrating Cher’s 76th birthday with some of her biggest hits from six different decades
  • OMG, he’s naked: Jonathan Bailey
  • OMG, WATCH: RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 7 gives us a sneak peek ahead of premiere
  • Birthday Sluts
  • Roger Federer trains for a comeback!
  • On the Rag, Vol. 709
  • Morning Wood

Most Recent

  • Dave Chappelle’s alleged attacker charged with attempted murder

    Dave Chappelle’s alleged attacker charged with attempted murder

  • Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black almost missed son’s birth

    Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black almost missed son’s birth

  • Ousted Rep. Madison Cawthorn Calls For ‘Dark MAGA’ To Rise Up, Take Over Political Right

    Ousted Rep. Madison Cawthorn Calls For ‘Dark MAGA’ To Rise Up, Take Over Political Right

  • U.S. Justice Department releases $5 million for hotlines to report hate crimes

    U.S. Justice Department releases $5 million for hotlines to report hate crimes

  • Monkeypox Gay Cases Rise; Europe Hits 100 Total; Triggers Emergency WHO  Monkeypox Meeting; Symptoms Mild; Spain Connects Monkeypox virus, Sauna

    Monkeypox Gay Cases Rise; Europe Hits 100 Total; Triggers Emergency WHO Monkeypox Meeting; Symptoms Mild; Spain Connects Monkeypox virus, Sauna

  • Massachusetts identifies first 2022 U.S. case of monkeypox infection

    Massachusetts identifies first 2022 U.S. case of monkeypox infection

  • 25-30 Cases Of Rare Monkeypox Reported in UK, Portugal; Reported Predominantly Among Gay, MSM; Somewhat Treatable with Smallpox Vaccine;

    25-30 Cases Of Rare Monkeypox Reported in UK, Portugal; Reported Predominantly Among Gay, MSM; Somewhat Treatable with Smallpox Vaccine;

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 · Log in