The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Between relevant and crucial
Cleveland Play House produces ‘Between Riverside and Crazy, which delves into urban issues If not handled properly, stage productions built around social commentary run the risk of coming across as didactic or heavy-handed. Still, when it’s pulled off, th
“You’ve got a very diverse population, but like the play — and like the country — we have a long history of very complicated and segregated engagement with each other,” said Cleveland Play House Associate Artistic Director Robert Barry Fleming, who is directing “Between Riverside and Crazy.”
“I can’t think of a story that in spite of its New York geographical locale has more resonance for a place like Cleveland and the region.”
Taking place in a rentcontrolled apartment, “Between Riverside and Crazy” revolves around excop Walter “Pops” Washington, who is consumed by the racially charged lawsuit he filed against the NYPD. Adding to the tension and emotion is the recent death of his wife, a stack of eviction notices and a parolee son. The notion of family, pride and redemption is examined with irreverent humor and lightning-quick dialogue. “Part of what makes it great is it’s so truthful. … That’s the thing about Stephen (Guirgis), he’s just the truth-teller, but he’s the kind of truth-teller who is very embracing about the human experience.” — Robert Barry Fleming, Cleveland Play House artistic director and director of “Between Riverside and Crazy”
The dark comedy falls right in line with Guirgis’ resume, which includes working as a television writer (“NYPD Blue” and “The Sopranos”) and penning critically acclaimed stage productions “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” “Jesus Hopped the A Train” and “Our Lady of 121st Street.”
Regarding “Between Riverside and Crazy,” Fleming said Guirgis has constructed a multi-layered piece of work built on a solid and common foundation.
“Part of what makes it great is it’s so truthful,” Fleming said. “That’s the thing about Stephen, he’s just the truth-teller, but he’s the kind of truthteller who is very embracing about the human experience.
“He doesn’t do it with accusation or guilt or shame. He does it with allembracement of just how funny we are and how ridiculous we are and heroic we are and complicated we are.”
Specifically, Fleming pointed to complicated issues — police violence, racial discord, family drama — that are common and “amplified” in inner cities. Adding to the experience is the versatile Outcalt Theatre. The flexible space has been reconfigured with the action taking place on what feels like a runway in between audiences on two sides.
Fleming noted the result is a Chekhovian view of a story he hopes will leave theatergoers with plenty to talk about and remember.
“The title ‘Between Riverside and Crazy’ is an apt one,” Fleming said.
“They are all big personalities meeting in this space. That’s true in all of the best ways in that you’re not being preached to, but you’re being deeply entertained, deeply touched and probably changed by being in the presence of these really fun and beautiful characters who are very wild.”
They don’t give Pulitzer Prizes for titles.
But if they did, playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis would most certainly win one for “The Mother With the Hat,” “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train” or “Our Lady of 121st Street,” which are as provocative as the work they serve to announce.
As these titles suggest, Guirgis’ plays tend to find that sweet-spot between the poetic, profound and profane. They are populated with fatally flawed, marginalized characters who, while entertainingly comedic, become theatrically captivating once their complexities are revealed and the drama unfolds.
One of Guirgis’ best plays is his most recent, “Between Riverside and Crazy,” which won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and is being performed by the Cleveland Play House.
This is a marvelous production, due in large part to director Robert Barry Fleming recognizing the play contains social commentary and truth-telling on par with the works of Lanford Wilson, employs powerful and poignant language reminiscent of Tennessee Williams and, like Arthur Miller, finds immense heroism residing in broken people.
Fleming respects the work by allowing it to speak for itself without distraction. And he has cast exceptional out-of-town talent who bring both the comedy and the drama to the forefront with remarkable dexterity, realism and perfect New York accents (courtesy of dialect coach Thom Jones).
In “Between Riverside and Crazy,” retired cop Walter “Pops” Washington (a wonderfully accessible and always interesting Larry Marshall) refuses to settle an 8-year-old civil lawsuit against the NYPD after he, a black man, was shot while off-duty by a white rookie cop. Pride is on the line. So is honor.
Or is it that Walter needs the residual anger and acknowledgement the lawsuit provides to get up every morning to face another day without his faith, his self-worth, his sobriety and his recently deceased wife. Without a wife, who will tell others “attention must be paid” to Walter the way Linda did for Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman”? Without his faith, is God even paying attention?
Living with Walter in his rent-controlled apartment on Riverside Drive is loving but ne’er-do-well adult son Junior (a perfectly intense Ken Robinson); Junior’s sexy air-headed girlfriend, Lulu (the delightful Zoë Sophia Garcia, who purrs “I may look how I look, but that don’t mean I am how I look”); and recently released felon Oswaldo (Dominic Colón, who opens the play with a very funny scene that finds Oswaldo parroting his caseworker’s overintellectualized feel-good
therapy without actually understanding a word of it and ends the first act with one of the most riveting moments of the evening).
Walter is visited by his former partner, Detective O’Connor (played by the excellent Danielle Skrasstad), and her two-faced fiancée, Lieutenant Dave Caro (a terrific Michael Russotto), who attempt to talk Walter into taking a settlement by convincing him there is no black or white on the police force, only blue.
A mysterious representative from a local church (a remarkable, risk-taking Yvette Ganier) also comes to his door and attempts to bring religion back into Walter’s life but delivers something, well, poetic, profound and profane instead.
As was done for the CPH’s “Venus in Fur” and a handful of other productions, runway staging is used for “Between Riverside and Crazy.” Inclined seating in the Outcalt Theatre is on both sides of the long-and-narrow performance space on which the three attractive but wellworn rooms of Walter’s apartment — a kitchen, a living area, and a bedroom
All this adds to the intimacy of the play but makes some dialogue inaudible when actors’ backs are occasionally turned toward one side of the seating or the other. Lighting designed by Keith Parham and between-scene jazz designed by Rob Milburn and Michael Bodeen provide solid emotional underscoring, while Toni-Leslie James’ street-smart costuming adds to the play’s authenticity.
In this play, Walter fears that no one is paying attention. This production of this brilliant play should have no such worries. designed by Wilson Chin — are adjoined.