Dying City

         Peter (Benj D’Addario), an actor of average talent, seeks out the widow of his brother. He shows up most unwelcome, one night, at the stark New York City apartment of Kelly (Alison van Reeken). Meeting Kelly for the first time since the funeral of his identical twin brother, Craig’s, this gay, loudmouthed, ebullient man performs a false ritual of pleasantries and catching up with his sister-in-law. Kelly has found that closure, after Craig’s death, is a figment of the imagination unlike the stories on her much-loved TV programme ‘Law & Order’, in which all problems are instantly and totally cured.

        There is a flashback 18 months to the evening before the academic Craig (again Benj D’Addario), who is completing his PhD on William Faulkner, is about to leave on his second tour of duty – this time to Iraq.  He is furious that his gay brother is possibly having sex with his latest partner Tim, in his flat. However, is Craig homophobic? Or is it the fear that he may be losing his twin to another?

       Forward again to today. Over the two nights, Peter has discovered that the comfort he was seeking was not forthcoming; there would be no reassuring closure for him. Nevertheless, was this the real reason for his calling out of the blue? Was there a nastier more sinister reason?

There are several flashbacks as we explore the interlinking of the twins, their relationships with their parents and others in general. We experience the very different departures of the twins from Kelly’s flat.

Immaculately directed by Emily McLean (twice winner of Equity Guild best director’s award), this devious and unsettling new play was one of the New York Times’ Top Ten Plays of 2007. The prize probably being awarded for Christopher Shinn’s probing, ungainly dialogue. The playwright has created an atmosphere of the indefinite. He only drops hints as to what has gone before, and yet because of his tight, dense script the audience is held in wonder.

Emily has created a long narrow stage, to help show the gap between the characters’ thoughts and relationships. Lucy Birkinshaw’s soft lighting and the traffic noises (Kingsley Reeve) gives depth to this play.

Benj has the horrendous task of changing rapidly between the two very different twin’s characters, this he does in a truly amazing performance. Alison also has to transform from showing her cold dislike of her brother-in-law, to the warmth of a distraught wife seeing her husband leaving for war. Superb actors at their very best.

This is a love it or hate it play. Some may find it dry and slow moving, however I would love to see it again, to dig deeper into the characters of the brothers. Another prize winner from Red Ryder?