FringeNYC 2013: Persephone

Oskar and Toby kidnap people (professionally). But when an unlikely mark lands on their doorstep, they're the ones with no exit. An existential tragicomical chess game of myth, madness, and -just maybe- murder.

Official production website
Show details/ticketing at FringeNYC

Venue: Teatro LATEA, 107 Suffolk Street

Review by Steven Cherry · August 14, 2013

Persephone starts out as just your basic abduction story: Boys abduct girl, boys abduct boy, girl and boy are lovers and now co-captives.

It’s actually a little more complicated than that—but not a lot more complicated. In fact, the action is spread across Act I as thinly as marmalade on WWII toast. Mercifully, the author’s love of language makes for a substantial bread.

As the play opens, two men have captured a young woman and, for reasons that make very little sense, take off the paper bag over her head and ungag her. Sure, without doing that, it’s hard to see how the one man would come to tell the other the story of Persephone, but the rich leavening of mythology—the legends of Prometheus and Sisyphus will also be heaped upon is—can’t render this plot maneuver any more sensical.

Indeed, that’s the least of the plot’s contrivances. The first capture by the kidnappers—no, excuse me, they’re abductors, not kidnappers, their business cards even say so—is followed by a second, and then a third. Some of the kidnappings are even contrived by the victims.

How did one of the captives know how to contact the abductors? By the business cards littered about the grounds outside their lair. What were the business cards doing littering the grounds? One of the abductors habitually used them to light his cigarettes. How do you light a business card in such a way that you couldn’t just light the cigarette directly? Who knows?

The play has two acts, separated by an intermission. But, in the first half of Act II, it (to switch metaphors), runs completely off the rails, caught in the chaotic strands of its marionette plot. (Sorry for the third metaphor. But any play that includes a scene where a character has to play a game of chess, at gunpoint, with an opponent who therefore represents Death, inspires them.)

The play recovers somewhat by the final scene, but by then it’s too late. The inevitable love scene at the end is handled quickly and competently, but it falls to characters we’ve come to care not a whit for, nor have we any remorse for the one who dies shortly before happiness, or at least non-captivity, can come to the rest. The only relief is that we can file out of the theatre to resume our own thinly plotted lives. But do we really want, in this respect, art to imitate life?

Preview: Interviews with Artists from Persephone

We're asking artists from each show to answer questions about themselves and their work to help our readers get a detailed advance picture of the festival:

All About My Show · Bill Griffin (Actor)

Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
features Daniel Day-Lewis in a walk-on role. No, I'm kidding. But would that get you there? I'll look into it.
Tell us about the character or characters that you portray in this show.
I play Toby, a two-bit thug ("No, strike that - a ONE-bit thug," says my counterpart, Oskar). Oskar and I work in Abduction and Detainment, which is NOT the same as kidnapping. Someone else does the kidnapping. We just pick up the victim from the side of the road, hold them in the basement of an abandoned house in the woods, and force them to play Chinese Checkers with me until the ransom comes through. It's harmless really, and I like the company.
What moment or section in this show do you really love to perform? Without giving away surprises, what happens in that moment and why do you love it?
In the first act, our playwright, Matthew Minnicino, gave me this brilliant stage direction: "Toby does a little dance of Existential Relief. Whatever that is." I love that moment because I still haven't quite figured it out. And it's an excuse for me to dance like an idiot until I do.
Which school or system of acting has been most useful to you in your career, and why (examples: The Method, Uta Hagen, Viewpoints, etc.)?
I don't like to think of myself as beholden to any particular method. I studied at NYU: Tisch where I spent two years at the Meisner Studio, a year at the Classical Studio and a semester at the Experimental Theater Wing. I find that what's most useful depends on the role, the style of the piece and where I'm at with it - but it all comes into play.
What's your favorite pastime when you’re not working on a play?
To quote Lucille Bluth, "I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it."

Read more All About My Show previews!

Theater Beats Movies · Caitlin Johnston (Other)

Is there a particular moment in this show that you really love or look forward to? Without giving away surprises, what happens in that moment and why does it jazz you?
I'm partial to my very first entrance. It comes late in the play, but it's very worth the payoff! My character is fierce and brave and confrontational and resourceful and unwittingly hilarious, and her first entrance really encapsulates all of that. It's jarring and ridiculously fun; I suppose you could call my character the comic relief.
Does a video trailer help promote your show?
Ooh not yet, but that would be awfully fun!
What things does live theater allow you to do that you can’t do in movies?
Well, regardless of the medium, I'm often attracted first to good writing, which is why I love Matthew Minnicino's work [the playwright of Persephone], but I do love the momentum of theater. Film is a fun challenge because the scenes are almost always shot out of sequence, but I find it refreshing and cathartic to start a play at the beginning and feel the full trajectory of the story behind me at the end. Really though, I just love acting. In the words of the marvelous Anthony Abeson, "acting is the only profession with the power to remind people of their own humanity." When I play a character, I'm giving a voice to all of the people she stands for. I try to give all of my characters a soul.
People who like which of the following recent movies would also probably like your show: BOOK OF PI, LINCOLN, BRIDESMAIDS, MAN OF STEEL?
The Steely Bridesmaids of Lincoln and Pi. Matt's play feels very genre-blurring: absurdist moments and situations are fused with mythology and real pain and a healthy smattering of cinephilia.
Why should audiences see live theater instead of just watching videos on the internet?
There's a unique immediacy to live theater. While I adore doing film and TV as well, theater offers more of a raw experience: you're able to give your heart directly to the audience without the filters of multiple takes and editing. The audience becomes united with the actors in a shared moment that is powerful and visceral in a way that can't be achieved from a screen.

The Five W's · Aaron Ethan Green (Designer)

Who is more important in the theater: the actor, the playwright, or the director?
I think that the dramaturg is most important, which is a role that is often fulfilled by the actor, director, or playwright. Dramaturgy, a practice that involves unpacking a play's core--its relevance, style, context, mood, intention, and history--is an important step in any theater maker's process. Dramaturgs are sometimes described as in-house critics, and to think like a dramaturg is to question your own work critically. I think that's pretty important.
What aspects of design are you responsible for, and what exactly does that entail? Please be specific, e.g., if you’re the sound designer, what are the things that the audience will experience that you’re responsible for?
As a set designer, I support a text through the articulation of space. In conjunction with the rest of the production team, I'm responsible for providing a canvas that can accept and support the multitude of ideas generated through a collaborative process.
Where do you get inspiration for your designs?
On one hand, I'm inspired by spaces that trick me: I enjoy discovering why everyday spaces are constructed the way they are, and learning about design choices other people have made for me that I take for granted. On the other hand, I love learning about spaces that I never imagined existing and, in turn, putting those spaces on stage.
When did you know you wanted to work in the theater, and why?
I knew that I wanted theater to be a part of my life since middle school, when I had a role in the musical "Annie" that required nothing but holding up an applause sign during the radio host scene. Just being near a stage was infectious.
Why is your design discipline important?
An integral part of storytelling is transporting an audience into a space that offers new ways of looking at the world.

Read more The Five W's previews!

Gianfranco Lentini reviews Waiting For Waiting For Godot
“There’s nothing [everything] to be done” about Waiting for Waiting for Godot at the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival. Written by Dave Hanson and directed by...

Julie Congress reviews The Magic Mirror
The Magic Mirror, an opera with 14 singers and a live orchestra of seven (plus a conductor!), has a sound of a magnitude unlike any other FringeNYC show. Yet while an auditory...

Andrew Rothkin reviews The Young Olympians and The Most Amazingly Awesome Adventure Ever
What do you get when you combine ancient Greek mythology with puppetry, pop culture, a wacky quest, and some fun and catchy new tunes? If you’re the talented cast and crew of The Maryland...

Jason S. Grossman reviews The Famous Play
Two actors appear on stage and post an enormous sign with the playwright's contact information. A narrator enters and identifies himself as the playwright and describes what the audience is...

Kimberly Wadsworth reviews unbidden
Geneticist Julia Lamb, the woman at the center of Joanne Hudson’s Unbidden, is something of a mess. While researching a study into the human genome, Julia (Chelsea Leigh Barrett)...

David Koteles reviews Marshall's Law
A man and a woman are locked in a basement. A basement where dark secrets seem to be kept, waiting to be revealed. We learn the man and woman used to be best friends, until he “stole”...

Fred Backus reviews Mercedes Benz Awkwardly
Arriving from Australia to help close out the 2013 New YorkInternational Fringe Festival in its final week is Mercedes Benz Awkwardly, a raucous one-woman comedy about a first time...

Bob Stewart reviews The TomKat Project
The TomKat Project by writer Brandon Ogborn is a great example, (by this reviewer) of a perfect FringeNYC Show. It has 7 players, (including the playwright as narrator) 7 chairs, a few...

Pamela Butler reviews The Unfortunates
The late 19th century in London’s East End was not a safe place for young women plying the trade of prostitution. Women who for one reason or another fell into desperate situations, were...

Robert Weinstein reviews Quake: A Love Story
Ain’t Real Theatre Company’s Quake: A Love Story begins in the basement of a sparring couple as they go through their collective possessions after a bitter separation....

Gianfranco Lentini reviews William
1592. The end of the Renaissance is rapidly approaching, and the Baroque period is about to take the stage. Henry VI (Parts I-III) has been publicly performed, and the audience cries for...