bent through glass
Written & Performed by Alex Koltchak; Directed by Michael Sladek
Presented by PLK PRODUCTIONS
Under St Marks | 94 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10009
April 4th - April 14, 2025
Theatre festivals are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.
The FRIGID Festival reflects approximately 65 shows will run in rep at 5 different venues. Shows will run a bit under an hour. There will be one-acts and bits of longer works in progress; dramas, comedies and musicals.
Within the intimate setting of Under St Marks, Alex Koltchak shares an emotionally raw account of a family devastated by loss and the many faces of grief that follow.
Bent through Glass is a play that should come with a trigger warning. Koltchak, in an intimate and unwavering performance takes the audience through the story of his angry father and passive/neglectful mother as he describes a childhood in France, upended by divorce and a relocation to Long Island, New York in the 1970’s/80’s. The characters’ reminiscing of a peak era Kiss concert and New York Knicks games provide only temporary respite to proceedings.
Alternating with this account of his childhood, is Koltchak’s depiction of his characters life as a struggling actor and bartender in New York. We hear of his marriage, its demise and a core narrative revolving around his struggle as a father of three children before and after the suicide of his 15 year old daughter and its impact on an already fragmented family.
Throughout proceedings there is a sense of inherited emotional distress and anger that carries through the narrative, this reaches a climax in his teenage daughters struggle with mental illness, self harm, suicide and its aftermath. The pervasive sense of pain is hardly tempered but is exhaustively examined.
Ultimately, the story concludes with a hint of the father and family overcoming guilt and grief, both present and intergenerational. A final catharsis however remains incomplete in this somber and anguished play.
Click HERE for tickets.
Review by Brian Connor.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 14th, 2025. All rights reserved.