Bring Them Back

Written & Directed by David Willinger

Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue at 10th Street, NYC

May 9 - 19

Paul Korzinski & Carole Forman. Photo credit by Steven Pisano

During the COVID pandemic, theatre artists needed to find new ways of working. The result was a lot of Zoom based theatre. We all did a lot of Brady Bunch opening - esque readings, rehearsals and development of work to be done when we emerged from our solitary states. Solitary, for some, was truly solitary which left us with too much time to reflect on those who weren’t with us. And, during COVID, either related to the virus or not, we lost people we had no way to mourn, grieve or even process losing. Many of those in a pod of one had trouble reentering the world and dealing people - the senses were suddenly bombarded with sights, sounds, smells, and our bubbles were truly broken.

This is where we find Paul in Bring Them Back, and by extension writer/director David Willinger. Paul wants to bring them back – all of them - 41 people to be exact - not including random people he didn’t know by name like someone he used to see at the gym. Perhaps his hopes for the Cabalitstic ritual were to materialize someone specific in the flesh, but instead he gets groups of people for moments appearing beyond the veil. They come and go in waves. Some have brief, specific messages or memories, others have less to say. Unlike Jacob Marley and the ghosts who follow, there was no throughline message that they needed to convey.

In the present and in the flesh is Paul’s friend, Trudy. Trudy is very much alive but her presence appears to have Paul running to the bathroom more often than not. Carole Forman lights up the stage with her eccentricities as Trudy – think of having Cyndi Lauper as your grandma. You get the feeling she is there to keep Paul tethered to the earth – that he would float away without her. She tries to keep him on track with his playwriting or filmmaking – depending upon which book she flips through. Plot points, climax, denouement, and then there’s the bit about Image Theatre. Not sure if that was tied to the tableaus of the ghosts or the chiropractic work Trudy does on Paul. Whatever the case may be, Trudy does her best to keep the play on the rails.

While a cast of two may speak of an intimate production, with over 50 ghosts/spirits appearing on screen it was more This WAS Your Life. Conversing live with filmed characters presents many challenges. Getting the timing right is more rare than regular, as such, dialogue is staccato and clunky. Paul spend so much of the play turned upstage to these apparitions it becomes difficult to connect with him as an audience. The character carries so much of the load in this 100 minute, no intermission play, that I can almost understand the actor’s struggle to make specific choices. (In the US, theatrical rehearsal periods are notoriously short, leaving actors to struggle to get their lines under their belt. Too often the fine detail work gets done live in front of an audience.) Mr. Korzinski’s work is unspecific – like he’s on a roller coaster and everything is whooshing by leaving little impression on him. He just wants to make it to the end of the ride.

This isn’t Our Town, nor does it need to be. The formula of Scribe’s well-made play does not apply. Many would categorize it as quirky or out of the box, but Bring Them Back is rooted in much of the avant garde theatre of the late-60s / early-70s. We even get visited by Joe Chakin’s ghost. This diamond in the rough needs polish. It speaks to something we tried to put behind us when the masks came off and the world reopened – a paralyzing loneliness and a sense of unimaginable loss. I understand the playwright’s need to keep all of these characters alive in some state, but I think the ultimate survival of this play depends on its continued refinement.

Presented by Theater for the New City.

Click HERE for tickets.

Review by Nicole Jesson.

Persona Metropolitana

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