Red Light Winter

by Adam Rapp
Mary-Arrchie Theater Co.

What do you say about Red Light Winter? Well, it's a very adult play and you don't go see it with your parents, that's for sure. Or, with people who haven't been to a lot of theater. It's for theater lovers, certainly. So, in the spectrum of Lion King to Charles Mee, I'd say it was a hard night of theater, closer to Mee - more for the die-hard set.

I hate to compare Rapp to Sondheim, but in a way they are similar. Their first acts are nice and tidyish and then the second acts push, push, push. They push you to the cliff and just when you think the contract with the audience is that they will pull you back, they actually push you off. They do and you can't believe they did. You're like, "Whoa, okay...pause, we have a new game in town." Although, I can almost guarantee, while a critic fave, this play ain't never going to play on Broadway. Will it?

Condensed, this play is a love triangle. She loves him #1. Him #1 doesn't love her back. Him #2 loves her. She doesn't love him #2 back.

Set in the triangle, it's a play with a brutal exploration of love. It's sex, but I'd say not sexy. It's love and intimacy. Love and object of love. Love and memory. Love and desire. Love and danger. Love and communication. Love and gesture. Love and time.

We went to this play because I saw American Slingo, also by Rapp, some time ago. As a playwright, I like that you can trust that he's going to give whatever subject he applies himself to everything he's got. He is not, I emphasize not, a lazy thinker. He really works a subject up and down and all around. And, I think this is a rare sort of intelligence.

We have tickets right now for Superior Donuts, the current play at this theater. I don't think this will be the last play, either, that we see here. This is a theater company that reaches for the best repertoire out there, sort of with a soft regard to popularity, although it seems SD tickets are selling rather well. It's high brow, lofty theater in a store-front setting. I'm cool with that.

I think this was the right theater for Red Light Winter. It's a good match between what Rapp is aiming for and what this theater company is aiming for, which I guess could be articulated as all-out, hard-core, true, deep theater. The good and the gritty.

So, if you haven't found yourself slightly uptown yet, definitely give it a try. And, if for some reason, in spite of the NY Times making quite a darling out of Rapp, you haven't found him, yet - stay alert. And, seek him out when his plays pop up here and there. Theater, play and playwright all come highly recommended from me.

Good words also to the actors in this play, too. The play was so challenging (holy cow, the blocking alone) and required so much of the actors. They were good, but wow - they had a challenge to rise to and they definitely did what they were supposed to do. Fantastic job everyone!