9/15 – “Sammy Gets Mugged” (FringeNYC Show) Written by Dan Heching Directed by Noah Himmelstein With: Dan Heching (Sammy); Patrick Byas (The Mugger); and Stephanie Pope Caffey (Rue Felicite)
Remembering is a funny business. Literally, it means to put things back together (connect one member to another) so they can be re-lived. It is an odd business. If the concept of remembering is challenging, more challenging is the concept of memory itself. Is memory a neuro-physical entity or is it a psychological construct? Behaviorists believe that memory is no more than operant conditioning, a set of stimulus-and-response transactions based primarily on need. Actually, Skinner and his cronies might just have it right. At least that’s the spin Rue Felicite proffers when she witnesses Sammy getting mugged at the ATM.
“Sammy Gets Mugged” at The Living Theatre (FringeNYC Venue #6) is all about storytelling and memory and the significant level of subjectivity in our memories. Writer Dan Heching believes that “as we rehash [our memories} and relive defining moments in our lives, the reality of those moments begins to change and shift.” So what really happened the day Sammy gets mugged entering his apartment building in a less-than-desirable neighborhood in New York City?
In this brilliant new play, three characters remember (remember the above definition) the mugging from three different perspectives. Which perspective reflects what “really happened?” Could all three disparate memories be accurate? Reality, whether present or remembered, is subjective. Humans never really know whether what they are experiencing or remembering has the same emotional vectors as those sharing or who have shared the same experience. For example, perhaps Sammy wanted to be accosted so he could achieve some intimacy with his attacker. Perhaps the mugger really did not want to commit a crime, but needed money for some legitimate reason and scoped out Sammy because he knew he would be an easy target whom he did not have to harm. And perhaps Rue the witness simply wanted to report what she thought might happen or maybe she thought Sammy and the mugger were lovers, or maybe she was not sure what she even saw at that ATM machine.
The action of the play, though complicated, is clear. It would not be helpful to describe the many scenes simply because it would give away too much information. For example, each character has his or her own opportunity to share what he or she remembers. Sammy returns to his old neighborhood six months after the mugging to “process” what happened. Sammy “summons” his mugger in his memory to confront him and … well, you will see what happens.
The production is flawless. There is not one thing that could be improved. The brilliant casting assembles actors whose craft is so honed audience members will remember them for a long time to come. Dan Heching is a very fortunate young man that he studies Bikram Yoga in East Harlem with Stephanie Pope Caffey. I hope to see Patrick Byas on stage more and more in the future. And Dan Heching's Sammy could not be more spot on throughout this memory play. David L. Arsenault’s scenic and lighting design compliment the script with perfection and Mark Richard Caswell’s costumes draw us into the action and into each character with beauty and grace. Giovanni Villari’s sound design is so competent we experience through the action and not as an intrusive overlay.
Sammy, his mugger, and Rue his witness all have different needs, different recollections, different histories which, when they collide in one space-time serendipitous event, create unparalled magic.
Tickets are $15.00 and can be purchased online at www.fringenyc.org by phone at 866-468-7619 up to 24 hours before the performance, in person at FringeCENTRAL (1 East 8thStreet at Fifth Avenue). Tickets are $18.00 at the door and can be purchased 15 minutes before each performance (cash only) at Venue #18 Studio at Cheery Lane Theatre and Venue #6 The Living Theatre.
Permalink | Posted by David Roberts on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
CEOExpress
