"Zany, Perky Pals Tussle with Cancer" by Linda Winer ~ New York Newsday 10.08.04
When Byrony Lavery burst upon the New York theater scene last spring with her play "Frozen," we were stunned by her steady, unsentimental grasp of an almost unbearable subject: serial pedophilia. If this prolific playwright from Birmingham, England, could elevate a lurid made-for-TV outline into an uncompromised and gnawing journey, we were eager to see what other theatrical disturbances she could make from hard-to-stage topics.
"Frozen" transferred from a tiny Off-Broadway space to a big, awkward Broadway theater, where some of its intimate agony was diluted and its dramatic flaws were magnified. But we continued to admire Lavery's craft and daring - a feeling shaken, but not lost, by recent accusations that Lavery failed to credit material she allegedly lifted from the research of a criminal psychologist.
What has further shaken our faith is "Last Easter," a new work that MCC Theater, which also produced "Frozen," opened at the Lucille Lortel Theatre last night with the same creative team.
"Last Easter" tackles a cancer diagnosis and its effect on close friends. Where "Frozen" was tough and lean, the new piece is mawkish and fuzzy. Where the characters in "Frozen" bristled with originality, the people inhabiting "Last Easter" work so hard to be bright and fresh that they become tiring caricatures of people who try too hard to be bright and fresh.
They are, after all, cuddly, perky, zany people of the theater. June, whose doctor tells her on the phone that she has breast cancer that has metastasized to her liver, is a lighting designer in what appears to be a funky English theater. Gash (Jeffrey Carlson), the obligatory promiscuous, sardonic gay pal, is a singer and female impersonator. Leah (Clea Lewis), the plump, adorable American Jew, makes props, whimsical ones. The gorgeous, always drunk Joy (Florencia Lozano) is an actress, and her boyfriend, Howie (Jeffrey Scott Green), who drifts around wearing an angel on his T-shirt, was a techie before he killed himself.
June, played with beatific good humor by the always interesting Veanne Cox, tells her friends about the cancer. Naturally, they decide to surprise her with a boozy trip to Lourdes (insert joke about Madonna's daughter). The action takes place over two Easters, which means Gash sings "Easter Parade" often. Leah and Joy become lovers. The invisible Howie plays a flatulence gag on his old buddies. June has an endlessly long-suffering and shameless death scene, but not before she challenges friendship with a moral quandary.
Everyone, especially Gash, tries to deflect pain with jokes - jokes so unoriginal that even people who forget jokes can see the punch lines coming. It is hard to believe that director Doug Hughes, set designer Hugh Landwehr and costume designer Catherine Zuber were responsible for the moody austerity of "Frozen." As for laughing wild in service of a dying loved one, Paula Vogel did it better in "Baltimore Waltz," soon to be revived at the Signature Theater.