URBAN RENOVATOR BLUES
Their premiere production–Renovation Ensemble’s Urban Renovator Blues–is short, funny, interesting, and, most impressive, difficult. Daniel Wirth’s original one-act, which he also directs, is a grotesque exaggeration of American upper-middle-class values that demands manically styled performances from its two actors, John Alcott and Cynthia Wasseen.
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Simply named the Man and the Woman, they are dressed as successful young professionals and pass the evening in a living room (whose is not clear) vehemently trying to remain picture perfect and “authentic” in a world full of cheap imitation (the bookshelf, for example, holds nothing but Reader’s Digest condensed books). The Man enters and immediately strips off his pants and pulls his tie out of his vest in a methodical attempt to relax. The Woman enters and unleashes a string of eloquent but blisteringly vulgar insults, and he merely compliments her on her inventive diction. Through all of this both keep smiles–or grimaces–plastered on their faces, continually posing on the sofa as if at any moment they might be caught in a family picture.
Alcott and Wasseen seem right at home in Wirth’s play, handling the highly stylized dialogue skillfully. Though at times Wasseen gives away too much of her inner self, she maintains a certain creepiness that enhances the text’s submerged violence. Alcott is an endlessly fascinating conundrum. His exterior remains nearly inflexible, and yet so much seems to be going on beneath the surface. And both these actors put themselves on the line, playing emotionally and physically broad scenes in which timing is everything under the scrutiny of an audience only five feet away. The risks they take raise the stakes for everyone present, making their performances not just impressive but gripping.
