Written by: Bill Manhoff
Played: April 4, 5, 11, 12,
18, 19 - 2001
at 7pm.
Written by: Don Nigro
Playing: April 25, 26 and
May 2 , 3 , 4 - 2001
at 7pm.
at the
New York Comedy Club
241 East 24th Street
(between 2nd and 3rd Avenue)
New York, NY
Phone: (212) 696 5233
(please no reservations on our e-mail
address)
Tickets: 15 $ - 2
beverages minimum per person
Second show = free, please keep your first ticket
Starring:
Eva
Dorrepaal, Yves Michiels and Michael Stamberg
(click to enlarge pictures)
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Lights and technical support:
Hugo Verschoren
In association with Walk the Plank.
Two unique plays: one of the eighties, one of the sixties.
Each about a man and a woman.
Each about two lonely people.
Each about two people afraid of relationships.
Each about a war of the sexes, between life and death.
Two comedies, written with two decades
between them.
With so many similarities, and yet so different. So Beast of Belgium
challenged itself to present them next to one another as its first production.
There are no good actors.
There are no good directors.
There are only good playwrights.
Bill Manhoff and Don Nigro are two of them.
Wanna see
some pictures of 'Seascape with Pussycat'?
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge
A press review on 'Seascape with Sharks and Dancer'
Review: Long Island Entertainment - May 2001
Michael Stamberg may be familiar to some people as the drummer of Long Island punk rock icons, Rat Bastard, or he may have turned some heads with enthusiastic performances in original pieces around the Long Island like 'Artificial Sincerity' or 'Chip Barton's Day in Court'. He had a quality that made him stick out, so when his name turned up on the postcard for 'Seascape with Sharks and Dancer' coupled with the lack of fresh pieces around these parts, I decided to cross a bridge. It was a rewarding trip.
In the role of Tracy, an off-the-wall damsel rescued from drowning is Belgium import Eva Dorrepaal. Dorrepaal with a long mane of blonde hair and mischievous eyes, portrays the eccentric Tracy with the simmering pyrotechnics of a woman on the edge. In a moment, she can go from playfully alluring to brutally dismissive, struggling to control her anger and her need to love with an equal amount of perplexed misguidance.
Stamberg, as a librarian and would-be next great American novelist, delivers a performance that's up to the task in both eccentricity and quiet power. We clearly feel his strong attraction for the untamable Tracy, though none of those who consider themselves sane may be able to justify the relationship. There is a lust between both halves in their push and pull exchanges.
You may come away from the show feeling like you've watched everything from a breakdown to each character being an extension of a single mind to the madness that is all love affairs. You may think you get all of this challenging piece and that it's as obvious as a continuous argument or you may be debating its true intent for weeks to come, but be assured that it will move you.
It has been said by some that the best piece of work any director does is cast the right people for the characters and that may be so here. Director Guido De Craene has handed us two people who physically look right for each other in addition to fully realized parts that show a director that knows his piece inside and out.
Don Nigro's script, at times raw and harsh, at others whimsically intricate, is pretty much a joy throughout. It is unfortunate that we live on an Island that, for some reason, appears hellbent on avoiding original material, playwrights and determined to continue an endless stream of 'all-time favorites' that have been done to death. It's too bad we don't get more of this cutting edge stuff without a toll involved getting to it.
'Seascape with Sharks and Dancer' plays through May 2, 3 and 4 and is worth a field trip if you're yearning for provocative and different material.
Steven. J. Francis
