A world premiere and a Pulitzer Prize winner opened last weekend at Circle Theatre and Stage West Theatre, both examining death in different ways. 'Destroying David' follows an art restorer grappling with the structural flaws of Michelangelo's David and her own personal loss, while 'Primary Trust' portrays the quiet life of a lonely man in a series of seemingly ordinary days.
Amanda Nicole Reyes stars in Circle Theatre 's premiere of playwright Jason Odell Williams' one-person show 'Destroying David,' about an art restorer dealing with the structural flaws in Michelangelo's towering statue and a personal loss. FORT WORTH — Personal loss is at the core of two plays , a world premiere and a Pulitzer Prize winner, that opened last weekend to kick off one of the busiest months in recent memory.
Each deals with death in different ways and to different ends while acknowledging an inevitable if painful reality of the human experience. Both unfurl their narratives slowly and deliberately on minimalist sets around thought-provoking ideas. The performances are superb. 'Destroying David' gives the audience an after-hours tour of the Florence museum where the world’s most famous statue has been on display for 150 years after being moved from a public square. She relates the dire circumstances surrounding Michelangelo’s towering figure: His is under threat of collapsing — has been from the start — due to the marble’s structural flaws and the artist’s design. That she’s up to no good and why are withheld for a long time. The character, called “You,” has faced a grim event in her life that parallels the statue’s vulnerability and has changed her attitude toward impermanence.Lee George gives an extraordinary performance as Kenneth, a lonely man leading an ordinary life, in Stage West Theatre's co-production with Dallas Theater Center of 'Primary Trust.' Painted a blend of white and gray, the stark set in Circle’s basement performance space suggests a floor, walls and columns made of marble. At the center is a round platform with shelves holding such artifacts as bowls and busts. Above is a curtained opening in the ceiling. The platform and opening are where we’re to imagine the imposing standing at its undetectably odd, dangerous angle. It’s also the site of the play’s denouement of pure stage magic. Broadway musical Anastasia to open in Dallas Reyes’ restorer has a big personality with a sunny, confident delivery. She enters speaking Italian, enlisting audience members in partially improvised scenes. She cracks jokes about the inferiority of the An art restorer (Amanda Nicole Reyes) examines a model of the flawed foot of Michelangelo's famous statue in Jason Odell Williams' 'Destroying David,' premiering at Circle Theatre.: The cracks in the original marble chosen 11 years before Michelangelo’s birth; its exposure to the elements for three decades; the eventual creation of the in the early 15th century in ways that put additional stress on the ankles, especially the right one; its outdoor display for hundreds of years; and the earthquakes and man-made disasters that have always threatened it. The flaws were first detected in the 19th century, but it wasn’t until geoscientists did a close study in 2014 that it became known how bad they were. Reyes’ character says she is one of the restorers working to save it. But she wonders whether like life, and by implication live experiences like this play, there returns to the kind of imaginative scenario that theater usually provides, with Reyes revealing a greater range of emotions. In her contemplation, she tells one more true tale: the 1497 When the space where the statue is supposed to be standing is suddenly animated by a ghostly but visible presence, you could hear audience members sniffling back tears. Without straining, has shifted from fascinating history to a statement about how everything we love eventually disappears. Amanda Nicole Reyes on the minimalist, marble-like set of Circle Theatre's production of 'Destroying David.' Reyes plays an art restorer working on the Michelangelo statue. Lee George gives an extraordinary performance as an ordinary man, a native of Cranberry, N.Y., who lives a lonely if not unhappy life filled by routine. For years, Kenneth has worked as a bookstore clerk. He has one close friend, Bert (Jamal Sterling). They meet daily for happy hour at the same bar. Kenneth often drinks too many mai tais. Kenneth (Lee George), left, and Bert (Jamal Sterling) enact their daily ritual, drinking happy-hour mai tais at their favorite bar in Eboni Booth's Pulitzer Prize-winning 'Primary Trust' at Stage West Theatre. The production moves to Dallas Theater Center later this month.Everyone except for occasionally cranky servers at Wally’s or unreasonable customers at the bank of the play’s title — all played in a humorous workout of dead-on characterizations and accents by — is nice to him. That includes his boss at the bookstore and, later on, his supervisor at Primary Trust, both portrayed with enthusiastic ease by Brian Mathis, even when Kenneth does things that might get him fired in the big city. Not much happens to him, at least not by typically theatrical standards. When it does, the implications aren’t immediately apparent. The play uses a dinging sound dozens of times to mark the passage of time, like ellipse
ART DAVID DEATH DRAMA FORT WORTH LOS MORTALITY MICHELANGELO PLAYS PRIMARY TRUST STAGE THEATER TWO PLAYS
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