“Amerissiah”: My Review
Here’s my FT review of the current off-Broadway production of “Amerissiah.” Full text after the jump.
The Amoralists, a troupe of New York hipsters, have been so busy lately strutting their hirsute guyness in the press that you have to ask yourself: where is their collective talent, slim but vivid, on better display? On stages like Theatre 80, where the group’s 2008 show Amerissiah is now playing? Or in the mainstream media, where this trio of drama-school buddies, each aged 29, boast about their patented pub altercations, as if fighting the image of luvvies as blood-averse, sports-ignorant wimps is more important than what occurs on stage?
Actors have been using pugnacity as a calling card ever since ancient Epidauran performers started tripping the light fantastic in their local agora. Derek Ahonen, the director and playwright of Amerissiah, and Matt Pilieci and James Kautz, the production’s lead actors and fellow company founders, are so obliging about sharing their testosterone-drenched tales with reporters that the effect is less scrappy than sweet.
Pilieci, for example, told a journalist recently his nude scene in the Amoralists’ first theatrical splash, The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side, occurred almost by happenstance in rehearsal. “I just tried it,†he says, the “it†being an erection, “and it was funny.â€
If you’re wondering why these guys haven’t been snapped up by the Hollywood likes of Judd Apatow, it isn’t just a matter of retaining artistic freedom. They haven’t done films because Hollywood honchos and even indie producers would be unlikely to green-light dark comedies such as Amerissiah, in which a middle-aged man called Johnny Ricewater has a car dealership that is being investigated for corruption. His son Barry – played by Pilieci – is battling cancer, and decides that he is the Messiah. Barry’s wife, Margi, doesn’t think he should be treated for the condition. The story is the usual Amoralist family squawkfest, but with a moral or two thrown in.
Downtown-Manhattan audiences tend to lap this stuff up. But while Amoralism has a certain shaggy-dog charm, and minimalist production values are useful, the Amerissiah story lacks anything very propulsive. As for the performers, well, let’s just say that they honour the art of bad acting – a tradition even older than Epidaurus.
This sounds more like a tirade from someone with a personal vendetta than a review from someone who follows theatre..I have seen several Amoralist productions and though the style was definitely different from what I’m accustomed to, the acting was always wonderful, in my opinion..as I recall..Sam Shepard and David Mamet had similar comments about their work..