» Our Lady of 121st Street (2012)

Our Lady of 121st Street

Synopsis (from NY Times):

Stephen Adly Guirgis would qualify as the poet laureate of the angry. He's interested in people who have a great deal to be angry about, and he has great empathy for them. Moreover, he makes anger as lyrical as it is likely to get.

His last play, ''Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train,'' was a ferocious, many-sided debate about the justice system, which had at its center the bitter, frantically eloquent and morally authoritative soliloquies of a young man in prison for having taken the law into his own hands. Now, in a scorching and dark new comedy, ''Our Lady of 121st Street,'' Mr. Guirgis presents a whole network of tempers, smoldering and prone to startling eruption. From the opening scene, when a man who has had his pants stolen gives vent to a blistering rage in an interview with a police detective, the play is packed with explosive rants and vivid shouting matches.

You might think this would grow tedious, or at least headache-inducing. But Mr. Guirgis, who has one of the finest imaginations for dialogue to come along in years, has made sure each and every screamer is a distinctly drawn and sympathetic character whose human foibles are touching.

Production Date

June 27—29, 8:00 pm 2012

Written by

Stephen Adly Guirgis

Directed by

Peter Hanlon

Starring

Sanjay Dayal, Brittany Mahood Dixon, Jerrod Downey, Codi Hove, Kate Jobin, Samira Julnes, Matt Kruze, Leona Lahouri, Richard Russ, T.J. Sanderson,   Bo Tyler, Seth Whittaker