THEATRE
INDULGENCES 
January 17-February 6, 2010
Add Review/Comment | Read Reviews/Comments
Comment on Facebook
a farcical comedy by Chris Craddock
directed by Kate Warner
featuring Neil A. Casey*, Joel Colodner*, Ed Hoopman*, Benjamin Evett*, Leigh Barrett*,Steven Barkhimer*, and Tony Larkin
*member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
Happily ever after...?
Once upon a time in a kingdom somewhere: a king and a commoner swap identities; a prince and his lover plot to protect their union; two advisors conspire to foil everything; and a man known only as "Salesman" bargains for everyone's "happily ever after." In this New England Premiere by Canadian playwright Chris Craddock, we discover the solution to life's puzzles just might exist in this fractured fairy tale.
"Craddock is nothing short of brilliant." – Calgary Herald
"Chris Craddock is a brilliant playwright who is able to wrap important themes into a smart and zany comedy." – Kate Warner, Artistic Director
Approximately 2 hours, including intermission.
-
At-a-
Glance-
Venue Info
New Repertory Theatre in Residence at The Arsenal Center for the Arts Charles Mosesian Theater
321 Arsenal Street
Watertown, MA 02472 -
Admission Info
Tickets: Off Peak: All seats-Sun Eve, Thu Mat, Wed, Thu Eve, Fri, (Monday Opening Tr-B only). Orch $48.00 Tr-B $42.00 Peak: All Seats--Sun Mat, Sat Mat, Sat Eve, (Monday Opening Orch seats only). Orch $54.00 Tr-B $49.00 All Shows: Tr-C $35.00 Discounts available for Seniors (60 and older), Full Time Students, WGBH members, WBUR members, MTA members, Harvard University Employees, Concierge members of USO, Arsenal Center for the Arts members, and TCG members.
Info Phone: 617-923-8487
-
Dates & Times
Dates:
January 17-February 6, 2010Times:
Sun 1/17 2pm (Panel Discussion)
Sun 1/17 7:30 pm
Mon 1/18 7:30 pm (Opening)
Thu 1/21 2 pm
Thu 1/21 7:30 pm
Fri 1/22 8 pm
Sat 1/23 8 pm
Sun 1/24 2 pm (Talkback)
Thu 1/28 7:30 pm
Fri 1/29 8 pm
Sat 1/30 3:30 pm
Sat 1/30 8 pm
Sun 1/31 2 pm (Talkback)
Sun 1/31 7:30 pm
Wed 2/3 7:30 pm
Thu 2/4 7:30 pm
Fri 2/5 8 pm
Sat 2/6 3:30 pm
Sat 2/6 8 pm (Closing) -
Accessibility Info
TTY: 617-923-2067 or email tickets@newrep.org
-
Video & Image Gallery
Video | Images
-
Member Reviews
-
Event Name: INDULGENCES
"it's the right title"
Comment posted by: theatrical devotee from brookline, MA, Jan 19, 2010
"To treat with leniency". The subject matter cries out for the wit and brilliance and pace of a Tom Stoppard comedy, and unfortunately, Chris Craddock is not there yet. It's treating a serious... Expand
-
-
-
Media
Gallery-
All Media Gallery
Video | Images
-
-
Member
Reviews-
Member Reviews
-
Event Name: INDULGENCES
"it's the right title"
Comment posted by: theatrical devotee from brookline, MA, Jan 19, 2010
"To treat with leniency". The subject matter cries out for the wit and brilliance and pace of a Tom Stoppard comedy, and unfortunately, Chris Craddock is not there yet. It's treating a serious... Expand
-
-
-
Media
Reviews-
Media Reviews
-
Event Name: INDULGENCES
Article: 'Indulgences' sells clever brand of fun
Boston Hearld - Jan 22, 2010
By Jenna SchererThe title of Chris Craddock’s “Indulgences” lets you know what to expect. Craddock is off on a spree - mashing genres and making up rules as his whims take him. You might as well indulge the man - even if you’re not always gulping down the snake oil… Expand
The title of Chris Craddock’s “Indulgences” lets you know what to expect. Craddock is off on a spree - mashing genres and making up rules as his whims take him. You might as well indulge the man - even if you’re not always gulping down the snake oil he’s selling.
Kate Warner last staged this play two years ago, during her previous gig as artistic director of Dad’s Garage Theatre in Atlanta. Now that she’s helming the New Repertory Theatre, Warner takes on “Indulgences” again. It’s a playful, if sometimes pointless, production.
Ground zero for Craddock’s cut-and-paste story is a dive bar on some sort of astral plane. The tables and chairs are see-through and insubstantial, but the whiskey is very real. So, apparently, is the bar’s most reliable regular, a drunken heavenly emissary in an ill-fitting suit (Benjamin Evett). He’s in the business of selling indulgences - which, if you recall your medieval history, are basically get-out-of-purgatory-free cards sold by the Catholic Church to wary sinners. They were a big con, but these salesman’s are supposedly the genuine article.
In walk two gents (Ed Hoopman and Tony Larkin) in Elizabethan garb - minor “Macbeth” characters Malcolm and Fleance, if you’re keeping score - groaning in faux-Shakespearean verse about their impossible love. The salesman agrees to help them murder Malcolm’s dad, the King (Joel Colodner), so the pair can usher in an age of same-sex-marriage tolerance in their realm. Meanwhile, the King has switched places with a modern-day businessman (Neil A. Casey) he met at the astral watering hole.
If that sounds random, it is. Craddock writes like a kid who’s mixed together all his Lego sets and is curious to figure out what the fireman and the dinosaur might say to each other at the space station. A Stoppard-esque dialogue about identity gives way to a medieval sitcom, gives way to a bitter monologue on living in delicious sin, David Mamet-style. The voice of God sounds like Frank the rabbit from “Donnie Darko” and there’s a joke or two we already heard in “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”
As the salesman, Evett has way too much fun. He’s our stumbling, blustering guide to Craddock’s crazy world - and the most vividly realized character onstage. The others are basically pawns, but that doesn’t stop Colodner from roping us into the King’s existential crisis, or Leigh Barrett from cracking us up as a throwaway villain.
More fun is had in “Indulgence” ’s second half, but it’s hard to care much about characters who are little more than playthings in Craddock’s hands.
“INDULGENCES”
Presented by New Repertory Theatre at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, Watertown, Monday night. Through Feb. 6.
Collapse -
Event Name: INDULGENCES
Article: New Repertory Theater's ‘Indulgences’ is a heavenly comedy
The Patriot Ledger - Jan 19, 2010
By Alexander StevensPlaywright Chris Craddock takes some nuggets of philosophical thought and spices them liberally with slapstick, word play and a little sacrilege. Then, just for good measure, the New Repertory Theatre adds a couple of scene-stealing turns from some o… Expand
Playwright Chris Craddock takes some nuggets of philosophical thought and spices them liberally with slapstick, word play and a little sacrilege. Then, just for good measure, the New Repertory Theatre adds a couple of scene-stealing turns from some of the area’s most talented comic actors, and sets the whole thing on a slow simmer.
The result is a delicious little comic confection called “Indulgences,” playing through Feb. 6 at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown.
It’s a fractured fairy tale, which gives Craddock and company license to do whatever they want. That’s why business-suit-clad 21st-century men share the stage with characters straight out of a Shakespeare play, and no one seems to notice or care.
It’s part of the humor, of course – caped men spouting “thees” and “thous” in the same conversation with a salesman who’s just trying to make a buck by selling “indulgences” – a kind of get-out-of-purgatory card for sinners.
Business will soon be booming because we’ve got sinners up the wazoo. Straight from the 16th century, that’s two male lovers – Malcolm (Ed Hoopman) and Fleance (Tony Larkin) – who reject their kingdom’s medieval stance on homosexuality, and plot to kill the king, who also happens to be Malcolm’s father. That’s a big payday for our salesman, who stands to make a pretty penny on all these top-drawer transgressions.
At the same time, two men note the similarity of their appearance and style, and decide it would be possible to swap identities, swap jobs, swap lives. The fact that they’re successful with such ease is funny, but Craddock also seems to be saying something about the sleepy and disinterested way we go through our lives. Their wives don’t even notice the change.
It may all sound crazy, but “Indulgences” could be crazier. Although the play dabbles with deep thought, the premise mostly feels like an excuse to win laughs. And you sense there’s a zanier, Marx Brothers-style version of this play that’s aching to get out.
But Craddock – who’s got a real knack for Elizabethan-speak, by the way – offers up some funny stuff, and he gets a boost from director Kate Warner and this talented local cast.
It’s always hard to take your eyes off Neil A. Casey; he steals scenes at will with that easy smile, that glint in his eye, that impeccable comic timing. He’s put to good use in “Indulgences.”
New Rep stalwarts Steven Barkhimer and Leigh Barrett are rock-solid, as usual. And much of the play rests on the professional shoulders of Benjamin Evett, the Actors’ Shakespeare Project founder who has popped up in a number of New Rep shows.
If there’s depth to this farce, we find it through Evett’s salesman and his desire to not only understand the world, but also improve it. He, like the rest of us, is a little perplexed by the way upper management – our CEO? our GOD? – is running things.
But a playwright’s wisdom is rarely ineffable, and “Indulgences” feels like it could be tweaked. Some of it is just a matter of pace, and that may get sorted out as the run continues. But there are also slow stretches in Craddock’s script, which occasionally gets bogged down in words, including an unnecessary little recap scene between Evett and Barkhimer right when we should be sprinting toward the finish line.
But it’s hard to argue with the little comic glow you feel at the end of the show. You may wish for a few more out-loud laughs in this farce, but you rarely stop smiling.
INDULGENCES Written by Chris Craddock. Directed by Kate Warner. At the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown, through Feb. 6. $35-$54; 617-923-8487, www.newrep.org. Collapse -
Event Name: INDULGENCES
Article: Mash Up Your Shakespeare
The Hub Review - Jan 19, 2010
By Thomas GarveyOne more into the time-space-continuum gap! Tony Larkin, Benjamin Evett, and Ed Hoopman indulge themselves.
So - are you ready for a gay-Tom-Stoppard, "Fleance-and-Malcolm-Aren't-Dead-But-Getting-Married-in-Vegas" kind of metap… ExpandOne more into the time-space-continuum gap! Tony Larkin, Benjamin Evett, and Ed Hoopman indulge themselves.
So - are you ready for a gay-Tom-Stoppard, "Fleance-and-Malcolm-Aren't-Dead-But-Getting-Married-in-Vegas" kind of metaphysical-philosophical mash-up? At first I didn't think I was, either, but I admit the New Rep, and its crack comic cast (headlined by a hilarious Benjamin Evett), did eventually win me over, and I began to indulge Indulgences, the new production of Chris Craddock's meta-comedy which runs through February 6. This is a very silly show, and kind of conceptually sloppy - but it is a funny show, certainly the funniest in town, and you don't have to tell me what that means in January in Boston. (It means the New Rep has a hit.)
And it's nice to see new artistic director Kate Warner, who seemed to stumble slightly on her maiden voyage with Mister Roberts, right herself here, with a crisp, clever production that's tighter than a duck's you-know-what. It's true the play itself isn't nearly that taut - Canadian author Chris Craddock mashes together Shakespeare, Mamet, The Prince and the Pauper, "Fractured Fairy Tales," and a whole lot more in this long-form skit about cross-dressing and destiny - and part of the joke is that he doesn't much care that most of his gambits don't hang together. Shakespeare's Fleance and Malcolm, for instance, who drive the plot of the show, were never even friends in Macbeth, so when they meet for drinks in some sort of Purgatorial pick-up bar with a fallen angel who's a kind of insurance salesman, we do think to ourselves, "WTF, milord?" Or at least I did.
But wait a minute, let's back up. Here's the set-up: two Shakespearean characters (Malcolm and Fleance, played by Ed Hoopman and Tony Larkin) walk into a bar, where they meet, no, not a priest and a rabbi, but a seller of "indulgences" (Benjamin Evett). Remember those? I think the Catholic church actually still sells 'em, but at their height they were the proud pinnacle of Her venerable commitment to corruption - time-off in Purgatory was available for a variety of sins, for a small fee (or a large one, depending on the sin).
Only Craddock's salesman isn't some hack from the Vatican - he's from the Big Kahuna himself. As in Jehovah. Yahweh. The Almighty.
Which is quite an interesting intellectual proposition - God himself is offering an escape hatch from his own morality? Indulgences that work? And get a load of His reason - he wants to "re-inforce free will!" Holy conundrum, Mr. Stoppard! For a moment, it seems like a heavenly host of fascinating dialectics about the knotty problem of pre-destination might be in the offing.
But no such luck; playwright Craddock may scramble the dramaturgical map to pin his themes, but he isn't actually serious enough about them to indulge in any intellectual depth. Instead, he skates along the contradictions of Catholic philosophy to hilarious, but not deeply satisfying, effect. Still, that's enough for Saturday night. I won't get into the silly-and-sillier plot, except to say that Malcolm and Fleance want to both get hitched and kill Dad, who's not hip to modern romance. Only they don't know that Dad isn't actually Dad - he sort of swapped spots in the universe with some schlub from the present day (back in that Purgatorial bar). Who wants his old gig back. Then there's the schemers in the palace, who methinks fpout a moft excellent pastiche of pfeudo-Shakespeareana; they've got their sub-plot, too. Collapse
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
State & Local Resources
-
Made Possible With Support From
-
With Acknowledgement of our Regional Partners
-
Media Partners
-
Site Credits
© 2012 - ArtsBoston - All Rights Reserved.
Contact Us | Privacy Policy/Terms of Service | Site Feedback