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    THEATRE

    2.5 MINUTE RIDE

    2.5 MINUTE RIDE Image gallery Video clip

    Presented by New Repertory Theatre at Downstage @ New Rep in Residence at The Arsenal Center for the Arts Black Box Theater

    October 4-October 24, 2009

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    a one-women drama by Lisa Kron

    directed by M. Bevin O'Gara

    featuring Adrianne Krstansky* as Lisa

    *member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

    Life's a rollercoaster. Enjoy!

    This one-woman show by critically acclaimed author Lisa Kron invites us on a journey that is both uproariously funny and surprisingly sobering, as we are introduced to a cast of characters through the Kron family album. From her devout Jewish brother desperate to find his "shana maidel," to her 75 year-old father returning to Auschwitz, where his own parents were killed, Kron asks the question of how we can find humor in the midst of life's cruel twists of fate.

    “Remarkable...emotional vibrations that won’t stop.” The New York Times

    Approximately 90 minutes. (no intermission)


    • At-a-
      Glance

      • Venue Info

        Downstage @ New Rep in Residence at The Arsenal Center for the Arts Black Box Theater

        321 Arsenal Street
        Watertown, MA 02472

        Full map and directions

      • Admission Info

        Tickets: All seats, all Shows: $25.00 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

        Buy Tickets

      • Dates & Times

        Dates:
        October 4-October 24, 2009

        Times:
        Sun 10/4 3 pm (Panel Discussion)
        Sun 10/4 8 pm
        Mon 10/5 7:30 pm (Opening)
        Thu 10/8 8 pm
        Fri 10/9 8:30 pm
        Sat 10/10 4 pm
        Sat 10/10 8:30 pm
        Sun 10/11 3 pm (Talkback)
        Thu 10/15 8 pm
        Fri 10/16 8:30 pm
        Sat 10/17 4 pm
        Sat 10/17 8:30 pm
        Sun 10/18 3 pm (Talkback)
        Sun 10/18 8 pm
        Wed 10/21 8 pm
        Thu 10/22 8 pm
        Fri 10/23 8:30 pm
        Sat 10/24 4 pm
        Sat 10/24 8:30 pm (Closing

      • Accessibility Info

          TTY: 617-923-2067 or email tickets@newrep.org

      • Member Reviews

        Add review/comment

        • Event Name: 2.5 MINUTE RIDE
          "Excellent show"
          Comment posted by: Lori from Somerville, MA, Oct 21, 2009

          I saw 2.5 Minute Ride when it premiered at the City Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA a few years ago and it is fantastic. I would highly recommend people check it out. I am hoping to see it again... Expand

    • Member
      Reviews

      • Member Reviews

        Add review/comment

        • Event Name: 2.5 MINUTE RIDE
          "Excellent show"
          Comment posted by: Lori from Somerville, MA, Oct 21, 2009

          I saw 2.5 Minute Ride when it premiered at the City Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA a few years ago and it is fantastic. I would highly recommend people check it out. I am hoping to see it again... Expand

    • Media
      Reviews

      • Media Reviews

        • Event Name: 2.5 MINUTE RIDE
          Article: 2.5 Minute Ride
          EDGE Boston - Oct 08, 2009
          By Kilian Melloy

          One woman, a slide projector with no actual slides, and three story threads that weave and twine in a hilarious, mesmerizing way: that’s 2.5 Minute Ride, a memoir and monologue written by Lisa Kron and performed by Adrianne Krstansky.

          Th… Expand

          One woman, a slide projector with no actual slides, and three story threads that weave and twine in a hilarious, mesmerizing way: that’s 2.5 Minute Ride, a memoir and monologue written by Lisa Kron and performed by Adrianne Krstansky.

          The production premieres the fourth season of Downstage @ New Rep and is directed by M. Bevin O’Gara, who guides Krstansky’s performance, along with the show’s other elements, with an eye to the confessional and the naturalistic. As Kron, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who visits Auschwitz with her elderly father, Krstansky in unstoppable and irresistible: she commands hearty laughter even as she breaks the heart--not just for the victims of the Holocaust, but, as the narration continues, for the perpetrators also, victims as they were of a monstrous machine of war and murder.

          But that is only one strand in the show’s triptych. Kron’s script parallels the Auschwitz trip with another family outing--this time with both parents, as well as a flock of aunts and cousins--to an amusement park, where her nearly-blind 75-year-old father, munching on nitroglycerin tabs, cheerfully queues up to ride a roller coaster. It’s a plain and plainly presented metaphor, but neither Kron nor anyone else is apologizing for it: her father enjoys every minute, even though her mother is convinced that an earlier ride caused a hemorrhage that led to her father’s severe loss of sight.

          The third strand deals with the wedding of Kron’s brother, who sets out one day to find a wife online. For Kron’s mother, the occasion is something like the roller coaster is for her father, though perhaps without the expectation of fun: she frets over her clothing, her hair and makeup, and everything else. (The character Krstansky plays confides that her mother must have been thrilled to hear that her daughter was a lesbian, knowing that would be one wedding she wouldn’t have to deal with.)

          But the various rites, passages, and literal roller coaster rides through life leaves everyone radiant--an outcome underscored by the blank projection of white light from the slide projector. Those white squares (and, later, colored fields of light that pop up all around the stage courtesy of lighting designer Caleb Magoon) are invitations to the audience’s imagination, only the first means of bridging the gap between performer and onlooker. By the time the 85-minute show is done, you almost feel like a member of this oddball extended family.

          "2.5 Minute Ride" plays through October 24 at the Black Box Theater, located at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street in Watertown.

          Tickets cost $25 general admission and can be obtained online at www.newrep.org or via phone at 617-923-8487.

          Performance schedule: Thursday evenings at 8:00 p.m.; Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:30 p.m.; Saturday afternoons at 4:00 p.m.; Sunday afternoons at 3:00 p.m.; Sunday evenings at 8:00. There will also be one Wednesday evening performance on Oct. 21 at 8:00 p.m.

          Talkbacks are scheduled for after the Sunday 3:00 p.m. performances on Oct. 11 and Oct. 18.


          Kilian Melloy reviews media, conducts interviews, and writes commentary for EDGEBoston, where he also serves as Assistant Arts Editor. Collapse