By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
“Our Lady of 121st Street” doesn’t have much of a plot, but it does have a dozen flawed yet fascinating characters who communicate in unflinchingly raunchy yet witty dialogue.
Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed here by actress Lynn Barbato King, “Our Lady” has soul to spare as this cast revels in its realism.
This production boasts one of the best scenic designs ever mounted at CNY Playhouse at Shoppingtown DeWitt. Created by Christopher Lupia and Liam Fitzpatrick and tweaked by scenic artist Dana Jane Comfort, the set features a fully-stocked bar at stage right, a church confessional at stage left and a funeral home complete with flowers, candles and an empty casket at upstage center.
Why is the coffin empty, you might ask. Well, the body of beloved nun Sister Rose has been stolen from the funeral parlor and waiting for her return are some of Harlem’s most emotionally charged, life-challenged denizens, dealing awkwardly with their grief, their checkered pasts and their uncertain futures.
As one of Sister’s old friends named Victor, actor Frank Procopio sets the tone for the play with a decidedly profane rant rendered in an authentic downstate dialect. Speaking to the alcoholic Det. Balthazar (non-nonsense Alex Gilbert) – an alumnus of the school where Rose once taught – Victor decries the shameless thief or thieves who have not only absconded with the nun’s corpse but have also stolen Vic’s suit pants, crimes that are never solved nor explained.
While all 12 players make sparks with Guirgis’ streetwise script, Tony Brown as Rooftop, steals the show.
We first meet Rooftop in scene 2 as he enters the confessional for the first time in 30 years. His repartee with an exasperated Father Lux (Paul Cayen) is side-splitting funny as the black penitent and white priest debate the difference between venial and mortal sins and the nature of life and death.
Rooftop’s list of sins initially makes him seem like a street person, a bum, a lowlife, but we learn he’s actually a successful morning drive-time radio personality in Los Angeles and one of several of Sister Rose’s former students who’ve traveled back to 121st Street for her funeral.
Whether confessing conversationally to legless Father Lux or trying desperately to reconnect with his ex-wife Inez (Martikah Williams), Brown’s Rooftop delves deeply into his inner demons, his dashed hopes and dreams.
One of the play’s funniest moments comes in the church confessional as Rooftop mathematically calculates the number of auto-erotic sins he has committed over his lifetime.
Brown, a veteran of Syracuse’s Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company and a regular at the Syracuse Shakespeare Festival, is clearly an actor at the top of his game.
Though lacking resolution, Guirgis’ less-than-perfect script offers its dozen players a chance to dig deeply into each character, even though their stage time may be limited.
Thin-as-a-rail Joshua King plays Edwin, tragically linked forever to his brain-damaged brother, Pinky, playfully played by Cory Simon. Cameron Walker and T.J. Cravens portray bickering gay lovers, Flip and Gail, while Sara Reid is Sister Rose’s asthma-afflicted niece, Marcia, and Natasia White is Sonia, Marcia’s bookworm buddy from Connecticut.
Brandilyn Kelly appears as the outrageously angry Norca, who doesn’t let the fact that she slept with her best friend’s husband deter her from her expectation of being forgiven by her best friend, Inez, still in pain 15 years later. As Rooftop’s ex, Inez, Martikah Williams – a stunning, statuesque actress – has some of the best lines in the script although she speaks so swiftly that some of her Act One dialogue was largely unintelligible.
A few scenes of minor violence are carefully choreographed, most notably a stinging slap to Sonia’s face deftly delivered by Kelly’s Norca.
A gentle warning: If you’re turned off by profanity, “Our Lady of 121st Street” will shock you down to your shoes. The script has more F-words, MF-words and S-words than an Eddie Murphy stand-up routine.
“Our Lady of 121st Street,” produced by Sarah Anson, runs at 8 p.m., Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 15, 16 and 17, at CNY Playhouse,located near the Macy’s entrance at on the second level of ShoppingTown Mall, in DeWitt. Tickets cost $17 on Thursday and $20 on Friday and Saturday; cnyplayhouse.org; 315-885-8960.
