REVIEW: Big, Sprawling 'Street'

Girl Friday Productions adds a fine show to its refined resume.

Image credit: Richard Fleishman

Recommended by the Editor

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By: Quinton Skinner

It’s probably a solid indicator of the times in which we find ourselves that so much theater these days gives an impression of contraction. One-, two-, four-person casts explore human issues in compressed crucibles, reflecting both theatrical economics and a general sense that we can deal with little more than what’s on our plate in the here and now (big picture duly glimpsed, and damned).

Of course we aren’t the only crop of folks to live in times of duress (the relativity of things also duly noted), and it’s worth keeping in mind that there are other responses. Take Elmer Rice’s Street Scene, staged in the here and now by Girl Friday Productions: First presented on the Great Depression cusp of 1929, it responds to hardship and limited prospects by portraying the action on the sidewalk in front of a New York tenement. But instead of narrowing its vision, it assigns a cast of almost 60 roles (portrayed here by 23 actors). It feels almost like a gesture of defiance, an agitated statement of the operatic tenor of even the most hemmed-in lives.

A plot summary would be almost foolhardy. Suffice to say we have adultery, drunkenness, Marxist ideology, bigotry, loutishness, futility and, eventually, murder amid a stew of verbiage and the palpable flopsweat of a summer heat wave (Manhattan wasn’t always a glamour destination, one gleans). Craig Johnson ably directs this production, weaving crosscurrents of dialogue with shifting tones and a truly appalling action scene that knits together a mounting sense of menace after the intermission.

Johnson and Girl Friday have also taken pains to make this behemoth accessible. Though it’s a three-act, there’s only one intermission, and a sense of propulsion brings it in at less than two-and-a-half hours. Because of the assurance of a local small-theater all-star cast, the performances on balance are distinct and vibrant—and frequently quite funny, as in the case of Sam Landman’s wistfully lusty Italian Filippo and Ellen Apel’s Emma, who finds little in the world with which she cannot look down upon with rancorous disdain.

If there is a crux to this freewheeling and detail-rich narrative, it’s the Maurrant family, with Bob Malos digging into the darkness as brooding patriarch Frank and Kirby Bennet unleashing all manner of defeated yearning as the thwarted mother Anna—whose plaintive desire to be heard and loved is rewarded with less than the intended results. By the end it’s their daughter Rose left with the fragments; Anna Sundberg hits sweet notes as a young woman buffeted by exterior forces until circumstance force her to marshall considerable strength.

Girl Friday has carved out a distinctive model of producing one large-scale show every two years (see July METRO), and set itself apart by the quality and richness of what it delivers onstage. Street Scene is a worthy, compelling addition to an already admirable track record. 

Street Scene runs through July 24; showtimes and tickets here.