Off-Broadway Theater Review: JAMES DICKEY’S DELIVERANCE (Godlight Theatre Company at 59E59)

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by Dmitry Zvonkov on October 21, 2014

in Theater-New York

SEE THE MOVIE

Imagine John Boorman’s film Deliverance staged, “panties” scene and all, as a piece of dinner theater, with all the performers looking very serious and projecting their voices, the way they believe real men should, as they mime handling things like paddles and bows, and describe scenes whose drama is supposed to be visual, like climbing up a cliff face or sneaking up on an enemy. Now subtract the dinner, put yourself before a fog-filled bare black-box stage with a reflective black floor, and you have imagined the unfortunate experiment that is Godlight Theatre Company’s presentation of James Dickey’s Deliverance, adapted by Sean Tyler, with Joe Tantalo directing.

Gregory Konow in James Dickey’s Deliverance at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by Jason Woodruff

Though the show, with its title, appears to go out of its way to disassociate itself from the 1972 film, in the end it is, for all intents and purposes, the playing out of that movie, minus all those things that were so essential to the motion picture’s artistic success—recall the magical guitar-banjo duel, so virtuosic in the film, so pedestrian in Mr. Tantalo’s version.

Jarrod Zayas in James Dickey’s Deliverance at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by Jason Woodruff

This story is about four middle-aged urban men on a canoe trip through the American wilderness who encounter murderous hillbilly rapists. Staging it without props or decorations, in an area the size of a tiny living room, seems like it might work better as a parodic comedy rather than the earnest piece it is attempting to be; the show isn’t quite bad enough to be unintentionally funny, it’s just lumbering and dull, with inconsistent mime work. Possibly, in someone else’s hands, this concept might work as a drama. But the world Mr. Tantalo creates, though he makes interesting use of Maruti Evans’s set and dramatic lighting design, is too literal for minimalist theater.

Jarrod Zayas, Sean Tant, Gregory Konow, and Nick Paglino in James Dickey’s Deliverance at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by Jason Woodruff

The performers are committed, energy-wise. Everything they do appears to take effort, and most lines explode forth from their mouths like a shot putter’s exhale. What their renditions uniformly lack is nuance and truthfulness; it feels like they are playing their ideas of the characters instead of the characters. When all the acting in a production is problematic in the same way, as it is here, I tend to blame the director; Mr. Tantalo doesn’t appear to give his performers what they need to do their jobs. The one exception is Bryce Hodgson, who lends rawness to his multiple roles and looks like he’s the only one of the group having any fun.

Gregory Konow in James Dickey’s Deliverance at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by Jason Woodruff

With Eddie Dunn, Gregory Konow, Nick Paglino, Jason Bragg Stanley, Sean Tant and Jarrod Zayas.

Nick Paglino, Gregory Konow and Jarrod Zayas in James Dickey’s Deliverance at 59E59 Theaters. Photo by Jason Woodruff.

photos by Jason Woodruff

James Dickey’s Deliverance
Godlight Theatre Company
59E59 Theaters
Tues – Thurs at 7:30; Fri at 8:30;
Sat at 2:30 & 8:30; Sunday at 3:30
scheduled to end on November 9, 2014
for tickets, call (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Jason Rohrer October 21, 2014 at 4:16 pm

Very nice. Did they keep the book’s scene of canoeing past a factory poultry farm, through a wash of feathers and chicken heads? I imagine that would be difficult to mime.

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Dmitry Zvonkov October 22, 2014 at 4:37 pm

No chicken heads. I can’t speak to little details that might have differed from the movie, but generally, as far as I could tell, the play deviated from the film on two occasions, expanding some dialogue, but to no real advantage.

A curious thing, if you go to the Godlight website and click on Production History, you’ll find that an inordinate number of their shows are based on books which have been made into well-known films: Clockwork Orange, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Fahrenheit 451, Basketball Diaries, 1984, In the Heat of the Night.

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Logan Smith October 21, 2014 at 8:18 pm

I saw it Saturday night and found it riveting…heart-pounding. I was tense, stressed, and finally moved.

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Dmitry Zvonkov October 22, 2014 at 4:39 pm

I’m glad to hear someone enjoyed it. Thanks for your comment Logan Smith.

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