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Boston Globe
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
In Lyric Stage's ‘The Great Reveal,' a cake whose main ingredient is identity
There are no villains in 'The Great Reveal,' just well-intentioned but sometimes tone-deaf people moving haltingly toward some kind of understanding. Valdes is insightful in delineating the ways that unexamined assumptions can cause unintended pain. The play could scarcely be more timely, given how much the gender-identity debate is currently roiling the world of women's sports, not to mention the ominous choices emanating from Washington when it comes to the rights of trans people. Advertisement The word 'Reveal' in the title of Valdes's play is meant to, and does, resonate on more than one level. But Valdes waits too long to let the sparks fly. There's more drift than there should be in a one-act play. The central tension remains on simmer when it needs to be brought to a boil, resulting in a certain shapelessness. 'The Great Reveal' takes place at a gender-reveal party hosted by newlyweds Lexi (Paige Clark), who is seven months pregnant, and her husband, Christopher (Arthur Gomez), on the back deck of their house, which is bedecked with blue and pink balloons. (The scenic design is by Baron E. Pugh.) Antonia Turilli and Jupiter Lê. Mark S. Howard Their guests are Lexi's brother, Linus ( Advertisement Lexi had asked Dosia to bake a cake for the party, and Dosia complied – but the frosting on her finished creation sends a message about her view of the gender-reveal party. The mother-to-be has no difficulty deciphering that message, and is none too happy about it. Dosia and Linus don't see gender as being a cut-and-dried matter, as Lexi appears to. (In a program note, codirector Snow describes gender-reveal parties as 'a trend which chops up gender-identity to the birth-assigned pink and blue binary.') 'The Great Reveal' is not the first time a cake has loomed large, symbolically speaking, in a production at Lyric Stage. Five years ago, Fairly early in the play, 'The Great Reveal' is damaged by what's known in sports as an unforced error. Even granting that Christopher is anxious about whether he's up to the challenges of fatherhood ('What if I don't get any of it right?' he asks plaintively), the playwright's decision to have Christopher get high turns out to be very ill-advised. Gomez has chosen – or has been directed to – deliver an overly broad performance, often bellowing his lines. It knocks the play off-balance. Advertisement Lê's portrayal of Linus has the opposite problem: He's too muted. With Clark, the energy level is never a concern, and she brings her customary avidity and ebullience to her portrayal of Lexi. Turilli, described in the program as a recent graduate of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, delivers an impressively poised performance. Coming across as a performer who understands the power of stillness, Turilli finds the nuance in a character who seems coolly detached but ultimately proves to be anything but. THE GREAT REVEAL Play by David Valdes. Directed by Bridget Kathleen O'Leary and Charlotte Snow. Presented by Lyric Stage Company of Boston. Through April 27. Tickets $25-$75. 617-585-5678, Don Aucoin can be reached at
CBS News
03-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Boston play "Art" explores the differences in friendship using a controversial painting
In the play "Art," currently running at the Lyric Stage in Boston, three men find their friendship tested after one buys an expensive white painting. Asking tough questions It asks the question: Can you just put aside an important difference of opinion when a friend's outlook on something is the exact opposite of yours? One thinks the painting is a masterpiece, another thinks it's trash, and the third isn't quite sure who's right. The different reactions the men have to the piece alter their views about each other. Actor John Kuntz said, "I think they all kind of discover something they didn't know about the other two. That leads them to all these discoveries and all this conflict that they didn't even know existed before." A reflection of today's world "I think this play does a brilliant job of resonating in the current moment in the world that we're in," said Director Courtney O'Connor. She said the painting at the center of the story could be swapped out for just about anything. "These days, the idea that you look at someone that you know, that you thought you knew, that you thought you understood what they value, what they hold real, what they believe? And in an instant, it's gone, and it's challenged. And that challenges your view of that person, of your relationship to them, and quite frankly, of yourself." Actor Remo Airaldi says, "I certainly have had relationships with people who don't believe the things that I believe. And at some point you have to ask yourself, okay, do I walk away? Is this important enough for me to say no more friendship with this person? It's tough." A sophisticated comedy While the one-act play is a sophisticated comedy, actor Michael Kaye said it tackles some deep issues. "What's it like to have hard conversations with people you love and respect? It's very easy to have the surface questions, but what happens if you go underneath? I think those are important conversations to have and ones we sometimes avoid, but we avoid them at our own peril, I think." You can see "Art" at the Lyric Stage through March 16.
Boston Globe
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
‘ART' skillfully delves into thorny questions about who our friends are — and why we stick with them
While the play starts out as a silly disagreement over a painting, it evolves into an examination of compromises and the acceptance of differences that make friendships possible. Reza's skill lies in her ability to create three remarkably distinct characters and then craft the conditions of conflict that push them together and pull them apart in different combinations. The play is catnip for great actors, and at the Lyric Stage, Kaye, Kuntz, and Airaldi do not disappoint. Kaye is prim and pretentious as Serge, the dermatologist who sees himself as a sophisticated art collector and has paid what he admits is a ridiculous price for a white painting accented by some white, diagonal lines. Kuntz, as Marc, an aeronautical engineer, is smug and arrogant as a man who mocks rather than admires his friend's purchase. Michael Kaye and John Kuntz in "ART." Mark S. Howard And Airaldi is irresistible as Yvan, the hapless paper salesman caught in the middle. From the first moment he appears, with his innocent, childlike gaze, we know he'll play right into the hands of first Marc and then Serge, with disastrous results. Even as he tries to please each of them, he is juggling another layer of relationship problems that include his fiancé, his mother, and his in-laws. Advertisement The fact that these three men appear to have very little in common allows the actors to dig a little deeper into their complexity, even though we may wonder how they became friends in the first place. How often, in fact, do we tolerate a friend's quirky tendencies because we value other qualities, and how often do we think we know someone, only to discover something completely unexpected? Reza's play poses a challenging question: how do we go on after such revelations? Although the script unfolds in a series of conversations that are more verbally active, rather than physically so, O'Connor (who is also Lyric's artistic director) anchors each member of the trio in idiosyncratic personality quirks that make the experience less passive. Just listen to their aggressively insincere laughter (making us squirm as we imagine them thinking 'I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you'). Or watch Kuntz mock his friend's wife's 'repellent' habit of waving away smoke. It's a ridiculously petty gesture that manages to be both hilarious and vicious. O'Connor also creates a pace that honors the escalating tensions while allowing us to see the fissures in the friendships. Much of the credit here goes to lighting designer Elmer Martinez, who echoes O'Connor's sense of precision with perfectly timed lighting changes that communicate moments of self-reflection as each character considers his position, as well as a new time or location. The verbal wrestling match culminates in a physical one, with a denouement that includes a carefully calculated concession by Marc, who purchased the painting. The friends' ability to blaze a path forward depends as much on their awareness of their peccadillos and the vulnerability they feel towards each other (as happens in longtime friendships) as it does on their respect and compassion for one another. Although Reza's conclusion feels a little too pat, the first-rate performances make this trip into the absurd world of judgmental friendships one worth taking. Advertisement ART Play by Yasmina Reza, translation by Christopher Hampton. Directed by Courtney O'Connor. Presented by Lyric Stage Company, through March 16. Tickets: $10-$81. 617-585-5678,
