A risky production triumphs
Torn Space Theater has quietly been building its rep as one of the most compelling theatrical companies in this town. It's a crowded field—Buffalo has around 20 working companies. Torn Space, led by artistic director Dan Shanahan, takes risks, exploring both existing scripts and original material. It has the guts to push itself and its audiences to think.
The February 25th opening of Some Explicit Polaroids, written by Mark Ravenhill, rounds out the company's several-season retrospective of contemporary British drama. A nice swath of the Buffalo arts community were in attendance last night at the Adam MIckiewicz Dramatic Circle theater.
The decidedly adult drama (nudity, language, drug use, overt sexuality portrayed in many forms), directed by David Oliver, who is also the organization's producing director, offers a swirl of interconnected scenes. It's set in London, 1999; topics taken on include the range of human experience—political, emotional, historical, pathetic, desperate, denying, loving, recovering, forgetting, moving on ... it's all here.
The show features six actors, including the more recognizable faces of Kelly Meg Brennan, Kristen Tripp Kelley, Phil Knoerzer and Richard Lambert. Kurt Guba, familiar to Buffalo United Artists' fans, and young Nathan Winkelstein contribute strongly. They all pull off the foreign accents and the dramatic brio required by the script and elicited by their director.
The play runs through March 21. The Adam Mickiewicz Dramatic Circle is located at 612 Fillmore Avenue, near the Central Terminal on Buffalo's East Side. General admission is $20. It's a small price to pay for some truly adventurous theater.
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