The Triangle is known as an area teeming with art and creativity, a perception strengthened by the fact that not one but two Broadway plays are now playing at Chapel Hill's Paul Green Theatre. Presented by the PlayMakers Repertory Company, the two Pulitzer winners offer viewers a chance to experience some of the finest contemporary American drama to be produced in recent years, all at the same time. Returning to their roots, PlayMakers is showcasing the two plays on alternate nights on the same stage, the very definition of repertory.
"It happens more rarely, but it's one of the real thrills of theater-going." said Joseph Haj, the artistic director at PlayMakers. "[We are] rotating shows so you can watch two plays within a close time of one another."
Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, John Patrick Shanley's Doubt: A Parable is the story of a divided Bronx Catholic school over the issue of pedophilia. At the helm for PlayMakers Repertory is the experienced Drew Barr.
"This play definitely uses and establishes this Catholic school as a setting and a springboard for larger ideas that certainly speak to the concerns of non-Catholics, and the world outside the Catholic Church," he said.
Set in 1964, the play features Father Flynn, a priest who has developed a perhaps inappropriately intimate relationship with one of his pupils, Donald Muller. Muller never actually appears in the play, but the battle between Flynn and Sister Aloysius, the stern archetypal teacher/nun, more than makes up for the absence.
Aloysius, a strict and watchful headmistress, is determined to bring Flynn down, and most of the play revolves around this highly-charged feud. Sister James, a newcomer to the school, gets caught in the middle and becomes the voice of moderation. Sister Aloysius' stern interrogation of Sister James, who is friends with both Floyd and Muller, adds to her heavy-handedness as a character.
Although the boy himself is not seen, Mrs. Muller is featured, and her support of Flynn complicates the delicate situation for both the characters and the audience.
The original New York version of the play ran in one act for 90 minutes, to very good reviews. Aside from its Pulitzer win, Doubt: A Parable won the 2007 Tony Award for best play. The product of a skilled writer, it does not give the audience an open-shut case of good versus evil. Instead, the gray areas that permeate the reality of life will leave more questions than answers.
"It [applies] great specificity and order to a place and time and looks to how that very regimented society deals with change and challenges of accepted beliefs," Barr said.
Also running during this time is Suzan Lori-Parks' Topdog/Underdog.
"We use the same set, set designer, light designer and costume designer for each show," Haj said. "It's really fascinating because they are entirely different imaginative voices, two entirely different kinds of writers, Shanley and Parks."
The 2002 Pulitzer winner of the same category, Topdog/Underdog explores the struggles two African American brothers encounter while making money and dealing with their past. This rendition is directed by PlayMakers' newest addition, Raelle Myrick-Hodges who worked on the original Broadway run in 2001.
Named Lincoln and Booth (their father's joke), the two were abandoned first by their mother and then their father. Now living together in a room at a boarding house, the former attempts an honest living as an Abe Lincoln impersonator at an arcade (complete with white face paint) while the other tries to further his hustling ambitions.
This difference is a point of contention between the two brothers. Lincoln, a former hustler of the card game "Three Card Monte," swore off the practice upon the death of his partner, but reconsiders once he is fired from his legitimate, albeit ironic, job. Booth, a gifted shoplifter, intends to take advantage of this change and tries to form a partnership with Lincoln-something Lincoln doesn't think is viable due to Booth's lack of talent for the card game.
Topdog/Underdog is an inquiry into the cause and effect of black-on-black violence, and under Myrick-Hodges' direction, it presents the same questions to Triangle audiences as Broadway theater-goers.
"I have not made any substantial change at all," Myrick-Hodges said. "What we have done is made little changes to the setting, so there is a greater sense of alienation with the two brothers."
Such alienation prompts questions concerning the role of the modern African-American man in the familial setting and in society as a whole. As Lincoln and Booth attempt to find an answer, the audience plays witness to comedic moments of sibling affection, feels compassion for the brothers' plight and shares in the horror of the inevitable conclusion.
Topdog/Underdog is accomplished, both as a commentary on modern black life and as a revisiting of the tragedy of the real-life emancipator of slaves .
Each work has its separate power, but together, they offer the Triangle area a unique theater experience.
"These plays reflect and refract each other," Haj said. "They don't belong to a single region or a single culture, they wrestle with universal themes."
Doubt: A Parable will run from Jan. 26 to Feb. 29, 2008, and Topdog/Underdog will run from Jan. 27 to Mar. 2, 2008. Both will be performed at UNC's Paul Green Theatre.
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