What I liked
The two actors run through their paces. Interesting work! Loved the viola. Simply real acting by talented people.
What I didn't like
It started a bit slowly.
My overall impression
EXCELLENT THEATRE
Theatre Review: Bonnie & Clyde at the Hudson Theatre – June 16th, 2017
By
Roger E. Saffer
Adam Peck’s Bonnie & Clyde, which was first produced to critical acclaim in 2010 in the UK, opened at Hollywood’s Hudson Theatre Friday night in the first of four show run.
In contrast to a lot of the Hollywood Fringe Festival repetoire, which can be a cacophony of expression – and not in a bad way – ranging from musical to whimsy to the downright silly, Bonnie and Clyde is a brooding, building piece of theatre that works quietly toward an inevitability that amazingly in this day and age did not actually display the blood splattered mess that was their end in real life.
In what is near the last hour of their short and brutish lives, the two actors attempt to coax out of each other feeling, nostalgia, dreams, and meaning in the wake of a bloody trail.
Bonnie, played by Sarah Lawrence College actress Claire Bronchick, brings a coquettish flirtation to the role as she yearns to confirm her place in Clyde’s life..and impending death. But she is no pushover in the willingness to deploy firearms, and it turns out Clyde may be the last, but certainly not the first man in her life.
Joel Sutton plays Clyde with a hardened and stoic exterior, and doubles as a the narrator of their real life demise. He exalts in the idea of his legacy as “not Billy the Kid, but Jesse James, thank you” while teetering on letting Bonnie into his torture soul. And he has definite mother issues.
Director Andrew Leeson makes his directorial debut with a light touch, leaving the two actors to feel their way through a complicated relationship and a lot of canned peaches. Violalist Karolina Naziemiec infuses a dark and sparse set(Ilana Bess Eisen, Robin Turk and Emily Keifer) with atonal scene change.
This is well-paced 65 minute thoughtful theatre watching two promising actors go through their tangled paces.
