My overall impression
Director Sabina Ptasznik’s deft production of The Conduct of Life starts out with a breathtaking punch and barrels on through till its heart skipping end. I loved every minute of this hard to watch piece. Fornes’ script is pointed, violent, and fierce, while still slowing down enough to highlight both the mundane and the sweetly tender moments of life. The performances are excellent. What a solid cast all around! Mollohan’s Orlando is a raging beast that still strangely manages to draw sympathy – such a product of his lost world is he. Karina Wolfe as Leticia is a delight to watch: paradoxically both fragile and strong as a privileged and emotionally abused wife who loves too much, but in the end finds the resolve to overcome. Belinda Gosbee brings a sweet weight and much needed humor to the blunt and stubborn maid Olimpia. Jeremy Mascia’s Alejo is achingly pained in his depressed state. And the highly esteem-able Emily Yetter’s innocent Nena is a brave and beautifully haunting turn of a performance. I will think of Nena’s goodness long after the curtain has been drawn. Martin Carrillo’s Sound Design / Composition elevates the action to a place of poetry. Ric Zimmerman’s Lighting Design grounds the production in it’s rightful world of shadows, grey, and harsh choices. Nick Santiago’s smart and efficient set is simple and perfectly realized: the doubling of the chest as both communal center and captor’s station is brilliant. Ptasznik’s is an enormous heart that forces those who dare to sit an hour to take a good hard look at the ugly price of war, power, and need in a patriarchal world not unlike our own.
