'The Morini Strad' plays on modest, artful thoughts
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David Whalen portrays a violin maker with a prickly relationship to Carla Belver's Erica Morni in City Theatre's "The Morini Strand."
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Not that I know much about solo violin, but I do know something about small cast plays, and I'd say the challenges are similar: The fewer the voices, the greater the need to hit just the right tone. The artistry had better be immaculate.
Much credit, then, to the world premiere of Willy Holtzman's "The Morini Strad" at City Theatre, in which the dialogue is indeed artful: sharp, witty, sometimes pensive and sympathetic, occasionally seductive. But there are few of the pyrotechnics of which even a solo instrument is capable. At just under 90 minutes, this is narrative imbued with different moods (comedy, sonnet, georgic, elegy), never building to something explosive. Its emotions are generally modest, but they ring true.
Where: City Theatre, Bingham and 13th, South Side.
When: Through Dec. 12; 7 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday; 8 p.m. Thursday-Friday; 5:30 and 9 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday.
Tickets: $30-$60; 412-431-CITY or www.citytheatrecompany.org.
The Strad of the title is the Davidoff Stradivarius, owned by Erica Morini, a real Austrian-American violinist (1904-95) of fabled fire and skill. Mr. Holtzman gives her, late in life, an antagonist five decades younger, the prideful Brian Skarstad.
He's a violin maker -- a craftsman who rises to artistry -- who, to pay the bills, also repairs violins. Theirs is a prickly relationship, of course, or how else would there be drama? Entering her 10th decade, she is a wary diva, defensive and sharp-tongued. Gradually they lower their defenses and enter a working relationship, eased by a growing friendship.
But the drama is never intense. There are ups and downs, but nothing earth-shattering until the very end, when there's little earth left to shatter. Rather than reaching an explosive climax, the play eases into elegy.
I wish there were some more galvanizing events, but Mr. Holzman has apparently stayed true to the shape of real lives. And there is certainly interest in the friction of such opposing, cross-generational characters. I most enjoyed the skillful comedy of barbed comment. But mainly, Skarstad remains the occasion by which we discover Morini. It's really her play.
As such, it is laced with offhand perceptions about life, art and love. This modesty of the drama is matched by the understated wit of Tony Ferrieri's extraordinary thrust set in the intimate Hamburg theater. In front, you see the rich living room of Morini's handsome New York apartment. Behind and above, on a platform, is Skarstad's workshop, scattered with tools and soaring racks of violins, like chorines in formation. Everything is in warm, rich colors, including the brick wall at the rear.
First Published November 19, 2010 12:00 am
