Theater Online - New York Theater Reviews

Playwrights through the ages-from Aristophanes to Anouilh to Ayckbourn-have engaged audiences by poking fun at humankind's greatest foibles and fears. Howard Pflanzer has jumped on that literary bandwagon by choosing a subject apropos to our lives in the 21st century in "The Terrorist." The 70-minute, intermissionless "dark comedy" is being presented by the rather new yet well respected Unofficial New York Yale Cabaret in the comfortable nightclub setting (food and drink available) of the Laurie Beechman Theater in the West Bank Café.

There are laughs, giggles and guffaws to be had. At the performance I attended, the thin line separating theatrically corny and intellectually controversial seemed to be blurred.

Frank (George Tynan Crowley), a kind of weird, likeable guy-if you don't analyze him too much, has built a "security device" which might have bomb-potentiality and he wishes to test its or his capabilities. He enlists a younger charmingly-conflicted-confused Claire (Miriam Tabb) to assist him in testing his creation. Then there is government agent Paula (Alice Connorton) and Claire's boss Roger (Jonathan Teague Cook) who become involved in the who-is-pursuing-whom and for-what-or-why escapades conducted in semi-darkness.

The occasional piped in music, composed by Ithai Benjamin, at first adds to a campy-suspenseful atmosphere (never fully realized by the sometimes seemingly senseless goings-on) and becomes irritating (perhaps purposefully intended) toward the end of the proceedings.

The last lines of the piece, which I will not reveal here, are the repetition of five words by each of the confined characters. However, they belie what I believe is the author's intention in commenting on many individuals' terror-related paranoia and ambiguous feelings about how our government deals with real and/or imagined threats.

In his "Director's Note" David Willinger states that "the play dwells on issues of great importance to all of us today…" and "Our arts have an obligation to find modes of presenting these shocking narratives that circumvent the temptation to propaganda." "The Terrorist" is a noble attempt at accomplishing the latter, but in order for a playwright to be a true satirically heroic warrior, he needs to wield a sharper, more defining blade.