Theatre Review: Dress of Fire Burns With The Fabric of Human Greed
Austin Pendleton’s Dress of Fire is one of the most surprisingly poignant plays I have seen. In a nook, historical theater, 13 Street Theatre, a group of actors have aligned to revamp The Iliad for its takes on environmentalism, humanism, spiritualism, and classism. With so many lessons that can be attributed to today, Pendleton has shown if Homer’s The Iliad is still relevant today, does that mean his work is timeless or that humanity’s darkness never gets old?
You, definitely need to know the story of The Iliad before attending the show, so that you can grasp the scenario of a family torn by its desire and dissatisfied by its needs. Cassandra (played powerfully by Lindsay Gitter) becomes the moral anchor of the show as she begins to realize its not that her royal family cannot avoid war; it is that they do not want to. Her epiphany becomes yours, especially in association with modern times. You and Glitter’s Cassandra grow sadder at knowing that humanity defines itself by its violence, which is why it will always dream of peace but never achieve it. In Dress of Fire, war is what humanity is, and peace is what it “claims” it wants to be.
When you think of heroes, you think of war heroes, but no one ever thinks of a farmer as a hero. Though they grow what feeds humanity, and have enough patience and perseverance to do it, instead, we mostly make statues for those that took life rather than fed it. Sure, soldiers are heroes, but what about everyone else? Written by Nina Kethevan and directed by Ioan Ardelean, Dress of Fire is a testament to humanity’s greatest failure: its greed. In always wanting more, but never learning to want what you have, you do become spiritually blind. Although ambition is not bad, if you find yourself diminishing and degrading what you have, in exchange, plotting how to take from others, then you have crossed a line. Hence, you watch as Elena Rusconi’s Helen and Paul Carrazone’s Alexander both highlight and become ploys to those that believe you achieve glory by taking what others have. Austin Pendleton’s Priam and Alexandra Laliberte’s Hecuba, especially, become an embodiment that there is a difference between “dreaming big” and hubris.
Austin Pendleton’s Priam and Alexandra Laliberte’s Hecuba created an empire that conquered others because they wanted their resources, but never even shared their conquering with their own people. I could not help but think of so many current politicians as I watched these actors’ performances, and how each played their lines as if they were teaching morals lessons. They delivered their emotional words with the importance they deserved. Near the end, Pendleton’s Priam looks to Hecuba and mourns that the gods let him live for so long so that they could punish him with a final, bloody realization that he lived all wrong. Thus, the only reason “the gods” let the Ilian Royals win so much is so they could really feel when they lost it all. It was a powerful lesson that makes you wonder why evil men die so old; maybe the universe is making them last long enough to teach them they were fools for never learning to love.
One hour and 40 minutes, with intermission, Dress of Fire was a complete pleasure, but it is the type of play that relies 100% on its actors strength as an appeal. The set is a simple white room and the costumes are as simple, as well. Instead, all vision comes from how the actors carry themselves and their words, of which the audience must invest in the moment. This may seem obvious but some entertainment asks you to just watch, while others ask you to listen. Dress of Fire asks you to listen and learn. For More Information On Dress of Fire Click Here.
Running From April 19th – 29th 2018 Located – 13th Street Repertory Theatre at 50 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10011
