"THE GOSPEL OF CYRUS ACCORDING TO CYRUS" BY CHRIS TALBOTT
A VERSE PARABLE WITH MUSIC AND SONGS
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| NO SYLVIA'S MOTHER HERE -- Cyrus is played by Jessejames Locorriere, whose father, Dennis Locorriere, was the lead vocalist for "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show." | |
February 17 to March 5
Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (at East Tenth Street)
Presented by Theater for the New City
Thursdays through Sundays at 7:00 pm
$10/tdf; (212) 254-1109
When American writers want us to look at the evil within us, they frequently turn to hillbilly dramas. Nestled within the twangy sounds of country poetry and the good-and-evil dualism of country Christianity, there is a sense of individual evil and damnation that just doesn't exist in the moral relativism of our cities. "The Gospel of Cyrus According to Cyrus," a new play by Chris Talbott directed by Laramie Dennis, is a verse mono-drama set to live music. Like Rochelle Owens' "Futz," it's an alternative play in which a crude rustic parable, written in verse, begs us to look at our dark side and learn from it. However, "The Gospel of Cyrus According to Cyrus" deals with "that freedom thing" in a way that is probably peculiar to Generation Y.
Cyrus has been rudely appointed by God with a smack on the head and instructed to spend the rest of his days "drunken--smashed--continually." A tone of cruelty is set early on: it's clear that Cyrus will serve his lord entirely without reverence and that the Almighty, to him, is no God of Mercy. As Cyrus says of his first communion, when he grabbed for the wine over the wafer, "I was a no-good kid; and I ain't got no better./but the Lord of Hosts ain't no sissy god of letters." Relieved of inhibitions by this peculiar covenant, Cyrus embarks on a life of excess, mostly the venal kind. From a ménage a trois with two strangers he surprises under a tree, he learns early on that sexual power coheres to those who are the most willing. With a belly full of rotgut and his pecker pointing the way, he combs the hills and valleys and gathers a flock of acolytes.
Cyrus' people build him a great city in which things get wilder and wilder and finally, of course, excess brings retribution. (Inevitably there will be comparisons of Cyrus to David Koresh, even though the Branch Davidian immolation occurred after this play was written.) In a brutal and unsettling incident, Cyrus assumes the ius primae noctis with a child who is his own daughter. Revenge from a mother in the cult puts a bullet in his thigh and incites his community against him. Cyrus escapes to the cabin where he was born. From this redoubt he spins the poetic monologue that comprises this play, surrounded, in the telling, by the shotguns of his followers. Written for an earlier time, this would have been a drama of the struggle against God's will, but for Cyrus, there is no struggle, only fornication. This is the point. Generation Y is writing to us in a time when inhibitions have long been abolished. The nagging question remains: Is there nothing beyond one's self? Is there only the pain of the emptiness?
The play is written entirely in rhyming couplets and contains songs that draw on mountain gospel, bluegrass, folk and rock. The author has referred to it as a "musical liturgy somewhere between mountain gospel and punk" and there are occasional echoes of the styles of Arlo Guthrie and Tom Waits. Music was composed collectively by Tom Hopkins, Courtney Little, Rowland Stebbins and Chris Talbott. The lyrics are entirely by Talbott. The play has been produced in workshop fashion at HERE and as part of the 1998 Fringe NYC festival.
Playwright Chris Talbott is a Brown University grad who grew up Lutheran in Racine, WI but can't say exactly where this play came from. His other writings include "Rubberville," a play of burned-out kids that explores polytheism. He is a co-founder of OVO, a not-for-profit multi-arts group and worked as an executive assistant to Tim Robbins on the films "Dead Man Walking" and "Cradle Will Rock" (and acted in the latter). He is currently penning another play with music and songs, "The Asthma Conspiracy," on a commission from Soho Rep.
Cyrus will be played by Jessejames Locorriere, whose father, Dennis Locorriere, was the lead vocalist for "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show," a rock band of the '70s and '80s whose lyrics were penned by Shel Silverstein. Beside his acting career, Locorriere also sings for hard-edged, heavy metal rock bands. He was a member of the Nashville Shakespeare Festival's repertory company and has appeared with Kris Kristopherson, Jane Curtin, Reba McEntire and Kyle MacLachlin in a variety of TV movies and pilots.
Director Laramie Dennis is a resident director with the Obie-winning Bat Theater Company, where she staged a revival of Mac Wellman's "Cleveland" last Spring. Set design is by Clayton Binkley; lighting design is by Shawn P. Gallagher; costume design is by Matt Bedell. Musical director is Rowland Stebbins. [NYTW]
Related article: About Theater for the New City.
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