Laurel Casillo, Steve Yates and Sara Lukasiewicz in What a Life.There's no doubt that the most transformative performance in The Five Flights Theater Company's debut production of Don't Step on the Cracks was Laurel Casillo as the aging 'Nanny' in a sketch by Adam Delia. Casillo and Delia have teamed up to expand this character and explore her life in their new play What a Life, which premiered this weekend in a production by The Five Flights Theater Company.
Under Delia's direction, and with Casillo as the star, Nanny (who has been named 'Lucy') reaches new heights as a theatrical character. She is a tour-de-force, ripe for any actress with the chops to handle her. And this actress has. If Casillo transformed herself for Don't Step, she transcends in this performance. Here, we follow Lucy from age 6 to 94, and Casillo is believeable all the way up.
Special attention must also be paid to the task placed on the shoulders of Steve Yates in the role of Anthony, Lucy's grandson and currently the only constant in her life. Yates provides the lens through which we view Lucy--that which much be broken down so we can see everything she really is and was. He gives a sensitive, powerful and most importantly honest performance.
With such detailed attention given to Lucy and Anthony, the rest of the characters (skillfully played by Sara Lukasiewicz and Eryck Tait) are sometimes given a short shrift in terms of development. Still, there is always an air of humanity and truth about the play. Lukasiewicz and Tait give nuanced and varied, often chameleon-esque, performances. They seem to shed their own skins for those of the characters, especially when they swap genders as Lucy's comical neighbors in her nursing home.
Lukasiewicz is strongest--not surprisingly--in the role given the most stage time, that of Susan, Lucy's daughter, who we follow through her life with her mother. Her initial appearance is reminiscent of Marisa Tomei's performance in My Cousin Vinny but the more we watch, the more we see both the pain and love that exist in her life. Tait pulls off the delicate dichotomy of Frank, Lucy's ne'er-do-well husband. In his few scenes with the character we see his obvious charm, his troublesome behavior and his undying love for his wife.
If a few Italian phrases get garbled, it can be forgiven. If there are a few cheesy epithets (such as the repeated "Sometimes life hands you a different kind of fairy tale") it can be chalked up to the era the characters come from. If the final scene gets a little too sappy a little too fast (the sudden onslaught of "I love you"s does seem a little gushy), the play still earns its final moment. I was forwarned that this production would be unlike anything I'd seen from Five Flights, but I was not warned that the play would have the entire audience in tears by the end.
The production, aptly stage managed by Will Lacker, is as graceful, poignant, nostalgic and filled with yearning as an old Italian love song. If I were you, I'd keep my eyes open for future productions of this play. It comes chock-full with something for everyone from age 6 to 94.
Laurel Casillo and Eryck Tait in What a Life.'What a Life' is no longer running. For more information on The Flive Flights Theater Company and future Five Flights productions, visit www.fiveflightstheatercompany.org.
