Word: innaurato
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PASSIONE by Albert Innaurato...
...ALBERT INNAURATO'S Gemini begins with a deafening blast of construction, a counter-blast of Maria Callas and a volley of shrieks and screams. The protagonist, Francis Geminiani, a Harvard junior back home in Philadelphia for the summer, leans out his second-story window, plants a speaker on the sill in a grand gesture of defiance, and blares an opera record to combat the 7 a.m. assault. This awakens his obese next-door neighbor, Bunny Weinberger, who throws open her second-story window and screeches at him to "turn off that shitty music." Besides, she yells, one of those workers...
...greatness of the play lies not between the lines but splattered across the stage like an overturned plate of spaghetti. While Innaurato's characters are essentially naturalistic, their flamboyant mode of self-expression renders them larger-than-life, small people who blow themselves up to brontosaurean dimensions...
...ACTORS INHABIT Innaurato's universe with relish and sensitivity, turning in uniformly splendid, often unforgettable performances. Jeff Gerrard gives a delightfully detailed performance as Francis, from his nasal prissiness and grandmotherly peevishness to his awkward, chunky waddle. As his father, John Lagioia affects the stance of a fifth-grade toughie, his bluster sometimes dissolving into a haggard awareness. As Bunny, Laurel Cronin's intelligence, feeling--those drunken arias!--comic timing, and, finally, beauty are every bit as elephantine as her frame. There is fine support from Kaye Kingston's ghoulishly tacky Lucille and Ann Kerry's fetching Judith...
...finale, where the tone shifts abruptly from despondency to joy, is telling. This is, and must be, a comedy. Innaurato brings us as far as he dares, never allowing the desperate actions to have physical consequences. The play does not resolve its problems because many of the problems are unresolvable, and Innaurato is too honest to fake it without telling us so. The fantastic ending, which allows the protagonist to fly out of the abyss he dug himself, sends us out happy, and does not invalidate the preceding darker moments. They remain suspended--like Francis and Bunny on their respective...