In his review of three important performances which especially moved him in October 2018, Guy Kettelhack wrote:
Gary played a man in trapped in a gyre of ‘normal’ self-involved 40 year old “regular guy”-turned-killer, devolving in a whirling vortex which effected the change in him, first brought on by the sound of sudden cracks of gunfire outside his capacious upper middle class house. These resulted, as looking out his windows he was presently to see, in the merciless shooting, one by one, of all of his neighbors by unseen gunmen. At first feeling the powerful impulse to be the vigilante savior, to do anything he could to stop the senseless killings and murder the perpetrator – appositely finding a gun he hadn’t known was in the basement to do it, stalking out into the dangerous open air with a growing sense of urgency tightening into a sense of his own developing heroism – he kills one, then another, then another living being – one of them a neighbor’s cat. The killing itself engulfs him in its audacity and power: he morphs from hero to imagining himself as a hired killer, proudly amazed at his skill as a gunman, astonished at how good it makes him feel. We watch as Gary turns from man to steely hull of a human being by the end of the play – reaching into harrowing recesses of the human psyche to do so, giving them life in ways few actors can pull off with this kind of unremitting energy.
I saw these strikingly disparate pieces of theater and opera within a few days of each other. They may not have been the first shows on anybody’s minds or lips – but they were among the best examples of the range and quality of the highest theatrical and musical art I’ve ever witnessed. Again I laud the unfathomable bounty of this city – among whose prime gifts to me less than two weeks ago were Rebecca Laurel Anderson, Gary Hilborn, and the Juilliard School of Music’s varied amassed forces – among them my brilliant friend, musical coach Reed Woodhouse – which realized the dark magic in Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.
Quite a mix in one week. My goosebumps haven’t yet de-bumped.
Michael Miller’s solo play “Transfiguration,” winner of Best One-Man Drama at the 2018 United Solo Festival, will return to New York City on October 12th (7:30 pm) and 13th (2 pm) at the Metropolitan Playhouse as part of the 2019 New York International Fringe Festival. Gary Hilborn will repeat his award-winning performance, directed by Graydon Gund.
Tickets available at New York International FringeBYOV
or
eventbrite!
