Notes From a Bunker in New York City

A Free Man of Color, Notes From Underground and two Pinter one-acts

Comments (0) By Steven Leigh Morris Thursday, Dec 2 2010

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Robert Woodruff and Bill Camp's adaptation of Dostoyevsky's study of a bilious, spiteful wretch, Notes From Underground (translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky), sets the narrative in the unnamed character's St. Petersburg (Russia) apartment and drenches it with snow — still falling as the audience enters the theater. The burly, disheveled Camp plays the role in contemporary dress — a short-sleeve shirt, jeans and bare feet — clutching a video camera that broadcasts his perspective of himself onto a large screen (set by David Zinn).

The story, lifted largely verbatim, tells the saga of a man explaining his own determination to spite the society around him from spite — to prove that he will not be a cog in a machine, even if that proof comes at the cost of his own debasement and destruction.

PHOTO BY ARI MINTZ

Larry Bryggman, left, and Rebecca Henderson, right, try to help Lisa Emery cope with the world after 39 years in a coma, in Harold Pinter's A Kind of Alaska.

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It's beautifully performed, if at times a bit glib. Camp occasionally underscores a perverse point by wagging his tongue around his mouth. It gets emotionally harrowing, however, with two visits to a local prostitute — a performance of stunning insight and understatement by Merrit Janson, who doubles as a Musician — whom Camp eviscerates for no reason other than to show (to himself) his own worth. Musician Michael Attias also plays a minor role.

The musical backdrop, sparingly used, underscores the literary romanticism spouted so deceitfully by the narrator for the purposes of seduction and betrayal. Woodruff's staging turns this mental clinic/bunker into a place where cruelty, desperation and debasement are placed on a microscope, and broadcast on the walls.

A FREE MAN OF COLOR | By JOHN GUARE | Presented by the LINCOLN CENTER at the VIVIAN BEAUMONT THEATER/LINCOLN CENTER, 150 W. 165th St., New York | Through Jan. 9 | lincolncenter.org

THE COLLECTION/A KIND OF ALASKA | By HAROLD PINTER | Presented by ATLANTIC THEATER COMPANY at CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY, 136 E. 13th St., New York | Through Dec. 19 | (212) 279-4200, atlantictheater.org

NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND | By FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY, adapted by ROBERT WOODRUFF and BILL CAMP | Presented by YALE REPERTORY THEATRE in association with BARYSHNIKOV ARTS CENTER, 450 W. 37th St., New York | Closed