Reviewed by David Walters
Welcome back, Mr. Moran!
Martin Moran‘s All The Rage, winner of the 2013 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show, is back for a limited eighteen performance run.
Why I say welcome is because there is a correlation between his story and what we are currently experiencing in the world. Martin’s journey to find a missing, but completely justified, inner rage against the atrocities inflicted upon him as a child, seems to be missing from his inner self while everyone around him seems to possess it for him (“Aren’t you angry?” ”You brought a tape recorder? I would have brought a gun!”). The rage we see portrayed in our media and government and the world around us currently, “I mean, twenty minutes with the Times can just undo you,” is all justified, right?
Mr. Moran has had this piece, first presented in 2013, mellowing inside himself for years. That fermentation process has led to a very conversational, propitious and welcoming style that comfortably brings the audience along with him on a fact-finding journey of his life. Audiovisual aids abound on a set that he gallops around on in his excitement to share who he is and what he has discovered about himself. We are completely safe in his hands.
Martin explores a seeming lack of rage within himself when there should be volumes, drawing life connections and pinning them as evidence on a flip chalkboard much like a detective outlines clues and suspects on a whiteboard in order to see the big picture that will lead to a conviction and a hanging. Experiences in Africa with his tour guide/driver and exploring the Cradle of Humankind; a final confrontation at his father’s funeral, after years of adversity, with his dad’s second wife; a camping trip with his brother who lives in solitude and anger; and a volunteer experience with a man from Chad seeking asylum in the United States after being kidnapped and tortured, all teach him that human touch and compassion seem to have a greater power and a greater good above and beyond anger and rage leading to a life well-lived.
The goodie-bag we get to take home: “Anger has an appropriate and proper place in life,” but destruction is a choice, as is compassion.
Running Time: 80 minutes, no intermission.
Written by Martin Moran; Directed by Seth Barris.
Scenic Design, Mark Wendland; Lighting Design, Russell Champa; and Sound Design, Leon Rothenberg.
All The Rage will take place on September 13 – October 5 at The Barrow Group, 312 West 36th Street in Manhattan. Tickets, priced at $35-$60 ($20-$25 students), can be purchased by visiting barrowgroup.org or by calling 866-811-4111.
