'Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling'
This undated photo courtesy of Kevin Thomas Garcia shows actress Christine Lahti, left, and actor Reed Birney in a scene from Adam Rapp's "Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling," in New York. Credit: AP
In "Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling," Adam Rapp's sleek and surreal little apocalyptic horror show, the formal dining room in Connecticut is beautifully set for lunch. As anyone familiar with this uneven but outlandishly prolific and provocative playwright knows, things are about to get dark.
How dark? Thanks to Rapp's current fascination with the wildly articulate absurdity of Edward Albee and to director Neil Pepe's first-rate cast of unflinching co-conspirators, the afternoon gets darker and more primal as the 90-minute play gets more improbably amusing.
Sure, the flying symbolism is heavy-handed and the resolution, clunky. But the pacing of the chaos beneath civility is impeccable. The hostess -- played with exquisite brutality and robust decay by Christine Lahti -- is a carnivorous ringmaster with diabolical plans for the married guest (Cotter Smith), who just happened to have made money when others lost theirs. Her contempt for her kind, powerless husband (Reed Birney) is feral and the couples' grown children are, in separate and understandable ways, quite mad.
Bombs in the woods and monsters in the basement are real, or not. But Rapp's a real playwright, even if he won't stop writing plays and novels and directing movies long enough to be defined.
WHERE Classic Stage Company, 136 E. 13th St.
INFO $65; 212-691-5919; atlantictheater.org
BOTTOM LINE Provocative little nightmare
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