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Deliverance

  • Theater, Drama
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • Recommended
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Time Out says

3 out of 5 stars

Deliverance. 59E59 (see Off-Off Broadway). By Sean Tyler. Adapted from James Dickey’s novel. Directed by Joe Tantalo. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 30mins. No intermission.

Deliverance: In brief

Director Joe Tantalo and his Godlight Theatre Company, specialists in adapting literature for the stage, take a crack at James Dickey's brilliantly savage 1970 evocation of four Atlanta friends whose canoe trip descends into savagery. The script is by Sean Tyler.

Deliverance: Theater review by Jenna Scherer

The backwoods of Georgia don’t fit all that readily on a 12-by-12-foot stage, but that’s beside the point: In Godlight’s Deliverance, the wilderness is on the inside. Based on James Dickey’s 1970 novel—and pointedly not John Boorman’s acclaimed film version—this stage adaptation is purposely small scale, leaving grandiose set pieces and horrific acts to the imagination.

With the audience on all sides and surrounded by shiny black walls that throw back a dark reflection, seven actors enact Dickey’s canoe trip into the heart of darkness: dueling banjos, rape scene and all. Deliverance relies on Ien DeNio’s sound design to convey a sense of place, and Nick Paglino aptly conveys the emotional erosion of narrator Ed. But he’s hampered by the long, descriptive monologues in Sean Tyler’s script and by the mimed action of Joe Tantalo’s staging. Try as it may, there’s no escaping the long shadow of Boorman’s heebie-jeebies–inducing film. The latter works in large part due to its raw physicality; here, it’s hard to shudder at hypotheticals.—Theater review by Jenna Scherer

THE BOTTOM LINE The redneck shocker seems tame onstage.

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Details

Event website:
59e59.org
Address:
Contact:
212-279-4200
Price:
$25
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