(November 1, 2007)

Where Death Has Dominion

Peter D. Kramer/The Journal News

Over the next two weekends, 780 lucky people will have an experience they may talk about for a long time to come.

They will have seen one of the six remaining performances of "Murderers," the first production in the ninth season of the excellent Hudson Stage Company.

As the Woodward Hall Theater on Pace University's Briarcliff campus seats only 130, those who get in will have reason to feel fortunate.

Theater does not get better than "Murderers" at Hudson Stage.

It starts when you enter the theater and hear the theme songs from TV cop shows: "Dragnet," "Hill Street Blues," "Cagney & Lacey" and even "Six Feet Under," a show about dead people. (After all, murders involve corpses.) The music sets the mood, a mix of the serious and the whimsical.

Then add a jaw-droppingly talented cast - Matthew Arkin, Lucy Martin and Andrea Gallo - who deliver three 40-minute-plus monologues each and, in so doing, bring to life the residents of Florida's Riddle Key Luxury Senior Retirement Living Center and Golf Course.

In less-competent hands, the stories - "The Man Who Married His Mother-in-Law," "Margaret Faydle Comes to Town," and "Match Wits with Minka Lupino" - would still be funny short stories recited in front of an audience.

But director Dan Foster has brought together three exceptionally gifted actors to tell Jeffrey Hatcher's stories. Each brings a commitment and a freshness to the storytelling that takes it from the page to the stage and creates something memorable.

Arkin, Martin and Gallo are so comfortable on the tiny stage - and are such gifted mimics - that the night becomes a master class in focus and concentration.

Some might see a two-hour intermissionless show as too taxing on the audience, but Hatcher's contemporary and clever dialogue, and Foster's pitch-perfect direction, make the evening fly.

Arkin, who has the night's first monologue, is a master of voices - everyone from the gravel-throated neighbor Shirl to Dr. Nagangupta, the only character who appears in all three monologues.

The son of Oscar-winning actor Alan, and the brother of Emmy-winner Adam, Arkin is at ease on the stage, spinning a yarn that is at once believable and unbelievable.

His character, the tuxedoed Gerald, sips a martini as he coolly relates the facts of his story.

After all, isn't that how murderers act?

When his story is told, Gerald pleasantly helps the next murderer set the stage for her monologue.

In "Margaret Faydle Comes to Town," Martin plays Lucy Stickler - "a stickler by marriage" - the put-upon wife of a philandering husband who says she isn't a murderer yet, but she promises she will be soon.

To watch Martin is to see an actress in the effortless exercise of her craft. It's as if all of the events are happening in the moment she's telling them. There's no artifice, no sleight of hand, no acting evident.

Lucy explains that there's a hierarchy to life in a Florida retirement village, where everyone drives around in golf carts and lives on a circle not far from a tee or green.

There are those who live in villas, those who live in condos, and those who live in apartments. Finally, there are those in the senior center, "the dump chute to death."

Martin is a master at taking her time, delivering her story at just the right pace, and making the most of what Hatcher gives her.

The final monologue, "Match Wits with Minka Lupino," belongs to Gallo, whom local audiences might recall from "Italian-American Reconciliation" at the Emelin Theatre a couple of seasons back.

In Minka, Gallo finds the role of a lifetime, one perfectly suited to her abilities.

Minka is a wondrous mix of efficient office worker and avenging angel. She sees no harm in having ended the lives of a half-dozen people, but doesn't care for the term "serial killer."

"To my mind, (it) suggests an emphasis on the numerical followed by too much time spent on the interstate highway system," she says.

Besides, she adds, "My murders all took place in one locality."

In Gallo's hands, Minka is utterly charming, a bubbly lover of murder mysteries who sometimes slips into film-noir speak.

Describing a home health aide, Minka says "she was the type of woman who had not given up on capri pants long past her legs' sell-by date."

We know, from the play's first lines, that these are murderers. What we don't know are the details.

As always, Hudson Stage sees to the details that add so much to a performance.

Andreea Mincic's minimal set features a long roll of artificial turf lined with golf balls perched atop tees. It is lit expertly by Andrew Gmoser.

Laurie Ling's costumes add to the atmosphere, from Gerald's tux to Lucy's salmon-colored pants and billowy floral blouse to Minka's bright floral skirt and pink almost lab coat, complete with nametag.

Murderers have their reasons, Minka says.

They have their motives and their opportunities.

Here's hoping you have the opportunity to see "Murderers" at Hudson Stage.