Reviews of shows from the New York International Fringe Festival will appear on ArtsBeat through the festival's close on Aug. 26. For more information, go to fringenyc.org.
Brian Silliman has a touch of Zach Galifianakis about him, and not only because both actors are bearded and a bit tubby.
In the New York premiere of “The Particulars†Mr. Silliman plays Gordon, a persnickety young crank frustrated by the limits of household pest control. Over the course of Matthew MacKenzie's fine new play Mr. Silliman, usually wearing nothing more than underwear, reveals his gifts for physical comedy and meticulous timing, as well as a princely willingness to cast all vanity into the bonfire.
Mr. Silliman carries the second of the two vivid, if not fully interwoven, monologues that make up this production. The first is delivered by Ashlie Atkinson as Lillian, the bubbly youth minister at Gordon's church, about a jour ney to the Democratic Republic of Congo and its attendant horrors. Ms. Atkinson is warm and vibrant as Lillian, and while she has some lovely descriptive prose to work with, her character is not nearly as sharply drawn as Mr. Silliman's.
Generally, though, the writing is smart, strange and stirring, in exactly the right ways. Jordana Williams's direction keeps the performances visually interesting and mostly stitched together, no small feat in what sometimes feels like two separate one-person plays. It helps of course that the creative team has found the perfect stars to animate each of those performances.
“The Particulars†runs through Sunday at the Cherry Lane Studio Theater, 308 Commerce Street, West Village; (866) 468-7619.
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