From the Desk of Jim R, Take 2, Column 380, A Review: "The Art of Burning" (Hartford Stage)

By James V. Ruocco

In "The Art of Burning," playwright Kate Snodgrass uses her complex, upfront and talky narrative to pinpoint the disintegration of a marriage, a bitter custody battle, a divorce, a proposed arson, a possible murder, sexism, infidelity, mediation, artistic freedom and creation, assault and parental control.
Lots of words.
Lots of choices.
Lot of arguments.
Lots of lashing out.
Lots of details.
Lots of bite.
Lots of anger.
Lots of flip flopping between time and space.
Lots of parallels between modem day life and the ancient Greek tragedy of "Medea" by Euripides.

What's real?
What isn't?
Who's lying?
Who's cheating?
Who's struggling?
What is the back story of the six principal characters and their role in the evolution of Snodgrass's emotional, edgy, often satiric play?

Suffice to say, the Hartford Stage production of "The Art of Burning" generates plenty of heat, excitement, conversation and conflict, offset by identifiable toxicity, confrontation, roar and mystery. It gets under your skin. It slaps you in the face. It empathizes and instructs. It baffles. It complicates. It stuns. It surprises.
And like "Medea," the Greek play in which the title character murders her children in a bloody act of revenge, it too declares that sometimes you have to kill the things you love in this world in order to save them. Or do you?

As playwright, Snodgrass creates an interesting work that mixes comedy and drama theatrically by pushing buttons, escalating scene shifts, story arcs, monologues and brief moments with gallop, pace, assertation and smock and smear. Some of it is well defined. Some it is alert and offbeat. Some of it is broken and idiosyncratic. Some of it makes complete sense or no sense at all as it toys with your emotions.

Staging "The Art of Burning," director Melia Bensussen takes hold of Snodgrass's play text, amps up the heat, adds alarm to the storm, elevates the important, driven dialogue with conscience and guidance and when necessary, accentuates the humor and acidity of the piece with apt reflection, entrapment and momentum.
As director, she receives able assist with her stirring interpretation from set designer Luciana Stecconi, lighting designer Aja M. Jackson and Jane Shaw (original music and sound design). Moving the actors across the chessboard-like set which lights up or incorporates moody, edgy illumination in the stage floor's carefully etched and enhanced grid system (reminiscent of the original London staging of Tim Rice's "Chess"), she creates a pivotal point of significance in the subject matter, its flashbacks, its pairings, its push-and pull tug-of-war, its underscoring, its surprise and its ever-shifting atmosphere of time and space.

"The Art of Burning" stars Adrienne Krstansky as Patricia, Rom Barkhordar as Jason, Michael Kaye as Mark, Vivia Font as Katya, Clio Contogenis as Beth and Laura Latrelle as Charlene.
The cast, all well chosen for the respective roles, bring plenty of emotion, angst, twist and confidence to the piece, which, in turn, heightens the play's attitude, footing, excitement, outrage and amusement. As a result, things are primed, ready, eerie and full of potential - aimed directly at the heart.

Photos of "The Art of Burning" courtesy of T. Charles Erickson.

"The Art of Burning" is being performed at Hartford Stage (50 Church St., Hartford, CT), now through March 26, 2023.

For tickets or more information, call (860) 527-5151.

website: hartfordstage,org.