Dilaria

"Dilaria" at the smaller Daryl Roth Theatre, also known as DR2 is a play for the younger, Gen Z crowd. Do not get me wrong, the play was humorous to an older person like me as well!

Written by Julia Randall and directed by Alex Keegan, the ninety minute intermission-less show has some good things working for it. Keegan's direction for the most part keeps the audience locked in. The actors delivery and "business" for the most part brings great fun to the show.

Julia Randall's writing towards climax is not what you would expect. It borders on farce towards the end. But the spin out is never ruination in the plot structure; it is just absurd. It is this absurd that will either make you love the play, or not like the play.

Set in a New York City apartment (set by Frank J Oliva) Dilaria (Ella Stiller) is a very self absorbed young woman. Everything reflects around her in this world. She laments about how her mother is still to young for her to collect her trust fund. She has a high opinion of herself, one that is not founded by any particular talent, or looks; the hot chick just isn't that hot!

The singular set works in this play largely due to the direction, the costume design (Lily Cunicelli) and the lighting (Paige Serber). Where the lighting is the backbone in this play, the costumes as well capture the mood of the play in that the cloths separate the status and the class difference in the three actors. Serber is deft in capturing the age and fashion between the actors.

Torn between her best friend (Chiara Aurelia), Georgia and Noah, (Christopher Briney), she uses the two like chess pieces; only Noah is too thick to be played by anyone. More a pretty face and disposable, Noah goes with the flow, whereas, Georgia takes Dilaria's insults in stride. More focused and grounded, she puts up with Dilaria's attitude towards people and the world, itself. As a superficial young woman, Dilaria goes about her life her way with little regard for anyone... people don't matter.

In Randall's writing, Dilaria has thoughts that seem contrived and useless. Why would a young woman be so fixated on the things that young people usually don't think about. In your twenties, most people are not so upbeat and yet so macabre. Here, we have the many sides of many personalities with Dilaria. This makes the audience question the writing a bit.

In this small cast, Christopher Briney stands out as the air-headed boy. His actions/ reactions are well done. He plays his part very well. Aurelia has some very strong moments, however, at times she goes in and out of focus on her role. Ella Stiller is to one dimensional in her role, she is not as definable as her grandmother, nor grandfather. Her screams and frustrations seem to forced, too fake. She is never believable enough to carry the lead in this show. Her action/ reaction is never crisp, only as if she is going through the motions on stage. This role calls for passion and we never get it from Stiller.

"Dilaria" at DR2 is a young persons play. Many audience members will find it rather humorous. As the jokes land pretty well, the middle of the show tends to lag, but overall worth going to see.

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Good news on the theater front as we are getting some interesting shows in the dead of summer... Mama Mia is returning to the Winter Garden Theatre in August; Rolling Thunder and Joy are coming to off Broadway this month! Heathers too will be playing starting this month, and like Rolling Thunder, it will play at New World Stages.