Theater: “Crooked Cross” Is a Dire Warning of the Creeping Rise of Fascism by Looking to the Past in Germany, While “Prince Faggot” is a Raucous Look to the Future of a Possible Queer Royal

Crooked Cross (c) Todd Cerveris Photography

Theater: Crooked Cross 
Presented by the Mint Theater at Theatre Row 

Courtesy of the venerable Mint Theater, with its mandate to give new life to lost plays, writer Sally Carson reaches out from 1933 Germany to warn the U.S. of today about what can happen with complacency during the creeping dominance of fascism. Crooked Cross, based on her own novel, tells the story of Lexa Kluger (Ella Stevens), a young German woman, who at the start of the play is celebrating Christmas with a loving family that includes her parents (Liam Craig and Katie Firth), her two brothers (Gavin Michaels and Jacob Winter) and her fiancé Moritz (Samuel Adams). That tranquil and joyful scene leads into New Year’s Eve where the youths celebrate the coming of 1933 and how the newly elected Nazi party will bring prosperity back to Germany. As the year proceeds and Lexa’s brothers are slowly buying into the rhetoric of the party that is giving them jobs, the usually apolitical Lexa finds herself witnessing the radicalization of her country, especially towards Moritz, a beloved friend of the family now slowly being alienated and marginalized as a Jew. When first performed in Germany, Carson defended her play as less a rebuke to the ruling party than just a love story set with present times as a backdrop. But make no mistake, Carson is not only criticizing the Nazi party’s practice of mining the disillusionment of the young German people, but also its use of the Jewish people, already scrutinized, as a scapegoat. Not unlike the current US administration and their enablers demonizing trans people and the undocumented Latino population (as well as the NFL hiring an American pop singer ho plans to sing mostly in Spanish at next year’s Super Bowl). The racism and homophobia of MAGA are dismissed by many people, just as the antisemitism of the Nazis was considered “just” a part of their reformation doctrine (Project 2025, anyone, it’s right there). 

Theater: Broadway’s “Punch” Argues for Forgiveness in Divided Times; “And Then We Were No More” Gives A Chilling Glimpse of a Totalitarian Future; and “Toera” Is an Effective Coming-of-Age Drama

Punch (c) Matthew Murphy

Broadway: Punch 
At the Samuel Friedman Theatre 

There is a lot going on at the start of British playwright James Graham’s Punch, a play that is uniquely opening simultaneously on Broadway and the West End in the same month. We are introduced to Jacob Dunne (Will Harrison), a 19-year-old British man in Nottingham, who seems aimless after the divorce of his parents, and lives only to drink, take drugs and rumble with his mates, in a dazzling montage where he narrates what happened on the night that changed his life. That’s because Graham also intercuts the boisterous Jacob with a contrite, future Jacob as he is in some sort of group therapy. Jacob, misreading the events at a pub where his friends are drinking, punches a young man named James giving him a concussion that leads to his death about a week later. After serving time in prison, Jacob is told by his probation officer that James’ parents (played heartbreakingly by Sam Robards and Victoria Clark) want to meet him for both closure and understanding. The events of this play actually happened in 2011, and their meeting years later was facilitated by an organization named Remedi that promotes the concept of restorative justice to aid in the healing process of both victim and perpetrator. This is certainly a worthy cause, especially when we see how difficult but ultimately freeing this meeting is for everyone involved. The play is based on Jacob’s own book about the life-changing event, Right From Wrong, so while Graham doesn’t sugarcoat Jacob’s story, the moment of the actual punch is surprisingly lacking in specifics, and thus our sympathies cannot be fully given, as it’s obvious something about that night is deliberately being omitted so as to not muddle the uplifting ending of the play. This in no way dilutes the power of Harrison’s muscular and tireless Broadway debut as Jacob. The rest of the cast, who all play multiple characters, have at least one shining moment, especially Lucy Taylor as Jacob’s stressed-out mum. Adam Penford is directing both productions (David Shields plays Jacob in London’s West End), and while he favors the high adrenaline moments of Jacob’s world, it really is the quiet dignity of James’ parents that provides the emotional connection most needed by the audience. 

Film: A Sampling of the 63rd New York Film Festival: New Kathryn Bigelow, Luca Guadagnino, Joachim Trier, Richard Linklater and Ira Sachs Films

NYFF 63 (c) The Interested Bystander

Artistic Director Dennis Lim has curated his third New York Film Festival with some exciting new films that premiered in the summer festivals (Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Toronto) as well as a few world premieres of its own. Although never explicit in its programming, New York is the last major film festival before Oscar season and films that have benefited from their appearance in recent years include Nickel Boys, No Other Land, The Tragedy of Macbeth and The Irishman.