Devil of Choice -Truth and Consequences

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Alix Cohen in Playing Around

Pepper (Elizabeth Canavan) and Sal (David Zayas) have reached a threadbare juncture in their marriage where his burgeoning hostility emerges as criticism of her in front of friends and colleagues. We meet them mid-argument. The couple have just moved to a new town where he’ll teach at the local college and she’ll work in the music library. They know no one.

David Zayas and Elizabeth Canavan

School administrator Delia (Florencia Lozano) is an admirer of Sal’s theatrical teaching style – current subject Faust, making the most of it. Goethe’s protagonist bargains with the Devil for one moment so extraordinary he wants it to last forever. This, Sal declares, is a sin. In fact, stasis is a sin and movement/to strive, divine…pretty much no matter what you do. We intermittently get a glimpse of his verve and out-sized ego when the fourth wall drops and he addresses us as if his class- occasionally soliciting response.

At his request, Delia becomes Pepper’s friend, then Sal’s running partner, then his lover… until she asks too much. He ricochets between the two with equanimity steeped in deep misogynistic underpinning until…

David Zayas and Florencia Lozano

David Zayas is the performance stand out. He’s understated, sexy, and demonstrates particularly fine timing.

I wish I could be more positive about the piece written and directed by women, depicting a male type we’ve all known and with whom many of us have been regrettably involved. While I admire Playwright Maggie Diaz Bofil’s portrait of Sal and Delia’s convincing argument that Pepper’s getting rid of hoarded stuff will be sexy to her husband, excluding (aptly) raunchy vocabulary, the play is written with all the pith of a television serial.

Composer/Violinist Melisa McGregor is terrific but completely wrong here, making a domestic drama unnecessarily histrionic.

Photos by David Zayas Jr.

Labyrinth presents
Devil of Choice by Maggie Diaz Bofill
Directed by Shira-Lee Shalit
Cherry Lane Theater    
38 Commerce Street
Through June 9, 2018

About Alix Cohen (1725 Articles)
Alix Cohen is the recipient of ten New York Press Club Awards for work published on this venue. Her writing history began with poetry, segued into lyrics and took a commercial detour while holding executive positions in product development, merchandising, and design. A cultural sponge, she now turns her diverse personal and professional background to authoring pieces about culture/the arts with particular interest in artists/performers and entrepreneurs. Theater, music, art/design are lifelong areas of study and passion. She is a voting member of Drama Desk and Drama League. Alix’s professional experience in women’s fashion fuels writing in that area. Besides Woman Around Town, the journalist writes for Cabaret Scenes, Broadway World, TheaterLife, and Theater Pizzazz. Additional pieces have been published by The New York Post, The National Observer’s Playground Magazine, Pasadena Magazine, Times Square Chronicles, and ifashionnetwork. She lives in Manhattan. Of course.

© 2017 Woman Around Town. All Rights Reserved.