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From Larry Litt - New York Theatre Wire ….four one-legged men! Written and performed by Gary Corbin Directed by William Martin The Producers Club There’s nothing more harrowing than watching a person tell the absolute unfiltered, unexpurgated truth about their life’s struggles. The event opens all kinds of doors in an audience that have nothing to do with the show in front of their eyes. Only a master storyteller can keep an audience focused on the subject and object of the oration. It’s rare, when it happens to you, you remember. Gary Corbin’s stellar one man performance is that kind of performance. “….four one-legged men!” tells the riveting stories of mono-limbed characters in the title. Each character has his own way of dealing with his disability. Each man has a life brought to the stage by Mr. Corbin in a way that’s lets you enter into their hearts and feel their emotional stress. The show is divided into four character segments with distinct tones and colors: “A Day in the Life of Jamie Prince” is a tale of guilt and aging, something we all have or will go through with elderly parents or relatives. Jamie makes excuses for not seeing his elderly relative, while comparing his life to the old man’s on the bed. Then he projects his needs onto the still figure, asking and answering life’s hard questions. Who knows better about one’s life than the silent watchers waiting for the unknown and unknowable. When the man of the house leaves the house there’s no telling where he’ll end up. In “Rainbow” a man leaves home and complains about the life his wife subjected him to. All he wanted was her. Instead he inherits her family and a group of friends who want nothing to do with him. He feels he’s just the financial support mechanism, a bottomless deep pocket of hard earned pittances. But he’ll show her. He’ll rebel. It’s the funniest story of the four, with a main character good enough to carry a sitcom in the Sanford and Son tradition. Drag queens are easy to poke fun at. In “I’ll Betcha that!” a stranded queen reminisces about the good old days in the baths. There’s much humor, however Mr. Corbin makes us see the pathetic nature of an older queen while showing us that life goes on even with one leg missing. In “Waiting For Oz” that we finally get the magic and power that Gary Corbin is known for. I can only say he made me ache deeply for wounded soldiers everywhere. This character’s story is too painful and too important for me to describe. In the final moments of the performance I was stunned by Corbin’s physicality and clear humanist vision. If he performs this series again. Don’t miss it. Gary Corbin, who came from NYC to present his solo ...four one-legged men! . My own schedule meant that I didn't get to see his show until Saturday, but I met him a few weeks before the festival started and was immediately struck by his energy and his dedication. (He's also just plain incredibly sweet.) The one comment I heard from someone who saw the show before me was "It's really ... intense." Corbin had told me the basic outline of the work, so I figured I had a pretty good idea about it going in, but I was still floored. This is raw, unvarnished theater of the best kind. It's exactly what it sounds like: brief character sketches, basically first-person short stories, about four men from four different eras who have only one thing in common: they (like Corbin himself) have only one leg. Each of them has arrived at this condition in a different way, and they've each dealt with it differently. One, for instance, is a married guy in the 1950s, whose marriage is falling apart partly because he cares more for his mother-in-law than his wife. (Here, he's impersonating one of the wife's friends:) Another is a gay man, reminiscing about his adventures at a bathhouse in the 70s: There's also a present-day man whose visit to the nursing home where his adoptive parent now lives Corbin's vignettes are remarkably detailed; we get very specific bits and pieces of each man's experience. The whole show is an act of exposure: he's dressed for the dead of winter in the first scene, and with each successive sketch, a few more layers come off, in more ways than one. (In)visibility is a recurring theme: this is a chance to look straight at the kind of people we often try to ignore away. The show is headed for Off Broadway in October, and if there's any justice in the world, it'll cause a sensation there. You've only got one more chance to see it here--Sunday at 5:30 at the Allen Street Dance Studio. ISLAND THEATER "Author offers insight into '..four one-legged men!' Preparing to see Gary Corbin 's one-man show about four one-legged men was not exactly an exercise in anticipation. We knew what to expect - one disabled man's semi-autographical rants about how the disabled are misunderstood and under appreciated. It would be a well-intended effort, certainly, and the applause would be polite, but tempered with the annoyance that comes with being lectured to about our shortcomings. Happily, "..four one-legged men!" rose above and beyond our diminished anticipation. Had we attended with the highest of expectations this show would have met them and then some. It certainly did for others in attendance. The applause was enthusiastic. To be sure, the characters in Corbin's four vignettes have much to complain about - the first character struggles to understand why his ex-wife won't let him see his daughter, while the second schemes to kill his girlfriend and father, who are lovers. But in none of the sketches does the character's lack of one leg define the content of the sketch or the essence of the character. The disability is a condition that merely exists, which is as it should be. The play, presented by The Arts Den, Masterwork Music & Art Foundation, and No Empty Space Theater, was staged yesterday afternoon in a cool shadowy Veteran's Memorial Hall at Snug Harbor Cultural Center , a setting that seemed perfect for a nap on a hot sticky afternoon. But from the moment Corbin took the stage he grabbed the audience's attention with his emphatic delivery and penetrating gaze. A one-man show can be too much for an actor not up to the challenge, but Corbin made it look easy, as any natural stage talent should. The show was a bit uneven, if only because some of Corbin's characters are more lively than others. The character in the third sketch, a former bathhouse boy, is riotous, while the final sketch features an unhinged Vietnam vet who shouts his lines. These last two portrayals were in marked contrast to the unassuming demeanor and clipped voice that characterized Corbin's performance in the first two vignettes. That said, it has to be admitted that Corbin has a flair for pacing. He concluded his show on an unmistakable high note by dancing to "Proud Mary." A one-legged man dancing? Sure, and why not? It's to Corbin's credit that he can make such a seemingly audacious act appear anything but. |
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