A New Play by Eric Eisenberg
Directed by: Laura Stevens
Production Manager: Sharon Fallon
Stage Manager: Fran Rubenstein
Set/Lighting Design: Obadiah Savage
Costume Design: Staci Shember
Sound Design: Bill Grady
Graphic Design: Thom Finn
Assistant Director: Shannon Henry
Technical Director: Martin Miller
Set in the high-stakes arena of a Wall Street public relations agency, THE ARRANGEMENT
pits a young ambitious executive between two agonizing choices: an insider trading scheme that can yield all he wants in the material world, versus doing the right thing. Spurred by his older partner to choose the former, the young executive soon finds the seemingly "foolproof" scheme is being investigated by an inexperienced but driven female lawyer bent on destroying him. The cat-and-mouse game which ensues tests the deepest notions of loyalty, nerve, honor and betrayal. Previously produced in Los Angeles, the play was hailed as a "hard-hitting expose of double dealing and dirty tricks in the realm of high finance". THE ARRANGEMENT will be directed by founding company member Laura Stevens for Vital Theatre Company, and will star Rick Bank (television's "Another World", Yale Rep), Jack Green ("One Life To Live"), Jennifer Jiles (former Radio City Rockette), and Peter Waldren (off-Broadway's "Outward Bound").
Vital Theatre Company is now in it's second year, where they have produced over fifteen plays, including their highly successful developmental series of new works called "Vital Signs". The company received the oobr Award for Excellence for their production of Shay Youngblood's "Shakin' The Mess Out Of Misery". The very active Vital Children's Theatre productions have received high acclaim from press and audiences alike; past shows include "Unwanted: The Very Ugly Duckling", "The Selfish Giant", and "3 Bears and a Babe".
THE ARRANGEMENT will begin performances on Thursday November 30th for a Sunday, December 3rd opening, and will play through Sunday, December 17th. Performances will be Thursday through Saturday at 8:00 pm, and Sundays at 3:00pm. There will be one Monday evening performance on Monday, December 4th at 8:00pm. Tickets will be $15.00 and may be purchased by calling (212) 592-0129, or order online at www.vitaltheatre.org. Photos are available for download at www.brettsinger.com/pics/arrangement.html.
Reviews
Off-Off-Broadway Review
The Arrangement
By Erik Eisenberg
Directed by Laura M. Stevens
Vital Theater Company
Equity showcase (closed)
Review by Doug DeVita
Early on in Erik Eisenberg's new drama, The Arrangement, one gets faint, but persistent, feelings of deja vu. Its story of insider trading and stock manipulation in a Wall Street PR agency has a recognizable ring, the characters (and the actors portraying them) are all vaguely familiar, and the double-dealing machinations and constantly shifting allegiances are as cutting-edge as a made-for-TV movie.
That said, The Arrangement at Vital Theatre Company is nevertheless a very entertaining evening. Eisenberg's dialog crackles with Mamet-like flair, he dispenses pertinent background information without calling undue attention to its expository nature, and if the subject matter (and his treatment of it) isn't groundbreaking, the script is well-written, logical, and beautifully performed.
Under Laura M. Stevens's smooth, fluid direction, the cast assembled for the production could not be bettered. Each actor gave fully realized performances of subtle depth and clarity, and the evening built and sustained a tension that was all the more remarkable considering the predictability of the unfolding drama. As the PR agent with a conscience, Rick Bank nimbly glossed over all of the pitfalls inherent in his role, delivering a first-class performance of clear, gut-wrenching honesty, while Jennifer Jiles as the wet-behind-her-ears lawyer determined to destroy him was more than his match. They were given admirable support from Jack Green as a crooked PR agent, and especially Peter Waldren, heart-breaking as a scientist whose potentially cancer-curing discovery sets the whole plot in motion.
The production design - black-and-white sets, lighting (Obadiah Savage), and costumes (Staci Shember), with only the barest hints of color- added to the overall effect with its topnotch concept (nothing in the drama is as cut and dried - or as black and white - as it appears to be), and terrific level of finish. Bill Grady's sound design was also topnotch, succeeding in giving the production a sharp, nervous edge that supported and enhanced everyone else's work.
While The Arrangement (there must be a better title than that, by the way) is not a prime example of theatre on the cutting edge, it is a sterling example of a contemporary "well-made" play, given a stylish, vital (no pun intended) production. Kudos to all.
Box Score:
Writing: 1
Directing: 2
Acting: 2
Set: 2
Costumes: 2
Lighting/Sound: 2
Copyright 2000 Doug DeVita
Chelsea Clinton News
Three Plays Target Audiences
And a Fouth Truly Bright Light from OOB
by D. L. Lepidus
December 14-20 2000
I attended a production by Yet Another New off-off Broadway (OOB) Theater Company; this one, like so many, in our own Clinton. All too many of these OOB start-ups are, to varying degrees, inept. I am happy to report that the Vital Theatre Company, on West 42nd Street, is not. Their production of "The Arrangement" by Eric Eisenberg is pretty darn good for off-off-Broadway. It's about two rouge public relations execs making a killing insider-trading stocks of their clients until, that is, the S.E.C. gets onto them when they get careless. Director Laura M. Stevens has done a bang-up job in Vital's tiny space, and her cast is excellent. There are a couple of inexplicable loose ends in the script, but they don't detract from what is really a very enjoyable evening.
Vital Theatre is certainly a group to watch. They know what they're doing.
Show Buisiness Weekly
The Arrangement
By Eric Eisenberg
Directed by Laura Stevens
Review by Geoff Foster
From the Post-its to the decaf, the meticulously detailed set of the Vital Company's production of The Arrangement immediately catapults its audience into corporate America. Waiting for the actors to come on stage, you almost feel that you are sitting in an office anticipating your boss's entrance. Moreover, the set design and costuming are almost completely black and white, which creates a sense of hardened sterility that effectively aids the play thematically. Eric Eisenberg's The Arrangement involves a small public relations firm on Wall Street that gradually gets entangled in a web of greed and deceit, rather unsurprisingly.
The play's protagonist, Tom Marigold, is an eager but naive young capitalist who becomes involved in an insider-trading scam with an aging colleague. Upon learning new information about a dubious patent held by one of their clients, an immigrant biological engineer, the pair attempt to capitalize by selling stock short. If you are lost already, not to worry. The play finds a polite way to explain the business to the financially illiterate without dumbing itself down in an irritating fashion.
By the second act, a seemingly flighty SEC investigator from the deep South enters the scene and attempts to hinder their plan by turning the two against each other. While the premise may seem a tad hackneyed or perhaps tedious, Eisenberg's precisely crafted script provides enough tension and mystery to make the production very engaging, and the numerous plot twists are sufficient to keep this tension in movement.
Jack Green gives an outstanding performance as Bill Flynn, the experienced yet disgruntled elder of the PR firm. He creates a character whose arrogance and desperation believably carries the two into the scam, yet he maintains an aura of fragile loneliness that makes him compelling.
With very nice chemistry, Rick Bank sufficiently foils his partner. Bank, although slightly reliant on his mannerisms, gives a solid performance as a character who is lost somewhere in between a bleeding heart and Gordon Gecko. As the stress multiplies, Bank seems to enter a zone where his performance gets stronger as the play nears conclusion
As Amy Reynolds, Jennifer Jiles gives the play a shot of adrenaline with her Southern hospitality and capricious good humor. Yet the SEC investigator, who has callousness behind her amiable façade, eventually becomes one-dimensional, and Jiles often seems to use the Southern accent to define the character rather then to illustrate it.
Reynolds also doubles as the play's narrator, frequently addressing the audience while the other actors are frozen. This device, used primarily to bridge the scenes and keep the action fluid, soon becomes detrimental to the play as a whole. Reynolds seems only to spout sweeping generalizations about life mixed with gratuitous, offstage plot points. It is understandable that Eisenberg was trying to create a broader impression of universality, yet the play's emotion and realism would have provided that alone.
It is fascinating to watch the characters ultimately develop into frustrated by-products of cutthroat capitalism. The audience remains in the dark to the very end as to exactly who is doing the true back-stabbing, which makes the experience captivating. In classic Wall Street form, there is a bloodthirsty fight to the finish to see who can champion the most self-interest.
All rights reserved. © 2000, Show Business, Inc.
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