The Beastiary

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On The Rocks Theatre Co.’s The Beastiary transforms the stage of Greenwich House into hell, or at least the mouth of hell, allowing us a view through some very sharp teeth and past three piercing eyes…two eyes would not have been enough. The eyes are the three “suns” that rise in the sky after the last unicorn on Earth has been devoured by some tactless regals at a royal wedding rehearsal dinner.

The effect is that of a chilling diorama, but with loads of laughs bursting through its proscenium. The humor is heavy in anachronisms placing some very current verbiage smack dab in the middle of medieval conversation and situations. It is the depths of these situations that drive this constantly imaginative play, or rather medieval pageant. Outside of the King, his brother, his brother’s wife and the Queen mum at the rehearsal dinner who will all be dead the moment they finish their meal, the other scenes take us through the adventures of the last eight remaining humans on earth as they collide and collude with all manner of beasts, giants, demons, and offspring of the interbreeding of humans and said creatures.

The scenes with the King’s family are laced with digs at the idiots these royals can be. The Queen mum is deadpan and silent but comes to life when they’ve pulverized the unicorn’s horn into a cocaine-like stimulant. There are moments when her rants that foretell their demise resemble speaking in tongues. Scatological moments are rampant with passing gas and loud belching being used as punctuation during conversation. Each successive scene at the dinner finds them fuller certainly, more inebriated on unicorn blood, more messy (did they ever have napkins in medieval times?), all revealing them to be just like regular folk at a barbecue. The only difference is these are royals whose fierce gluttony this time sets off 30 years of a maelstrom in which demons and beasts stalk and kill and no new human children are born.

The scenes with the other characters, the ones that remain alive, are filled with engaging philosophy and a nuance of expression that often belie their station. A Farmer in an act of self-preservation after a Demon eats the only turnip not tainted with human blood eats enough Demons that he becomes one himself giving new meaning to the adage “You are what you eat.” The scene where the Merchant’s Daughter, while helping to midwife the Milkmaid’s cow, finds out she is the daughter of a giantess is filled with pathos. She somehow managed to have a good heart despite being raised by a mercenary father. When she refers to their appropriation of dead people’s things as pillage, her father replies, “pillage is a very strong word, a word I don’t really like to use, to be honest.” She counters with, “But it’s stealing.”

In another scene, The Child Bride and her Attendant come upon “the goodly, goodly” Nun asleep but ready to bear a child. As they consider how a nun could find herself pregnant, the demand of a human newborn to trade for the unicorn she wants to keep as a pet propels The Child Bride to persevere to force a delivery. Times being what they are, The Child Bride offers, “This must be difficult to hear but in our experience you likely will not survive the act of childbirth.” Ironies ensue – a lizard creature appears forcing everyone to scatter. The Attendant is swallowed whole…and the unicorn had already been eaten by the royals. The Nun survives long enough to later meet the Merchant’s Daughter who helps the baby to be born.

No innuendo is spared in a game of dice between the Gryphon (body of a lion, head of an eagle and tongue of a man) and the Knight. The ownership of the Knight’s former family manse is at stake. Unbeknownst to the Knight, the Gryphon killed his entire family and has moved into the property as its new lord. In fact, the dice they are playing with are carved from the skeletal remains of the Knight’s father. Some of their witty exchanges are priceless. When the Gryphon asks annoyed, “Will you not blow on the dice? We’re in the middle of a plague, the Knight counters, “So you’re fine with eating me, but I can’t blow on a couple of dice?”  In a later reply, the Gryphon proposes, “You are something special, Knight. I can’t quite put my talon on it,” and once the Gryphon decides how he will end this, “It’s just fitting, I think, that you – who could very well be the last of humanity – lacks any humanity yourself.”

The play is not without its musical entertainment. In what can be considered a showstopper, four actors do the puppeteering for demons on single castors creating what amounts to a mini-chorus line spouting, ”Devils we have never been. Know we are scavengers of and for the Earth. Corpses are a health hazard to every living creature as they can easily spread disease. Scavengers quickly break down the dead biomass and everyone in the ecosystem benefits.” In the midst of this, the Farmer strikes down every demon killing them all. As he falls to his knees exhausted, the Demons rise again for the coda.

Rebeca Miller shines brilliantly as the Queen mum, as she does as The Merchant’s abject Daughter (the play’s true heroine) and the Karen-like Child Bride. Her impeccable timing is suggestive of a young Carol Burnett. Jeena Yi as the slightly dimwitted King’s Brother’s Wife is sublime while her Milkmaid is appropriately conniving and her Nun is a subtle portrait of a woman terror-stricken in abandonment. Marc Bovino is hysterical as The King’s Brother, while his commanding Knight is all suavity and devilish in his comebacks in the Gryphon scene. His Cow is a true delight. Gil Perez-Abraham is dastardly as the not very paternal Merchant and quite alluring as the Gryphon. Phillip Taratula is a scene-stealer as the foulmouthed self-promoting King and remarkably pitiable as the Child Bride’s Attendant.  Cornelius Loy on theremin and Ellen Winter on vocals and all other instrumentation provide the extraordinary underscoring for this exciting work.

This stunning theatrical work is a creation of the two-member On The Rocks Theatre Co. (Christopher Ford and Dakota Rose), two ingenious artists who have been at work on The Beastiary since they were selected as Ars Nova’s fifth Company in Residence in 2019. Commissioned to create a new show from scratch, a first Ars Nova-produced reading came to fruition in 2021. Adding composer Dorit Chrysler to the team, later 2022 workshops added the theremin score and the puppets to the play. More behind the scenes development, a puppet build residency, and a two-week production workshop built the show that is now at Greenwich House. Ford and Rose have co-written and co-designed the scenic elements. Ford designed the glorious costumes and hand-made puppets and Rose directed the entire production.

One doesn’t normally think of brightness of color in medieval settings, but clearly grays and more grays were not going to work for what ultimately is a life-affirming piece of theater. Ford uses cranberry, chartreuse, orange, maize and red for the actors’ costumes. The Gryphon, the Demons and the Blemmyaes (headless giants with a man’s face on their chests) all sport a rich azure. Even the musicians are in brightly colored medieval garb. The puppets, operated by the actors, are each inventive and have their own striking personalities. Kate McGee’s lighting design is attentive to moods and artfully uses lights and shadows to advantage. Chrysler’s score is an atmospheric delight proving a theremin is more than a companion to science fiction. Enrico de Trizio’s sound design is subtle and then booming for the steps of the giants. Rose’s direction is a masterclass in keeping an episodic structure constantly moving and turning. Seeing fit to let this cast of skilled comedians (five actors playing 14 roles) has even more fun in balancing the roles with the puppeteering was a great choice.

What on paper must have seemed like trying to stage the unstageable in actuality has ended up as one of the most inventive and thoroughly engaging productions in recent memory. The final tableau of the Merchant’s Daughter holding the Nun’s baby in her arms is a promise of hope and optimism where there had been none.

The Beastiary (through November 9, 2024)

On the Rocks Theatre Co.

Ars Nova @ Greenwich House, 27 Barrow Street, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit http://www.arsnovanyc.com

Running time: 95 minutes without intermission