Not since Sam Shepard's “True West,” have the twisted sinews of brotherly ties been so passionately played out as in the new import from the London stage "Leaves of Glass" by Philip Ridley that opened off-Broadway this past weekend at the Peter J. Sharp Theater. The actors Victor Villar-Hauser and Euan Morton (Boy George in the short-lived musical “Taboo”) expose their psyches--and family dysfunction--in this one-acter directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser. Stephen, the elder, is a suit while Barry is a leather jacket clad painter with some mental health issues; scratch the surface and a dark link to the suicide of their father emerges like a dagger to the heart. Unlike Shepard's play, this is no pas de deux; the drama also features an emotionally hardened mother (Alexa Kelly). And, Stephen's wife Debbie, is as ambitious and beautiful as Lady MacBeth as performed by Xanthe Elbrick who wowed audiences in her Broadway debut in “Coram Boy.” All have turned their prodigious talent to this domestic drama to great effect. At the opening, Elbrick laughingly described the play as “so British.” Herein lies the predicament of this story set in East London: does it play here? I say, get your tickets immediately and decide for yourself.
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