Orphans (Lyle Kessler play)

''Orphans'' is a play by Lyle Kessler. It premiered in 1983 at The Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles, where it received critical and commercial success and won the Drama-Logue Award. The play has been performed by the Steppenwolf Theatre and on Broadway in 2013.

Production history

''Orphans'' premiered at the Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles in August 1983, and featured Joe Pantoliano, Lane Smith and Paul Lieber.Gilbert, Ryan
"No Dead End Ahead! How Lyle Kessler's Orphans Grew Into a Modern Fable & Found a Home on Broadway"
broadway.com, April 4, 2013

In January through March 1985 the play was produced at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, with direction by Gary Sinise and starring John Mahoney, Terry Kinney and Kevin Anderson. Sinise said the play "kicked" the three actors "off into the movie business." John Mahoney, who received the Derwent Award and Theatre World Award for his performance said that "''Orphans'' affected people more than any other play I've ever done. I still get mail from it, I still get people stopping me on the street, and it's twenty years later."

After its Chicago run, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company production premiered Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre, running from May 7, 1985 to January 6, 1986, with a replacement cast consisting of Steppenwolf member Gary Cole, Corey Parker and William Wise.

''Orphans'' was the first Steppenwolf production to be performed internationally in London, premiering in the West End at the Apollo Theatre in 1986. Albert Finney as Harold won an Olivier Award as Actor of the Year.

The Steppenwolf productions in London and the United States helped establish Kessler's status as a major American playwright as well as the company's signature "rock and roll" brand of theatre.
Gans, Andrew and Simonson, Robert
"''Orphans'' Will Bow on Broadway in 2009; Pacino Will Likely Star"
playbill.com, April 11, 2008 To help highlight the emotional intensity of Kessler's parable, they featured an assortment of compositions by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays to be played in the background; the pieces have remained optional for every production since.

In 2005, Al Pacino did a workshop of the play at the Greenway Court Theatre, Los Angeles; Jesse Eisenberg and Southland's Shawn Hatosy co-starred.

''Orphans'' made its Broadway debut at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on April 7, 2013. The production, directed by Daniel Sullivan, starred Ben Foster as Treat, Tom Sturridge as Phillip and Alec Baldwin as Harold. The production closed on May 19, 2013 after 37 performances. The play received two Tony Award nominations, for Best Revival of a Play and Best Leading Actor in a Play (Sturridge). The production was originally slated to star Shia LaBeouf as Treat, but he departed the production during rehearsals after coming into conflict with Baldwin.
''Orphans'' has reached many fans beyond the typical theater crowd, counting Lou Reed and Tom Waits among its most ardent admirers.

The play was adapted into a film of the same name. The film stars Matthew Modine, Albert Finney and Kevin Anderson.

According to Kessler, "The play has been done everywhere, from Japan to Iceland to Mexico to South America.... It just boggles the mind. It’s amazing: the evolution of the play and its reception in the world."

Synopsis

Two grown orphan brothers live in an old dilapidated row house in North Philadelphia—deserted in childhood by an unfaithful father and by the death of their mother.

Older brother Treat, brutal and violent, provides for his younger brother Phillip by being a petty thief—interpreting the role of father.

With the love and protectiveness of an older brother and an orphan's fear of abandonment, Treat takes away Phillip's chances to grow up, depriving him of knowledge and forcing him to live in a world of illiteracy and innocence: relegating him to their lost childhood.

As Treat is out stealing to put food on the table, Phillip never leaves the house, thinking he will die from something outside because of a near deadly allergic reaction he had as a child.

Haunted by the death of their mother, he spends his time lying in her closet filled with unworn clothes. Curious about the world, he secretly attempts to understand things by watching reruns of ''The Price Is Right'' and underlining words in newspapers and old books he finds lying around.

Treat kidnaps and ties up a Chicago gangster named Harold. Harold, an orphan himself, with the prowess of an escape artist, loosens the ties that bind him, turns the tables around, and with gun in hand, puts himself into the role of teacher, healer and surrogate parent.

Critical reception

A 1985 review of Sinise's production, by ''The Record'', compared the play with the 1955 black comedy film '' The Ladykillers'' and the 1958 Italian criminal-comedy film ''Big Deal on Madonna Street'' and wrote, "while one might be tempted to chuckle at Kessler's old-fashioned dramaturgy, it's a fine example of its kind and gorgeously performed by a cast of three under the direction of Gary Sinise... Sinise has staged the piece in a realistic idiom with highly theatrical accents lifelike scenes that begin and end in tableaux, actors throwing themselves around like rag dolls, extravagantly long pauses..."

The play was described by ''The New York Times'' as "theater for the senses and emotions."

T.H. McCulloh of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote it is "just as wise and knowledgeable about the human condition" as Tennessee Williams and "also as theatrical as Williams. Kessler has something very important to say, and he says it in terms we can't ignore. The biggest message is that we need each other, and that's something the viewer can't ignore...."

Tony Adler of the ''Chicago Reader'' declared, "Lyle Kessler's unassuming tale of two nearly feral brothers and the mysterious businessman who befriends them was and remains among the most devastating things I've seen onstage."

John Simon wrote in the ''National Review'', "The play was a synthetic contraption out of Pinter and Sam Shepard, but it worked as a showcase for energetic actors and a clever director."

''The Miami Herald

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