Review: Cold Storage
The Gnu Theatre, 1050 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood, 818-508-5544
by Jeff Nelson
On a very different note is the serious drama about cancer patients, Cold Storage, playing at the Gnu Theatre in North Hollywood. Alan Feinstein plays Richard Landay, a taciturn art dealer spending a couple of days at a hospital for exploratory surgery. The seriousness of his situation is further aggravated by the presence of a fellow patient, Joseph Parmigian (Len Lesser), whose acerbic tongue and confessional politics force Landay to come to terms with a bitter childhood loss. There are a couple of good reasons to see this play, not the least of which is the electric performance by Lesser, who bounces around the sterile hospital balcony in his wheelchair like a pinball, never once caring if the game goes “tilt.” The other reason is the fine writing by Ronald Ribman, who methodically drags us to a riveting climax, never missing an opportunity for a metaphysical side trip along the way. The language is beautiful and poetic, and in these two doomed men we see the stark endings of our own lives, and the bitter struggle to find meaning in the absurdity of everyday life. What can compare to the enormity of death? Financial success? A beautiful mate? The inevitable mistakes of a bad existence? It is all messy, and dying, and grief, and loss. In one startling scene, Lesser pulls his own tooth, then casually tosses it over his shoulder as a worthless stone from a crumbling edifice. Cold Storage does not wallow in its grit but neither does it trumpet inspiring speeches about human nobility. It is a simple story of two men who progress inexorably toward death, finding small tokens of meaning in each other’s company.
This production is marked by imaginative staging, with innovations of reckless abandon punctuating quiet tableaux. Jeff Seymour directs with a controlled hand, and elicits discriminating performances from the two leads. Feinstein’s performance is carefully drawn, resulting in a portrait of a restrained and melancholy man. His denial is our own, and it is with feeling that we watch his journey through the memories of a painful past. His detached personality is in sharp contrast to the volatile Lesser, who bounces this way and that with his acid humor and ever-changing personality. Together these two make for fascinating theatre.♦