Duck

IRT Theater, NYC, October-November 2019

Duck (Billy) has reached the end of his rope and only communicates by quacking.  After a
career in the CIA, which has led to a downward emotional spiral, he finds himself on a park
bench, which happens to be the home of his older brother Crumb (John), who was also once
a CIA operative and Duck's boss.  Crumb lost faith in the system, leaving his younger brother
to kill for reasons of state while he, Crumb, dropped out of society.

In the opening scene, Abbie, who has undergone a personal travail of her own, enters and tries
to talk to Duck, who only quacks.  However, he will talk to his brother.  Abbie is very taken with the
injured Duck (though not at all with his acerbic brother) and tries to befriend him.  Crumb tires of
the game and drags Duck off the bench to take a voyage through Duck's past, so he can
understand how he found himself there.

Duck sees the man he had killed in Damascus (probably innocent), watches his father (once an
eminent neurobiologist, but now decimated with Alzheimer's disease) euthanized in Rotterdam
and even explores his original psychic injuries, as a bullied elementary school student.  His
brother protected him from exterior threats in that long ago, though bullied him when they were
alone together.

We also meet his wife, his journalist biographer (Duck has been awarded an Intelligence Star Award for his work in the Middle East) and see him in therapy.

We end where we began: with Duck, Crumb and Abbie in the play's "present."  Duck never is able to speak directly with Abbie, but she feels strongly that she can save him from whatever internal war he is going through.  They exit together, unable to communicate but somehow bound together, and Crumb is left alone on his bench.

This production was directed by Katrin Hilbe, and starred Mark Peters, Kellye Rowland and Annemarie Hagenaars in various roles, Tom Paolino as Crumb and Michael Cirelli as Duck.

Cast

Michael Sean Cirelli (DUCK)

Tom Paolino (CRUMB)

Kellye Rowland (ABBIE/TESS/SUSAN)

Annemarie Hagenaars (WEIGERT/DOCTOR)

Mark Peters (MARVIN/PRIEST)

Paula Rossman (FRATES)

Crew

Katrin Hilbe (Director)

Jefferson Ridenour (Scenic Design)

Joyce Liao (Lighting Design)

Andy Evan Cohen (Sound Design)

Cathy Small (Costume Design)

Michael Hagins (Fight Director) 

Perri Sparano (Stage Manager)

Spin Cycle (Public Relations)

Special thanks to Jie Ma for her help building the set.

Reviews:

“If you enjoy theater, this is a play you should see . . . an extraordinarily well done production asking an important question . . . When viewing CRUMB 's interrogation of his younger brother think AOC questioning Mark Zuckerberg - the moral center wrenching the heart of the amoral, well rewarded pleaser.” - ShowScore

“Everything about the experience of seeing this play felt rebellious. Tom Block's play, cloaked in a Beckettian absurdist frame explores the mental unraveling of a CIA probability crunching analyst who realizes too late that his 60% report might have cost an innocent American his life. Layers of uncertainty undo brainwashed American military righteousness in all its nuances that affect every aspect of his life. I like that Mr. Block leaves for us to ponder whether Duck will live in the world of the rationalists or the world of his brother Crumb, who took a moral stance and was marginalized into homelessness from a prestigious Defense Dept. psychologist position. Kudos to the whole production team for speaking truth to power with this gem of a play. We need more plays like this that challenge and explore our blind assumptions to political hegemony.” - ShowScore

"More than once in the last three years, I’ve been stunned into silence by the rabid stupidity coming out of Washington. “Quack! Quack! Quack!” says Duck. The White House and Senate might as WELL be quacking, considering the total lack of substance and intelligence coming out of them (I’ve frequently wondered what William F. Buckley would be saying about these political cretins). Duck made me think anew about these important things, from a slightly different point of view. That’s what good theater is supposed to do, make you think, and I’m happy to say that this small, intelligent play does it very well.” - Jan Ewing, Hi Drama

“Duck is darkly funny and often disturbing.  Directed with a perfect sense of pacing by Katrin Hilbe, we see a modern version of our brother's keeper.  One brother William or Duck, an ex-CIA agent,  has approved his father's choice of the right-to-die, even though the man has dementia.  The other brother, also ex-CIA, would not sign, and now lives on a park bench on which William sits. Tom Block has created a brilliant selection of characters to bring us into the core feelings of angst, anxiety and betrayal that now accompany us daily as we watch the values of our country unravel before us. 
The cast is uniformly excellent.  Michael Sean Cirelli as Duck, moves convincingly between the articulate CIA operative and a deeply moving human who has lost his voice. He performd work chores he never imagined himself capable of.  Tom Paolino is his brother Crumb who has ended up homeless and claims a park bench as his own.
The playwright is also a visual artist who painted on the engaging panels which decorate the set.  A man electrified with spiked hair shooting out every which way, and hands from which the fingernails have been removed, keep us centered on the very real issues which dog our lives. We may not have ordered torture, we may not have delivered it, but we are complicitous in America today. 
Sounds funny?  Probably not. But the combination of absurdity, reality and a broad take on character make this drama darkly touching.  
- Susan Hall, Berkshire Fine Arts

Interview with Tom Block on HVY.com