Willy Holtzman’s The Morini Stradis an odd evening. The audience the night I saw it was full of white-haired music lovers, who, because of the subject matter, filled the theater. We all expected that there would be lots of good music played. Alas, the magical violin-playing of Hanah Stuart, isn’t 10 percent of the play, which studies a very old former violin prodigy (a totally convincing Mary Beth Peil whose depth of feeling fills the theater) who owns a Stradivarius violin that needs repair so she can sell it. Also on hand is a young man (a rather flat Michael Laurence, reciting all his lines) who makes and repairs violins.
The Morini Strad’s uninteresting beginning is full of unenlightening conversation directed at a snail’s pace by Casey Childs. The boredom is interrupted by the very occasional lovely, tasteful, Ms Stuart’s wonderful violin playing — as a flashback to the old woman’s past. There is a conflagration about Art near the end of Act one, at which point Mr. Lawrence begins to open up and is fine from there on. Following is lots of exposition about the career, etc., of Ms Peil’s life as a concert violinist.
Well-produced, Morini Strad offers Neil Patel’s fine set, M.L. Geiger’s lighting, and terrific projections by Jan Hartley which expand the playing area beautifully. The pace and action do pick up as the play unwinds.
After the play, Ms. Stuart gave us a short violin concert, and I must say that she, in the play and after it, was the most exciting part of the evening. The great jazz musician Charlie Parker once said to a friend of mine, “The first thing a saxophone player has to be able to do is . . . make a pretty sound.” Hanah Stuart makes a pretty sound— clean, clear, beautiful, thrilling.
