Critics are ignoring the best play in New York

The concept of creativity and invention can be a doubled-edged sword. It can be fresh, uplifting and original, like the off-Broadway play directed by Michael Mailer that I’ve just seen, or it can be a phoney rip-off of a Shakespeare classic, a terrible modern take on Hamlet, blackness and homosexuality that I have not seen and do not plan to. What makes me laugh is the reviewer at the Bagel Times who gave a good one to the latter, Fat Ham, as objective a judgment as, say, an appraisal of Mao’s Little Red Book would have been in a Beijing daily circa 1964.

Favouring the message over the fun is in vogue nowadays, but Michael’s Darkness of Light: Confessions of a Russian Traveler eschews the norm, and takes flight. The play is based on the life of the painter Alexander Kaletski, who is also its playwright and co-director. He happens to be a very good friend of mine, too, as Michael has been for more than 30 years. Alexander went on to a highly successful career in stage and film production in Russia, as well as putting on underground concerts of his songs and art shows. He emigrated to America in 1975 as Russki heavies were closing in.

As Alexander’s painting career was taking off, around 30 years ago, Michael was coming down from Harvard and embarking on a career in film. Both have struck it rich since: Alexander’s autobiographical novel Metro was a bestseller, and his paintings go for lotsa moolah. He has a beautiful wife, Anna, who runs their gallery, and once upon a time discovered a young painter, an Austro-Greek by the name of John Taki. She invited him to come to New York and exhibit some of his latest art but he felt unready for the challenge.