In the first days of the COVID-19 shutdown, many theaters scrambled to find archival production videos of high enough quality to warrant public streaming—either for free or for a (relatively) low suggested donation. As the months have dragged on with stages remaining dark, more companies are creating brand-new content for the online stage. Some of it speaks directly to the weird-and-scary-as-hell moment in which we’re living. And some of it provides a little respite from that hell—or at least gives us a theatrical handbag to enjoy on the ride down.
Blank and Jensen first got national attention with The Exonerated, their 2000 docu-play about six wrongfully convicted inmates released after new evidence cleared them. For The Line, they interviewed several health-care workers on the front lines in New York City: EMTs, nurses, and doctors. The actors deliver their stories in character through a series of interwoven monologues from their own homes. (The streaming production is free, though the Public suggests donations to the Physician Affiliate Group of New York and Public Health Solutions.)
And just as the Disney Plus streaming version of Hamilton lets us see close-ups not possible from the balcony, the intimacy of the camera here captures the shifting and competing emotions running through all the characters as they fight both a viral enemy and bumbling bureaucracy.
The Line and Ride Share offered a glimpse of hell, but leave it to Hell in a Handbag to find the campy side of quarantine. Artistic director David Cerda reimagines the company’s long-running (and cheerfully dirty-minded) homage to Dorothy, Sophia, Blanche, and Rose as a Zoom sitcom, directed by Spenser Davis. (Cerda also plays Dorothy.)
The Line, through 8/4 at publictheater.org, F; Plays for the People, through 11/8, see blacklivesblackwords.org for schedule, $22; The Golden Girls: The Lost Episodes, Vol. 4—LOCKDOWN!, through 8/15, handbagproductions.org, $20.
