Sam Guncler, as Leo, tells a story to Amanda Kristin Nichols (Chris) and Leighton Samuels (Jake) in the world premiere of Cary Gitter's "The Steel Man," directed by Joe Brancato at Penguin Rep in Stony Point, New York. Photo by Dorice Arden Madronero.
Leo Gellert has nothing but time to sit alone in his "no frills" home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh in March 1983. His wife has been dead a year. Her headstone has been placed. His son, Jake, checks in on him regularly.
But Leo's not really alone. He's never really alone.
He has memories of his village in Hungary. Of the inn his family ran and the farm he managed. Of his brothers and his sister. Of a long-ago brush with a larger life. Of his mother and a choice she made for him. Of a friend's betrayal. Of the ghetto. Of Auschwitz. Of facing deprivation and grief while others met a quick and deadly fate. He remembers his wife, Judith, with whom he carries on regular conversations. She is still as present to him as are all the others.
The memories envelope him. Good and evil.
It may not look like it, but it's crowded in that tidy home as Leo sits with his paper, dozing off, only to be jolted by a terrible memory that triggers his desire for revenge.
There's much more at work than meets the eye in Penguin Rep Theatre's world premiere of Cary Gitter's "The Steel Man," now on stage through Sept. 29. In a taut, intermissionless 90 minutes, director Joe Brancato and an able cast of three bring Gitter's characters to vibrant and complex life.
There's the aforementioned Leo, played by Sam Guncler, for whom this story is personal. His Leo is flesh and blood and sinew, animated by those memories. Guncler is no stranger to Penguin and his return is nothing short of a triumph, introducing the appreciative barn-theater audience to a secretive man of many facets. We can never fully fathom what Leo endured, but Guncler's face and mannerisms portray a stoic man in pain, desperate for some semblance of control.
Leighton Samuels plays Leo's son, Jake, who is still coming to grips with having been raised in that Squirrel Hill home, under the roof of a haunted man whose memories sometimes got the better of him. We see the play through Jake's eyes, trying to understand Leo, even as more secrets come to light. Samuels' Jake is also well wrought, a man caught in the shadow of his father's pain and the promise of a future away from Pittsburgh, if only he can break free from the ties that bind.
Jake worries that Leo's circle is getting smaller, that his father is withdrawing from synagogue, not spending time outside the home. He knows how Leo's mind works, how "he perceives a slight and fixates on it."
Amanda Kristin Nichols, as Chris, is the outsider whose presence shreds the thin veneer of sociability that Leo tries to maintain. At first Leo charms her, stunning Jake, but before long Chris sees the volatile man Jake has described, the one whose past made it impossible to trust. Nichols' reaction to Leo's outburst is natural and effective, her outrage understandable. Chris, an investigative reporter, won't put up with such treatment and doesn't have the family ties that complicate things for Jake. Nichols shifts gears as the situation changes, from being charmed to being affronted to taking the course she feels she needs to take.
Leighton Samuels is Jake and Amanda Kristin Nichols is Chris in Cary Gitter's "The Steel Man" at Penguin Rep in Stony Point. Photo by Brian Pacelli.
"The Steel Man" marks the end of Penguin's excellent 47th year, a season that had more laughter than tears, which makes the tears of "The Steel Man" all the sweeter.
The season began with another Gitter work, the musical "The Sabbath Girl," a collaboration with Rockland's Neil Berg, followed by the return of the comedy "Centennial Casting," and the charming two-person "Dear Jack, Dear Louise," a family-origin story from Ken Ludwig of "Lend Me a Tenor" fame.
It closes with "The Steel Man," which finds Penguin at the top of its form, with scenic design by Christopher and Justin Swader, costumes by Christian Fleming, lights by Ed McCarthy, props by Dana Weintraub and original music and sound by Max Silverman.
Brancato, a first-rate shaper of stories and stage moments, has clearly found a kindred spirit in playwright-in-residence Gitter, whose work in recent years has taken Penguin audiences from the lives of Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder to a New York City knish shop in "The Sabbath Girl" to that tidy home in Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill. We will go along willingly, knowing that at Penguin we are in the surest of hands.
Gitter has a fine ear for dialogue that advances character, as in this pitch perfect speech, wherein Leo, who has learned the hard way not to trust, bares his scars with defiance.
"I'm not ready yet, you should put me in the ground. When I was little boy, I jump into fire, my brother pull me out, burn all over. But I'm alive. Labor camp, the ghetto, Auschwitz — I'm still alive. Russians try to take me, I'm still alive. After the war, police put me in jail to shoot me for taking Jewish people over the border. I'm still alive. Here in America, the steel mill, explosion burn me again. How many accidents with the cars? Steering wheel went into my chest. Still alive. Nothing, nobody gonna kill Leo Gellert!"
It is worth noting that the section of Pittsburgh where Leo sought refuge from Nazi atrocities came to know atrocities of its own. On Oct. 27, 2018, a man entered the Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire, killing 11 worshipers and wounded six others, including several Holocaust survivors, in the nation's deadliest act of anti-Semitic horror.
Sam Guncler, left, as Leo, and Leighton Samuels as Jake in Cary Gitter's "The Steel Man" at Penguin Rep in Stony Point. Photo by Dorice Arden Madronero.
Nothing's going to erase the memory of the play's final minutes, indelible thanks to Brian Pacelli's powerful projections and the impact they have on a man who has seen so much hate.
In those final moments, a son who has come to understand his father in a new way presents a gift of love that opens the door to his father's past and his own future.
And, once again, Leo Gellert is not alone, enveloped in memory.
"The Steel Man" continues its run at Penguin Rep in Stony Point through Sept. 29. Performances Thursdays and Fridays at 7, Saturdays at 3 and 7, Sundays at 2. $49. Order tickets at www.penguinrep.org or at 845-786-2873.
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