Charlotte Maier, Lois Markle
Charlotte Maier, Bob Ari, Max Gordon Moore
Charlotte Maier & Bob Ari
By: Sandi Durell
Mysteries and crimes that still need resolution continue to plague those who seek the truth. The Kennedy Assassination and subsequent murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby is the theme of this production currently at 59e59 Theaters, written by Ronnie Cohen and Jane Beale, directed by Karen Carpenter.
The story deals specifically with a journalist and researcher, Joan Ross, played by Charlotte Maier, who must get to the truth as she reads and re-reads the Warren Commission Report, keeps looking at old TV footage, deciding it’s all a lot of hooey. Her quest to uncover the real facts creates a liason with a young nerdy-type filmmaker, Ira Basil, played by Max Gordon Moore, who isn’t as interested in the facts as much as he is in picking up his waning career.
Joan’s ex-boyfriend and still friend Aaron (Bob Ari) is a gambler owing big money to the mob. She confides in him about the film script she’s writing with Ira and her own sleuthing into the real facts, having now visited Jack Ruby’s sister Eileen (Lois Markle) and uncovering details never before known about Ruby’s connection to the mob. Aaron, inadvertently, repeats her stories to the mob runner Joe (Joe Tapper).
This 90 minute production is a statement by the writers, in their dissatisfaction after 50 years, that there are no real answers about Jack Ruby and a mob connection that have come forward. They have, apparently (authors’ note), spent endless hours overwhelmed by source materials yielding no answers feeling the public has received half-truths, disinformation, controversy and that somebody’s covering up something!
The play is adequately performed with a passionate performance by Maier who presents as sometimes manic in her quest to uncover the truth about Ruby; Moore plays well as an unconcerned youth of the times as long as he gets what he needs; Ari is believable as the stressed out gambler; Markle does well as the lonely elderly sister who really needed a friend and Tapper comes off typically mobster-style.
The production may not win any awards but will surely renew interest in the JFK assassination.
*Photos: Douglas Denoff
Thru Dec. 15th – 212 279-4200 59e59.org
