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Cynthia Nixon Does Anything But Vanish in The Seven Year Disappear
She and Taylor Trensch lead an ambitious, if rangy, survey of mother-son dynamics.
You can approach it allegorically and abstractly (just survey the career of Stephen Sondheim) or by putting the two generations onstage, sitting in chairs staring across from each other, as Cynthia Nixon and Taylor Trensch do at the start of The Seven Year Disappear. Establishing a level of warmth between them is crucial groundwork, because almost immediately it’s gone — a few minutes after that scene, Miriam disappears from the face of the Earth, leaving Naphtali in the dark about whether or not it’s part of an art project. It’s a pity, however, whenever Seavey relocates us to Miriam’s return in 2016, that director Scott Elliott has both Nixon and Trensch amped up to 11, in extended shouting matches that dull the effect of the drama.
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