Add “Austin” to the list of dysfunctional family plays, but I’m afraid the play itself is not too functional. The drama by Edla Cusick, directed by Ed Setrakian, is built around Austin Cassidy, a failed mess of a husband who is an alcoholic trying to recover and exasperates his wife by turning up with promises that this time all will be different, and yet we --and she-- know it will not.
The setting is mostly in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. To further complicate matters, Austin’s brother, Martin (James McCaffrey), is having sex with Austin’s wife, Petra (Rochelle Bostrom). I should also mention that Austin also has gay tendencies, coupled with suicidal tendencies. What a Cassidy casserole! There is also AJ Cedeño as Andy, who in the process of helping Austin with rehab teaches him to garden. Austin has a daughter, Dory (Michaela Waites).
Thomas G. Waites gives his heartfelt all in the title role, but his performance is so consistently and hysterically over the top that one is hard pressed to believe anyone could stand ihs presence for more than a few moments. The tone, for all of the sincerity in Waites’s acting, undercuts possibilities to sympathize with him. Playing Austin more moderately as a tortured soul might have been far more effective.
It takes 90 minutes with no intermission for all of this to be worked out, but in the end, despite the intensity, it is hard to care much emotionally for what has happened. At the Lion Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street. Reviewed August 5, 2016.