Sofonyas, Will Ingram, and Anastasia Locke serve as parks ambassadors in The Vessel (photo by Jacob Ruth)
THE VESSEL
59E59 Theaters
59 East 59th St. between Park & Madison Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through August 30, $42
www.59e59.org
As a frequent visitor to the Shed and the High Line, I’ve been obsessed with the Vessel since it first started construction as the centerpiece of Hudson Yards on the Far West Side of Manhattan. Initially, there was little publicly known about the structure, which I considered a bit of a monstrosity as it proceeded toward the heavens. Ultimately, we learned that it would be a 150-foot-tall tourist attraction with 8 levels, 154 flights of stairs, and 2,500 interconnected steps, offering photogenic 360-degree views of the city to up to as many as 1,000 visitors at a time.
“Vessel is one of the most complex pieces of steelwork ever made . . . assembled ahead of schedule and with astonishing geometric accuracy,” Thomas Heatherwick, head of the studio that built it at a cost of approximately $200 million, said at the topping-out in December 2017. Vessel — officially, “the” is not part of its name — opened on March 15, 2019.
It closed in January 2021 after a third person jumped off it, dying by suicide.
Brendan George’s finely tuned play, The Vessel, takes place around three critical days, December 22, 2020, and January 11 and July 29, 2021, in the Vessel’s history. Drake (Sofonyas) and Missy (Anastasia Locke) are two twentysomethings and good friends working as parks ambassadors on the installation; their nearly impossible job, Missy explains to new hire Vïggo (Will Ingram), is to “help anyone who needs it. We can’t go up to every person, so our task is to be a ‘supportive and accessible presence.’” Essentially, they have to look out for anyone who seems uncomfortable or appears to be in distress and might be thinking of killing themselves.
The suspicious Drake has a tendency to go down online rabbit holes that he insists are not conspiracy theories, spending a lot of time watching videos that depict real violence. Missy is a more fun-loving person whose spirit animal is a dolphin and who appreciates working outside. Giving background of the Vessel to Viggo, Drake shares a December 2016 quote from the Architect’s Newspaper in which journalist Audrey Wachs wrote, “When you build high, folks will jump.” Missy is not happy that Drake starts Viggo’s indoctrination that way, arguing, “We don’t need to talk about it! Unless it’s absolutely unavoidable. And now is not one of those times.”
Viggo, meanwhile, is curious why they stand around chatting with each other so much on the job, but Missy explains that it is necessary to keep them alert. Viggo tries to fit in but is often awkward, especially when enthusiastic, and he seems to be hiding something — but then he will come up with a fascinating statement.
At one point he compares the Vessel to a panopticon, which he describes as “a special prison where one person can see all the inmates. Because of the shape of the prison.” Drake replies, “But maybe we are the prisoners?” Viggo adds, “Actually, there wouldn’t even need to be a guard at all because each person would police themself thinking they’re being watched. That’s the irony, each person in a panopticon becomes both prison guard and prisoner unto themself.”
It’s an apt metaphor for any human being and the worlds each of us creates in our heads, our own unique vessels, as we contemplate the next steps.
Three twentysomething parks ambassadors are on the lookout for potential jumpers in The Vessel (photo by Jacob Ruth)
Over ninety minutes, Drake, Missy, and Viggo discuss life’s little and bigger issues, offer surprising personal details, and explore ideas about death; Viggo in particular spouts how people should be able to choose how they go, no matter how, where, or when.
Scenic designer Tony DiBernardo’s claustrophobic set is a small triangular central platform with lines and grooves that echo the shape of the Vessel, with the limited audience sitting on all four sides; occasionally the characters walk off the platform to speak with an unseen visitor they think may need help. It can be odd when they stand in the corner as the action continues on the platform, but there’s nowhere else for them to go in the tiny theater. It also feels strange when they talk so loudly that any visitors would be able to hear them — would these chatty ambassadors actually make anyone feel safe?
George and director Peter Charney, who previously collaborated on the Drama Desk–nominated A Eulogy for Roman, deal with some difficult subjects in the absorbing play, and they do so admirably, steering clear of clichés, although there is some repetition, and the narrative finds a few rabbit holes of its own. In their off-Broadway debuts, Sofonyas (Romeo and Juliet, The Pillowman), Ingram (World’s Greatest Lover, The Liar), and Locke (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; She Comes Home) form an appealing trio who will grow on you. At the heart of the show is how, in many ways, we are all guards and prisoners, unable to always recognize potential problems with friends, relatives, strangers, and ourselves who may be considering extreme actions.
“What a vulnerable vessel the human body makes for the human soul,” poet, novelist, and playwright Greer Macallister surmised in her 2020 novel, The Arctic Fury. After Drake defends his obsession with violent videos and online research of the government, Missy says, “I don’t think we need the footage. Personally. I really do not want to see it. None of us should. Because, look. Look at what it does to your eyes. And your soul.”
Following a fourth suicide, in the summer of 2021, this time a fourteen-year-old boy, the Vessel was closed for three years before reopening with additional safety measures, including steel-mesh nets and the top two levels off limits to visitors. Admission, which was initially free, is now ten to twenty dollars and is free for New York City residents on Thursdays; there is also a fifty-dollar Vessel Run training class. I am not planning on going anytime soon.
When I walk past it on my travels to the area, I can’t help but wonder if the people taking pictures of it know the full story as they smile and pose for the camera.
In Eric Levenson’s August 2021 CNN article “After latest suicide, the Vessel in New York City’s Hudson Yards ponders its future,” retired CCNY Spitzer School of Architecture lecturer Jacob Alspector posits, “The Vessel is like some MC Escher nightmare. It’s kind of relentless. It’s very gaudy, it’s very cold. It’s thrilling . . . It’s not the most friendly and life-affirming and inclusive kind of space or structure. It’s kind of empty. What’s the point of it? Just to walk up and walk down?”
You’re much better off seeing The Vessel at 59E59, which is far more friendly, life-affirming, and inclusive.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]