 (pictured left: Martin Balsam as Parmigian)
On March 27th 1977, Ronald Ribman’s play Cold Storage opened at The American Place Theatre. It was his fifth play to be produced with APT and the first to make the move to Broadway, where, at the Lyceum Theatre, it ran as a stream-lined two act, three character piece focusing on the conversations of two patients at a hospital in New York City. Set on a roof garden, Ribman investigates the point of living on in the face of death. Joseph Parmigian, a pontificating ex-fruit and vegetable salesman, refuses to let silence sit while ‘the secret of the universe’ remains in the ether, while his melancholy counterpart, Richard Landau, secretly bares the weight of a tragic past. We see the struggle to maintain, man’s means of personal delusion, and the trials and tribulations of modern medicine. Parmigian and Landau find hope in each other’s idiosyncracies, and, together, press on against the looming realization that, in this life, it’s possible ‘there is no point.’
At The American Place Theatre:
Directed by: Joel Zwick
Scenic Design by: Kert Lundell
Lighting Design by: Edward M. Greenberg
Costume Design by: Ruth Morley
With: Martin Balsam (Parmigian), Michael Lipton (Landau), Paul Sparer (Reisen), and Julie Carmen (Miss Madurga)
At The Lyceum Theatre on Broadway:
Directed by: Frank Corsaro
Scenic and Costume Design by: Karl Eigsti
Lighting Design by: William Mintzer
With: Martin Balsam (Parmigian), Len Cariou (Landau), and Ruth Rivera (Miss Madurga)
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History 