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March 2, 2007
TT: In the belly of the beast
In today's Wall Street Journal drama column, I review the four shows I saw in California last week, Speed-the-Plow at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, The Four of Us at the Old Globe in San Diego, Life Is a Dream at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, and Hedda Gabler at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco:Going to Los Angeles to see David Mamet’s snarlingly comic snapshot of the movie business is like going to a sausage factory to make fun of the pigs, and this production pulls no punches. Greg Germann and Jon Tenney come on like buzzsaws as Charlie and Bobby, the up-and-coming studio execs who claim to be proud of their artistic whoredom, while Ms. Silverstone is just right as Karen, the (seemingly) innocent office girl who falls into their clutches….
Itamar Moses made a biggish splash two seasons ago with “Bach in Leipzig,” a historical fantasia in the manner of Tom Stoppard whose cocky virtuosity was all the more impressive in light of the fact that its author was just 28 years old. Now the Old Globe is putting on Mr. Moses’ latest play, “The Four of Us,” a two-man comedy about a pair of twentysomething writers, one of whom (Gideon Banner) is more successful than the other (Sean Dugan). “Nobody gives a damn about a writer and his problems except another writer,” Harold Ross, the founder of the New Yorker, famously declared. Mr. Moses has proved him wrong, for “The Four of Us” turns out to be a graceful little meditation on friendship and envy, smart and sweet and deftly pointed….
South Coast Repertory is a suburban theater (it’s 45 minutes from downtown Los Angeles when traffic is light, which it usually isn’t) known for having given the first performances of such successful plays as “The Clean House,” “Intimate Apparel,” “Prelude to a Kiss” and “Wit.” It’s also the West Coast home of Kate Whoriskey, one of America’s most creative young directors. Her latest show is a new translation by Nilo Cruz (“Anna in the Tropics”) of “Life Is a Dream,” Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s 1635 verse drama about a prince (Daniel Breaker) who doubts the reality of the world he sees around him….
Ms. Whoriskey is a hot name on the regional-theater circuit, but she hasn’t done anything in New York since the 2004 premiere of Lynn Nottage’s “Fabulation” at Playwrights Horizons. Don’t ask me why. Like all of her productions, this one is outrageously imaginative and unfailingly absorbing….
My last “Hedda Gabler” was the Sydney Theatre Company’s sped-up, semi-modernized adaptation, in which Cate Blanchett gave a flamboyant performance that reminded me of Bette Davis on a bumpy night. After seeing that wrong-headed but undeniably exciting production, I couldn’t help but feel that A.C.T.’s plain-Jane version was a bit too respectable for its own good….
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Posted March 2, 2007 12:00 PM
