Sunday, November 18, 2018

The Hard Problem

B-

This 2015 play by Tom Stoppard (The Coast of Utopia, Arcadia, Travesties), his first in nine years, has finally reached New York in a sleek Lincoln Center Theater production directed by Jack O’Brien (The Coast of Utopia, The Little Foxes). While not among Stoppard’s best efforts, it offers much of interest. The titular problem refers to determining the nature of human consciousness. When we meet Hilary (Adelaide Clemens; Hold On to Me Darling), she is a psychology student preparing for a job interview at the Krohl Institute of Brain Science with the assistance of her tutor Spike (Chris O’Shea; The History Boys), whose interest in her is not entirely academic. They debate whether altruism is just egoism’s disguised survival mechanism. When she arrives at Krohl for her interview, she meets Amal (Eshan Bajpay: Can You Forgive Her?), a “quant” who is competing for the same job. While he is not hired by department head Leo (Robert Petkoff; All the Way, Ragtime), Amal accidentally attracts the attention of Jerry (the excellent Jon Tenney; The Heiress), the hedge fund manager who has founded the institute, and ends up being hired at the fund. Hilary also runs into former schoolmate Julia (Nina Grollman; The Iceman Cometh), who teaches Pilates to institute employees, and Julia’s lover Ursula (Tara Summers; Gypsy of Chelsea), who works there. Julia’s main function in the play is to impart the information that when she was 15 Hilary had a daughter who was immediately put up for adoption. Ursula gives Hilary advice that will improve her chances of getting the job. We see Jerry in two roles, barking mercilessly at Amal, and being solicitous to his 13-year old daughter Cathy (Katie Beth Hall). Did I mention that she’s adopted? (Wink, wink). Hilary thrives in her new job and is sent to a conference in Venice to present a paper. Spike conveniently is also there and they hook up again. Hilary hires an assistant Bo (Karoline Xu; You Across from Me) who has left the hedge fund for the institute to feel she is doing work that contributes to society. Her boyfriend is none other than Amal. Hilary throws a party to celebrate the publishing of a paper about an experiment that Bo conducted under her guidance that suggests that altruism is innate and egoism is learned. It turns out that Bo tampered with the data to get a result that would please Hilary. As a consequence of the experiment, Hilary also finds out that her prayers for her daughter’s wellbeing have been answered. What you might expect to be the climax takes plays offstage and the play ends on a very quiet note. The ongoing debates over altruism vs. selfishness, coincidence vs. miracle, brain vs. mind take precedence over plot. In addition to the principal roles, there is an ensemble of six (John Patrick Doherty, Eleanor Handley, Olivia Hebert, Sagar Kiran, Baylen Thomas and Kim Wong) whose function consists of moving sets between scenes and sitting on risers at the back of the stage watching the other actors. While David Rockwell’s (She Loves Me, The Nap) scenic design is a wonder of drop-down panoramas, pop-up beds, movable furniture, and sliding panels, it somehow seems distracting for a play that is basically about ideas. Catherine Zuber’s (My Fair Lady, Oslo) costumes are apt. O’Brien’s direction is a bit too busy for my taste. While the play never deeply engaged me, it did hold my interest. I was surprised that Ms. Clemens got a solo bow during the curtain call as her performance, while quite competent, did not reach star level. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission.

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