The Wanderers

 C+

 

After productions in San Diego, Pittsburgh and Washington, Anna Ziegler’s (The Last Match, Boy, Actually) two-family drama has arrived in Manhattan at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre. The two Jewish couples at the center of the action are both Brooklyn residents, but otherwise have very little in common. When we first meet them on their wedding night, Esther (Lucy Freyer) and Shmuli (Dave Klasko) are members of the Satmar Hasidic community whose marriage was arranged and who barely know each other. Sophie (Sarah Cooper) and Abe (Eddie Kaye Thomas; Golden Age, The Submission) are writers in their thirties who have known each other virtually all their lives. Sophie is biracial, but that turns out to have very little to do with the plot. One of Abe’s books won a Pulitzer while Sophie’s only book bombed. Both wives are expected to defer to their spouse’s needs and both are chafing at their situation. At a book reading, the neurotic, self-absorbed Abe spots movie star Julia Cheever (Katie Holmes; All My Sons, Dead Accounts) in the audience, becomes obsessed with her, and begins an online relationship. For the first hour of the play, we are in the dark what, if any, is the connection between the two couples. Then there was finally a dramatic development that engaged my interest and, subsequently, a reveal that seemed too gimmicky. Each scene is a duo, either between a husband and wife or between Abe and Julia. The main feature of the set by Marion Williams (Him) is a long conference table with six chairs. The back wall is made entirely of pages of opened books, through which a blue light occasionally shines. The floor is piled with more books. Chapter titles are projected between scenes. I gathered that the set and titles were intended to lend a literary weight to the proceedings. It didn’t work for me. The costumes by David Israel Reynoso (Sleep No More, The Burnt City) were appropriate. The actors were competent but not outstanding. Those expecting a star turn from Katie Holmes will be disappointed. Barry Edelstein (All My Sons, The Twenty-Seventh Man) directed. I was left with a feeling of regret that nothing quite clicked. Others near me seemed to be enjoying themselves more. Running time: one hour 45 minutes without intermission.

The Last Match

C

This new play by Anna Ziegler (A Delicate Ship, Boy) at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre is nominally about tennis. The two main characters are Tim Porter (Wilson Bethel), a 34-year-old American six-time U.S. Open winner [talk about artistic license!] who has been having a bad year and is rumored to be considering retirement, and Sergei Sergeyev (Alex Mickiewicz), a hot-tempered young Russian who has yet to break into the top ten. The action of the play takes place when they meet for the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Their play is frequently interrupted by soliloquies and memory scenes involving their significant others, i.e. Tim’s wife Mallory (Zoe Winters; The Harvest) and Sergei’s girlfriend Galina (Natalia Payne; Me, Myself & I). Tennis may be at the forefront, but it is there to illustrate the clash of career and family, ambition and fulfillment, selfishness and altruism, as well as the corrosiveness of celebrity and the fickleness of the crowd. Each character has something tragic in his or her past. In one case, the tragedy threatens to overwhelm the main event. The concept of the match as a platform for backstories is an interesting one, but I didn’t think it was handled particularly well. I found much of the material a bit trite. The ending may be appropriate, but it doesn’t satisfy. The cast perform well, although I can’t vouch for the verisimilitude of the tennis strokes. The set by Tim Mackabee (Vietgone) is attractive. Bradley King’s colored lights are prettier than they are functional. Gaye Taylor Upchurch’s (Animal) direction is fluid. If you don’t know anything about tennis scoring, you may find yourself adrift. Running time: 95 minutes; no interimssion.

Boy *

I had high hopes for Anna Ziegler’s new play, now in previews at Keen Company in a co-production with Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Ziegler’s recent play “A Delicate Ship” was intriguing, the topic of nature vs. nurture in the context of gender reassignment surgery sounded promising, and the star was Bobby Steggert, an actor whose work I have always admired. The play is based on an actual case. When Sam, one of their twin boys is accidentally mutilated in a botched circumcision, his parents turn to a famous physician who persuades them to remove the boy’s remaining genitals and raise him as a girl. Eventually, nature trumps nurture and the adolescent Samantha decides to live in accordance with genetic makeup. Most of the action takes place when the protagonist, now known as Adam, is 22, but there are flashbacks to the birth year and the years in between. Trudy and Doug, the parents faced with the terrible decision of how to raise their damaged child, are well-played by Heidi Armbruster and Ted Koch. Jenny (Rebecca Rittenhouse) is effective as the woman Adam takes a shine to. Paul Niebanck as Dr. Wendell Barnes, the doctor who treated Samantha for a dozen years and is blinded by the desire to prove his theories, comes across as stiff. Steggert’s character seems too childlike as an adult and too grown up as a child, a fault I blame on the playwright and, to a lesser extent, on director Linsay Firman. The dialog is extremely clunky at times and the situation’s inherent potential for drama is largely unrealized. The scenic design by Sandra Goldmark featuring a second set of furnishings upside down and in reverse above the main set behind a scrim seemed like a clumsy metaphor. Unfortunately, my high expectations led to deep disappointment. Running time: 85  minutes; no intermission.

A Delicate Ship ***

The Playwrights Realm is presenting this intriguing new play by Anna Ziegler at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Sarah (Miriam Silverman), a social worker in her early 30s, and Sam (Matt Dellapina), a budding musician, have been a couple for several months. Their quiet Christmas Eve at Sarah’s apartment is interrupted by a sudden knock at the door. The uninvited guest is Nate (Nick Westrate), Sarah’s close friend since childhood. Bearing champagne and weed, Nate insinuates himself into their evening. Sam and Nate have neither met nor heard of each other before. Nate is an intensely self-centered overgrown child, filled with existential dread that the world existed before him and will go on after him. He has longed for Sarah since childhood as the only person who can save him and has showed up that night to persuade her to choose him. Like Icarus in Breugel’s famous painting, he fears that his suffering may go unnoticed. Each character breaks the fourth wall periodically to tell the audience about previous as well as future events. The urge to please one’s parents is a theme that recurs. The title comes from the image of time as a ship delicately navigating the shoals between past and future. The events of that evening have a profound effect on all three characters.The actors are all excellent, the set by Reid Thompson is evocative, the costumes by Sydney Maresca are fine and the direction by Margot Bordelon is smooth. The playwright is not always in full command of her material, but shows considerable promise. Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission.