Infinite Life

 C

It’s hard for me to believe that more than three months have passed since I set foot in a theater. I wish I could say that my return to theatergoing this afternoon was a positive experience, but, alas, I cannot. Today’s performance was a late preview of Annie Baker’s latest play at the Atlantic Theater Company. My expectations were not high because, with the exception of John, I have not found any of her plays enjoyable. I was baffled that Circle Mirror Transformation won an Obie and even more surprised when The Flick bagged a Pulitzer. The Antipodes had no point that I could detect. While her ability to capture the quotidien is admirable, her plays often seem to meander aimlessly. The current play is set in an alternative medicine clinic for pain management in Northern California where the treatment is based on fasting. Of the five female patients we meet, four are of retirement age, while one, Sofi (Christina Kirk; Clybourne Park), is in her late forties. Eileen (Marylouise Burke; John, Fuddy Mears) is a returning patient who once was a Christian Scientist. Yvette (Mia Katigbak; Awake and Sing!) seems to suffer from every disease imaginable. Elaine (Brenda Presley; The Lyons) has thyroid problems, as does her absent cat. Ginnie (Kristine Nielsen; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) is unabashedly nosy. Midway through the play the handsome Nelson (Pete Simpson; Is This a Room) arrives, and upsets the equilibrium. The play covers the ten or so days that Sofi is there for treatment. Her ailments are closely tied to her psychosexual problems. She is strongly attracted to Nelson. Some of the scenes are at night with the audience seeing little more than shadows. Sofi occasionally addresses the audience to inform us how much time has elapsed between scenes. Sofi’s experiences form the center of the action, to the extent that there is any. The other female characters are underdeveloped. The acting is uniformly strong, with Kirk and Burke standing out. The usually wonderful Nielsen is essentially wasted in this role. The scenic design by dots (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window) features seven rather dilapidated lounge chairs sheltered by a wall of ornamental blocks. The costumes by Asta Bennie Hostetter (John) suit the characters well. Director James Macdonald (The Children, Cloud Nine) gives the play lots of room to breathe. The audience included many young adults who laughed frequently. I envied them for finding the play congenial. Running time: one hour 50 minutes; no intermission.

The Antipodes

C-

After being underwhelmed by Circle Mirror Transformation and angered by The Flick, I decided that Annie Baker was not a playwright I would ever appreciate. Then along came John, the first play of her Signature Theatre residency, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Now we have her second work for Signature, this strange piece that is essentially a fantasia on storytelling. I am beginning to think that John was a fluke, because I was once again disappointed. The set, by Laura Jellinek, is a conference room with grey carpet on the floor and walls, an enormous oval table surrounded by Aeron office chairs, a large oval light fixture overhead and a pile of colorful boxes of flavored soda water on the floor. The audience sits on the two long sides. Unfortunately, this configuration leads to at least three of the actors having their back to you for the entire play. When we arrive, a young man with a laptop is seated near one end of the table. He is soon joined by five men and a woman. Finally an older man, clearly the boss, arrives and sits at the head of the table. This is Sandy (Will Patton) who is in charge of the six writers around the table who are tasked with telling stories that will lead to the creation of an unspecified new project, perhaps a video game. Brian (Brian Miskell), the young man with the laptop, is there to transcribe their stories. Sandy emphasizes that anything goes in their stories, except for dwarves, elves and trolls. He induces them to tell about their first sexual experience, the worst thing that ever happened to them and their biggest regret. Dave (Josh Charles) and Danny M1 (Danny Mastrogiorno) dive right in. Adam (Phillip James Brannon) doesn’t have much to say until late in the play when he tells the longest, most fully developed story. Danny M2 (Danny McCarthy) has trouble getting into the spirit of things. Josh (Josh Hamilton) is troubled that he has yet to receive his ID badge or his paycheck. Eleanor (Emily Cass McDonnell) placidly knits most of the time. Sarah (Nicole Rodenburg), Sandy’s secretary with the affect of a Valley girl, pops in now and then to take lunch orders and announce the latest reason for Sandy’s absence. The passage of time is marked primarily by her changes of costume. Although storytelling is not part of her job, she tells one of the evening’s best tales. Some of their stories are raunchy, others gory and at least one, poetic. The stories that comprise most of the evening have no narrative arc that I could detect; nor do they really tell much about the characters who relate them. The relationships among the various writers go virtually unexplored. There are flashes of humor including a running joke about each writer having a different idea about how many kinds of stories there are. There’s a neat trick that I never figured out whereby food mysteriously appears on the table. What there is not is a cohesive plot or fully-developed characters. I suspect that the playwright had more fun coming up with ways to tease the audience than the audience has watching the play. Lila Neugebauer (The Wolves) directed. Running time: one hour 55 minutes; no intermission.

John ***

The first play in Annie Baker’s residency at Signature Theatre is now in previews there. After my exasperating experience with her Pulitzer winner The Flick, I attended with low expectations. To my great surprise, I actually enjoyed myself. The traditional crimson curtain with gold fringe covering the stage was the first sign that this was going to be something different for her. That curtain is pulled open by Georgia Engel who plays Mertis Katherine Graven, the genial innkeeper of a b&b in Gettysburg. We see the ornate sitting room with a gigantic Christmas tree and a thousand tchotchkes, stuffed animals and dolls, as well as the Parisian-themed breakfast room. Set designer Mimi Lien (Preludes, The Oldest Boy) has outdone herself. Two guests arrive — Elias Schreiber-Hoffman (Christopher Abbott of “Girls”) and Jenny Chung (Hong Chau) — a neurotic couple who have been together for a rocky three years and who have come to Gettysburg to repair the damage of a recent blow-up. From the raised voices soon after they have retreated upstairs to their room, we gather that the healing is not going well. We eventually learn why Jenny is so clingy and Elias is so mistrustful. In pain with menstrual cramps, Jenny cuts short their battlefield tour the next day while Elias goes to dinner and takes a ghost tour. Jenny and Mertis are joined by Genevieve Marduk (the wonderful Lois Smith), a blind neighbor who recounts her past brush with mental illness after she became convinced that her late husband had invaded her soul. Three times during the weekend someone asks to hear a scary story. Baker clearly had a good time developing an air of mystery and a suggestion of the imminent supernatural. There are red herrings galore including a player piano with a mind of its own, Christmas lights that turn on and off at will and a mysterious journal that Mertis keeps. What turns out to be basically a very simple story has been stretched to Baker size with three acts. Between the second and third acts, there is a unexpected treat involving Lois Smith. My only problem is that I did not find Elias and Jenny sufficiently interesting to deserve all the attention. There is no character onstage named John. I won’t reveal the reason for the title. Asta Bennie Hostetter’s costumes are fine. The clever sound design by Bray Poor involves Mertis playing CDs on a faux-antique player — Bach, more Bach and, finally, Offenbach. Director Sam Gold once again demonstrates his affinity for Baker’s sensibility. Running time: 3 hours 20 minutes including two intermissions.

The Flick (Second Try) **

I can hardly believe that I went back to see the revival of Annie Baker’s workplace dramedy, now at Barrow Street Theatre with the original cast and production team intact. When it premiered  at Playwrights Horizons two years ago, I fled (along with a good portion of the audience) at intermission. Since it subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize,  I was curious to see whether staying for Act Two might have changed my mind. To some extent, it did improve my opinion of the play. Here’s what I had to say two years ago:

The Flick (Act One) *

Annie Baker may be one of our most acclaimed young playwrights (and Sam Gold, one of the hottest young directors), but I must confess with some sadness that I don't "get" her work. I find her closely observed scenes of ordinary people doing everyday things boring and banal. I was astounded that "Circle Mirror Transformation" won an Obie and is among one of today's most frequently produced plays. Her new play at Playwrights Horizons chronicles the relationships of employees of a slightly seedy movie theater in small-town Massachusetts, likely soon to be a victim of the move to digital projection. Sam (Matthew Maher), a man in his late 30's, is breaking in a new employee, Avery (Aaron Clifton Moten), a depressed black 20-year-old. Rose (Louisa Krause), the green-haired, free-spirited projectionist, takes a shine to Avery. Alex Hanna plays a man who falls asleep in the theater. Perhaps he was destined for greater things in Act Two. I'll never know. After 90 minutes of watching Sam and Avery clean the theater numerous times and having the bright light of the projector repeatedly shined in the audience's eyes, I had had enough. The thought of returning after intermission for another 90 minutes of same was not appealing. I did enjoy seeing David Zinn's perfect recreation of a movie theater. I wish I could join the Annie Baker fan club, but clearly that is never going to happen. Running time: 3 hours, plus a 15 minute intermission.

This time around, I found the first act less annoying, because I knew in advance that there would be very little action in any traditional sense. Baker’s mastery of the mundane does hold a certain fascination and the excellence of the cast merits appreciation. She nails the boring repetitiveness of low-paying jobs and the rewards and limitations of workplace relationships. Nevertheless, I could not escape the feeling that playwright and director were testing the audience to see how much (or how little) they could get away with. Very few people left at intermission this time. Act Two was worth hanging around for. It deepens the portrayal of Avery and Sam, but does not shed much light on what makes Rose tick. There is a narrative arc of sorts, at least for Avery.

There were a few surprising weaknesses. Much of Sam’s big speech in Act Two was inaudible even from the second row. In a couple of scenes the actors were facing away from the audience as they spoke. 

I guess I’ll have to accept the fact Annie Baker’s close observations of the quotidian simply do not appeal to me.

The Flick (Act One) *

Annie Baker may be one of our most acclaimed young playwrights (and Sam Gold, one of the hottest young directors), but I must confess with some sadness that I don't "get" her work. I find her closely observed scenes of ordinary people doing everyday things boring and banal. I was astounded that "Circle Mirror Transformation" won an Obie and is among one of today's most frequently produced plays. Her new play at Playwrights Horizons chronicles the relationships of employees of a slightly seedy movie theater in small-town Massachusetts, likely soon to be a victim of the move to digital projection. Sam (Matthew Mayer), a man in his late 30's, is breaking in a new employee, Avery (Aaron Clifton Moten), a depressed black 20-year-old. Rose (Louisa Krause), the green-haired, free-spirited projectionist, takes a shine to Avery. Alex Hanna plays a man who falls asleep in the theater. Perhaps he was destined for greater things in Act Two. I'll never know. After 90 minutes of watching Stan and Avery clean the theater numerous times and having the bright light of the projector repeatedly shined in the audience's eyes, I had had enough. The thought of returning after intermission for another 90 minutes of same was not appealing. I did enjoy seeing David Zinn's perfect recreation of a movie theater. I wish I could join the Annie Baker fan club, but clearly that is never going to happen. Running time: 3 hours, plus a 15 minute intermission.