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 Twenty-Seventh Man **

(Please click on the title to see the complete review.)
I might have liked Nathan Englander's adaptation of his own short story, now in previews at the Public Theater, better if I had not read the story when it first appeared.  In it, we meet four Jewish writers in a Russian jail. As part of Stalin's purge of Jewish intellectuals, 27 Yiddish writers have been rounded up and imprisoned. All are established authors except for one innocent young man who writes but has never been published. His inclusion, the apparent result of a bureaucratic error, must somehow be justified by the prison head. Yevgeny Zunser (Ron Rifkin) is a very old writer, once revered, now neglected. Moishe Bretzky (Daniel Oreskes) is an alcoholic sensualist who voluntarily gave up the chance to live abroad. Vasily Korinsky (Chip Zien) has been Stalin's loyal toady and thinks that will protect him. Pinchas Pelovits (Noah Robbins) is the young innocent whose greatest joy is to write something every day. Byron Jennings plays the "agent in charge" and Happy Anderson is a guard. The older writers bicker about their literary reputations while Pinchas, lacking pen and paper, commits to memory his final story and recites it for his cellmates. For me, the tale was far more powerful on the page than on the stage. Somehow the characters seemed less vivid in the flesh than they were in my imagination. The unevenness of the acting is a problem. Rifkin and Zien are very good, Oreskes and Jennings are alright, but Robbins is woefully inadequate in the difficult role of Pinchas. The simple sets by Michael McCarty are effective. With one exception, Katherine Roth's costumes are fine: Bretzky does not look nearly unkempt enough. Barry Edelstein's direction is unobtrusive. I suspect that the play will work better for those unfamiliar with the story. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes without intermission.