Spain

 C-

Although Second Stage describes their new play by Jen Silverman (Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties) as “seductive” and “funny,” I failed to be either seduced or amused by it. Silverman presents an imagined version of the circumstances behind the filming of “The Spanish Earth,” a 1937 documentary intended to win sympathy and support for the Spanish Republican government against Franco and his Fascist allies. The film was directed by Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens, written by John Dos Passos, Lillian Hellman and Ernest Hemingway, and edited by Ivens’s wife-to-be Helen van Dongen, all of whom except Hellman are characters in the play. Silverman posits that Ivens (Andrew Burnap; Camelot, The Inheritance) has become dependent on Russia to finance his films and has been ordered by his opera-loving KGB handler Karl (Zachary James; The Addams Family) to make a film promoting the Republican cause while carefully omitting any mention of Russian support. Karl, by the way, is the person who introduced him to Helen (Marin Ireland; Reasons To Be Pretty, Blue Ridge). Neither Joris nor Helen has ever been to Spain. We observe their strategizing to make the film, including their intent to play on the rivalry between Dos Passos (Erik Lochtefeld; Metamorphoses, Misery) and Hemingway (Danny Wolohan; To Kill a Mockingbird, Octoroon). Rifts in the relationship between Joris and Helen repeatedly emerge. After the film is made, the play suddenly jumps 80 years into the future with a scene in which the actor who played Karl is instructing the other four actors that movies are now passe and they must learn to use the internet to create propaganda. For me the play completely failed to cohere or find a consistent style. A couple of scenes that placed Hemingway in a recording studio seemed out of left field. His characterization seemed cartoonish compared to the other roles. Ireland and Bernap, who I have found compelling in previous roles, were bland here. James has a marvelous singing voice that I wish we had heard more of. Dane Laffrey’s (Parade, Once on This Island) set uses a revolving platform to create several settings with just a few suggestive props. Alejo Vietti’s (Allegiance, Beautiful) period costumes are apt. Tyne Rafaeli’s (The Coast Starlight, Epiphany) direction is unfussy, but cannot supply coherence  where there is none. All in all, it was a great disappointment. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties

C-

After productions in Washington, LA and London, Jen Silverman’s (The Moors) absurdist comedy is having its New York premiere at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. You should know that in addition to its subtitle, the play has a sub-subtitle which is printed in the Playbill and projected on the large panel above the stage before the play begins. I quote: “In essence, a queer and occasionally hazardous exploration; do you remember when you were in middle school and you read about Shackleton and how he explored the Antarctic? imagine the Antarctic as a pussy and it’s sort of like that.” (Poor Shackleton. Didn’t he suffer enough without becoming fodder for a twee 2017 musical and a pointless citation here?) Your reaction to the sub-subtitle should be an accurate gauge of whether this is the play for you. We meet five New York women who share the same first name. Betty 1 (Dana Delaney; Dinner with Friends) is an Upper East Side wife enraged by the daily world news and a cheating husband. Betty 2 (Adina Verson; Indecent) is an inhibited, lonely woman in a loveless marriage whose only friend is a hand puppet. Her life changes when the other Betties give her a hand mirror to look at her lady parts. Betty 3 (Ana Villafañe; On Your Feet) is a looker in a dead-end job who craves widespread acclaim. Betty 4 (Lea Delaria; On the Town) is a butch lesbian who loves to work on her truck. Betty 5 (Chaunté Wayans; “50 Shades of Black”), recently out of prison, runs a boxing gym. When Betty 3 attends her first play, she decides she wants to be an actor and recruits the other Betties to join her in recreating the play within a play from “Summer’s Midnight Dream” [wink, wink]. Rehearsals do not go smoothly. On the plus side, all five characters are vivid and the actors portraying them are a pleasure to watch. On the minus side, much of the material is banal and the overuse of the “P” word rapidly becomes tiresome (although there were several women of a certain age who laughed nervously at each repetition.) Mike Donahue’s (The Legend of Georgia McBride) direction keeps things moving along briskly, but cannot disguise the play’s weaknesses. Dane Laffrey’s (Once on this Island) set features an egg-crate ceiling from which large props periodically drop. Dede Ayite’s (School Girls) costumes aptly suit each character. This will be the last new production of MCC Theater at the Lortel before they decamp for Way West Midtown. I wish I could report that they were leaving in a blaze of glory, but I cannot. (In their defense, MCC had to quickly find a replacement for the LaBute play they pulled after he ran up against accusations of misconduct.) I wish the material were up to the level of the performances. Running time: 85 minutes; no intermission.

The Moors

C

Jen Silverman’s dark, quirky comedy for Playwrights Realm brings us the world of the Brontes with a touch of Beckett. Agatha and Huldey are sisters living in the family manse after the death of their father. Agatha, a seemingly serene spinster, as played by Linda Powell (The Christians), is a dead ringer for Gertrude Stein. Her emotionally flamboyant younger sister Huldey (Birgit Huppuch of Men on Boats) has literary pretensions and tries to read her diary to anyone who will listen. Emilie (Chasten Harmon) is a pretty young governess who has just arrived after being recruited through letters allegedly written by the sisters’ unseen brother Branwell. The reasons for his absence and for her being hired to care for a nonexistent child are eventually revealed. Hannah Cabell (Men on Boats) plays the dour Marjory, the scullery maid, and Mallory, the parlor maid, who may be the same person. Andrew Garman (The Christians) plays the sisters’ large mastiff who suffers from loneliness and depression. Teresa Avia Lim plays the injured moor-hen the mastiff takes a fancy to and has philosophical discussions with. All the repressed emotion leads to an outburst of violence, followed by a song, complete with mic. The ending is rather low-key. The subplot of the two animals is interesting, but does not really cohere with the main story. The production is first-rate. The cast is uniformly strong, the understated set by Dane Laffrey is evocative, the costumes by Anita Yavich are wonderful, the lighting by Jen Schriever is effective and there’s lots of fog. Mike Donahue’s direction is smooth. What the play lacks in coherence, it almost makes up for in cleverness and originality. It would benefit from a 15-minute trim. It was well-received by the audience, which must have had a median age below 30. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.