Happy Talk

C-

Playwright Jesse Eisenberg (The Revisionist, The Spoils) does not seem to have had a clear goal in mind for this disappointing work. What begins as a comedic portrait of a totally self-absorbed suburban woman turns into something much darker. Along the way, we get a picture of the circumscribed lives of undocumented immigrants and a screed against our materialistic society. The woman in question is the needy Lorraine (Susan Sarandon; Exit the King), who slakes her bottomless thirst for attention by appearing in musical productions at her local Jersey JCC. Her ailing husband Bill (Daniel Oreskes; Russian Transport; Oslo) parks himself in an armchair with a Civil War history book and rarely speaks. Her declining mother Ruthie, confined to the downstairs bedroom, has been cared for by Ljuba (Marin Ireland; Blue Ridge, reasons to be pretty), an undocumented Serbian immigrant who would like to find a green-card marriage so she can bring her daughter to the US. While Ljuba’s alleged job is to look after Ruthie, she spends most of her time feeding Lorraine’s need for attention, almost like a surrogate daughter. Lorraine hatches the idea of fixing Ljuba up with a cast member from her current show. That turns out to be Ronny (Nico Santos; “Crazy Rich Asians”), who is playing Lt. Cable to Lorraine’s Bloody Mary in “South Pacific.” (Now there’s a production I’d like to see!) The fact that Ronny is flamboyantly gay and has a live-in boyfriend does not deter Lorraine. Ronny’s boyfriend has lost his job and is fine with going along with the fake marriage to get the $15,000 that Ljuba has taken years to save up. We learn midway through the play that Lorraine and Bill actually have an alienated daughter Jenny (Tedra Millan; Present Laughter, The Wolves), who, against all logic, breaks into the house in the middle of the night, allegedly to say goodbye to her grandmother before taking off for Costa Rica where she and her new husband hope to start a poultry farm. Jenny is such a nasty piece of work that one almost feels sorry for Lorraine. When Ljuba and Ronny begin to hang out without including Lorraine, she feels neglected. The final scene has a double-whammy, which seems partially unearned. While it is a pleasure to see both Sarandon and Ireland together onstage, the truth is that neither is ideally cast. The two men and Ms. Millan come off better in their roles. Derek McLane’s (The True, Burn This) set is the ultimately bland suburban living room, enlivened only by posters of Lorraine’s previous shows. Clint Ramos’s (The True, Violet) costumes are apt. Scott Elliott’s (The True, Good for Otto) direction lets scenes drag a bit. It’s sporadically entertaining, but it ultimately disappoints. Running time: one hour 45 minutes; no intermission.

Asuncion *

Jesse Eisenberg's comedy, now at the Cherry Lane in a Rattlestick production, is the third play by a young actor turned playwright that I have seen since June. The others were Zach Braff's "All New People" at Second Stage and Zoe Kazan's "We Live Here" at Manhattan Theatre Club. Of the three, Zach Braff was the most successful. His play was no masterpiece, but was at least a guilty pleasure. The Kazan play landed with a thud. Now along comes Eisenberg's play, which falls somewhere in between. Unlike the other two actor/playwrights, who did not appear in their plays, Eisenberg wrote the showiest role for himself. He plays Edgar, a wildly frenetic self-styled journalist, a hanger-on in an upstate college town, who never stops talking and whose capacity for self-delusion and misunderstanding is limitless. He shares the apartment of Vinny (Justin Bartha, who starred in Braff's play), his former teaching assistant in a Black Studies course, whom he worships and who treats him like his manservant. Edgar's older brother Stuart (Remy Auburgonois) makes a surprise visit from New York with his new Filipina bride Asuncion (Camille Mana) in tow and asks them to let her stay with them for the weekend without explaining why. The disequilibrium brought on by her presence drives the action. The character of Edgar is written so broadly that he is almost a cartoon character. For a few minutes, it was fun to see Eisenberg's Edgar, but it became tiresome very quickly. Bartha captures both the charm and the sinister edge to Vinny. Mana makes the best of an ill-defined role. There are some funny lines along the way, but not enough to hide the play's substantial flaws. John McDermott's set is appropriately seedy for a walk-up off-campus apartment and Jessica Pabst's costumes are fine. Kip Fagan's direction is blameless.

Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes plus intermission