Dana H.

B

Following LA and Chicago productions, Lucas Hnath’s (A Doll's House, Part 2; Hillary and Clinton, Red Speedo) fact-based one-woman drama has reached New York, where it is now in previews at Vineyard Theatre. In a sense, Hnath did not actually write the play. Almost all the words we hear are those of his mother, Dana Higginbotham, recorded in a series of interviews conducted by Steve Cosson, artistic director of the investigative theater group, The Civilians. Late in 1997 Ms. Higginbotham, a hospital chaplain, was abducted and held in captivity for five months by an ex-patient who was raised in the Aryan Brotherhood. When she suggested that her son write a play about her experience, Hnath resisted for years, fearing that he was too close to the material. Finally he found a way to approach the story: having a disinterested party, Cosson, interview her. Hnath then edited and shaped transcripts of these interviews into the work we see. To preserve his mother’s voice to keep the result authentic, he found an ingenious solution: he cast an actress to lip-sync her words. Since that actress is the magnificent Deirdre O’Connell (Fulfillment Center, By the Water, Circle Mirror Transformation), his solution works brilliantly. What sounds like a stunt turns out to be very effective; without uttering a sound, Ms. O’Connell brilliantly brings Dana’s words to life. Seated in a chair in the middle of Andrew Boyce’s set suggesting a generic motel room like the ones she stayed in during her captivity, O’Connell/Dana H. answers Cosson’s questions, occasionally referring to the dog-eared manuscript in her lap. Her memory is often muddled, but she provides enough harrowing details to make the audience squirm. She raises many issues, including the reluctance of the police to go against a member of the Aryan Brotherhood to help her, the propensity of someone who was physically abused by her parents to think that she deserves the punishment she is getting, the thought that her abductor is the incarnation of her spiritual condition, and the long-term PTSD that the incident left. At one point the interview format is interrupted by a flashy, noisy interlude that I found questionable and unnecessary. The ending provides some uplift as she describes her work as a hospice chaplain easing the transition from life to death. Les Waters (In the Next Room, Big Love) directs with a sure hand. Kudos to the lip-sync consultant Steve Cuiffo. There are many unanswered questions, including how her son, even though away at college, could have been ignorant of her plight for so long a period. While I have some reservations about the play, I was thrilled to witness Deirdre O’Connell’s amazing performance. Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission.

Hillary and Clinton

C

When Laurie Metcalf appeared in Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2 two years ago, she won a Tony and the play became a commercial success. Therefore, producers probably thought it would be a great idea to produce this 2016 play by Hnath with Ms. Metcalf playing Hillary and, to beef up box office appeal, another Tony winner, John Lithgow (The Changing Room, Sweet Smell of Success), as Bill Clinton. The result is a mixed bag. The play, which first appeared during the 2016 primaries when Hillary looked like a sure thing, resonates differently today. Billed on the marquee as “primarily a comedy,” it does offer more than a few laughs over the goings-on in Hillary’s hotel room just before and after the 2008 New Hampshire primary. The play opens with a woman named Hillary philosophizing about the infinite number of universes where different incarnations of people obtain different results. This frame enables the playwright to mix fact, supposition and outright fiction to tell a tale that might have taken place in some universe. Spoilers ahead. When Barack (Peter Francis James; The Lady from Dubuque) tries to make a deal for her to quit the race and join him as vice-president on the ticket, her campaign manager Mark (Zak Orth; Major Barbara, subUrbia) advises her to refuse. Against Mark’s advice, Hillary calls her husband, who had been banished from the campaign, and asks him to come to New Hampshire. When he arrives, they bicker over all the accumulated grievances in their marriage and the rivalry of their competing ambitions. Bill’s presence in New Hampshire affects the outcome and upsets her secret deal with Barack, who then cautions them about the threat of damaging information emerging about their charitable fundraising. That’s about it in a nutshell. I guess celebrities lose the right to protect their privacy, but I couldn’t see any value in Hnath presenting a fantasy version of events. The actors make no effort to imitate their real-life models, which is probably a plus. Director Joe Mantello (Three Tall Women, The Humans) keeps things moving briskly. The set by Chloe Lamford (1984) is downright ugly — a gray cube that slides forward and lights up along the edges. The only props are an office chair and leftover food debris on the floor. The costumes by Rita Ryack (Casa Valentina) emphasize the ordinariness of daily life when the world is not watching. As one would expect, both Ms. Metcalf and Mr. Lithgow are a pleasure to watch. Nevertheless, there seemed to be little point to the enterprise. Running time: 85 minutes; no intermission.

A Doll’s House, Part 2

A-

It is virtually unheard of these days for a new play to arrive on Broadway without having at least one regional production first. Received wisdom has it that there’s no audience for new American plays on Broadway. The enthusiastic reception given Lucas Hnath’s clever new play at the Golden Theatre suggests that rules are made to be broken. When Jayne Houdyshell gets prolonged entrance applause, you know you’re not in a typical Broadway audience. It’s even more surprising that the play, presented as a sequel to the mirthless Ibsen classic, turns out to be hilariously funny. I decided to attend with some trepidation because I had been disappointed in the two previous Hnath plays I had seen — The Christians and Red Speedo.  Sometimes the third time is a charm. From the first moment, I was engaged by this version of what happened to Nora Helmer 15 years after she left her family. Hnath has written four juicy roles for four fine actors. Laurie Metcalf (The Other Place), always worth seeing, shines as Nora. Houdyshell (The Humans, Well), a Tony-winning treasure, is delightful as Anne Marie, the longtime family servant. Chris Cooper brings depth and nuance to the role of Torvald. Condola Rashad (Ruined) is cool and collected as daughter Emmy. Heath’s snappy, dialogue is anachronistically modern. So are the sparse furnishings in Miriam Beuther’s thrust set — two pairs of Scandinavian Modern chairs, a small table with a box of Kleenex, and a large plant. On the other hand, David Zinn’s costumes are faithful to the period. The oversize door, perhaps the most famous one in modern drama, is on a wall that reaches to an enormous height. The thought-provoking plot balances the conflicting motivations of each character, when each is forced to make a choice that will affect the others. It’s almost too formulaic and the ending, for me, was less than satisfying. Except for punctuating the scenes by blackouts with the characters’ names projected in huge letters on the set, Sam Gold’s direction (The Glass Menagerie, Fun House) is unfussy. I could have done without the loud percussive pop music that preceded the play. Nevertheless, the play’s strengths far outweigh any weaknesses.. And you don’t really need to know Ibsen’s play to enjoy this one. It was an extremely worthwhile 90 minutes of theater

Red Speedo **

Now in previews at New York Theatre Workshop, this new play by Lucas Hnath (The Christians) addresses several issues that arise from our obsession with competitive sports, such as the commodification of athletes, the cultivation of athletic prowess to the exclusion of all else, the temptation of performance enhancing drugs and the relentless pursuit of self-interest regardless of harm to others. A strong case of pathological sibling codependency overlays the other issues. Ray (Alex Breaux) is an Olympic hopeful swimmer, whose success has come at the cost of intellectual and emotional stuntedness. His brightest idea has been to get a hideous tattoo on his back to make him more easily recognizable by television viewers. He has a great entrance in the titular swimwear, plunging into the one-lane pool with a plexiglas wall that fills the front of the set. His sleazy older brother Peter (Lucas Caleb Rooney) is also his attorney and his would-be agent. When a stash of drugs is found in the team locker room’s refrigerator, Peter tries to persuade Coach (Peter Jay Fernandez) to look the other way until after the Olympic trials so that Jay’s tentative endorsement contract with Speedo will not be threatened. Jay’s ex-girlfriend Lydia (Zoe Winters) has lost her sports therapy license, partially due to some unethical behavior by Peter. Many plots and counterplots collide. Unfortunately the play sheds far more heat than light. The lack of a sympathetic character is not necessarily fatal to my interest in a play, but it certainly doesn’t help that there is no one to root for here. Breaux looks the part and is quite convincing as Jay. Rooney’s portrayal of Peter has only one note — extremely annoying. Fernandez is OK as the coach. Winters doesn’t get much chance to make an impression. Kudos to set designer Riccardo Hernandez for a convincing set. Boos to sound designer Matt Tierney for the loud horn blasts between scenes. Fight coordinator Thomas Schall has done wonders — rarely have I seen onstage brawling that was so realistic. Director Lileana Blain-Cruz does her best with an unsatisfactory ending. Running time: 80 minutes; no intermission. NOTE: I do not recommend seats in the first two rows, because you are below the level of the pool deck.

The Christians **

My college roommate made a useful distinction between “interesting” and “enjoyable.” I would have to put this new play by Lucas Hnath now previewing at Playwrights Horizons, in the former category. Hnath’s ambition in tackling the thorny topic of religion, his unusual structuring, his stylistic choices such as having the actors only speak through microphones are all intriguing. And yet, the results, at least for me, were less than stirring. The imposing set that greets us shows the platform of a church, complete with burnished wood, five throne-like chairs, a gigantic illuminated cross, an organ and huge television screens. A choir of 20 serenades us. Four of the characters are seated. Each has a mic tethered to a cord. Paul (a plausibly charismatic Andrew Garman), pastor of the impressive megachurch that is celebrating paying off its debt, gives a sermon that includes a drastic reinterpretation of an important church tenet. Joshua (Larry Powell), the associate pastor, who cannot accept the new dogma, is forced to resign and takes 50 congregants with him. Church elder Jay (Philip Kerr) tries unsuccessfully to be a mediator. When Jenny (Emily Donahoe), a seemingly naive congregant emerges from the choir to give testimony, she raises a series of provocative questions both about the content of the sermon and its timing, Paul’s answers make a bad situation worse. When he turns to his wife Elizabeth (Linda Powell), who has been sitting there for an hour without saying a word, for support, he does not get the response he expects. Joshua returns briefly to explain his views to Paul. In an effective scene, we get Paul’s inner thoughts whispered through his mic. We can follow Paul’s deepening crisis through the way he handles his mic cord through the play, first wrangling it like a cowboy and eventually struggling not to get tripped by it. The ending of the play is quiet and flat. Dane Laffrey's set is a knockout. Connie Furr Soloman's costumes are apt. Les Waters's direction is assured. I admire Hnath’s bold ambition and look forward to his upcoming play at New York Theatre Workshop. I just wish the results had turned out better this time. Running time 95 minutes, no intermission.