The Mother

C+

Atlantic Theater Company is presenting the New York premiere of Florian Zeller’s drama about a middle-age woman with a severe case of empty-nest syndrome. You may remember another play by Zeller from a few seasons back, The Father starring Frank Langella as an older man sinking into dementia. The current play, actually written four years before The Father, is, in my opinion, considerably less artful. (The third part of the trilogy, The Son, just opened in London to enthusiastic reviews.) In both plays there are scenes presented in multiple variations. In The Father, everything was presented from the title character’s point of view, and charted his decline. In the current play, the motivation for the variations is less clear and the result is less involving. Fortunately, the woman who loves her son too much and her husband too little is played by Isabelle Huppert (“Elle,” Medea) , always a compelling presence. Chris Noth (Farragut North, The Best Man) is effective as her perplexed husband. The Son struggling for independence is well-played by Justice Smith (Yen). Odessa Young (Days of Rage) is also fine as The Girl. I think that Trip Cullman’s (Lobby Hero, Days of Rage) direction veers toward the gimmicky and values style over substance. Does the scenic design by Mark Wendland (Six Degrees of Separation) really benefit from a modern white sectional that seats 14 and sinks into the floor between scenes? Should there be a ridiculous number of prescription bottles scattered below it? Is there a point to placing Ms. Huppert on that sofa reading a book for 15 minutes before the play begins? The costumes by Anita Yavich (Fool for Love, The Legend of Georgia McBride) are apt. There are a few dramatic moments along the way, but there is an abstracted distancing feel to the production that dulls their impact. While I was happy to have the opportunity to see Ms. Huppert and, to a lesser extent, Mr. Noth, I was disappointed that the play never approached the quality of The Father. Running time: one hour 20 minutes, no intermission.

Days of Rage

B-

The title of Steven Levenson’s (Significant Other, Dear Evan Hansen) new play now in previews at Second Stage refers less to the three-day violent confrontation between anti-war activists and Chicago police in October 1969 than to the chaotic week preceding it at a protestors’ collective occupying a dilapidated house in an upstate New York college town. Three people presently live there: handsome Spence (Mike Faist; Dear Evan Hansen) and plain Jenny (Laura Patten; The Wolves), who have been best friends and sometimes a bit more since childhood, and the sexy Quinn (Australian actor Odessa Young), who is currently Spence’s favored bed partner. We learn that two men had left the collective after an argument over strategies. Two newcomers enter the circle: Peggy (Tavi Gevinson; This Is Your Youth, The Crucible), an enigmatic girl who begs to move in and offers them the money they need to get to Chicago, and Hal (J. Alphonse Nicholson; Paradise Blue), an African-American Sears employee whom Jenny takes a shine to. The group has had little success raising money or recruiting people to join them for the trip to Chicago. There is resentment against Spence for allowing Peggy to move in and against Jenny for starting a relationship with an outsider. We observe the collective’s group process at work. For the first third of the play, it is unclear whether anything more serious than who is sleeping with whom is at stake and whether the collective members are anything more than feckless idealists. In due time we get answers. An increasing sense of paranoia takes hold when they hear bad news about their ex-housemates and suspect that the house is being watched. A few surprises are in store. In a built-in epilogue, we learn the future course of their lives. It’s a story that starts slow but builds up steam as it progresses. The young actors are very good. I wish we received more back story on each character. My essential problem with the play is that I could not figure out the playwright’s point of view. I didn’t know whether his attitude toward the characters was satirical, cautionary or simply observational. I found it entertaining, increasingly involving but not very informative. The production is helped by a great set by Louisa Thompson (In the Blood) with a cross-section of a shabby cluttered house that rolls backwards when performing space is needed downstage. The costumes by Paloma Young (Peter and the Starcatcher) suit their characters very well. Trip Cullman’s (Lobby Hero, Yen) direction is assured. If you plan to see it, I suggest a quick look at “Days of Rage” on Wikipedia before you go. Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission.