By Joe Straw
“There’s a story going around Hollywood and it’s probably an old story
about two A-list actors in a film, on the set, on for first day of principal
photography. And on that day, one actor
goes completely overboard, working on a character that he has completely
fleshed out. It is a dramatic physical combination
of moving head, lips, shoulders, arms, hand, and legs swaying to (I suppose) an
imaginary beat in his head.
“Oh, we’re doing that kind of acting.” the other actor said.
Skylight Theatre Company presents The World Premiere of
Years To The Day – written by Allen Barton and directed by Joel Polis.
I have actually been looking for a play like this. With a small set, designed by Jeff
McLaughlin, an impalpable grayness smacked center stage. A play featuring actors who fill the spaces
with all they have to give with no unnecessary distractions. A play in all its glory, featuring two actors
going toe-to-toe, mano a mano, giving us life’s coruscations, all for the sake
of a single objective.
Allen Barton’s cleverly written play is, in my imagination, David
Mamet meets Bret Easton Ellis. There is dialogue fit for massive adult human
consumption, never a dull moment, and with rich manly characters that don’t
hold back on delicious adult banter, which by the way, tears each other’s heart
out without even realizing what they are doing. It is a marvelous ride.
Still, I have notes and those notes will come later.
My perception is: There is a bad guy here. His name is Dan (Michael Yavnieli) and can
best be described as an opinionated blow hard with a nice suit and polished
buckled black shoes. A man who, by all appearance, has everything. The tie is
off for now, probably because of his high blood pressure and his inability to
effectively control his temper. And
something in his red-faced diatribe of his man-speak may have been funny in his
younger days but grows tiresome today.
Dan has decided to meet up with his college roommate/friend,
Jeff (Jeff LeBeau), because they have not had seen each other for four years to
the day. But rather than greet him, Dan is busy on his smart phone and not even
taking a moment to look up.
“There he is!” – Dan
“Here I am!” – Jeff
“What’s going on?” – Dan
“How’s it going? (not answering)
You’re technoring me bro.” – Jeff
Okay, so you get a slight taste of the dialogue and this
continues for quite some time before we get into some real serious moments. But
these guys didn’t come for those cocktail moments, they want the façade to drop,
and they want answers to two specific questions on this particular day, the
real reason for their meeting.
There’s only one problem, neither one of them can
effectively break down the man barrier and ask the question. They hem and haw
and beat around the bush with man-speak as the incessant chatter continues without
getting to the main point.
While we are at it, to touch all bases, why not throw in
life changes, children, divorce, heart attack, movies, and political
commentary. These details are all
important but not the reason that these two decided to show up today.
Enough to get a feel for the man you thought was your best
friend, a bastion of conservative causes talking volubly, not listening, and barely
reacting when hearing significant tidbits of information.
Dan is pathetically mendacious as well. He arrives at the meeting incased in a lie. He’s
unable to lay the chips on the table and battle Jeff, the quintessential liberal
being, who is also hiding a dramatic secret.
“You’re mind is mush.” – Dan
“You’re dark.” – Jeff
There’s something here they are not talking about. Will somebody please get to the heart of the
matter! They can sit there in the coffee
shop with hands over their face sobbing de profundis, but not finding a way out
of their predicament or even searching for help from the other. (Wait a minute,
they do, but neither is talking.)
There are a lot of marvelous things in Allen Barton’s play. Caught
within the confines of a dingy coffee shop, there is definitely a mood of repugnance;
a mental suffering that comes at an awakening of sorts from men reaching the
hump of their 40-year-old lives.
Still each character wants a truth, it’s the reason the
characters stay for as long as they do.
But, they sit having a scornful disregard of the other, sitting across,
doing nothing, sipping coffee, and letting moments go in the way that loving humans
let important moments get away. And oh,
isn’t that perspective just pathetic.
The dialogue, the man-speak, that draws us to the edge of
our seats, also takes us back down, with references to “East Berlin”, “one-quarter-white
El Presidente”, “12th year of his term”. Where the heck are we, Cheko-la-slavia-venen-za-whoola? And what year is this? And when did our constitution suddenly
change?
I’m not sure I completely got this part of the play but I
found it fascinating nevertheless. It appears to be a confused snapshot of
dialogue from two individuals who are not thinking clearly on this particular
day and revert back to their earlier man-speak days. (I don’t think this worked but maybe with a
little more specifics in mind, it could.)
Also, one was more successful than the other but a little
backstory of their current lives would be nice, lawyer, doctor, writer, actor,
etc.,
Joel Polis, the
director, did a fine job. The actors
have a nice entrance. The ending is
spectacular. But there are minor things
that could have happened but didn’t or things that did happen but with no
consequence. In the end, we know more about the characters but the characters,
and the audience, got no emotional satisfaction from their meeting. Both characters did not get what they came for and neither really went after the information they wanted. If, their objective is the one thing, why
didn’t they get it?
I loved the direction and the set. But placing the table off
center stage would give us a visual that something is amiss and even having one
chair larger than the other would also add to a distorted visual. Before the characters appear, we get a hint of an uneasiness, a distortion, a blend that will add to the through line and carry on through the lives of the characters.
The battle has not been won. There is more work to do and more positions to be gained. The characters must fight for their space around the table be it physical, mental, or emotional. They must fight for their perspective and hold ground for what will surely be an onslaught to come.
The battle has not been won. There is more work to do and more positions to be gained. The characters must fight for their space around the table be it physical, mental, or emotional. They must fight for their perspective and hold ground for what will surely be an onslaught to come.
Jeff LeBeau plays
Jeff, a left leaning die-hard liberal, who pays to watch movies twice. He
saunters in with his tan-leather man-bag.
His counterpart knows him for a number of years but he’s not very eager
to see him. His objective is to get an
answer to his question and he goes to great links to get it, possibly divulging
a secret to get what he wants. There is
an action on stage of eating the paper, which I didn’t get and his counterpart
didn’t respond. Maybe it is a nervous
response, something he needs to do in order not to kill his friend. Also, more
compassionate of the two, he offers little in the way of solicitude, and shows
less little physical compassion, only showing a somber thoughtfulness, slightly
hidden behind his nice glasses. Still, LeBeau does a lot of nice work.
Michael Yavnieli
plays Dan. It is hard to be sympathetic to a person who is constantly on the
hunt with ammunition of his own choosing.
It’s not only his counterpart, but also how he feels about the woman walking
her small dog, his wife, his mother and father.
His plan is always his game plan, but nobody wants to play in his game. People
who let him speak surround him but there is nothing in listening to that spirit
of a man who has nothing to say. He was
sitting across the table from a man whose face he could not see, emotions he
could not feel, and wanting information but not knowing how to get it. This all makes for an interesting character
but what is needed is a dramatic catharsis.
Curiosity is the key for both actors. Each can be systematically incurious and be
mysterious, at times, but each must doggedly pursue a strong dramatic objective
to satisfactorily come to a resolution.
Gary Grossman is the Producer and Artistic Director.
Jeff McLaughlin was responsible for the Set and Lighting
Design.
Christopher Moscatiello is the Sound Designer.
Robert R. Ryel is the Production Stage Manager.
Run! And take a
“friend” you haven’t seen in four years.
Reservations:
702-582-8587
Beverly Hills Playhouse
254 South Robertson Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA
No comments:
Post a Comment