Theater Review: Closer

by Richard Goulde of John Garcia's The Column

Dan (Chad Halbrook) meets Alice (Samantha Chancellor) after she's hit by a taxi. They flirt at the hospital and end up in a relationship. Then Dan meets Anna (Jessica Layman) and tries to seduce her. Rebuffed, he later impersonates her online and has explicit cybersex with Larry (Chad Cline), then arranges for Larry and Anna to meet at an aquarium. In fact, they do, and Anna and Larry end up in a relationship. From there, the play moves into a series of affairs, breakups, reunions, and angry and pained exchanges through a series of disjointed scenes scattered over a time period of years.

As Marber indicates, the play turns on the juxtaposition of four characters – sophisticated in education, career and worldview – who cannot escape the wild call of their more emotive and base natures. Each character reveals an intrinsic selfishness. They all express sorrow and upset when they hurt another character – and each one hurts each of the others at some point – but fundamentally, none of them are ever willing to say, "What I want is not worth hurting other people for."

I don't really resonate with cynical plays. It's not that there's no truth to them, but that they're one-sided. I see them as a caricature masquerading as some kind of savvy and sophisticated understanding of the human condition. It's like watching the prosecution make its case to indict the coarseness and brutality that simmers just under the surface of civilized intercourse, without the counter-arguments of a defense.

At the same time, I appreciate plays like this. It's important to be forced outside of one's comfort zone, and that's one of the best things about theater. You get that experience, along with the energy and emotion of live acting, and then you get to go to Café Brazil and discuss it with your friends.

The play is based on world-weary, jaded Londoners. It exploits the common disconnect between image and reality and between what we do desire and what we should desire.

All of the characters are liars. Alice says, "Lying is the most fun a girl can have while clothed." Alice is the least interested in being open, truthful and genuine with any of the other characters. Yet in some ways, she turns out to be the most authentic character in the play. Perhaps it's because she's the least self-deluded. She says early on she just wants to be loved. It's the truest statement any of the characters make. I'm fascinated by one scene in which Larry demands her real name; he thinks she's lying, while she insists she's telling the truth. All the while, she's stripping for him. In fact, there's a cruelty to truth in this story, truth used as a weapon or a defensive wall.

This production by new company Enter Stage Left wants so badly to be a heartfelt, thought-provoking story. It comes close, but the dots don't quite connect. The themes aren't quite realized, and the emotion isn't fully felt.

Chad Cline, playing Larry, delves the deepest into his character. He manages to plumb the emotional depths of his character - a seemingly staid dermatologist burning with desire and longing. Cline particularly shines in the scene where Larry and Anna break up. It's as if all the boundaries between actor and character dissolve, and all that's left is raw feeling. It's very powerful. True, he comes awfully close to overshooting into melodramatic histrionics, but he toes the line well, and that's kind of the point – under the skin, people are instinctual, emotional, sexual creatures. Even dermatologists.

Otherwise, Cline's fine performance has an unfortunate and unintended consequence. He overshadows the other actors. As a whole, I would say their performances were perfectly competent. When juxtaposed against that emotional vitality, however, they seem mechanical. It doesn't help that the actors don't have any real chemistry with each other.

Halbrook (Dan) comes closest to matching Cline's intensity, but on the whole the cast seems overly cold and disaffected. Yes, a certain coolness is integral to the characters. What I'm misinterpreting as lack of chemistry could be the choice to play it chilly.

In that case, they overshoot. Even though they're playing games with each other, each of them are affected genuinely. They toy with each other like jaded grown-ups, only to be hurt like little children. If I can't believe in the connections between the characters – whether loving or lustful, angry or hateful – then I can't believe in any of the emotion. No, lack of chemistry between the actors was an issue in this performance.

Director Jason Folks needs to address that element of connection between characters. Otherwise, he successfully zeroes in on the most important elements of the play, and he does a good job of boiling each scene down to its most critical and basic exchanges. The minimalist set design is a good example. The play uses only bare staging and props by design. It's another way of (1) forcing the audience members outside their comfort zones and (2) reducing the play to its essential qualities by eliminating anything extraneous. If anything, they were rather clever in their use of a bare minimum of props.

Other aspects of the staging are problematic, however. In order to fully utilize the intimate space, different character exchanges occur at different places on the stage. But the space isn't set up for easy 360-degree viewing. At least one scene left me entirely unable to see one of the actors – I couldn't see her because she was off to the far side, blocked from view by another actor. Visibility is also obscured in a couple of other scenes. It's one thing to push viewers out of their comfort zones, but another thing to force them to disengage from what's happening on stage.

Similarly, one crucial scene has the two couples breaking up separately but on stage at the same time. Normally when a production uses a split-stage scene, the side that is not performing freezes. That was not the case this time - both sides stayed active and moving the whole time. As a result, the audience keeps looking away from the action to the other side to see what's going on. We never fully invest in the active side, even though it's probably the most dramatic and powerful scene in the entire play.

On the whole, go see Closer if you like edgy theater that comments on the human condition, but keep your expectations in check - the play never quite gels into the pure visceral experience at which Cline's performance hints.

Closer runs through April 18. Purchase tickets online or by calling 972-754-2672.