Phil Crowley, Bianca Akbiyik and Michael Beattie (Photo by Larry Sandez)
Reviewed by Terry Morgan
Actors Co-op Theatre Company
Through December 3
Plays portraying actual people in moments from their real lives are tricky to get right. If the work’s main purpose is accuracy, the audience can be drowned in detail it doesn’t need. On the other hand, skew too far from the facts and the playwright courts controversy. Biographical plays are precarious propositions at the best of times, but when they succeed they remind us of the great drama that can emerge from our day-to-day existence. Writer/director Dean Batali’s Lewis and Tolkien, a world premiere production by Actors Co-op Theatre Company, takes on the challenge of presenting historical figures in an imagined situation with mixed results.
In 1963 in a back room at the Eagle and Child Pub in Oxford, England, J.R.R. Tolkien (Michael Beattie) and C.S. Lewis (Phil Crowley) are meeting again for the first time in many years. The two men used to belong to a writers group called the Inklings that had met in this room but, as their books gained success, their friendship dwindled for various reasons. Barmaid Veronica (Bianca Akbiyik) spurs them to discuss their creative endeavors, and they happily sing each other’s praises for her. But the real reason they’re there is to address the rift that’s grown between them, and to discover if there’s any chance of healing that wound.
Beattie does good work as Tolkien, but sometimes struggles in transitioning between the character’s bursts of anger and his moments of humility. Crowley is quite good as Lewis, and manages to make even the most baroque dialogue work. He especially excels during a long monologue in which Lewis discusses his grief after his wife’s death. Akbiyik is pleasant and effective as Veronica, but the role as written serves mostly as a prompt for the lead characters’ backstory.
Batali’s direction is unfortunately static, which makes the play’s expository nature more trying than it might be. But scenic designer Joel Daavid’s interior, a pub, is lovely and very detailed, down to a wooden rafter hanging from the ceiling. As a writer, Batali certainly demonstrates a knowledge of his subject matter, , but he tends to share so much data that it sometimes overwhelms the drama. Tolkien and Lewis were both highly educated men of a certain era, and they may well have spoken in a flowery way, so Batali understandably has tried to replicate that here — but perhaps that language needs to be toned down somewhat to work more effectively.
Although there are problems with this play, it must also be said that it’s intelligent and attempts to deal with many issues — such as theology and literary criticism — that most modern works don’t ever touch upon. Fans of Shakespeare may well enjoy the erudite wordplay, and a scene in which the two men gleefully trash the Romantic poets will be highly entertaining for the Lit majors in the crowd (like me). As I’m not an expert on the lives of Lewis and Tolkien, I don’t know the level of affection the two men may have borne for each other, but Batali plays it up as if it was almost a secret love affair (to the extent that in my notes I wrote, “Kiss and make up already! Jeez.”)
Lewis and Tolkien is an ambitious and unusual show in today’s theatrical world, and for that it should be appreciated. In its current form, it’s unwieldy and feels long, although it’s only 95 minutes. Perhaps a rewrite or edit might heighten the dramatic elements and make the play more accessible.
Actors Co-op Theatre Company at Crossley Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood; Fri.- Sat. 7:30 p.m., additional Sat. matinees at 2:30 p.m., on Nov. 25 and Dec. 2; through December 3. https://www.ActorsCo-op.org. Running time: 95 minutes with no intermission.
