[ssba]
Sight Unseen
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Lounge Theatre
Through April 26
The most interesting scene in this production of Donald Margulies’s 1992 play involves an encounter between Jonathan (Jason Weiss), a successful Jewish-American painter having a much-touted exhibition in London, and Grete (Casey McKinnon), an art journalist of German extraction who is interviewing him.
Their confrontation takes place after the pompous and self-involved Jonathan rants at length about the phony commercialism of the American art scene.
Grete notes that he seems to be attacking the very system that has now put him on top. She also remarks, rather slyly, on the phenomenon of individuals and groups – specifically Jews – who perceive themselves as outsiders while functioning on the inside of things –integral to the social structure they disingenuously accuse of shutting them out.
Grete’s comments are too much for the psychologically obtuse and culturally hypersensitive Jonathan, whose deceased Jewish mama instilled in him the importance of cleaving to one’s own kind. Incensed, he accuses Grete of anti-Semitism and storms out – heading back to where he’s been staying: the home of Patricia (Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris), the beautiful Gentile lover he’d rejected years before.
Unlike Jonathan, now extremely wealthy, Patricia lives in relative impoverishment in a cold damp farmhouse with her older husband Nick (Mark Belnick), in a passionless but affectionate marriage of convenience. Though she struggles to appear matter-of-fact, this visit is for her a traumatic but meaningful event. Much to Nick’s consternation, Patricia obviously still cares for Jonathan, who has cut short mourning for his dad, dead less than a week, to take this self-serving trip.
How favorably you respond to this drama probably depends on how much you care about Jonathan and the issues he has with his Jewish identity. As portrayed by Weiss, under Nicole Dominguez’s direction, there’s not much to like. His Jonathan is a cocky guy who lacks an interior life. There’s no underlying sense of unease there, no recognition on the character’s part of the urgent raison d’etre that’s brought him to Patricia’s doorstep.
On the other hand, from the moment she enters, Luqmaan-Harris lights up the stage, with a delicate and touching portrayal that serves as reason to see the play.
In her limited role, McKInnon’s cool understated presence also serves the story well. As the hurting husband, Belnick relies on a cryptic, almost Pinteresque delivery – which is good for a start but he needs to go much further.
Set designer Adam Haas Hunter’s reversible flats promote resourceful use of the small space.
Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd. Hlywd.; Fri.- Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.(no perfs April 3 – 5); through April 26. (323) 960-4412, www.plays411.com/unseen
