‘The Revisionist,” I’m sure it has been said, could benefit from some revising.
It’s not that Jesse Eisenberg shouldn’t be writing plays — he had oodles of stage experience before he became a film star, and as a writer he’s published some bright comic essays in “McSweeney’s” and “The New Yorker.” But “The Revisionist,” being given its first New England production at Playhouse on Park through April 29, feels like it missed a necessary stage of development because its author was a celebrity and could get it produced quickly. (The show’s New York premiere was in 2013, starring Eisenberg and Vanessa Redgrave.)
It’s also the sort of play that because its main character is a writer draws attentions to its own deficiencies. When it talks of the need to add more humor to one’s writing, you notice how forced some of the play’s own jokes are. The word “irrelevant” comes up a few times, reminding you how much some of the scenes could be more tightly focused.
The play’s writer character is David, played with vulnerable edge and adorable intensity by Carl Howell, a novelist who’s late with the rewrites of his latest book. He’s decided that a change of pace is his only chance to get any work down, so he flies to Poland to stay with a second cousin he’s never met. Maria is old enough to be David’s grandmother, old enough to remember the Holocaust. She lives for family anecdotes and has revised a few herself.
“The Revisionist” is in a grand recent tradition of young-person-schooled-by-old-person plays, epitomized by Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles.” These plays point out how much has changed over a half-century or so: the young don’t have manners, the old are slow to embrace new ideas, each think their ways are right.
In “The Revisionist,” the antagonism begins so early that it removes a lot of suspense from the play. David and Maria get on each other’s nerves as soon as they meet, though he certainly takes an early lead in the annoyance relay. The characters never really bond. They learn from each other, but not in ways that make them feel closer.
There are comic scenes of now-versus-then, and they’re pretty old-fashioned. David’s a vegetarian, so we get to see Maria make a funny face when she tries tofu. There’s a long scene in which David explains that he wrote a Young Adult novel, not (as Maria maintains) a children’s book.
Yet some of the confrontations are surreal and unpredictable, enough to keep you intrigued about where this is all going. Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First” routine is proposed as a prayer. There’s a constantly ringing phone (which leads David to marvel, unconvincingly, that there are telemarketers in Poland.) There’s quite a lot of dialogue in Polish, nearly all of it untranslated. There are political themes, but they’re historical rather than current-event-driven (even with a TV tuned to CNN in the room).
The biggest, and most welcome, wild card in this production is Cecelia Riddett’s performance as Maria. She is provocatively perky, killing David with kindness while clearly noting his surly attitude and building up ammunition for when she’s finally had enough of his whining.
Sebastian Buczyk, as a cab-driving friend of Maria’s named Zenon who speaks only in Polish, takes a role that could be simplified as goofy comic relief and takes it seriously. He needs to be believably threatening on occasion, and he is.
Director Sasha Brätt — who did the young-schooled-by-old standard “Tuesdays With Morrie” for Playhouse on Park in 2015 and has also directed regularly locally at Ivoryton Playhouse and Seven Angels Theatre — keeps the action playful, using scenic designer Emily Nichols’ small-apartment set as a sort of playground for the actors’ wilder impulses. David continually leaps up on a small bureau. Maria uses her kitchen table for everything from eating to personal grooming.
“The Revisionist” lacks vision, nuance and a sense of realness. But its 100 intermission-less minutes pass quickly and quirkily, and it will lodge thoughts in your head that will be hard to shake. Not about how the old and young have things in common, or about how houseguests stink after a few days, but about how distant and oblivious we can be when trying earnestly to connect.
THE REVISIONIST by Jesse Eisenberg, directed by Sasha Brätt, is at Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, Hartford, through April 29. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m.; with an added Tuesday matinee April 24 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $40, $35 for students, seniors and Let’s Go Arts. 860-523-5900 and playhouseonpark.org.
