Review of: A Spanish Play

Though Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play was rebuked by a number of critics (even called 'pretentious' in a NY Times Book Review), I might be the only person I know to come to the play's defense. There is no doubt that 15 minutes or more could have been cut from the final production but I think most audiences missed the point. Whatever the pretensions are in the work they are precisely what Ms. Reza is ridiculing. Granted, I came late to this party's run so that the actors, who initially and understandably may have had problems, seemed extremely comfortable in their roles, separating the lines of the play within the play within the play expertly. And that we are watching a run-through of a play within the play and the first rehearsals of another play within that play may have had people more than a little confused. One can only applaud director John Turturro's ingenious handling of this mélange and I can't think of a better actor/director to unearth the egocentric ponderings, frustrations and insecurities of the persons who people the business of 'show'.

Ms. Reza has written a boulevard comedy or two and though I could be wrong, seems to have attempted another one realizing it might be crap. So instead of finishing it, she decided to deconstruct it by presenting us with a group of actors late in the rehearsal process of that play and the ridiculously self-absorbed investigations that the performers, and by extension 'regular' people, will endure in order to present to the external world a comprehensible reality. Two of the play-within-the-play's characters are actresses, one very successful and one not so, thereby taking us to different dimensions of what succeeds and what doesn't and the pathetic reasons why. It is even quite possible to say of Linda Emond (Aurelia) that she is an actress playing an actress playing an actress playing an actress. Luigi Pirandello, of course, is the name of this game but I believe Ms. Reza has more on her mind. As Ms. Emond so ruefully relates in the play within the play within the play, and I'm paraphrasing, "even when something ends, it really doesn't." One might say that could be the problem with A Spanish Play but it sent a sorrowful shudder through my bones.

Four of the actors here are magnificent and the fifth, Larry Pine, at least holds his own. And the subtleties that these thespians bring to the stage are acting lessons in and of themselves. Katherine Borowitz beautifully downplays the large ego of one of the actresses in the play while gloriously over-playing the large ego of the actress of the play within the play. Zoe Caldwell couldn't be more astute as an actress whose career is coming to a close while simultaneously couldn't be more endearing as a woman finding new love. Linda Emond's talents here are immeasurable but what I liked best about her was how she related to Ms. Borowitz - envy, incomprehension, and love and appreciation. However, I think my favorite, despite his tendency to garble his text once in a while, is Denis O'Hare. As an actor who obviously distains playing the role of a math teacher he is hilarious and as that math teacher even more so. As he demonstrated earlier this season in Pig Farm, he can wring more laughs from a few well phrased words than any actor working today.

With a top of the line production team, Mr. Turturro works a few wonders. The perfect use of that ever egomaniacal device, the video-cam, puts YouTube in its place. Pretense is not an easy entity to portray. As Mr. Pirandello so acutely showed us, one man's pretension is another person's reality, willed or not. Ms. Reza ups the ante and for those willing to play, the rewards are great.

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