Well: Sick Humor

"It's not meant to be a well-made play," Lisa Kron explains to the audience, playing herself in Well, which has moved from The Public to Broadway's Longacre Theatre. And she doesn't mean that as some flippant excuse for her writing. As the author tells us several times during the evening, it's really "a multicharacter theatrical exploration of issues of health and illness both in an individual and in a community," and if you don't believe her, she offers us all a look at the grant proposal. (For the sake of brevity, I'll refer to it in this review as a play.)

Well is one of those plays that's often described as "too downtown" for Broadway. (What does that mean? Too clever? Too intimate? Too many actors who aren't celebrities?) Indeed, Lisa Kron may be a Broadway neophyte, but in the days when performance art dominated the stages south of 14^th Street, she was well known as both a creator of solo pieces and as 20% of the very funny and unpredictable writing/acting ensemble known as The Five Lesbian Brothers.

Well, which she describes as "like a solo show with other people in it," features many of the characteristics generally associated with performance art: the author/performer playing herself and telling an autobiographical story, the sight-specific nature of the piece, the addressing of social issues and the free-form style that defies conventional rules of playwriting in favor of something more akin to a personal conversation. To put Well on a Broadway stage and complain about it not being a well-made play is a bit like bringing Mary Martin's performance in South Pacific to The Metropolitan Opera House and complaining about her not being a good singer. You're looking at similar art forms with very different intentions.

"This play is not about my mother and me," is another disclaimer the author tells us, but you really can't believe that when her mother, Ann (Jayne Houdeyshell), is lying asleep in her recliner as the audience enters the theatre. And though the play that the performer Kron intends to show us may have nothing to do with their relationship, the writer Kron knows well where the heart of the piece lies.

After some merry comic shtick where Ann wakes up and is so happy and surprised to see the audience she begins searching for enough snacks and soda to serve everyone, Lisa gives us some background on her intended story comparing her experiences being treated to lifelong allergies in a clinic with the dilapidation of her neighborhood, which improved under Ann's community leadership. ("I got sick and I got well. The neighborhood got sick and it got well.") But Ann herself, who Lisa describes as "an energetic person trapped in an exhausted body", has her own history of illness that never improves.

On one side of Tony Walton's set, a realistic room detailed with an amusing array of organized clutter, including a show card from Kron's popular solo show, The 2.5 Minute Ride, Ann watches the comical antics played out by Lisa and the ensemble (Daniel Breaker, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, John Hoffman and Christina Kirk) on the more theatrical side of Walton's set. (Miranda Hoffman provides the same contrast in her costumes, as do hair and wig designer Tom Watson and lighting designer Christopher Akerlind.) But whenever Lisa condenses or alters the story for dramatic purposes, Ann jumps in to correct her. Is it Real Life battling Artistic Interpretation or just a mother trying to be helpful without realizing she's embarrassing her daughter in front of her friends.

As Ann's straightforward common sense story telling wins over the rest of the cast, who are not entirely pleased with Lisa's complex analysis, Kron becomes frustrated at losing control and horrified that her friends like her mom better than her. Lisa's artiness stands no chance against Ann's no-nonsense people skills.

Under Leigh Silverman's buoyant direction, the reality games never get confusing or tired. Kron, an appealing host and witty writer, graciously plays foil for the irresistibly charming Houdyshell. The simultaneous love and tension between the two seems so real you'd swear they must be related.

Photos by Joan Marcus: Top: Lisa Kron

Center: Jayne Houdyshell

Bottom: Lisa Kron, John Hoffman, Christina Kirk, Jayne Houdyshell, Saidah Arrika Ekulona and Daniel Breaker