Review: THE REVISIONIST Misses the Mark Due to Disjointed Script

Academy Award nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg, currently being seen onscreen at Lex Luthor in Batman vs. Superman, is probably best known for playing Mark Zuckerberg in the Academy Award and Golden Globe winning movie The Social Network. The actor and regular The New Yorker contributor's second play The Revisionist had its world premiere at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York in spring 2013, starring Jesse Eisenberg and Vanessa Redgrave and directed by Kip Fagan. The West Coast premiere is now open at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, directed by Robin Larsen in the Lovelace Studio Theater through April 17.

The play begins with the arrival of David (Seamus Mulcahy) who we learn is overdue in delivering revisions of his new novel due to the distractions of city life. Eschewing other places to visit, he has decided to plop himself in a cramped apartment in Szczecin, Poland, the home of a distant cousin named Maria (Tony Award-winning star of August: Osage County Deanna Dunagan). She is a complicated and indomitable figure - a Holocaust survivor who maintains a kind of shrine in her home to her far-off American relatives, most of whom she has met only once or twice. It's a clash of cultures and generations as their divergent agendas, combined with cultural and culinary differences, lead to a spiky, combative relationship that ultimately questions their ideas of family.

While the writing is a bit disjointed and the story much too difficult to follow due to many comments spoken only in Polish by Ilia Volok as Zemon, a Polish taxi driver who provides various services to Maria, the acting by the two leads Seamus Mulcahy and Deanna Dunagan is superb. But while their characters are fascinating in their complexity and Robin Larsen's direction keeps the action moving briskly around the three rooms making up Tom Buderwitz's scenic design (which places the set in the middle of the space with audience members seated on both sides), this up close and personal theatrical experience seems to have something lacking in the fabric of the writing to keep you interested in what exactly is going on between these two lost souls.

At several points in the play when actors are struggling with their own thoughts, lighting designer Leigh Allen creates interesting effects via floor slats. But it did seem as though it could have been just a subway running underneath, had the play been set in a major metropolitan area. And be forewarned, the space is a bit smoky from the beginning although I can't really tell you the reason why. The only smoking done in the play is by David who struggles to open the small window above his bed to blow what appears to be marijuana smoke outside at every emotional junction in the play.

The Revisionist continues in the Lovelace Studio Theater at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 through April 17, 2016 (dark Mondays). Single tickets are $50 though prices subject to change, and can be ordered by calling the box office at 310.746.4000 or online at TheWallis.org

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