Tony Award winner Linda Lavin and director Lynne Meadow, who collaborated on MTC’s The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, reunite for a new production of Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies' celebrated drama. Collected Stories chronicles the relationship between two female writers: Ruth Steiner (Lavin), a celebrated New York author with a dry wit and a distinguished career; and her bright-eyed young protégé, Lisa Morrison. As their relationship evolves and the line between fact and fiction starts to blur, their fascinating story comes to an explosive conclusion.
Lavin is the raison d'être for the play's Broadway debut, an offering from Manhattan Theatre Club, which also presented the first New York outing. While director Lynne Meadow has not found anything new in the play—her production is quite close to the previous two—set designer Santo Loquasto's Greenwich Village apartment set is more spacious. But as the tough-minded Steiner, Lavin gives a master class in acting you miss at your peril. Her every intention is visible on her expressive face and in her daggerlike eyes. Many of her flavorful line readings are followed by exactly the right small gesture or shrug to underline the subtext.
But the real value of Collected Stories lies in the challenge it presents its two terrific actors, who spend the play parrying and sparring and cuffing each other, first with mother-and-cub affection and later with venomous resentment. Both Lavin and Paulson—under the direction of Lynne Meadow—give their all to the contest, and by the play's end, you can see what it costs them. Lavin plays this grand-dame writer as a down-to-earth diva. She may be sharply critical of her young disciple, but she's not inhumane. And in a confessional and vulnerable moment, when she shares the details of a youthful affair, her demeanor suddenly turns charmingly, disarmingly girlish.
1997 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
1998 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2010 | Broadway |
Manhattan Theatre Club Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2010 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Linda Lavin |
1997 | The Pulitzer Prize | The Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Donald Margulies |
1997 | The Pulitzer Prize | The Pulitzer Prize for Drama | Donald Margulies |
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