Review - Heartless

Last night, I went back to my new favorite theater space, the Signature Theatre's Pershing Square Center, to see Sam Shepard's new play Heartless.  It wasn't hard to decide to buy a ticket for this one - I'm a big fan of Signature, the price was right (only $25!!) and I'm a longtime fan of Shepard.  In college, one of the most wonderful acting experiences I ever had was in Curse of the Starving Class; seeing Tooth of Crime starring Vincent d'Onofrio was a searing evening, plus a friend directed an AMAZING college production of it that I still think about; Lois Smith in Buried Child was sublime; each production of True West I've encountered has been compelling.  I'll admit to being less familiar with his newer stuff and I didn't even make it to the last pieces at the Atlantic and the Public (they just got away from me).  But the early stuff has left an indelible impression on me and whenever I even hear the name Sam Shepard, I think I'm in for something amazing.

In my opinion, Heartless could be on its way to being amazing, but it's not quite there yet.  And I can't quite put my finger on why.  This was an early preview and I heard a rumor that Shepard is at the theater every night, taking notes and making changes (I looked for him but didn't see him, darn it).  So that could be part of the reason why the production as a whole didn't click for me.  There were times when I was completely captivated and transported, but there were other times when my mind wandered to where I could find a snack post-show.  Perhaps the entirety of the proceedings didn't reveal themselves to me, but I consider myself a relatively savvy theatergoer.  The actors here are all good, and Lois Smith is revelatory, and the story being played out is a fascinating one.  Maybe it's the direction I rebelled against - at times, each character sort of stared out into 'space' and portentously delivered their dialogue.  I'm not sure if that's part of the script or a directorial decision, but it seemed pretentious and unnecessarily offputting.

The play itself has an uneasy balance between magical realism, absurdism and the supernatural.  Maybe that's where I got tripped up.  I don't necessarily need to know what's real and what isn't, but I do want the world to be sort of consistent.  There were moments last night where my brain was just struggling to keep up.  Maybe I'm just trying too hard.  Maybe I wasn't supposed to keep up.  At times, the majesty of the language did gorgeously transport me, and maybe that's enough.  I should probably go back and see this show again later in the run, just to try to untangle its mysteries, both in the text and in the execution of it.

I don't want to give away any secrets, so I'll just say that Shepard again has given us a supremely dysfunctional family with secrets.  I think the ideas being explored are fascinating and the unraveling of them are expertly written.  Sometimes, though, it seemed as if the staging was fighting the text.  And there's an awkward moment before the curtain call, when two actors have to move a set piece to come on and take their bows.  I found that disconcerting, even with all the oddness happening on stage.  There was an odd bumping and thumping going on throughout the play, too, and I'm not sure if it was part of this show or just noises happening in the theater space.  I should probably just take a deep breath, chalk the problems up to 'early preview' and get over it.  But I do really think that this could be something sublime and feel frustrated that I didn't get to the sublime.

Clearly, I didn't get all I wish I could've out of Heartless, but, hello, vaguely unsatisfying Shepard is miles better than lots of other stuff.  So I definitely think you should go.  I really think I should go again as well.  So there.  :)

**three years ago, I finally won the virtual ticketing lottery at the Public (why can't I win tickets to Into the Woods?!?!?!) and saw The Bacchae, and had a great time even with all the problems that production had; last year, I adored Tyne Daly in Master Class...**