Review - Tennessee Williams' The Two-Character Play

I'm a big fan of Tennessee Williams plays - The Glass Menagerie is one of my very favorite plays ever, and of course I'm a huge fan of many others.  I should've played Stella in my ingenue days and I still hope a revival of Sweet Bird of Youth comes my way eventually.  I'm not as well-versed in his later work, though, so when the opportunity to catch the new Off-Broadway production of The Two-Character Play came about, I pounced.  I'm also a big fan of Amanda Plummer (there's just no one like her, in my opinion) and I've enjoyed much of Brad Dourif's film work over the years.  His portrayal of Younger Brother in the Ragtime film is an especial favorite.

My goodness, these two idiosyncratic, quirky and utterly original actors did not disappoint.  I'm not sure that I completely understood what was going on throughout The Two-Character Play, but I do know that I was totally engaged throughout and found it to be unlike anything I've ever seen before.  Imagine Williams' gorgeously poetic language mixed with Beckett or Pirandello and you can get a small idea of what this play is like.  It doesn't have a coherent plot per se, but it does have a fevered engine driving it.   It has a certain inevitability to it, yet subverts it.  I found myself holding my breath quite a few times throughout...

Two actors, a brother and sister (Felice and Claire), have been left behind after their troupe considers them to be insane and abandons them.  The brother and sister, long-time troupers, consider it their duty to perform for the audience that is already arriving.  The only thing they can perform?  The play Felice has written, The Two-Character Play. 

There are so many levels of meta going on, it's dizzying.  When they're performing, are they re-enacting their own story?  Is there really even an audience out there?  Or is this just the coping mechanism they've come up with?  Clearly, their emotional interdependence has stunted them, and their fear and paranoia is catching up with them.  Of course, they could also be completely bonkers.

There are moments of great humor and great sadness, interspersed with moments of such inspired spontaneity that I truly wondered whether Plummer and Dourif were making it up as they went along.  Their chemistry and rapport was remarkable.  At times, they were having so much fun up there, it almost seemed as if I were intruding on them.  Which was enchanting and irritating at the same time.  (photo at left is from the internet.  photographer is Carol Rosegg.  standard disclaimer applies.)

I found the first act to be more successful than the second (the heavyhandedness of the symbolism in the lighting and music were a little much, but, of course, Tennessee Williams could be a little much), but I was totally engrossed throughout and couldn't imagine what I would see next.  So the play worked for me, even while acknowledging it didn't all make sense.  Oh, and the curtain call was worth the price of admission.  :)

Seat-neighbor-wise, the house was disappointingly sparse, and filled with much younger people than I expected.  Several of the youngsters didn't return after the intermission, but the audience that remained gave a robust and enthusiastic response at the end of the evening.  The Two-Character Play may not be everybody's cup of tea, but gosh, it (and Plummer and Dourif) burrowed its way into my brain and took me on a journey I'll not soon forget.