NY1 Theater Review: "Compulsion"
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Tony-winning actor Mandy Patinkin returned to the New York stage this week with the debut of the Public Theatre's production of Rinne Groff's "Compulsion," which concerns the man who brought to public attention the diary of Anne Frank. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review. Rinne Groff chose to title her play about writer Meyer Levin "Compulsion." That happens to be the very same title Levin gave to his own 1956 novel about the notorious Leopold and Loeb murder case.
But it should be noted, the play concerns an entirely different chapter in Levin's life. It’s an intriguing yet flawed drama, featuring Mandy Patinkin in top form and a puppet giving a performance that's anything but wooden.
Meyer Levin, named Sid Silver in the play, is remembered for some remarkable things. One of them is bringing Anne Frank’s diary to a publisher and thus introducing to the world the story of this incredible human spirit. As a Jewish-American writer, he felt a deep responsibility to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.
After securing the rights from Anne's father, Levin helped to turn the book into a bestseller and was determined to adapt it into a play.
That's where the conflict comes in. Once Silver's script is rejected, it becomes an all-consuming obsession, and he ends up alienating friends, colleagues and even his own family in his refusal to give up the ghost. Just why he's bent on such an irrational stand is never adequately explained.
Anne Frank is portrayed by a marionette that's freakishly life-like. The stylized effect is stunning but it forces the play into a weird tangent that detracts from the narrative.
Public Theatre artistic director Oskar Eustis stages the play with an almost bipolar intensity. It aims to be a portrait of a fascinating and deeply troubled character, while honoring the legacy of a sainted icon. The emotional extremes can be numbing.
Aside from Patinkin, human cast members include Hannah Cabell in the dual role of a publishing exec and Silver's French wife. Matte Osian takes on four characters. All of the acting, including the puppets, is exceptional. Patinkin brilliantly captures Silver's self-inflicted torment. Raw and painfully real, it's another high point in a career filled with superlatives.
Gripping as the play is, it turns out to be a case of art imitating life imitating art. As theater, "Compulsion" feels, ironically enough, compulsive.