Stage and screen favorites Wallace Shawn and Matthew Broderick star in a new off-Broadway play set in the world of theater that had its premiere Wednesday night at The Pershing Square Signature Center. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review of The New Group's "Evening at the Talk House."
Besides being a distinctive character actor, Wallace Shawn is a provocative playwright with mixed success. And even with a starry cast, his latest to open at The Pershing Square Signature Center is no exception. "Evening At The Talk House" is an existential dystopian drama that at its best brings to mind a "Twilight Zone" episode as written by Agatha Christie. At worst, there's just too much talk to justify its existence.
The premise is simple. A group of thespians gather for a reunion of a play they performed 10 years earlier. Matthew Broderick is the playwright who's gone on to more success in television. He delivers a cynical monologue that rambles far too long, but it sets the stage for a disturbing new reality measured purely by success at all costs. As we learn more about the rest of the assembled party, it becomes clear that this is a dystopia where people are able to kill others at will as long as the targets are deemed to have the potential to harm us, as they put it.
Shawn, who's also a character in the play, is clearly on to something frighteningly nefarious about our country's direction. And though overwritten, his play is a shrewdly pointed satire about civilization's tectonic shifts both culturally and politically. Hearing the characters speak so matter of factly about targeting their victims in the same breath as they discuss the latest TV sitcom is indeed chilling.
The performances are all first-rate. So nice to see Jill Eikenberry and her husband Michael Tucker back on a New York stage. The same for the wonderful Claudia Shear. Matthew Broderick can't seem to shake the nebbishy cadence he's developed in his performances over the years, but it sort of fits the role.
The production, directed by Scott Elliot, takes far too long to hook us in. But when it does, we're fascinated. Unfortunately, the ending comes too abruptly, and many in the audience are left shaking their heads. Bottom line, Wallace Shawn is a great thinker. I just wish his playwriting could match his intellect.