PHOTOS
Alicia Grega-Pikul
When people say they want to hear the truth, what they most often mean is that they want the truth to be what they want to hear. That's why the best art is often the most unsettling. The more accurate the reflection in its mirror, the less tempted we may be to recognize ourselves.
While disarming for its consistent wit and humor, Patrick Marber's play Closer is by and large unsettling. We squirm in our chairs as it follows four selfish characters in and out of intertwining relationships. Who are these cold people who don't want to be alone, but can't seem to really connect to each other; who want so badly to believe they've found love that they've made an unspoken pact to maintain a joint illusion?
No one I know.
More than 10 years since its London premiere, the award-winning drama remains thoroughly challenging and modern in feel. The Bracken Theatre Company opened a savvy production of Closer last weekend at The 411 Studio in Olyphant. Director Alicia Nordstrom has wisely guided her brave cast into shouldering the play's emotional intensity and not stressed about the small stuff. Even if you've already seen Mike Nichols' 2004 screen adaptation starring Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Julia Roberts and Clive Owen - and especially if you liked it - the stage play is worth seeing.
The unlikely artifice of its structure allows us to see each character meet for the first time. We see their first kisses, the moments they fall in love or pretend to. We also see their break-ups and their final goodbyes.
The play is set in London, but British-born actress Eleanor Gwyn-Jones, as Anna, is the only one who uses an accent. I personally had no problem with this choice and suspect it was a good one on Nordstrom's part.
Overall, Closer is an actor's dream - Anna is perhaps the only underdeveloped character. As the photographer, she is the voyeur and seems most comfortable to keep herself at a distance. She's somewhat passive, although not meek, and doesn't do much more than receive the affections of Dan and Larry. Seemingly polished and mature, they constantly accuse her of being too good for them or just thinking she is. Dan (William Moore) is a frustrated obituary writer obsessed with having Anna ... until he gets her. Larry (John Morris) is a randy dermatologist who shows the capacity for deep, monogamous tenderness, but finds it less taxing to tread the water of variety.
The play's most fascinating figure is Alice (played by Kerry Kane), a young stripper with a disdain for the truth and suspicious habit of getting hit by cars. While boasting less stage experience than her co-stars, Kane's confident performance was a pleasant surprise. The former radio talent sparkles, finding a believable balance between the character's flirtatious cool and deeper lack of self-esteem. Focusing on the congenial, charming side of Dan, Moore doesn't scratch the dark restlessness driving the character as deeply as he might. Morris fills Larry with a frightening, yet exciting energy.
In one particularly entertaining scene, Dan, pretending to be a woman, woos Larry in a cyber sex chat room. The pornographic comedy of their exchange appears line by line on the wall behind them as each types. The actors handle the scene with remarkable skill producing exactly the sort of laughs that help break Closer's uglier tensions.