[NEohioPAL] Review of "The Revisionist" at Dobama Theatre

[Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL]

Thin, implausible ‘Revisionist’ fully fleshed out in Dobama rendering



Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

  

“Write what you know” is usually the advice followed by fledgling authors when they first put pen to paper.  



Such is the case with actor-turned-playwright Jesse Eisenberg.  He has so mastered the art of depicting patronizing, self-centered, socially awkward characters in films like “Social Network” and “Now You See Me” that he has created similar characters to portray in his own plays, which consist of “Asuncion,” “The Revisionist” and, most recently, “The Spoils.” 



In his “The Revisionist,” which premiered Off-Broadway in 2013 and is currently on stage at the Dobama Theatre, a young, American writer named David arrives at the run-down Polish city of Szczecin and the well-worn flat of his second cousin Maria.  Self-absorbed, high-strung and thin-skinned, David has come hoping that the isolation and radical change of scene will allow him to concentrate and complete his new novel.  He makes no effort to be gracious to Maria or show any appreciation for her hospitality. 



The septuagenarian Maria thinks that David has come to visit her and learn about the family they lost in the Holocaust and the many others depicted in the cherished photographs that cover every surface in her modest apartment, designed with wonderful attention to detail by Aaron Benson and Marcus Dana.



Both David and Maria are in desperate need of human contact and personal connection, but their generational, cultural and culinary differences create barriers that only a bottle of vodka and some serious truth-telling can penetrate.



This is a lovely story but, as with the early works of many fledgling authors, it is thinly told and full of implausible, forced and structurally graceless moments.  What should be a small, delicate watercolor portrait is rendered with expressionistic subjectivity, broad strokes and unrefined technique.  



Fortunately, it fell into the hands of director Leighann Delorenzo.  Her delicate touch has tapped all that is heartfelt and beguiling in the script.  And her eye for casting has allowed it to take form on stage. 



For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.  


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