Craig Schwartz Photography Patrick Marber’s comedic play
"Closer," starring Randle Mell and Rebecca
De Mornay, plays through Dec. 10.
By Alicia Cheak
Daily Bruin Contributor
The question of whether meeting one’s soul mate is through
a chance encounter or through fate is timeless.
“Closer,” a play by Patrick Marber, now playing at
the Mark Taper Forum, examines this question and provides both a
serious and a comical look at the act of falling in love.
Well-received in both London and New York, “Closer”
is now giving Los Angeles a taste of its frank and brutal humor
about the affairs of the heart.
The play is a disappointment, however, in the respect that the
actors do not do justice to the language and emotions of the
play’s brilliant text. Such inconsistency bungles what would
otherwise be an honest theatrical experience.
What is played out at the Mark Taper Forum is an artificial
delivery of sexual banter and politics. Devoid of any passion, the
performance becomes rather tiresome.
 Craig Schwartz Photography Christopher Evan
Welch and Maggie Gyllenhaal perform in
the Mark Taper Forum’s production of "Closer" by Patrick Marber.
Set in London during the 1900s, “Closer” traces the
coupling and uncoupling of a foursome through a series of chance
encounters, instant attractions, betrayals and acts of
unfaithfulness.
Despite their different lives and personalities, each character
is possessed by the paradoxical tendency to approach and then avoid
closeness, which in turn confounds and prolongs their search for
intimacy. The story takes place over four years with the
characters moving in and out of relationships for different
reasons, only to find that at the end nothing has changed.
Alice (Maggie Gyllemhaal) is a young, impetuous, free-spirited
stripper, the sort who flees a relationship as soon as the passion
ends. The play’s opening scene places her in a hospital,
tampering with a bloody cut on her knee. Dan (Christopher Evan
Welch) then enters, having had a chance encounter with Alice when
she stepped into the street and was knocked over by the cab in
which he was riding to work.
Alice becomes smitten with Dan, her hero, and the two engage in
a witty conversation which eventually results in a yearlong
relationship.
The following scene takes place a year later, with Dan in the
midst of writing a book based on Alice’s life. During a
photography session for the book cover, however, he meets, and
falls instantly in love with, Anna (Rebecca De Mornay), the
photographer.Â
To complicate matters worse, back at home Dan poses as Anna and
initiates an X-rated Internet chat session with Larry (Randle
Mell), a rather boorish dermatologist. A rendezvous is set and, by
chance, Larry actually encounters the real Anna and the two have
their own interlude.
What ensues is the unraveling of past relationships for each
character. Betrayal, accompanied by tactical lying, as well as the
range of emotions associated with the extremes of love, lust,
guilt, despair and jealousy are bought to bear. Every character
ends up having affairs, with sex eventually becoming a sort of
commodity for them.
Intercourse is used for different purposes and no one in the
play is able to understand or accept the other characters’
positions on sex.
As such, the exchanges, especially those in the second act, are
brutal, vulgar and ruthless. Truth may be sought and demanded by
the characters, but when it is offered, it is often fiercely
rejected.Â
In the end, no character is closer to the truth, or closer to
anyone else. Then again, in the words of one character,
“What’s so great about the truth? The truth hurts
people. Try lying for a change. It’s the currency of the
world.”
All this wonderfully brutal language combined with emotionally
charged exchanges and captured within a tightly engineered
framework of chance encounters is insufficient, however, and cannot
make up for the actors’ lack of engagement. Not a single
actor seems to connect emotionally with his or her character, and
all seem to remain strangers to one another as well as to the
audience.
Especially difficult to watch is De Mornay’s depiction of
Anna. She comes across as uncomfortable in her role and, at times,
disengaged. This disengagement is pervasive throughout the
show and the audience doesn’t get a sense that the actors are
giving themselves completely to their roles. Often, they
appear as posts spouting out the playwright’s words, rather
than volatile and visceral creatures in the clenches of love and
lust.
Of the four main characters, Larry and Dan have the most genuine
exchanges, first over the Internet and then during an encounter at
Larry’s office. Mell initially plays Larry as an unassuming,
simple-minded chap who, because of betrayal, turns Neanderthal-like
and savage. In the end, however, he begins to play the
relationship game and perhaps becomes its most brutal and violent
player
Welch’s interpretation of Dan, likewise, is less synthetic
than De Mornay’s Anna. Selfish and indecisive, Dan
doesn’t realize what he has until he’s lost
it. Still, he remains insecure, manipulative and unaware of
the depth of his own emotions until the end, when he commits an act
that seems to be more like something Larry would do.
“Closer” attests to the elusiveness of intimacy;
however, when pursued by actors who do not do justice to the
script, the play falls short.
THEATER: “Closer” plays at the Mark Taper Forum
until Dec. 10. Performances are Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m.,
with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices range
from $27 to $44 and can be purchased by calling (213) 628-2772 or
by visiting www.marktaperforum.com.