Review Roundup: MTC's LOST LAKE Opens Off-Broadway

Manhattan Theatre Club's world premiere of Lost Lake, the new play by Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn, directed by Tony Award winner Daniel Sullivan, featuring Oscar nominee John Hawkes (The Sessions, Winter's Bone) and Tracie Thoms (Rent, "Cold Case"), officially opens tonight, November 11 at MTC at New York City Center - Stage I (131 West 55th Street).

The lakeside rental Veronica (Thoms) has managed to afford is a far cry from the idyllic getaway she and her children so desperately need. And the disheveled property owner, Hogan (Hawkes), has problems of his own - problems that Veronica is inevitably and irrevocably - pulled into. An engrossing and revealing portrait of two strangers bound together by circumstance, Lost Lake is a vivid new work about the struggle for connection in an imperfect world.

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Michael Dale, BroadwayWorld: Despite some interesting writing, excellent acting and a very fine production, David Auburn's two-person drama, Lost Lake, just ain't gonna work unless you can accept a pretty unbelievable premise...As directed by Daniel Sullivan, John Hawkes' Hogan is a stellar piece of work. Physically worn and grizzled, he's the sort of fellow who gives off a creepy vibe without any outward menace; but there's a consistent tension that makes you wonder exactly when he's going to explode. So why does Veronica stay there...In the less-flashy role, Traci Thoms' Veronica is a sturdy, compassionate presence and as we learn of the troubles she's going through it becomes clearer why she would feel a bond with Hogan. Still, Auburn hasn't given her a good reason to stay in a room alone with the guy, beyond wanting the play to last more than twenty minutes.

Charles Isherwood, The New York Times: Generally, when a drama features just two characters of opposite sexes who meet in a cabin in the wilderness, there are only a couple of alternatives: Something very sweet will happen, meaning a love affair, or something very bad will happen, meaning a burst of violence. To his credit, Mr. Auburn...avoids both of those predictable outcomes, although embers of affection do eventually glow, and there is a mention of a gun. Unfortunately, Mr. Auburn doesn't generate much heat of any other kind in this muted two-hander, which is directed with grace by Daniel Sullivan...and benefits from assured performances from the film actor John Hawkes and Tracie Thoms ("Stick Fly")...In keeping with its understated tone, which shies away from moments of big drama even when they seem to loom on the horizon, "Lost Lake" concludes on a note of irresolution, leaving one of its characters on a more hopeful path than the other, but with neither having found an easy way forward. It's a satisfyingly ambiguous ending for a play that nevertheless doesn't entirely satisfy.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter: ...John Hawkes has carved a significant reputation as a protean screen actor, as capable of conveying glinting menace as gentle humanity. It's rewarding to observe that his lean physicality and haunted everyman expressiveness are no less compelling in his New York stage debut. Add in a flinty co-starring performance from Tracie Thoms and a dependable director like Daniel Sullivan, and you have the makings of a strong two-hander. What's missing in Lost Lake is dramatic substance...Auburn is too intelligent a playwright to go for expected banalities like an unlikely romance or an eruption of violence. But he hasn't really come up with an engrossing alternative to flesh out his twin character study into a play that feels complete...As it is, Lost Lake leaves the frustrating impression that some of the story's most interesting parts are happening between scenes, or after the play ends.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety: There's something sad and lonely about a summer cottage in winter, a forlorn quality that permeates helmer Daniel Sullivan's sensitive production of David Auburn's "Lost Lake." Like the dilapidated cabin designed by J. Michael Griggs, the odd couple in this two-hander have the bedraggled air of tired, worn-out souls. A considerable amount of compassion has gone into parallel character studies of the owner of the cabin and a potential renter, roles played with uncanny empathy by John Hawkes ("Winter's Bone") and Tracie Thoms ("Cold Case"). But there are only rumors of action -- and it all seems to be happening outdoors.

David Cote, Time Out NY: David Auburn's Lost Lake is a competently tooled and polished example of play craft. It's just not my idea of a vacation...Auburn packs his characters with backstory...sets them on each other's nerves and then coaxes them into shared confidences and wary, poignant friendship. The highly likeable Thoms and Hawkes are excellent conduits for Auburn's skilled, lean dialogue, timed-release secrets and symmetrical power shifts. Hawkes has the flashier role and creates a vivid portrait of a spindly, wheedling, ingratiating wreck of a man; he and his decrepit property are one...What's missing is that extra factor to make us feel more deeply -- some poetic flight or social vision that makes Hogan and Veronica's pain and joy register louder than the clicking machinery of the writer's squarish dramaturgy.

Joe Dziemianowicz, New York Daily News: Down-and-outers find a connection and a kindred spirit in the small-scale drama "Lost Lake"...And audiences will be trying to stay alert. Yes, this contemporary slice of life is intimate and well-acted. But it's so sincere and extremely low-key that it's sometimes hard to stay focused...At its best, the play is a reminder that people can surprise you and that solace comes in small, unexpected acts of compassion. It's all very earnest. But if you're looking for earth-shattering, you won't dredge it out of "Lost Lake."

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post: Put two hard-up characters in one play, add tension, and chances are they'll overcome their differences to share a valuable lesson of some kind. It's the law of dramatic catharsis. "Lost Lake," by "Proof" playwright David Auburn, spares us the teaching-moment rigmarole. But despite well-acted, sympathetic characters, it's also less than the sum of their problems...Director Daniel Sullivan applies his customary sensitive touch to the proceedings, and the two actors have a warm rapport. But "Lost Lake" lacks urgency. And, for that matter, a point.

Jesse Green, Vulture: ...for quite a while it seems as if we are watching not a play but a moderately amicable real-estate negotiation...To be fair, Auburn is slowly building, under cover of numbness, detailed portraits of the two characters, each in a different kind of trouble...Nevertheless, because this is a play, and because there is little else going on, you naturally begin to expect a romance. Auburn snuffs out that candle, too...But by now we're at the end of Scene Four, and with that potential source of interest gone, what's left? Only Hogan's implosion in Scene Five, which feels real, right, and irrelevant...All that said, Lost Lake is not without redeeming qualities, and the production, directed by Daniel Sullivan, makes the most of them...Thoms, a New York stage regular, meticulously tracks the burden of Veronica's endless responsibilities...And Hawkes, best known for film work like Winter's Bone and The Sessions, is sensational... [he] inhabits every moment, even the banal ones, so fully that you realize only later how beautifully he was shaping the overall performance.

Matthew Murray, Talkin' Broadway: ...throughout Lost Lake, which has been directed with an excess of sensitivity but not much creativity by Daniel Sullivan, its two characters, Veronica (Tracie Thoms) and Hogan (John Hawkes), seemed poised to discover and movingly work through the shattered truths they don't want to admit are already piled at their feet. That doesn't quite happen...It doesn't take long for what initially seems like a subtle, intricate story about class and even race becomes a far less compelling tangle of concerns...When Veronica and Hogan, stripped of their façades, are forced to confront themselves and each other without their usual protections, Auburn's writing becomes more touching and more energized, as though the playwright were just waiting for the opportunity to make things real.

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Photo Credit: Joan Marcus

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