An Intervention at Williamstown Theatre Festival

[LarryD2]

Posted: 8/17/15 at 7:21am

I know several board members have recently been up to Williamstown to see A Moon For the Misbegotten. Did anyone else also catch An Intervention, which is playing at the smaller Nikos Stage?

It's the American premiere of a two-character play by Mike Bartlett, whose Olivier-winning King Charles III is coming to Broadway in the fall. Originally, it was supposed to run as a double-bill with another British play; however, the other production was cancelled due to immigration issues. So, Williamstown is now presenting it as a stand-alone production.

Not to give too much away, but the play has two revolving casts: a male/female pairing (Betty Gilpin and Debargo Sanyal) and a male/male pairing (Josh Hamilton and Justin Long). The play was originally written for a man and a woman, but given that there's nothing essentially gender-specific about the characters in the text (they are just called A & B), it can theoretically work with any configuration. The two casts rotate performances and, on four occasions (including yesterday's matinee), both casts perform.

It's definitely a leap of faith to assume that your audience is going to like your play enough to watch it twice in a row. That said, I found this small play to be taut and stirring, and after the first performance, I couldn't wait to see it again. Without going into unnecessary spoilers, the two characters are best friends whose relationship is upended by personal and political factors: the personal being a new relationship, and the political being a war in the Middle East, which one character supports and the other passionately opposes. The play is essentially about how the personal and the political blend together and how our friendships are constructed around how we want to see people, not necessarily who people really are. 

Both casts have their selling points, though it worked better with Gilpin and Sanyal. There was something kinetic about the male/female dynamic that was missing from Hamilton and Long's interpretation of a platonic heterosexual male friendship. Also, Betty Gilpin -- of whom I've heard but I don't think seen in anything before yesterday -- is a star in the making. What a committed, daring, and heartbreaking performance she is turning in.

The production is strongly directed by Lila Neugebauer, with subtle changes in pacing and blocking between the two casts. It's a thought-provoking play which I'm glad I saw. If you find yourself in Williamstown sometime over the next week, do yourself a favor and grab a ticket.

http://wtfestival.org/main-events/an-intervention/

[NYadgal]

Posted: 8/17/15 at 9:58am

Thank you for your review!   We, unfortunately, did not see this while we were in Williamstown this weekend, but had the chance to speak with one of the actors who shared his thoughts about it.   I was curious about the two different cast structures (male/male and male/female), so interesting to hear your opinion about the two.

I wish I had a chance to dash back up again to catch this.  Next summer I'm planning to stay for more than a weekend.  There's just so much good theatre!

[LarryD2]

Posted: 8/17/15 at 10:08am

I wouldn't be surprised if the play showed up in New York at some point, especially if King Charles III does well on Broadway. Mike Bartlett is a very talented playwright, and he seems to be having something of a moment; we will definitely hear more from him soon. I'm certainly glad I extended my trip to include yesterday's matinee performance.

[Wee Thomas2]

Posted: 8/17/15 at 10:31am

We saw the Saturday matinee with Justin and Josh and were underwhelmed.  We thought the show was incomplete and felt the relationship between the two was unlike any other male-male relationship we were familiar with.  Perhaps the male-female paring would have worked better.  We thought the ending of the show was telegraphed very early on, and thought the characters could have been better fleshed out (at only 80 minutes run time, you could certainly add 10 minutes to the show without causing weariness) as to why they were such good friends (the bar discussion about the color was interesting, but didn't give us enough to hold on to considering the disagreements about politics, consumption, and outside relationships).

[LarryD2]

Posted: 8/17/15 at 10:43am

*Potential spoilers*

I disagree that the play isn't necessarily fleshed out, and I didn't find the ending to be particularly predictable -- but having seen both casts, Long and Hamilton are definitely the weaker of the two, and the play does work better as a male/female relationship. I warmed to Josh's performance over the course of the play, but he never reached the emotional levels that Betty did in her performance. I think that's at least partially because the role really is meant for a woman, even if theoretically it could be played by either sex. Betty really played the hopeless alcoholic nature of the character in a way that inspired much more sympathy, too; I imagine the fact that she is younger, and a woman, had something to do with that.

Interestingly enough, the running time was easily 15 minutes longer with Betty and Debargo than it was with Josh and Justin. The former cast really mined the dialogue, drew out scenes (in a good way), accentuated pauses, whereas Justin and Josh seemed to play the comedy up a lot more, which resulted in a more rapid-fire delivery style. It really felt like a case of two different plays, so I'm glad I saw both.