| . | 03/18/2008
Parlour Song
By: Victor Gluck
Jonathan Cake and Emily Mortimer
(photo credit: Doug Hamilton)
The world premiere of Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song at the Atlantic Theater Company starts with an on-stage explosion accompanied by video and ends with an off-stage silent explosion that is narrated. Although the play is less than the sum of its parts, Chris Bauer, Jonathan Cake, and British film star Emily Mortimer (Lars and the Real Girl, Match Point, The Pink Panther, Lovely and Amazing, etc.), making her New York stage debut, turn this domestic triangle into an acting tour de force. While the plot is slight, director Neil Pepe keeps the tension rising with each turn of the screw. The title comes from the poem which begins “‘Will you walk into my parlour?’ said the spider to the fly.”
The intermissionless play is narrated by Cake as Dale, the next door neighbor of Ned and Joy in a small suburban British town. Ned, a demolition expert who is away a great deal, confides in Dale that every time he returns home, he thinks more of his things are missing. Is someone breaking in? Could his wife be removing these items? Is Ned paranoid? On the surface, Ned and Joy appear to have a good relationship. However, they have no children after many years of marriage and don’t seem to have much to say to each other. Ned begins to suspect that Joy has a lover but he can’t find any proof other than that his things are going missing. He decides to get in better shape in order to add zest to his marriage and asks the physically fit Dale to help him achieve his goal.
This is the third play by Butterworth to be presented by the Atlantic Theater Company following Mojo and The Night Heron, and the third to be directed by Atlantic’s artistic director Pepe. All three achieve a visceral grip on the viewer, even when their plots are obscure. Although Parlour Song is in the form of a mystery-thriller, it is the most accessible of the three. We know that Ned’s suspicions will most likely have a simple explanation and the play’s 90 minutes is just long enough to support the tenuous plot. The play at times seems Pinteresque in its use of dialogue to both reveal and obscure what the characters feel.
Under Pepe’s taut direction, his cast turns in excellent performances. Seen previously this season in Lincoln Center’s Cymbeline and Atlantic’s Almost an Evening, the hunky Cake applies his virile presence to the talkative, easy-going Dale. Bauer is extremely believable as the tongue-tied, inarticulate Ned who is slowly going to pieces over his suspicions. As both men strip down to their shorts in the exercising scenes, the contrast is startling as to what Joy has and what she might prefer. As the enigmatic Joy, Mortimer’s sinuous presence gives her a voluptuous, feline allure that suggests she is unfulfilled by her marriage. The British accents are right on target and it helps that both Cake and Mortimer are native born.
Aside from the device of using Cake as the narrator, lines of dialogue are projected on the back wall of the set as an introduction to each scene. This becomes intentionally alienating as well as disturbing. Robert Brill’s minimalist set which has a sofa, dining room table, and double bed isolated in their own playing areas also adds an eerie atmosphere. Sarah Edwards has costumed Mortimer in tight, revealing outfits that belie her quiet manner, while giving the men many changes to suggest the passage of time. The lighting by Kenneth Posner adds to the aura of mystery.
Parlour Song is yet one more play this season about a dysfunctional marriage. However, here the atmosphere is tense with undeclared emotions. Jez Butterworth’s script gives Chris Bauer, Jonathan Cake and Emily Mortimer some juicy roles in a play that is ultimately emaciated. Neil Pepe’s production makes the play look and sound better than it is.
Parlour Song (through April 6)
Atlantic Theater Company Main Stage at the Linda Gross Theater, 330 W. 20th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, call 212-279-4200 or http://www.ticketcentral.com
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