Review by Samuel L. Leiter . . .
Art of Leaving is the unpropitious title of an amateurish new domestic comedy by Anne Marilyn Lucas, whose cardboard dialogue and plywood acting had me pondering departure before five minutes had passed. This clichéd throwback to the kind of sitcom playwriting that used to dominate Broadway, with a profitable afterlife in summer stock and amateur theatre, comes nowhere near the quality of the plays it vaguely echoes, but it smacks of their common approach.
Although such plays weren’t always about Jewish families, many were, either overtly or subliminally. Often set in living rooms, they usually involved the characters in some situation mixing nostalgia with issues of contemporary relevance. In Art of Leaving, we’re in the upscale, Upper East Side apartment of a middle-aged couple Aaron (Jordan Lage) and Diana Katzman(Audrey Heffernan Meyer). He’s Jewish and she’s a shiksa who didn’t convert. They’re well off, preoccupied with their looks, and about to celebrate their 25th anniversary.
Diana, ever upbeat and smiling, continues to love Aaron, and has a history of doing whatever he’s asked of her to make him happy. He, however, has been seeing a quack therapist named Dr. Stang, author of a book intended to help men deal with their midlife crises. Essentially, his advice is to do whatever it is you feel will free you to enjoy life, even at the expense of your spouse. We get plenty of earfuls of Stang’s baloney read to us by Aaron and his skeptical family members, who, of course, always go to the right quotes by merely opening the book.
Aaron cannot make a move without feeling the need to justify it by slamming his hand on the book, like a preacher with his bible, insisting on Stang’s slogans, such as “I must live by my truth.” He even gets his nutrition from Stang’s smoothie recipes. As written and played, Aaron’s a total idiot with a degree from Princeton.
Aaron, selfish, narcissistic schmuck that he is, decides he doesn’t love Diana anymore and that he wants to divorce her. Soon, at Aaron’s request, their son, Jason, his fiancée, (Brian Mason), Caitlyn (Molly Chiffer), and Aaron’s parents from Long Island, Felix (Alan Ceppas), a dentist (what else?), and Esther (Pamela Shaw) arrive. Their shocked reaction to Aaron’s plans, and Diana’s navigation of her options, constitute the essence of this determinedly banal comedy.
Lucas uses the opportunity to air lots of talk about the institution of marriage, opening the discussion further by having Caitlyn be a graduate student in Critical Identity with a focus on Gender and Sexuality. Further, Caitlyn and Jason are planning to have a polyamorous marriage (cue the mix-ups with polygamy), which, of course, is meant to contrast with the traditional marriages of the older couples. Naturally, Felix and Esther’s story is replete with its own secrets. While it’s possible to view Art of Leaving as satire, it chooses a sledgehammer over a scalpel to make its point.
Some seeds here might have sprouted into an interesting discussion comedy if Lucas had any gift for atypical character depiction or witty dialogue. But she’s stuck in a world of stereotypical language and character. These are the kind of persons who must remind us that they’re Jewish by spouting Yiddish: meshuggana, farkakte, and so on. Aaron’s elderly mother is an overdressed, bleached blonde (via a terrible wig) wisecracker from the Joan Rivers-Renee Taylor playbook. None of the characters has the slightest reality, but the worst offender is the obnoxious Aaron, whose toxicity is such that it’s impossible to believe that the seemingly reasonable Diana didn’t dump him years ago. The play instead makes her Aaron’s rag doll, who only wakes up when, completely devoid of empathy, her spouse insists on leaving her.
Perhaps better direction and acting might have lifted this exercise to a minimum level of credibility. But director Matt Gehring (husband of the brilliant musical theatre artist Shaina Taub) is weak on multiple fronts. His blocking is surprisingly clumsy and his actors often move without much justification; he has Caitlyn, for example, in heavy leather shoes, stand on the expensive sofa and chairs. Worse, he’s unable to draw more than barely competent performances (or less) from a cast whose bios lead us to expect something more.
Set designer Frank Oliva’s battleship-gray apartment, with gray furniture and chrome and leather chairs, looks sleekly attractive at first sight, although the hanging curtains surrounding the upper reaches make no sense. However, as it comes into use, the architectural layout—living room downstage, bedroom on an wall-less platform behind the living room sofa, kitchen up right, and a doorway far up left seems increasingly wacky. We also learn that the set is intended to reflect Aaron’s machismo, to which Diana has meekly submitted; this might have been clearer if some particularly male decorative elements were added to what is now a generically decorated environment.
Ben Vigus’s sound design is one of the show’s strong points, Stacy Boggs and Betsy Chester’s lighting works well, and Lara De Brujin’s costumes are reasonable versions of what these people would wear. I’m not so sure, though, about the formfitting beige sheath worn by the 80ish Esther.
In the end, Art of Leaving, which runs 90 minutes, commits the very sin its title suggests: it makes you want to. Despite its aspirations to grapple with the complexities of modern marriage and tradition, the play is ultimately sunk by a perfect storm of deficiencies—a cliché-ridden script, one-dimensional characters, and a flaccid production that fails to provide even a hint of authenticity. Lucas’s play doesn’t just feel dated; it feels inert, a hollowed-out exercise that mistakes Yiddish interjections for personality and toxic narcissism for dramatic conflict. The most resonant line is the title itself, which stands not as a thematic exploration, but as the soundest piece of advice an audience member could receive.
The Art of Leaving is playing a limited engagement now through December 14th at the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre/Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd Street, NYC. For further information, please visit: https://www.artofleavingtheplay.com.
Photos by Jeremy Daniel.
Headline photo: Jordan Lage and Pamela Shaw.
