The Understudy at WTF
Another View of a New Play by Theresa Rebeck
By: Astrid Hiemer - Jul 25, 2008
The second new play, "The Understudy," this Season at the Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF), by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Scott Ellis, is most intriguingly funny and self effacing. It takes pot shots at actors, The Theatre, The Movie Business, the whole – sometimes - ugly business of 'creating.' It pounces on the (supposedly) celebrity-hungry audience, and, oh yes, identified and performed a newly discovered play by Kafka - way posthumously.The 90 minutes, without intermission, fly by. Theresa Rebeck has beautifully and so wittily written a new play.
Reg Rogers (Harry) as the actor for the understudy role is in fact the more gifted of the two male actors on stage in this Kafka play. He is a washed up character, a nobody, who had disappeared for six years, returned, and even needed to change his name for unknown reasons. The second actor, Jake (Bradley Cooper), is semi-famous and full of hunger to make it 'big' in the movie business He had just earned $ 2.3 Mill for an action film. Now, as a stage actor, he realizes, that the understudy's interpretation of certain moments in the Kafka play, are more significant and right for the scenes. But, of course, they cannot be changed by the understudy, Harry, who has no rights or power in his position, and will probably never go on stage during the run of the play. That's all right with Harry. Just performing the entire role once, even without an audience, is what he hungers for. Acting is his craft and – he is hungry in real life and needs the money.
Real life enters the play as well, because the reason, why he had disappeared six years ago, is Roxanne (Kristen Johnston), the Stage Manager, or in the play, a former actor. So Kafka - Broadway – Hollywood – life – interface seamlessly, but one has to remain a vigilant viewer, to keep up. Roxanne was the understudy's fiancée, before he disappeared, ready to be married in two weeks. She had not heard from him, not a word, no explanation, nothing. And there he stood suddenly in front of her, with a changed name. But one should not give away too many details of the play – don't spoil the fun for future audiences. One may just imagine, how the anger of the former, jilted bride enters the play. Here she has 'power' to keep the actors in line, but the real power lies with Bruce, the third actor of the Kafka play, the $ 22 Mill action-film-star, who does not appear on stage. He would surely not allow certain changes, which Harry, the understudy, and now Jake are proposing. In between interruptions, those two men question each other about their real lives and bond.
Another person 'with power,' who is also not on stage in this play is Laura, the girl in the booth, because, she determines what scenes the Kafka-actors can perform. She keeps moving the sets, not intentionally, because she is stoned, but she reconfigures the stage time and again. And the stage manager and the actors give in, because Laura does not do, what's demanded of her. She is too stoned.
Reg Rogers is perfect for the role of "The Understudy." He acts his part in the Kafka play, the police investigator, now prisoner, with beautiful nuances, which also mirrors his role in life in the play: He is the washed-up actor, without power.
In fact, Bradley Cooper, the semi-famous actor in the Kafka play, the clerk, who arrests the police investigator, is also in real life a film and TV actor. We remember him from a role in TV's "Alias." He has also been in the film "Wedding Crashers" and suits this current role well. One could feel and taste his frustration, when he almost gets the big role in his next film, which would have catapulted him into the big league of Movie Stardom - but let's not give away the ending.
Kristen Johnston, as an excellent Roxanne, the stage manager, finally hates the 'whole business,' and wants to quit altogether, because it becomes her role to give the actors a "Hiobs Botschaft" (Hiob's message, as in terrible news). She has to make the final curtain call right then and there. The playwright, director, and actors deserve a standing ovation !