Theater Review—

It Takes Terrific Acting To Look Bad, And Hartford’s ‘Understudy’ Has It

By Julie Stern

HARTFORD — Take a show in which a trio of fine actors do a terrific job playing bad ones, with an opening set that looks boringly minimalist but which is transformed midway into a technical marvel, and give it a Kafka-driven plot in which the people involved in staging a newly discovered Kafka play are caught up in a tangle of anxiety producing glitches, and you have The Understudy, currently being performed at Hartford’s TheaterWorks.

Billed as an uproarious comedy “not for children under sixteen,” Theresa Rebeck’s work is more of a biting commentary on the money-driven politics of modern show-business, and the uneasy relationship between legitimate theater and the movie industry.

A hitherto unknown play by surrealist Franz Kafka is set to open in New York,  featuring two Hollywood action heroes as a mistakenly arrested Austrian police detective and his implacable interrogator. Bruce, the more successful of the pair, doesn’t even both to show up for rehearsals. His part is “covered” by  his co-star, Jake (who earns only $2 million a film as opposed to Bruce’s $20 million).

For the rehearsals, Jake’s role will be played by the “understudy,” Harry, a struggling stage actor, who opens the play with a soliloquy rant against the injustice of the system in which semi-literate oafs rake in obscene amounts of money for blockbuster movies written by hacks. That the super-macho stars of disaster movies should automatically be given the right to interpret Kafka, is outrageous to Harry. That, as Jake explains to him, people won’t pay money  for tickets to see him, makes him bitter.

Yet in a satirical response to the intellectual snobbery that assumes stage actors to be more serious and culturally developed than movie studio Yahoos, Rebeck has Jake (an affable hunk in comparison to the less physically prepossessing Harry) turn out to be the one who is actually familiar with Kafka, not to mention seriously interested in interpreting his work. Yes, Jake has made his name playing manly rescuers whose speeches consist of shouting “Get in the truck!” but he is genuinely intellectually curious, and eager to try for something more.

Meanwhile, Roxanne, the stage manager charged with directing the rehearsals, is frustrated by the continuous technical problems, caused by a totally stoned lighting director. We never actually see or hear “Laura” (whose booth smells like the inside of a bong, according to the increasingly harried Roxanne) but her mistakes — sending out the scenery in the wrong order, keeping the sound system in a constant state of turmoil, allowing the lights to go on and off sporadically — make her an important fourth character in the play. That Laura’s uncle in the union would cut Roxanne’s arm off if she dares to fire her, ensures that she will continue to wreak her havoc.

The more familiar you are with the world of entertainment, both on stage and on screen, the more you will appreciate Rebeck’s insights and allusions. Of course, the better acquainted you are with the life and works of Kafka, the more you will enjoy the way he is woven into the plot.

Andrew Benator as Harry, Matthew Montelongo as Jake, and Jayne Paterson as Roxanne all do a fine job, and as I said before, I loved Luke Hegel-Cantarella’s set, in which the various backdrops — the tavern,  the police station,  and the dungeon — roll out at all the wrong moments.

(Please note the theater is not allowing any age 15 or under in to this show.

Performances continue through September 18. See the Enjoy Calendar, in print and online, for full curtain and ticket details.)