"The Habit of Art" at 59E59

 

Original Theatre production photo by Carol Rosegg

This sounded like an interesting play. A friend had seen Britain's National Theatre production online and liked the play, and the subject matter seemed intriguing, so we took a chance on it. The production suits the setting at 59E59 Theaters, which is kind of a bare-bones theater space (though a good hall with excellent sight lines). So we headed in for a Sunday matinee.

The Play

This is the New York premiere of a play by a well-known British playwright, Alan Bennett. The Habit of Art is kind of a play-within-a-play, except it's really a rehearsal-of-a-play within a play, and the play being rehearsed involves a writer doing research that will turn into biographies of two of the principle characters in the play, the poet W.H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten. The two men had been longtime friends and collaborators, then had a bit of a falling out and didn't speak for thirty years.

The play is set in a rehearsal room for the internal play, with the actors, stage managers, and playwright present (but not the director). The action of the wrapping play is a rough run-through of the internal play (called Caliban's Day) with a lot of dialog among the various characters about what they are doing (or sometimes think they should be doing).

Along the way we get to unravel the layers of the play, with each sort of serving as a meta-version of the one(s) within. So for example we have a biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, interviewing Auden, with some discussion of the ethics of biography, when that is exactly what the playwright is doing with Auden and Britten (and Carpenter, for all that), and at another level, it's what Bennett is doing with his play as well. Deep and complicated.

And also quite funny. Bennett has solid comedy chops going way back, and there is much amusement here. But within that is also a lot of difficult stuff about aging, old friends, betrayals, and much more. And discussion of the role of the overlooked, non-starring characters (e.g., Caliban) such as the rent boy Auden has ordered up, or Carpenter). There's a lot, and it's interesting and good.

The Production

This is a British production by Original Theatre, brought over as part of 59E59's annual series Brits Off Broadway. The acting is very good, with particular nods to Matthew Kelly as Fitz, the actor portraying Auden, and Veronica Roberts as Kay, the stage  manager. Kelly has a really tough role, as both Fitz and Auden are complicated, feisty characters, and he moves between them gracefully (with a lot of lines for each). Director Philip Franks seems to have decided that the characters of George, the assistant stage manager (Jessica Dennis) and Neil, the playwright (Robert Mountford) are solely needed for comic relief, as both have been rendered as clownish buffoons, which seems both unkind and unnecessary.

But on the whole the production is quite solid, with difficult material presented in a way that is accessible and fun, but it leaves one thinking through its layers and vagaries for quite some time. That's my favorite kind of play, and this one is very well done indeed.

Bottom Line

We came in with few expectations, and happily, we got a really good performance of a very good play. It made me want to learn more about Auden and Britten and their collaborations, as well as wanting to know more about Bennett's work in theater.

All in all, a fine effort. The show runs one more week, through May 28th, at 59E59 in midtown Manhattan. Check it out if you can!