Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – A game Susan Sarandon leads HAPPY TALK, Jessie Eisenberg’s observant, empathetic new play

• By drediman
• June 8, 2019
• No Comments

Marin Ireland and Susan Sarandon in The New Group’s production of “Happy Talk” by Jesse Eisenberg at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Photo by Monique Carboni.

This afternoon, I attended a performance of The New Group’s Off-Broadway production of Happy Talk, Jessie Eisenberg’s new play, at the Pershing Square Signature Center. The play tells the story of Lorraine, a middle-aged, musical theater loving suburban housewife who veils the emptiness in her life with seemingly innocent (and increasingly) delusional fantasies.

There’s more than meets the eye in Mr. Eisenberg’s accessible play. In Lorraine, he’s created a terrifically complex character who shape shifts before your eyes. Happy Talk is the fourth play of his I’ve seen (after Asuncion, The Revisionist, and The Spoils), and in my opinion, it’s his most accomplished to date. Mr. Eisenberg has always been an observant writer, but I don’t think I’ve seen him so empathetic and invested in his characters as he is here.

Aside from Mr. Eisenberg’s involvement as playwright, the other box office draw is film star Susan Sarandon’s central performance as Lorraine. The game Ms. Sarandon takes a little bit of time to warm up in the role, but when she does, she’s excellent, nailing the character’s untethered self-centeredness. Almost stealing the show, however, is the great Marin Ireland’s hilarious and deeply touching performance as Ljuba, Lorraine’s live-in (and undocumented) help from Serbia. Scott Elliott’s direction does well to ground the play in wonderfully-sustained naturalism.

RECOMMENDED

HAPPY TALK
Off-Broadway, Play
The New Group at the Pershing Square Signature Center
1 hour, 45 minutes (without an intermission)
Through June 16