Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Christopher Chen’s audaciously elliptical CAUGHT is irresistible theater

• By drediman
• September 6, 2016
• No Comments

Murphy Guyer, Louis Osawa Changchien, and Leslie Fray in Christopher Chen’s “Caught”

Summertime is traditionally considered the slow season for New York theatergoing. However, this year’s summer months have been exceptionally fruitful for theater artists, to the great benefit of theatergoers. Plays such as Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds, J.T. Rogers’ Oslo, James Graham’s Privacy, Samuel D. Hunter’s The Healing, Kaclyn Backhaus’s Men on Boats, and Leslye Headland’s The Layover have exhibited exuberant theatrical imagination well worth taking stock of. Now we have Christopher Chen’s irresistible and audaciously elliptical new play Caught at La MaMa, courtesy of The Play Company (the play has already received previous productions in Chicago, London, Philadelphia, and Seattle).

Caught is inspired is by noted monologist Mike Daisey’s run-in with the journalistic world when it was found out that he had fabricated and embellished some of the details in his provocative documentary-like The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. The play, which turns quickly turns meta after the first scene, covers considerable ground in its knotted 90-minutes – the nature of truth and lies, the relationship between intention and action, international relations, the definition of art, the differences between journalism and theater, and on and on. As the play progresses, one starts to realize that Mr. Chen’s work is less labyrinthine in nature and more akin to a rabbit hole with no apparent bottom. The less I tell you about the play and allow you to unfold it for yourself, the better I think you’ll be, so I’ll stop here. Suffice it to say, Mr. Chen is a fiercely intelligent and curious playwright. Caught marks his New York theater debut; he’s an undeniably adventurous and exciting young talent to keep our eyes on.

The Play Company’s production is directed with impressive laser-like precision by Lee Sunday Evans. The superb design team – Arnulfo Maldonado on sets, Junghyun Georgia Lee on costumes, Barbara Samuels lights, and Jeremy S. Bloom on sound and music – have come up with a clean, deceptively simple and pristine look, cleverly mirroring the play’s onion-like structure. The production is impeccably performed by a cast of four, led by the wonderful Louis Ozawa Changchien and Jennifer Lim. Each gives a performance of great skill that’s perfectly calibrated to Mr. Chen’s willfully schizophrenic (should I laugh, gasp, or cry?) vision.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

CAUGHT
Off-Broadway, Play
The Play Company at La MaMa
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through September 24