Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – In SEA WALL / A LIFE, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge excel in two slight but quietly menacing monologues

• By drediman
• February 15, 2019
• No Comments

Jake Gyllenhaal in Nick Payne’s “A Life” at the Public Theater. Photo by Joan Marcus.

Last night, Sea Wall / A Life, a pair of monologues about modern day masculinity through the lens of intense grief by Simon Stephens (who penned the Tony-winning stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) and Nick Payne (who wrote Broadway’s intellectually stimulating Constellations), respectively, opened at the Public Theater. Seeing new works by Mr. Stephens and Mr. Payne, two of the more celebrated British playwrights of their generation, would be reason enough to get many a theater fan (like myself) into seats. However, in this case, I think it’s safe to say that the reason a good proportion of people who decide to plop money down to see the show will have done so to bask in the presence of Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge, who headline the double bill.

Arguably, the stronger of the two slight solo pieces is Mr. Stephens’ Sea Wall starring Mr. Sturridge. The monologue is a pungent piece of writing, full of lingering imagery and unsettlingly conflicted – and conflicting – emotions. Initially, Mr. Sturridge plays a nondescript British man jovially transitioning from laid back bachelorhood to the responsibilities of fatherhood. But when he starts recounting for the audience the inexplicable tragedy that eventually befalls his young family, the shell-shocked character wrenchingly implodes before our very eyes. This is not to say that obvious histrionics are involved. Anything but – Mr. Surridge’s performance is a complex, subtle piece of acting, at once communicative and contemplative, but opaque. In some ways, Mr. Stephens’ play suggests the limitations of language to capture the anguish of such deep grief.

Although Mr. Payne’s A Life deals with the same issues (this time from the perspective of a similarly daunted American man), it does so in a less pained and shattering way. On paper, the symmetry of Mr. Payne’s plot – one thread involves the joyful introduction of “a life”, the other the sorrowful loss of “a life” – may seem a bit too obvious. But as richly conjured by film star Jake Gyllenhaal, what emerges is a portrait of an overly reactive man overwhelmed by the inevitably messy situations life throws at him. Who can’t relate with that? Director Carrie Cracknell has guided both plays with a clarity and simplicity that’s almost unnerving. Taken together, both Sea Wall and A Life are sensitive, quietly menacing reminders of the tragic elements of life looming just beyond our view. But it’s also a potent reminder to embrace the sensations that are unique to our humanity and fully inhabit each moment of our fleeting time here.

RECOMMENDED

SEA WALL / A LIFE
Off-Broadway, Play
The Public Theater
1 hour, 45 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 31