The point of the play isn’t, of course, a dramatic one at all — it’s a therapeutic one. But the stage isn’t an AA meeting, and actors have to work their way through these scenes. Perhaps because there have been so many great drunk scenes in the history of the theater, scenes written by masters like Chekhov and O’Casey and O’Neill, the misperception has arisen that there’s something inherently dramatic in a man (or woman) playing drunk. You have only to watch Krakovski and Husted through the first half of Bill W. to see that it isn’t true. Director Rick Lombardo hasn’t guided them to play any actions (“drunk” isn’t an action, it’s a state, and as any beginning-actor teacher will tell you, you can’t play those), and the script doesn’t provide any. The two actors improve considerably in the second act, when their characters are sober, and Doyle, an intelligent, grounded actress, does well throughout. Harker is defeated by a character with contradictions that the playwrights haven’t resolved and that sometimes crop up within a single scene. I couldn’t figure out whether Lois Wilson really wanted to stay married to Bill and see him start his life again sober or whether she preferred — as she reports in one scene — to be on her own, untroubled by his demands for the first time. Sure, the character can be torn in two directions, but you don’t illustrate that dilemma by having her say one thing and then say the opposite.
The cast is rounded out by Marc Carver and Deanna Dunmyer, who play a range of other roles. They work hard and occasionally break through — especially Carver in his last role, as the unregenerate drunk who becomes the protagonists’ first triumph. But it’s an uphill battle to play a series of one- and two-shot parts that no one has sketched in. Carver in particular resorts to parlor tricks like accents and attitudes, not all of which even match the dramatic requirements of the scenario. Perhaps the members of the ensemble believe so fervently in the social benefits of a play about how AA got off the ground that they’re happy with their involvement; I’m sure everyone participating in this project is a fine human being. But good will isn’t a prime ingredient for good theater.
Related:
Balloon moon, No country for old men, The boards on a budget, More 
- Balloon moon
Sometimes less is more when imagination rules.
- No country for old men
Louis de Rougemont makes James Frey look like a documentarian. A sickly Victorian lad who arose from his cot, knocked around the Southern Hemisphere for a while, and returned to England with a hifalutin new moniker and captivating tales of seafaring perils and aboriginal idylls, he was the subject of a popular serialized autobiography.
- The boards on a budget
Going to theater or dance feels like an investment in an exclusive art form, high art for high incomes, and for those of us who count our nickels, off-limits entertainment.
- Winner takes all
Itamar Moses takes the buddy vehicle and twists it early and often in The Four of Us.
- Hare belles
With apologies to Winston Churchill, The Breath of Life is a cliché wrapped in an enigma — or two. On the face of it, award-winning British writer David Hare's ruthless yet sentimental two-hander (at Gloucester Stage through August 2) is a standard confrontation between a betrayed wife and her husband's long-time mistress.
- Chilly scenes in winter
The drama of the holidays (and I don’t mean A Christmas Carol) may be behind us, but there’s plenty more drama — and comedy and musicals — ahead to light up long winter nights.
- Great gifts
Knussen’s interludes, barely seven minutes, are a complex but attractive mix of the seductively creepy and the intricately lively.
- Pass the subversion
Brazilian filmmaker Jorge Furtado has pursued the same preoccupations through his entire 25-year career, beginning with his arch, masterfully constructed and jolting shorts.
- Multi-tasking
Depending on your outlook, Dan Snaith is either a genius auteur or a misguided, egomaniacal control freak.
- The ‘A’ word
How can the media cover a subject that nearly everyone’s thinking about, but is almost too abhorrent to discuss?
- Shelter
Short-order cook Zack skateboards, surfs, babysits, and dreams of attending Caltech to be an artist.
- Less
Topics:
Theater
, Entertainment, Business, Marc Carver, More
, Entertainment, Business, Marc Carver, Bob Smith, Arsenal Center, Media, Health and Fitness, Movies, Books, Addiction and Recovery, Less
