Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA
through July 12, 2015
by Bernadette Johnson
It’s a rare treat to experience the world premiere of a play
that leaves you with the gut feeling that “This one is going to make it big.”
If the spontaneous and immediate standing ovation is any indication, such a
play is Daniel Goldfarb’s “Legacy,” a comedy/drama starring Tony Award-nominee
Jessica Hecht and Drama Desk Award-winner Eric Bogosian.
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| "Legacy" in rehearsal |
It’s all about legacy, the struggle to give meaning to
existence when the bedrock life has been built upon crumbles. As the play
opens, a dispirited novelist, Neil (Bogosian), whose latest work has been
dismissed by the New York Times as “culturally irrelevant,” spews a diatribe
against critics in general, and, labeling himself a failure as a writer,
proposes to his wife Suzanne (Hecht) that they try to start a family. When
Suzanne has difficulty conceiving, Neil’s graduate student Heart (Halley
Feiffer), with whom Suzanne has developed a friendship, is recruited as a
surrogate.
Casting is exceptional, Bogosian and Hecht convincingly
portraying the couple’s anticipation/awkwardness/angst and a vivacious Feiffer
initially exuding youthful confidence and, ultimately, the confusion and dismay
of Heart’s involvement.
Justin Long’s offhand and in-your-face manner as Dr.
Goodman, a fertility specialist—no bedside manner here—adds much delightful
humor, as do many one-liners.
Dane Laffrey’s set is versatile, at first, Neil and
Suzanne’s living room and bedroom, and with just a few shifts and Justin
Townsend’s “sterile” lighting, the living room becomes Dr. Goodman’s office and
the bedroom, the examining room. The immediacy of the examining room heightens
the tension the audience feels. There is a most poignant moment with Heart,
Neil and Dr. Goodman when the tension is palpable, when it seems the entire
audience is holding its breath.
“Legacy” touches on controversial subjects—abortion for
one—and some may be offended by banter that makes light of Holocaust survivors.
This reviewer didn’t feel comfortable laughing. Eric and Suzanne are Jewish,
yet …. Is this disrespect or is it OK in the same way it’s OK for a black man
to use the “N word”?
