This weekend I attended Basement Arts’ production of “Closer”. Settling into my straight black plastic chair in the Walgreen Drama Center’s Acting for the Camera Studio, I looked around at the set. It was sparse and had a minimalist vibe that fit my expectations for an edgy, content driven play.There were two projectors (admittedly sitting rather awkwardly at the front of the stage, dead center), two screens, a couple chairs, a few square stools, one table, and some odd and end filler pieces.
Considering the intimacy of the small studio, a minimalist set was a practical option. The space contained only 40 seats total, lining three of the four walls so the play was almost in-the-round. This venue worked for the story, which had only 4 characters whose lives interconnected more and more intricately as the play went on. Certain scenes had all characters on at once, usually acting out two separate scenes within the same space. As an audience member I felt and saw for myself how trapped the characters felt. My favorite scene, and use of space in the show, was when Anna is telling Larry she’s leaving him for Dan. Dan is simultaneously telling Alice he’s leaving her for Anna. Alice runs from the room and Dan dashes after her right between the argument Anna and Larry are having; he was both physically and figuratively coming between the couple. It was a moment of symbolic genius.
Throughout the show props were brought on and off by the actors as they sat unobtrusively in seats at the corners of the stage when not performing. As there were no wings, they occasionally changed clothes discreetly in their sideline seats for the next scene. They also played an important role in setting lighting for the show. Between scenes they quickly clicked on and off living room light fixtures, the mellow illumination adding to the intimate vibe.
Despite pictures being projected on the screens to give us a sense of place, it was often very confusing as to when they were. The play spans a significant length of time, with characters changing their romantic partners on a rotating basis, making it all the more complicated to gauge when a situation was occurring. There would occasionally be line references but at that point in a scene I was usually too far into the dialogue and lost as to how much time had passed. While the previous scene might have taken place within a day, the next might not be until a year later. A simple fix, I believe, would have been to use the projectors a bit more and add a date in the corner of the scene’s image.
This difficulty with the conception of time also made the few flashback scenes in the show doubly difficult. There was no change in the actors’ personas when a flashback occurred and with the already ambiguous time frame, it was a game of guess work with the audience as to what made up the flashback and what was happening in “real” time.
As to the show’s actual content, I wanted it to be more feminist than it was. Women were treated, as Larry stated in the show, as the valued “territory”. The women pursued the men just as avidly as the men pursued the women but there was a sense of uneven power (weighted in the men’s favor) that pervaded the play. While its depictions of sexuality, desire, and relationships were refreshingly frank, Patrick Marber, the playwright, looked only through the lens of heterosexuality. While one can’t expect a single play to do everything, I personally feel Marber’s message about love and sex could have benefited from some diversity.
Those, however valid, are script critiques and not matters of performance choices. This show did give both women and men some agency and freedom to express sexual desire. Though it cast a slightly ghastly portrayal of humanity’s carnal nature, there was also a lot of humor splashed throughout the play. The cast really capitalized on those moments, almost springing them on us with their casual delivery, and made them all the more surprising and delightful because of their unemphasized delivery. Some of the humor wasn’t even lewd or morbid.
It was not a happy play and by the end of it I was emotionally exhausted. Because of this, I consider the cast’s performance a success. There was chemistry among all four actors. The sex, betrayal, lies, frankness, and brutal honesty of the show were handled by an unflinching cast. They tackled the gritty nature of this play with an odd eagerness; perhaps because it allows us to voice and actually discuss some of the taboo subjects about life and love society has decided we shouldn’t.
Check out this video with some highlights from the show!
