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Writing for Us
A CurtainUp Review
Transatlantic Liaison
By Elyse Sommer
| I feel not arrogantly happy, but I love you just the same, my dearest unmarried husband. Our love began like a corny movie story. But now it has become an eartlhy human story. It can be still finer, if we care for it in the right way --- Simone |
Matthew S. Tompkins as Nelson Algren
&. Elizabeth Rothan as Simone de Beauvoir
(Photo: Carol Rosegg) |
While Sartre indulged much more frequently in that license for sexual adventuring than de Beauvoir did, it was her long and intermittent affair with the American novelist Nelson Algren (1909/1981) that became the cause célèbre and fodder for the public's curiosity about her. The affair also proved useful for de Beauvoir's writing: as an integral part of her 1956 novel The Mandarins and as the impetus for her posthumously published Transatlantic Love Affair: Letters to Nelson Algren. Now, those letters and some of the novel are the basis of Fabrice Rozié's two-hander, Transatlantic Liaison which is being given its New York premiere at the Clurman Theater (it previously played in Paris and in Texas).
The play piqued my interest, as it probably will that of anyone with an enduring interest in de Beauvoir's life and work. But, while David Lovett's quite elegant scenic design does have the obligatory writing desks at each side of the stage, one for Elizabeth Rothan's Simone and the other for Matthew S. Tompkins' Nelson, the epistolary set-up proves to be misleading.
Algren, best known for The Man With the Golden Arm, which became a movie with Frank Sinatra, never allowed his side of the correspondence to be made public. Thus, what we have is just one letter writer. Playwright Rozié deals with this vital missing ingredient by occasionally segueing from Simone writing up a storm at her desk to Tompkins as reader and recipient of her latest epistle. He also opens up the epistolary format, interrupting a letter for Simone and Nelson to re-enact some of their real times together -- making love in his dingy Chicago apartment, vacationing in Mexico and in a Michigan cottage.
With the letters all written by just one of the two characters, it should come as no surprise that the letter writing Simone's role is the one that offers the actress portraying her the play's meatiest bone on which to sharpen her acting chops. Rothan chews away at that bone with vivacity and passion. She depicts a de Beauvoir quite different from the stern and scholarly persona that most people associate with her. That said, the material excerpted from the published letters and the bits and pieces from The Mandarins don't add up to a rounded or sufficiently compelling portrait of this complex woman, nor of the equally complex Algren.
With Sartre more or less a conversational footnote, anyone not familiar with the details of Algren and de Beauvoir's story is unlikely to get a real sense of what made these two more than your standard issue star-crossed lovers Those more conversant with the full details will have a slightly better time seeing that what drew de Beauvoir to Algren was his being such a complete anti-Sartre.
The romance is also somewhat sugar coated. Sure, the fact that she was buried next to Sartre but with Algren's ring on her finger imbues this with the aura of a love affair for the ages. But, while de Beauvoir's reputation grew, Algren's literary star shone rather briefly; therefore, had they bridged the transatlantic spaces in their togetherness their story would most likely have been a literary replay of A Star Is Born. The moody and insecure Algren did in fact twice attempt suicide, the first time after the poor reception of one of his early works. He actually spent much of his later life denouncing his former lover for misrepresenting and betraying a relationship he felt should have remained private and, contrary to the play's dialogue about his possibly marrying, he had already been married (and divorced) by the time they met.
Director John McLean's deserves much praise for overcoming the sense that this is really a one-person play. The shifts from letter-writing monologues to two-person interaction are handled fluidly and with some some real emotional sparks. The staging, as already noted, is quite elegant and works well for the play's structure. The opening scene projections of the Parisian cafe scene that was such a vital part of de Beauvier and Sartre's life and the incidental music by cellist Camilla Boartright (visible occasionally through a sheer white curtain) add a nice flourish.
|
TRANSATLANTIC LIAISON Playwright: Fabrice Rozié's Directed by John McLean Cast: Elizabeth Rothan and Matthew S. Tompkins Scenic and lighting design: Original music: Areski Belkacem. Cellist: Camilla Boatright Running time: 90 minutes without intermission Treetop Productions at the Harold Clurman Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street 212-279-4200) From 2/20/06 to 4/02/06--extended to 4/15/06 Mondays, Wednesdays to Fridays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2 and 8pm; and Sundays at 3pm (no performances on Tuesdays). Tickets: $45 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on February 27th press performance |
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