MM Theater Blog

Hats off to Artistic Director Blake Robison for producing the World Premiere of Karen Zacarías' comedy The Book Club Play as part of the Round House Theatre's 2007/2008 season. Expanding their horizons from productions of literary adaptations, this play is a very entertaining and refreshing contemporary work about people who love to read books.

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The very original premise -- a group of graduate students producing a documentary film about book clubs -- gives the audience the sense that they are watching the completed film, even though the action is unfolding onstage. Text and backdrops occasionally are projected on the back wall, as they would be in a documentary film. This movie-within-a-play format cleverly gives the actors the opportunity to explain things to the audience through an imaginary camera lens in their living room, keeping the imaginary "fourth wall" intact. It is a fun and innovative way to experience theater.

Not only does the play explore the dynamics of groups and social rituals, it also exposes a modern phenomenon that has risen out of reality television -- the behavior of people performing "normal activities" when they know there is a camera focused upon them. In an effort to capture something "real", the camera distorts the reality by focusing on subjects who behave in a way that is anything but real. Staying true to the premise that we are watching a film, the play's intermission is represented by the projected image of a Pause button on the back wall, which is a fascinating commentary on the current state of technology in society. (And of course, the resumption of the second act is represented by the image of a Play button.)

Founding Artistic Director of the Young Playwrights' Theater, Karen Zacarías has won awards for various plays produced around the country, and is an exciting new female voice in American theater. She is a DC resident, and currently working on commissions for Round House (for 2008/2009) and Arena Stage. It is nice to see her getting some well deserved local attention. Director Nick Olcott, who has directed 11 and acted in 7 plays at Round House, does a fine job breathing life into Ms. Zacarías' innovative play. One might think that a play about people talking about books would be intellectual and dull, but between the playwright's funny dialogue and the director's lively pacing, this play is anything but dull.

The bulk of the action in the play takes place in the various living rooms of the book club members, represented by one generic living room containing a sofa, chair, a couple of tables, pillows, vases, and back wall, all in muted colors of off-white and beige. James Kronzer's set is a blank canvas upon which we can imagine any living room. No effort is made to change any of the furniture or props from one scene to another. Instead, each scene gets its character from the host of the book club that month -- what kind of food they have prepared, what book was chosen, etc. The white back wall with a modular moving framework allows for the projection of images from the documentary, and also enables the door to be repositioned, which is about the only real change from one living room to another. It is an interesting approach to set design.

The book club meetings are interspersed with interviews of various people on the subject of books and book clubs, including literary experts, an American immigrant who learns the power of reading from a little girl reading Charlotte's Web, a teenage girl with an iPOD and a Google T-shirt, a gay ex-secret-service-agent-turned-hairdresser, a writer, and Sam Walton, to name a few. All of these characters -- male and female -- are played by the multi-talented Sarah Marshall. It is a brilliant one-woman-play within a film within a play.

The other actors are all very credible in their various roles within this ensemble piece. Lise Bruneau, Erika Rose, Sasha Olinick, Jason Paul Field and Connan Morrissey very successfully embody their individual characters. Of particular note is Matthew Detmer (Round House patrons will remember him as Owen Meany), who shines in his limited scenes as the newcomer that Jen invites to the group without asking the others, because she discovers him in the laundromat reading War and Peace . His character Alex is the most different from the others, and Mr. Detmer makes the most of it!

More than just a portrayal of book clubs, the play offers a fascinating look into the dynamics of any group -- how social structure is established, how leaders emerge, what happens as new people join the group, how decisions are made, and whether the group can be fluid enough to withstand change over the course of time. As such, it is something we can all relate to. In this case, the central character Ana is cloying and manipulatively controlling. The play would have been greatly improved if this character would experience some growth over the course of events. Audiences like to see characters grow as a result of the contrast that occurs in their lives. Without it, there is a sense of disappointment. This is the biggest flaw in what is otherwise a very funny, lively, and novel approach to theater.

MM Rating - * * * *