There is a moment halfway through the second act of Atlantic Theatre Company’s The Lying Lesson. A sort-of personal assistant Minnie Bodine (Mickey Sumner) tells Ruth Elizabeth a.k.a. Bette Davis (Carol Kane) “it looks like you were born yesterday.” And out of Ms. Kane’s mouth comes an “Oohh.” One word, one singular noise. Filled with pain, sadness, a longing for the past, layers of both contempt and respect for Minnie. The sound is raw, Ms. Kane so alive -- a telling glimpse into the life of an aging actress. If only there were more moments like that in Craig Lucas’ mostly sluggish, tame new two-hander.
The play, set in 1981, opens with Kane’s Davis wandering around an empty house in coastal Maine. She ensures nobody’s home as thunder kind of - very kind of - startles her. It’s an intriguing although confusing setup. By the time the thunder roars for the third time, though, what was gripping becomes repetitive. Throughout the whole production, in fact, you just want the plot to move forward and for something juicy to be revealed. Instead, the action, the story and the characters dawdle along.
The main storyline lacks genuine suspense. Bette Davis wants to purchase the home because she used to love someone in town. Minnie knows the previous owners and does menial work for them. She’s also eager about the prospect of doing work for Davis. But is Minnie who she says she is, or is she a tad smarter and a tad more manipulative than we thought“ That is quite literally the only mystery set up in one whole hour of the show’s first act. And is finding out the answer to that question enough to get the audience itching for more during intermission? I'm not so sure.
Ms. Kane, a bona fide star, packs every line with the ultimate punch… for better or worse. Her grand delivery is used to side-splitting perfection as she tells Minnie “I would cry too if that was my résumé.” And she has us completely on her side as she gets ready for an important hearing regarding the house, her energy the perfect balance of nervous and rigid. Ms. Kane does, however, appear oddly checked out, stiff or non-reactive at many other points. When the house begins to fill with smoke, she stares at it as if waking up from a NyQuil’ed sleep. And her constant lack of subtetly doesn't allow for a particulary colorful performance overall.
At first, it seemed that Ms. Sumner was presenting an Accent rather than a Performance. She ends up growing into the role, ultimately and successfully portraying an Average Jane in slice-of-life fashion.
At times, I couldn’t believe this play was directed by the fabulous Pam Mackinnon, who kept the action moving so beautifully in Broadway’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, a production which featured fleshed-out, constantly evolving relationships. In Lesson, when Ms. Kane dryly hits a one-liner like “Just because someone’s dead doesn’t mean they’ve changed,” it’s gold. But the golden moments, combined, would equal about fifteen minutes, or one-tenth of the play’s running time. Although themes of loneliness, paranoia and alcoholism are touched upon in Mr. Lucas’s script, nothing is really said about any of them -- making it quite the challenge for the director and actors.
Ms. Kane looks divine in Ilona Somogyi’s chicly designed costumes. And the audience had a blast reacting to eerie thunder claps, original music by Broken Chord.
