PUBLIC THEATER (Opens Tuesday 3/23/16)
Expectations are high when a play about the world of high finance features three famous stars - Hank Azaria, Claire Danes, John Krasinski and one not so famous, but very solid, actor, Sanjit De Silva. Add in Thomas Kail, the director of Hamilton, and hopes were high for Dry Powder a play by Sarah Burgess in previews at The Public Theatre.
Burgess tried to create a play that does what a play is supposed to do. She grabbed a theme that dominates the landscape of our lives - the yawning income inequality gap, sprinkled the dialog with references to Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs, teased out the threads of the embedded human dramas and then wove those threads into a captivating narrative. Raised expectations made it all the more disappointing when the play fell short of a satisfying depth.
Hank Azaria skillfully embodies the unbridled tortured wealth lust of a private equity firm CEO. Claire Danes and John Krasinski are young deal making superstars with mirror image world views about takeovers that victimize.
Claire Danes’ character is a one dimensional soulless Darwinian with an Aspergian cluelessness that stretches credulity. John Krasinski compellingly plays a character, on the other end of the spectrum but does so with a too often unmodulated intensity. Sanjit De Silva captures the persona of a young successful CEO of the takeover target buffeted by the underlying currents of loyalty and decency and his ultimate combat with the rip tide of mega wealth.
Hard to put my finger on what was missing. Maybe it’s the fact that the play tackles the most complex issue that dominates our era and delivers an ending, in the form of Claire Dane’s final monologue, that is frustratingly simple and hollow. It was also unhelpful, in the theatre in the round, to have to watch people in the audience a few feet from the performers laughing at stuff that wasn’t funny.
As we stare in slack jawed disbelief at an over inflated cartoon character of unbridled hate and greed floating towards the Republican nomination, like a grotesque Macy's Parade intruder, a play that sparks a public conversation about greed, fairness and human decency is appreciated.
