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I’m sure some of you remember watching ‘The Manchurian Candidate’ a few years ago. When I watched it, the actor that became permanently etched into my memory was the ex-army officer running for president, Liev Schreiber. When I saw the mix of emotions in his eyes as he delivered his dialogues with such gravity, I immediately knew that he was meant for the stage. This weekend, I saw him in his rightful place, in Eric Bogosian’s ‘Talk Radio.” He delivered his lines with the same intensity
The play is a revival of the 1987 version (a great year for theater, and not just because I was born then), which is the principle reason I came to see it. It appears that any recent original play outside Broadway has just lost its flair. When I saw this play though, it seemed like it really was Schreiber’s energy and enthusiasm that magnetically drew me into it.
As Barry Champlain, Schreiber expertly morphed himself into an abrasive radio talk show host. Simply put, he likes hearing his voice. The entire play takes place in one night of broadcasting in a Cleveland studio. During this eventful night, Champlain goes through a list of desperate, irksome incoming callers. With each call, you walk through the inner turmoil brewing in the pits of Champlain’s hell. His talk is blunt, cynical and honest to the core. At one point he tells his listeners, ‘I’m here to lead you by the dark hand through the forest of your own hatred and anger and humiliation. You’re so scared. You’re like the little children under the covers. You’re afraid of the bogeyman, but you can’t live without him. Your fear, your own lives, have become your entertainment.’
Some of the best plays are about plays, and this one fits right in. The careful dissection of fame and egoism runs for a length of 100 minutes of speech after speech. Essentially, it asks what happens at the top, a question applicable to any profession and to every person. And the fact that Champlain finds his callers annoying is completely understood. His callers come in a variety – you hear the woman afraid of her garbage, the guy who is always high and whose girlfriend has apparently overdosed, and even a neo-Nazi. What’s interesting is that you do meet variations of these people in real life. The way Schreiber deals with them is what’s even more interesting.
Some of the best plays also use the least amount of props. Mark Wendland’s set is simplistic, complementing the complexity of the performing characters. Champlain, in his studio marked by a glass wall and a set of microphones, is alone and isolated. His authority is pronounced when his headphones start resembling what we see everyday – the iPod as our body’s accessory. Completely in control with the power to insult his listeners, that mean gleam in Schreiber’s eyes originates in the depths of his voice. It’s sarcasm and acid tongue function at an undiluted height. Other props gradually come into play as the play progresses. But they are only for Champlain’s selfish pleasure – the cigarette, the coffee, a Jack Daniel’s, and of course, cocaine.
What I liked was the turn of events that transforms Champlain into one ugly fellow. The Shakespearean villain, full of hubris, is always aesthetically displeasing. Champlain first suffers from a strep throat-like congestion and your everyday runny nose. His voice now faces challenges. Soon, his walk is loose, almost limp. Even his skin starts becoming mottled with tics that turn the smooth surface of his face into crater. Finally, Champlain meets his match in the stoner, Kent, whose hedonism clashes with Champlain’s egoism. After all, only a diamond cuts a diamond.
The reason all I talk about is Schreiber (other than my complete devotion to his art) is that he carries the play. In fact, he is the play. But, I must mention that he is accompanied by a really fine set of actors to complement him. Ranging from his lover, Stephanie March (the attorney from ‘Law and Order: SVU’) to his producer, Peter Hermann (from ‘Law and Order’ and ‘United 93’), the play is a marriage between television, film and theater actors.
Schreiber was at an advantage in that those who guided him bore this play. The original Champlain was played by Bogosian himself. Interestingly, Schreiber’s take on the character is so different from the original that it speaks magnitudes of the actor’s stage potential. Schreiber has nothing to prove of course (he won a Tony two years ago for ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’), but his performance speaks for the amount of prep sessions that Schreiber must have gone through. And if there were no prep sessions, then Schreiber is nothing less than a stage God. Actually, one of his co-actors does say at one point that Champlain has seen the face of God ‘in the mirror.” In contrast to his character, Schreiber might deserve the comparison.’
‘Talk Radio’ is playing at the Longacre Theater until June 24.
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