Arts & Entertainment
The art of the matter
‘Old Masters’ presents intriguing theatrical dilemma
Conrad Feininger, left, as Sir Joseph Duveen and David Bryan Jackson as Bernard Berenson in Washington Stage Guild’s production of ‘The Old Masters.’ (Photo by C. Stanley Photography; courtesy WSG)
‘The Old Masters’
Through Jan. 26
Washington Stage Guild
Undercroft Theatre, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
$40-$50 (half price student discount)
866-811-4111
Simon Gray’s thoroughly enjoyable drama “The Old Masters” is indeed about important art. It’s also about the art of the deal. But mostly it’s about the interdependent professional relationship (and sometimes friendship) between famed art historian Bernard Berenson and the equally famous art dealer Joseph Duveen.
Washington Stage Guild’s take on Gray’s 2004 work currently playing at the intimate Undercroft Theatre features a very capable cast in a production straightforwardly staged by Laura Giannarelli.
Set in the storied Villa I Tatti, Berenson’s residence near Florence, the action unfolds over one long evening in 1937. The scene is tense. A Lithuanian-born American, Berenson (BB to his friends) and his terminally ill wife Mary aren’t happy. Money is tight and war is looming. She is preoccupied with the financial wellbeing of her adult children and grandchildren from a previous marriage in England, and he misses the fat checks he once collected for authenticating Renaissance paintings. Yet a veneer of domestic civility prevails, thanks mainly to Nicky, Berenson’s longtime factotum and mistress (and now Mary’s caregiver).
On the fated night, Duveen drops in uninvited. He and BB have been on the outs, but Duveen softens the estrangement by paying an old debt to his host and proposing a lucrative business partnership. But first (and here’s the rub), Duveen wants a favor. He asks that BB pipe down on the authentication of a painting that he is selling to patrician American industrialist Andrew Mellon. BB says it’s a Titian. The world credits Masaccio. A great showdown ensues.
“The Master Works” is the last published play by British playwright Gray who died at 71 in 2008. Though not acquainted with his protagonists in life, he knows them well. Gray brilliantly conveys his aging characters’ urgency in terms of time and concern with legacy — both monetary and reputation. While an interest in art and a little background on the characters might prove helpful to audiences, it’s not necessary. This well-made play stands on its own.
Duveen is played with bigger-than-life gusto by Conrad Feininger. He envelops the smaller, less demonstrative BB (David Bryan Jackson) with roaring compliments and great hugs, bending his frenemy to his will with a tidal wave of bonhomie. It’s a wonderful performance.
And Jackson (wearing a neatly trimmed Van Dyke beard) gives a nuanced portrayal. His BB is a fastidious sensualist who falls into raptures when he sees “The Adoration of the Shepherds” (the painting in question). He’s a self-centered man who expects a lot of from his women (including his Swedish masseuse who visits daily) yet he cares for them deeply in his own way.
Jewel Robinson is compelling as Mary, BB’s wife who tolerates her husband’s weaknesses. Rounding out a very strong cast are Thomasin Savaiano as charming and efficient Nicky, and Steven Carpenter as Fowles, Duveen’s assistant derisively referred to as the “lift boy” by BB. (Fowles was once in fact the elevator operator in Duveen’s apartment building.)
Marianne Meadows gently lights set designer Carl F. Gudenius’ pretty Italian garden and later a well-appointed library. Sigrid Jóhannesdóttir’s costumes exude quality and taste except for those worn by Nicky, who’s a tad flashier than the others.
“The Old Masters” has great local resonance. “The Adoration of the Shepherds” hangs in Washington’s National Gallery, one of many Renaissance paintings collected Mellon, Samuel Kress (the five and dime millionaire), and others to be found in the building’s West Wing. While brush stroke technique and revered names like Titian are tossed about throughout much of the play, the audience sees only the backs of canvases. A visit to the Gallery might make a nice follow up.
The 32nd annual Roanoke Pride Festival was held at Elmwood Park in Roanoke, Va. on Sunday, April 29.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Eight contestants vied for Mr., Miss and Mx. Capital Pride 2024 at a pageant at Penn Social on Saturday. Xander Childs Valentino was crowned Mr. Capital Pride, Dylan B. Dickherson White was crowned Mx. Capital Pride and Sasha Adams Sanchez was crowned Miss Capital Pride.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Theater
Round House explores serious issues related to privilege
‘A Jumping-Off Point’ is absorbing, timely, and funny
‘A Jumping-Off Point’
Through May 5
Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, Md.
$46-$83
Roundhousetheatre.org
In Inda Craig-Galván’s new play “A Jumping-Off Point,” protagonist Leslie Wallace, a rising Black dramatist, believes strongly in writing about what you know. Clearly, Craig-Galván, a real-life successful Black playwright and television writer, adheres to the same maxim. Whether further details from the play are drawn from her life, is up for speculation.
Absorbing, timely, and often funny, the current Round House Theatre offering explores some serious issues surrounding privilege and who gets to write about what. Nimbly staged and acted by a pitch perfect cast, the play moves swiftly across what feels like familiar territory without being the least bit predictable.
After a tense wait, Leslie (Nikkole Salter) learns she’s been hired to be showrunner and head writer for a new HBO MAX prestige series. What ought to be a heady time for the ambitious young woman quickly goes sour when a white man bearing accusations shows up at her door.
The uninvited visitor is Andrew (Danny Gavigan), a fellow student from Leslie’s graduate playwriting program. The pair were never friends. In fact, he pressed all of her buttons without even trying. She views him as a lazy, advantaged guy destined to fail up, and finds his choosing to dramatize the African American Mississippi Delta experience especially annoying.
Since grad school, Leslie has had a play successfully produced in New York and now she’s on the cusp of making it big in Los Angeles while Andrew is bagging groceries at Ralph’s. (In fact, we’ll discover that he’s a held a series of wide-ranging temporary jobs, picking up a lot of information from each, a habit that will serve him later on, but I digress.)
Their conversation is awkward as Andrew’s demeanor shifts back and forth from stiltedly polite to borderline threatening. Eventually, he makes his point: Andrew claims that Leslie’s current success is entirely built on her having plagiarized his script.
This increasingly uncomfortable set-to is interrupted by Leslie’s wisecracking best friend and roommate Miriam who has a knack for making things worse before making them better. Deliciously played by Cristina Pitter (whose program bio describes them as “a queer multi-spirit Afro-indigenous artist, abolitionist, and alchemist”), Miriam is the perfect third character in Craig-Galván’s deftly balanced three-hander.
Cast members’ performances are layered. Salter’s Leslie is all charm, practicality, and controlled ambition, and Gavigan’s Andrew is an organic amalgam of vulnerable, goofy, and menacing. He’s terrific.
The 90-minute dramedy isn’t without some improbable narrative turns, but fortunately they lead to some interesting places where provoking questions are representation, entitlement, what constitutes plagiarism, etc. It’s all discussion-worthy topics, here pleasingly tempered with humor.
New York-based director Jade King Carroll skillfully helms the production. Scenes transition smoothly in large part due to a top-notch design team. Scenic designer Meghan Raham’s revolving set seamlessly goes from Leslie’s attractive apartment to smart cafes to an HBO writers’ room with the requisite long table and essential white board. Adding to the graceful storytelling are sound and lighting design by Michael Keck and Amith Chandrashaker, respectively.
The passage of time and circumstances are perceptively reflected in costume designer Moyenda Kulemeka’s sartorial choices: heels rise higher, baseball caps are doffed and jackets donned.
“A Jumping-Off Point” is the centerpiece of the third National Capital New Play Festival, an annual event celebrating new work by some of the country’s leading playwrights and newer voices.
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