Last night in the Hamptons: The great character actor and director Bob Balaban assembled a group of star actors to perform a collection of post-pandemic short plays to consider “The Pursuit of Happiness.” The ensemble included Alec Baldwin, Edie Falco, Blythe Danner, Jim Bracchitta, Steven Wallem, and Richard Kind.
Begging the question: is it too soon to laugh about the pandemic year, 2020, a collection of short plays by masterful playwrights, did just that in the first of two one-nighters at the newly renovated Guild Hall in East Hampton.
Baldwin kicked off the staged reading with “Mr. Happiness” by David Mamet, a Dear Abby meets Dear Miss Lonelyhearts, an advice guru — which he performed with a stage-y voice only Alec Baldwin could muster.
Blythe Danner — for a Neil LaBute piece from his “10 x 10 Monologues,” about a woman of a certain age contemplating her current plan to go off for a weekend with a handsome stranger — said after the show in Guild Hall’s green room, that she merely read it straight, not trying to act at all. The result was so wistful and moving that even this playwright’s words which are often not respectful to women came off as a true insight into the female psyche.
Lynn Grossman’s play “The Keepsake” took on the subject of memory and its lapses during the COVID era. As performed by Richard Kind, this was the longest and most direct evocation of the virus and its aftermath, still uncharted. Grossman said she wrote the play with Richard Kind in mind as perfect to perform its manic ins and outs of memory and ending with a recitation of a Shakespeare sonnet.
Of course, and as was true for 2020, the actors all seemed well suited for these mini-plays. Said Grossman — quoting Mike Nichols — if you get the right actors, you don’t have to direct them. This may be the secret for this perfect night of theater. Although Balaban added, the actors kept dropping out, sick. With the new variations of COVID? Yes.
The gang is back tonight — sans Baldwin — with more plays and stars.
