Junk Revels in Nihilism

Junk, now playing at the Lincoln Center, is a play full of fantastic acting, interesting staging and intelligent writing. Unfortunately, it is also a depressing call back to the worst of the 1980’s that holds up a fun house mirror to today’s issues, making that horrible time look quaint by comparison. It is not a pleasant evening. Your tolerance for Junk will depend on how much you can appreciate great actors being horrible people.

The story is complex, but not complicated. At its essence, Junk tells the tale of a corporate raider, his lawyer, and the acquiring firm’s CEO and their struggle to acquire a steel conglomerate listed on the Dow Jones. These three are played excellently by Steven Psaquale, Matthew Saldivar and Matthew Rauch, respectively. Steven Pasquale is Robert Merkin, the new Time Magazine Cover Boy of junk bonds and leveraged debt. For Robert Merkin, takeovers are both personal and professional. As a Jewish man, he witnessed his father’s rejection by the (WASP) Wall Street power brokers. Today, his drive and desire to rip apart that world is equal parts revenge, greed and Napoleon complex.

Hunter and Prey - Steven Psaquale and Rick Holmes in Junk (Henry Stram- upstage right)

Rick Holmes is Thomas Everton Jr., CEO of Everton Steel, the takeover target. He is a nice guy CEO, although he may be cooking the books a little to save steel jobs in his hometown. His two lawyers are a Jewish man and an African American Woman (Henry Stram and Ito Aghayere) who try to explain the new paradigm of debt financing and the threat to his company. Everton is too rigid, too sentimental and a little too bigoted to make it in this new cut-throat world.

The final leg of the triangle of players is a Chinese American journalist (Teresa Avia Lim) and rich old white power player Leo Tressler (Michael Siberry - who is wonderfully morally superior). These characters provide the extensive exposition and creepy sexual politics.

There are a lot of shades of grey in the morality of this show, but not in the manner you’re used to seeing. Normally shades of grey define the mental conflict of the good vs. the bad guys. Here, everyone is a greedy S.O.B., there are no good guys. The grey here is displayed as some of the characters are, occasionally, less morally bankrupt than others.  America, as defined by Junk, is a fight between greedy upstarts with grudges to bear - who delight in humiliating their enemies, versus greedy white male racists. Women fare poorly, each one in Junk sells out her principals for money or power, often both. Men fare worse, only because there are more of them who provide a greater variety of repulsive moral traits.

Playwright Ayad Akhtar and director Doug Hughes do a fantastic job of explaining the way takeovers are financed, the impacts of “creative destruction” and showing that everyone in America is complicit. Junk might have provided an apt warning against smugness if Hillary Clinton had won the election. In the current political environment, however, it just feels like gratuitous piling on.  The American Dream is dead, we get it.

Junk | Playwright: Ayad Akhtar | Director: Doug Hughes | Cast: Steven Pasquale, Teresa Avia Lim, Matthew Rauch, Matthew Saldivar, Rick Homes, Henry Stram, Ito Aghayere, Michael Siberry, Joey Slotnick | Lincoln Center Website for Junk

The Big Knife: Time Hasn’t Dulled Its Edge

The Big Knife is the second Clifford Odets’ play to staged by the Roundabout Theater Company this year.  Someone at the Roundabout deserves a raise.  Having seen many of Odet’s works on the screen, I would not have expected the emotions that arise from these works.  On film, both Golden Boy and The Big Knife seem overly melodramatic and turgid; but on as staged by the Roundabout, they sing.  The Big Knife is a tight drama of a man who has achieved stardom at the cost of his freedom.  What would you do, and who would you indebt yourself to, in order to reach your goals.

Chip Zien, Bobby Cannavale, Richard King and Reg Rogers in The Big Knife

Bobby Cannavale plays Charlie Castle, film star who is stuck in unfulfilling, but commercially successful, roles.  Set in the waning days of the studio system, Charlie Castle is locked into a deal with Studio Boss Marcus Hoff, a dazzling turn by Richard Kind.  Charlie Castle is being pressured by the studio and his agent to sign another long term, exclusive contract, and he is being pressured by his estranged wife to quit the movie industry.

Marin Ireland & Bobby Cannavale

Charlie has less leverage than a star would normally have, because the studio is covering up a criminal matter for him (minor spoiler).  At the same time the studio is turning the screws on Charlie, his wife is promising reconciliation if they get back together and a previous indiscretion is threating to go to the press.  Charlie is stretched thin.

Mr. Cannavale does a wonderful job playing a man who has everything, but is in control of nothing.  He even laughs at the predicament of a movie hero, who can’t escape his own contract.  Marin Ireland, as his wife, is a perfect counterweight for Charlie Castle.  She is resolved to leave Charlie and this life behind.  But the love and connection between them breaks down her best intentions when they are together.  Ms. Ireland plays the role well, being almost as tough as she needs to be.  Mrs. Castle is a great partner, and Ms. Ireland is remarkable in the role, bring her to life in a realistic manner.

The wonderful Reg Rogers plays the studio boss’ sidekick, with a eye towards making the fewest waves possible.

It is the interaction of Mr. Cannavale and Mr. Kind that electrifies The Big Knife.  Both are playing against type, Mr. Kind as a rough edged type A asshole and Mr. Cannavale more impotent than we ever see him. The stage sizzles when they share it.

Director Doug Hughes lets The Big Knife show its age, there is no attempt to bring it into the moment because its message is still relevant.  Mr. Odets’ words and phrasing are integral to the proceedings, and Mr. Hughes manages his cast well in inhabiting this world.  The sets by John Lee Beatty and costumes by Catherine Zuber are gorgeous, contributing to the totality of the experience.  I highly recommend it.

The Big Knife

Playwright: Clifford Odets

Director: Doug Hughes

Cast: Rachel Brosnahan, Bobby Cannavale, Marin Ireland, Billy Eugene Jones, Richard Kind, Ana Reeder, Reg Rogers, Joey Slotnick, Brenda Wehle, C.J. Wilson, Chip Zien

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