“Irrelevance”
Pay close attention to the opening scene of JC Lee’s Relevance, a moderately interesting play
being given a dynamic performance by the MCC at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.
It’s set at an MLA-type academic conference—the American Conference
for Letters and Culture—and pits two celebrity feminist writers against each
other. One is Theresa Hanneck (Jane Houdyshell, The Humans), a raging, silver-haired, white lioness of the Susan
Faludi generation; the other is Msemaji Ukweli (Pascale Armand, Eclipsed), a young, ambitious, black woman
clawing her way into the limelight.  |
| Jane Houdyshell. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
Their conversation, which is being streamed live, is
moderated by a youthful professor named Kelly Taylor (Molly Camp), in awe of
both discussants. While struggling to keep the discourse civil, she can’t
refrain from noting the activity it’s generating on social media, especially
Twitter, where Theresa is being pounded. Unwisely, one might think, Theresa dismisses such platforms (except when it suits her purposes to refer to Reddit
or BuzzFeed) while Msemaji takes pride in her considerable following. She
obviously owes it a significant part in her success.
 |
| Jane Houdyshell, Pascale Armand. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
Msemaji seeks diversity in the movement in contrast to
the diversity-deprived predecessors she accuses of “righteous victimhood.” The
discussion, however, although intended to highlight the differing positions of
old-school vs. new-school feminism, remains largely unfocused, overshadowed by
faux-academic dialogue and emotional fisticuffs.
 |
| Pascale Armand, Richard Masur. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
This is particularly evident when Theresa, there to
receive a lifetime achievement award and fighting to maintain her relevance,
bulldozes her way through the conversation. She thereby puts Msemaji, who has
been awarded a substantial monetary award by the institution—on edge with a hostility
that barely gives the younger woman a chance to respond.
 |
| Richard Masur, Jane Houdyshell. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
What follows, in scenes set at the conference hotel’s
bar, Theresa’s room, and on the debate platform, details Theresa’s jealous
anger at the rising young star whose popularity threatens to throw shade on
foundational feminists like herself.
Theresa’s companion at the event is her avuncular literary
agent, David (Richard Masur, Lucky Guy),
her onetime lover, whose equanimity in supporting Msemaji allows Theresa to
vent her spleen. You see, she’s learned things about Msemaji’s background that
cast doubt on the authenticity of her narrative about being the product of an
impoverished upbringing and the victim of rape.
 |
| Molly Camp, Jane Houdyshell, Pascale Armand. Photo: Jane Marcus. |
As they say of politics, the feminist issues here are local,
focused on the classic conflict between the veteran refusing to go gentle into
that good night and the newcomer, who showers her distinguished predecessor
with praise while subtly undercutting her authority. Both women are shown in an
unflattering light but one nonetheless will come out on top.
Playwright Lee, though, drives the play’s intermissionless
90 minutes with too much reliance on conventional plot points regarding
personal secrets that, given today’s instant news cycle, you’d think everybody
and her sister would be privy to. Theresa’s suspicion of David’s possible
sexual interest in Msemaji is another familiar ploy in this dramatic cat fight. Lee
knows how to stir the dramatic pot to create vigorously vitriolic dialogue but his
situations and characters too often seem forced and inorganic.
Liesl Tommy’s (Eclipsed)
spirited direction keeps the pot bubbling with intense, rapid-fire
confrontations but her staging has a rhetorical quality that makes even the
most intimate discussions seem like debates. These characters don’t have to be pontificating on a public platform to deliver their lines in full voice while facing
the audience, as if needing to convince us of their points of view. The
dialogue also smacks of self-conscious artificiality; even “public intellectuals”
sometimes speak like ordinary people, avoiding such locutions as “that which
dehumanizes,” “that which is tangible,” “that which oppresses you,” and the
like.
 |
| Jane Houdyshell, Molly Camp. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
None of the characters has a third dimension but Houdyshell
provides a formidable presence as the Valkyrie-like Theresa, although, sadly, she
stumbled frequently over her words the night I went. Armand combines beauty and self-righteous
confidence as Msemaji, while Camp pushes Molly’s comic bewilderment too far. Masur,
white-bearded, his hair pulled back in a bun, his sport jacket and jeans with
rolled cuffs underlying his liberal hipness, is likable as the play’s down-to-earth
raisonneur who, for all his apparent equanimity,
has his own secret agenda.
 |
| Pascale Armand. Photo: Joan Marcus. |
Clint Ramos’s attractive set uses a revolve to bring
each scene—only the bar being less than instantly identifiable—quickly into
view, Jiyoun Chang’s lighting effectively enhances the atmosphere, and
Jeannette Oi-Suk Yew’s projections, especially those of rapidly accumulating
Twitter comments, are perfectly coordinated with the action. Finally, Jacob A. Climer's costumes are all character-appropriate.
Relevance
is
generally entertaining but, like Theresa, it simply never lives up to its
title.
OTHER
VIEWPOINTS:
Lucille
Lortel Theatre
121
Christopher St., NYC
Through
March 11
"What Did the Folks Next to Me Think"
There was only one other person in my five-seat row besides me and my plus-one. A woman in her thirties, she declined to offer a grade but said she liked the show a lot.
