The story of the relationship between F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zelda Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway is beautifully told in language that sizzles, sparkles and solidifies their hold on us nearly 100 years after their heyday.
This is a play about writers for writers. Yet in touching on the troubles, triumphs and toils of literary fame, it also tackles the nature of art, psychology, humanity, theology and philosophy. As a matter of fact, there is not much that this play does not address.
Coming at you like a freight train barreling down the straightaway, the play does not allow gibberish, poppycock or nonsense from its characters.
Every syllable is important. Every word is significant.
Each character is individually drawn and carries a set of opinions and circumstances that make him or her nothing less than human.
This play is like an abstract painting with three paintbrushes, but one painter.
It cuts, claws and creases, but never crumbles.
On the Saturday night that this critic saw the play, it took the actors about 30 minutes to settle down and talk to each other not at each other.
But once the caricatures were stripped bare, each character came to life in a way that illuminated the proceedings.
Nigro’s language is naked, raw and sublime.
It is like a New Year’s Eve party that lasts all year.
The words leave little to chance. They celebrate the three lives with subtlety, power and strength.
This is poetry on stage. Imagery painting a masterpiece of trembling wrists and shattered hips with brush strokes of barley and bronze.
Steve Jarrard’s direction is nothing less than stellar and articulate.
In using every inch of the intimate Sherry stage, he lets the characters feel the sun and taste the rain.
Jarrard, who is the Ensemble’s Managing Director, and has directed a number of its productions, is at his best here as he melds character and dialogue in a dizzying two hours of dogma and diatribe.
This is an evening, in Jarrard’s talented eyes, that should do more than merely be, it should inspire, inform, educate and make love to us, the audience.
Jarrard has chosen a wonderfully gifted cast to help him achieve these standards.
Nicholas Forbes (Ernest) offers a deeply moving and convincing turn that brings out all of Hemingway’s trademark machismo, pathos and paranoia. But it also allows you to see the literary genius that he was. The co-founder of the Los Angeles sketch comedy group Friends with Benefits does intelligent and disciplined work here.
Meg Wallace (Zelda) almost walks away with the play by giving a dazzling portrayal of a woman slowly losing her mind, but still capable of brilliant monologues and razor sharp observations. This is no easy characterization, but Wallace pulls it off with vulnerability, virtue and vision. She gives voice to the voiceless and life to a spirit many consider antiquated and forlorn. In so doing, the Second City Conservatory graduate nearly steals our hearts and souls as well.
But it is Leif Steinert (Scott) who steals the show with a sensitive, electric and riveting performance that will stay with this critic forever. The New School for Drama MFA displays Fitzgerald the author, celebrity and husband with grace, dignity and aplomb. He does not let you see him sweat, curse or lose his temper.
It is especially in the Second Act in which Fitzgerald lays bare his philosophy on writing that the audience gets a glimpse of his brilliance and balance as an artist and human being.
Fitzgerald, who may have been the finest American writer of not only his generation, but century, makes-up for in honesty what he lacks in manners or etiquette.
This is a turn for the ages. Steinert relies not only on Fitzgerald’s personal and professional history, but his own instinct and intuition regarding the writer.
He not once plays Fitzgerald as a broken-down has-been of a man, but as an American wunderkind who always sees hope and love where other writers see gloom and doom.
Talent of this caliber comes along rarely, but when it does, it is exciting, irreverent and fascinating, existing in a world of red sunsets, turquoise tundras and vanilla swans.
This critic hopes to see Steinert on the stages of North Hollywood or Los Angeles again soon.
“Lost Generation,” the Ensemble’s seventh production, is a study in opposites and similarities. While telling the tale of three world famous literary figures, its grace, grandeur and gold lift you into worlds unknown, emotions uncoiled and fears unfurled.
Also furthering the message of the play are Ashley Atwood’s unique and memorable choreography, Jason Ryan Lovett’s lighting design and Jarrard’s set design.
This play is an immense achievement that will live on after its time and past its prime.
If the world is dangerous, then the literary world is that much more difficult, and to these three characters, deliberate and deadly.
By tackling a project of this temerity, temperament and delicacy, the Ensemble proves once again that it is one of the most innovative, courageous and confident acting companies in the city, if not the country.
It also proves, as with previous Ensemble productions such as “A Strange Disappearance of Bees” and Carson McCuller’s “The Square Root of Wonderful,” that time, tenderness and trial are the richest juices to cook a play in.
Showtimes:
Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm
Sundays at 7pm
Ticket Price: $20 at all times
Information/Admission: (323) 860-6569
Sherry Theatre, 11052 Magnolia Blvd.,
North Hollywood, CA 91601
