Plenty

Plenty is playing at The Public Theatre located 425 Lafayette Street. It runs two hours fifteen minutes with one intermission. The play closes on December 1, 2016.

The first New York City production opened at the Public Theatre October 1982 and it ran for 45 performances. It then transferred to Broadway at the Plymouth Theatre on January 6, 1983 and ran for 92 performances and eleven previews. It was nominated for four Tony Awards for Best Play, Best Actor (Edward Herrmann), Best Actress (Kate Nelligan) and Best Feature Actor (George N. Martin). The play won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best foreign play in the 1982-1983 Season.

David Hare is the playwright. In 1990 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for best New Play for Racing Demon.

David Leveaux is the director. He was nominated for five Tony Awards for Jumpers (2004), nine (2003), The Real Thing (2000), Anna Christine (1993) and A Moon for the Misbegotten (1984).

Jess Goldstein is the costume. He won a Tony Award in 2005 for The Rivals. Jeff was nominated for two Tony Awards for The Merchant of Venice (2011) and Henry IV (2004).

Rachael Weisz won a Laurence Olivier award in 2010 for A Streetcar Named Desire.

Susan Traherne (Rachael Weisz) is in her home with her husband Raymond Brook (Corey Stoll). He is sleeping on the floor in the buff, a blanket barely covering him. His back is to the audience. Susan friend Alice Park (Emily Bergl) is eating on the floor. Susan tells her she is leaving for good and that she can have the house.

We then go back to World War ll, where she is a secret agent in Nazi-Occupied France. She is working behind the enemy lines, hiding behind a tree. Codename Lazar (Ken Barnett) drops from a plane but he not supposed to be in that location. Lazar decides to stay and help her.

Two years later Susan is in the Belgium embassy. It seems Lazar has died in the hotel they were in. Ambassador Leonard Darwin (Byron Jennings) thinks they are married. When he leaves she tells the diplomat Raymond Brock that’s he has a wife but it’s not her. They are lovers and decided to take a trip. Lazar told his wife he was going on a business trip.

Susan is over the wall when things don’t go her way. She is a free thinker as is her friend Alice. When she does something she doesn’t think about the consequences. One instance she asks Alice’s friend Mich (LeRoy McClain) to be her lover because she wants a child. They try for eighteen months. She drops him when nothing happens. He wants to stay in the relationship but she doesn’t. When he doesn’t back off she shots him but misses.

The main characters are Susan, Alice and Raymond. Plenty covers the highlights of her life with the two other people.

It is a well doe play and worth seeing.

The cast is stellar.

The only thing I didn’t like and maybe I missed it is why she acted the way she did.

Review by Rozanna Radakovich.

Photos by Annazor.

To read a candid interview with the cast, scroll down to the left for recent photos. Click on recent photos for this and other shows.