Theatre in Review: The Old Masters (The Flea Theater)

	Rory Kulz. Photo: Hunter Canning

Sam Marks finds a fresh slant on the well-worn topic of middle-class malaise in The Old Masters, a slightly ragged but nevertheless interesting new play. Ben, his protagonist, is a youngish painter whose career appears to be permanently stalled. After his first gallery show, nothing happened, and he has lost faith in his ability to produce anything sufficiently original to generate the buzz needed to put him on the art world map. He now makes his living as a teacher. "I'm an art lecturer. I encourage art-making," he says, his bitterness carefully hidden behind an ironic smile.

Ben lives in a still-emerging urban neighborhood with his wife, Olive, an architect, who is renovating their brownstone fixer-upper. Olive is also pregnant; they have some reason to fear the possibility of birth defects. Adding to their stress, there are money problems. Speaking of the house, he says, "This is all her plan. The whole thing." Marks is good at writing everyday conversation that contains strong signals of distress.

As it happens, Ben has a friend, Henry, a largely untutored painter with a self-destructive streak, who has vanished, leaving behind a cache of works. (We never see them, but apparently they fly in the face of the current taste for abstract and highly theoretical paintings.) Lara, Henry's waitress girlfriend, brings them to Ben, who sees them for the originals that they are; also, with Henry's disappearance, he sees the opportunity to build "some narrative that makes the artist interesting to the market."

Ben shows Henry's paintings to his former gallerist, and, before you know it, the Saatchi Collection has bought one and a new art world star is born. Lara is soon splitting the fees with Henry's grandmother. Henry's success has a funny effect on Ben. For one thing, he and Lara teeter on the edge of an affair. For another, he begins drawing, almost obsessively, turning away from Olive, who can see that something is up. As she points out, Ben is far more excited about Henry's newfound fame than he is about the news that their unborn baby is totally normal. Olive also unwittingly plants an idea in Ben's head about relaunching his career, which leads him to concoct a little scheme, not to be revealed here, that, he says, will benefit him, Lara, and even Henry, as long as they don't concern themselves too much with matters of ethics.

The Old Masters is a bit rough in its construction, and not every plot point has been sufficiently nailed down. Would Lara be legally able to sell Henry's paintings only four months after his disappearance? Much is made of the shoddy state of the house's renovation, but no explanation is given as to why Olive would tolerate such poor work from the contractors. Also, the Ben-Olive relationship doesn't fully come into focus; we never get a clear enough sense of what drew them together in the first place. But the action builds to a blistering meltdown for Ben, a furious baring of accumulated resentments at the sheer emptiness of his existence, which is strikingly handled by the actor Rory Kulz. He is equally impressive in the following scene, in which Ben and Olive tentatively try to figure out their next move, after too many unpalatable truths have been spoken.

The director, Brandon Stock, deftly handles his cast of three. Adelind Horan captures Lara's uncertain entrance into the art world, especially in a scene depicting her in a press conference where she strongly suspects she is being played for a fool. She also has a palpable chemistry with Kulz, adding a tingling, will-they-or-won't-they edge to their scenes together. Alesandra Nahodil can't do all that much with the underwritten role of Olive, but she underplays nicely until the time comes for her big confrontation with Kulz.

Andrew Diaz's set, a half-finished living room and kitchen, with nearly everything covered in plastic, is a solid and evocative piece of work, and it is lit well by Jonathan Cottle. Travis Alexandra Boatright's costumes are especially apt in contrasting Lara and Olive's differing looks. Reece Arthur's sound design includes a variety of street sounds -- especially police sirens -- that underscore the slightly hostile nature of Ben and Olive's new neighborhood.

Running a brief 70 minutes, The Old Masters is a kind of theatrical short story, best seen as a calling card for some very talented young people. It's not totally satisfying, but it is filled with names to keep an eye out for. -- David Barbour