The Revisionist

Cherry Lane Theatre, New York

(212) 352-3101

**

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“No one fills—and owns—a room like Vanessa Redgrave,” said Ben Brantley in The New York Times. The chief reward of Jesse Eisenberg’s latest stab at playwriting is that the young screen actor’s new drama affords us the chance to see Redgrave work her magic. Her portrayal of Maria, a 73-year-old Polish Holocaust survivor who receives an extended visit from a young American relative, represents her “finest, fullest” stage performance in many a moon. Yes, Eisenberg’s play would probably seem much flimsier without her, but at least he’s given Redgrave “a beguilingly layered role” that enables her to bring an audience to its feet.

Her performance makes The Revisionist “almost worth your time,” said Joe Dziemianowicz in the New York Daily News. The story itself, though, is “a nonstarter.” Why exactly does the moody science-fiction author, played by Eisenberg, think that traveling all the way to Szczecin, Poland, will cure him of writer’s block? And though Eisenberg is admirable in his willingness to play jerks, this one’s unredeemable. Crashing at Maria’s tiny apartment, he treats his host with utter disdain, insults her cab-driver friend (Daniel Oreskes), and smokes copious amounts of pot. “If Eisenberg was trying to create the most obnoxious character to come around in a long while, he has achieved his goal.” If only he’d also managed to write a good play.

He certainly was tempting fate with his title, said Scott Brown in New York magazine. So I’ll take the bait: This play “cries out for revision.” But at least this Eisenberg drama, unlike 2011’s Asuncion, merits being tweaked and remounted. “It begins marvelously, ferociously,” with the familiar dramatic elements of a generation gap and a language barrier “reinvigorated with new energy.” Though the two main characters prove so stubbornly immovable that the story has little room to grow, I wouldn’t call the show a flop. It’s “what I’d call a promising first draft.”