Wallace Shawn and André Gregory Dine Out Once More on Love and Betrayal

Those who don’t follow theater or artier films may know Wallace Shawn best as the guy who played the goofily sinister Vizzini in “The Princess Bride” and voiced Rex, the plastic dinosaur in the equally beloved “Toy Story” franchise. Neither of those credits are listed in Mr. Shawn’s biography for the world premiere production of his latest play, “What We Did Before Our Moth Days.”This may be because Mr. Shawn, now 82, isn’t cast in the staging, which marks the latest of his numerous collaborations with André Gregory—the most famous being the “My Dinner with André,” a 1981 documentary of their conversation over dinner at a tony Manhattan restaurant. Mr. Gregory’s own bio modestly describes him as “one of the most important forces in the American theatre for over 40 years.”Mr. Shawn has demonstrated a similar confidence in his own cultural and intellectual bearing. A son of William Shawn, the venerated editor of The New Yorker for 35 years, the playwright has waxed political and moralistic in much of his work, which also includes essays, faring best when his sometimes snide didacticism is matched by an awareness of his privilege.“Moth Days,” which has opened at the Greenwich House Theater in New York City’s West Village, is not an overtly political play in any sense, and while morality is a key factor, it’s not particularly judgmental either. Divided into three acts that, with two intermissions, ran over three hours at a recent preview — like many with didactic tendencies, Mr. Shawn isn’t always the best self-editor — it follows four characters: a novelist of some renown, his wife, their grown son, and the novelist’s mistress. The play is composed mostly of monologues, with the four seasoned, superb actors, under Mr. Gregory’s undeniably impeccable direction, seated on chairs, taking turns relaying their characters’ memories and perspectives. The story they tell collectively begins and ends with death. “Moth Days” is a metaphor that the novelist, Dick, crafted as a boy trying to confront the horror and mysteries of mortality.Dick’s life and his passing appear to form the central thread at first, but as the others reveal more about themselves, we are gradually, hypnotically drawn just as much into each of their interwoven journeys. Jennifer Tipton’s savvy lighting can focus our attention on individual players as they speak, so that, for instance, you may not even notice that the mistress, Elaine — played by a bone-dry Hope Davis — disappears for a long while after first addressing us.At other points, we’re able to see one or more of the characters’ reactions as others share anecdotes and confessions that seem designed to provoke and titillate as much as they inspire reflection. The play opens with the son, Tim, recalling an increasingly bizarre and unsettling encounter with a prostitute, then describing a more enduring and genuinely disturbing relationship.John Early, the youngest cast member and an experienced comedian, gives Tim a deadpan drollness that, at the performance I attended, seemed to elicit uncomfortable laughter — which is, I assume, at least part of what Messrs. Shawn and Gregory are going for. While most of the accounts are less graphic, there are moments that may make you shudder and gasp; one revelation in the third act is especially chilling, not least because of the casual, almost offhand manner in which it arrives.It’s only after this disclosure that “What We Did Before Our Moth Days” truly begins to drag; I was practically squirming during the last half hour, which felt twice as long. A prolonged scene between Tim and Elaine, whose utter lack of empathy or even interest in other human beings becomes comically sociopathic, proves downright excruciating.Dick and his wife, Elle, are more accessibly human. He may be a narcissist and a jerk, but he can also be self-aware and have genuine pangs of conscience. Josh Hamilton captures his contradictions and his shades of inner conflict in a performance that’s funny and touching.Elle provides the play’s moral compass: A smart and beautiful woman who met Dick in high school and has sacrificed much to remain the supportive partner in their marriage, she is an ideal vehicle for Maria Dizzia, an actress who despite her leading-lady looks has generally favored wryer, quirkier characters. Ms. Dizzia invests the role with all of her heart and her probing intelligence, to mesmerizing and sometimes devastating effect. Through the men and women we meet in “What We Did Before Our Moth Days” — being presented in repertory with “The Fever,” a 1990 solo work that the playwright will perform himself on Sunday and Monday evenings — Mr. Shawn manages to ponder our capacity for betrayal, callousness, and resilience without seeming judgmental. He could have trimmed the study a bit, but I suspect devotees will forgive his self-indulgence.

Wallace Shawn and André Gregory Dine Out Once More on Love and Betrayal

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