Death of the Author

[Frankly Rich]

This comedy plays in the smaller theater at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. It's well-suited for the smaller space, and being in the second row gave me luscious views of the show's heartthrob, Austin`Butler.

 

It's a brainy comedy as Butler is a student, and has been called in to the office of his teacher, David Clayton Rogers, to answer to a charge of plagiarism. This upsets the lad, as he is about to graduate and go on to law school. Even thought the paper he turned in consists entirely of unattributed quotes, the show makes a great case that this is not plagiarism! It all goes back to a critical essay by Roland Barthes.

 

In the LA Times review, critic Charles McNulty says: "Steven Drukman, a playwright who teaches at New York University, has written what may be his best play — a sparkling academic comedy that spins its tantalizing web from, of all arcane things, the literary theory of Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida and the other French critics and philosophers who, in focusing on the inherent instability of language, ushered in a new paradigm of critical reading known as deconstruction.

 

 

Before you start fretting that "Death of the Author," which is having its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse's Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater in a slyly humorous production directed by Bart DeLorenzo, will be all about signs, signifiers and heavily jargonized abstractions, let me assure you that the play is perfectly accessible. Even if you weren't a graduate student in the late decades of the 20th century poring over Derrida's "Of Grammatology" and Barthes' watershed essay "The Death of the Author," from which Drukman has filched his title, this satire of modern campus life will still sting."

 

So, let's leave it that. Young Butler gets to take his appeal of the plagiarism charge, which would keep him from graduating, or at the least would include having his transcript flagged for life, to the Department Head, played by Orson Bean. Orson Bean, you say? Yes, the 85- year old actor is someone I had never expected to see, and he does an excellent job of defending the paper, even going so far as to call it a love letter to his teacher.

 

And that first confrontation with the teacher was not without its sexual tension. Bean inquires of the teacher if he is gay, and reluctantly teach admits to being a closet case.

 

Thereupon the show takes a different turn as the appeal to the Dean is taken. The young man, from a rich family, is just the kind of guy the Dean might like, because fund-raising is his major talent. What happens next is a complete surprise, yet very endearing. I'll leave it that, but add that the gay angle takes a sharply different turn.

 

Austin Butler as Jeff is a doll, and even though you might not say so from his picture, he has a way of turning even cuter as he emotes, and the teacher himself is nice to look at. Orson Bean, on the other hand, does a fine job of acting.

 

And it's good acting throughout. I left the theater thinking this was one of the best plays I had seen in a long time. That's when I read some of the reviews, which picked at this or that, but I trust my own judgment- this is a fine play.

 

Rating: 4 stars

 

 

Austin Butler:

http://us.cdn281.fansshare.com/photos/austinbutler/austin-butler-1437456923.jpg

A tribute to Austin Butler's future in acting: http://www.fansshare.com/news/austin-butler-is-an-actor-whom-casting-agents-should-be-chasing/

 

David Clayton Rogers:

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTk0NTQ3NzUyNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTkwNjIzMQ@@._V1_SY317_CR12,0,214,317_AL_.jpg

[Frankly Rich]

What happened to the picture of David Clayton Rogers I posted? I could see someone stealing Austin's picture, but David's?

 

http://img.poptower.com/pic-73162/david-clayton-rogers.jpg?d=1024