I’m always hesitant to go to one-person shows. With only one actor, there’s no possibility of the chaos that comes from strong characters knocking heads with one another. A two-person play seems barely better. With just two actors, I find myself wondering, how will they pass the time?
This concern is largely negated in the Roundabout Theater production of “Talley’s Folly” now on stage at the Laura Pels Theatre. The story concerns 42-year-old Matt Friedman (Danny Burstein) from St. Louis, dark and witty, but a mensch. Matt has returned to Lebanon, Missouri in 1944, a year after mysteriously abandoning his summer girlfriend, Sally Talley (Sarah Paulson), to win her back. Sally is 31-years-old, strong-willed, wry, and erudite.
“Talley’s Folly” is a feat of story-telling, especially considering how little happens onstage. The action is confined to a single set, the Talleys’ aging boathouse, and it happens in real time over 97 minutes. The only striking moment of stage choreography is when Matt whimsically tries on a pair of ice skates and walks precariously across the boathouse’s wooden deck.
Otherwise it is mere talk, a quippy back and forth between two former lovers, as Matt tries to erase Sally’s apprehensions. There is real magic here between these two. As Matt, Burstein is gentle and funny, at once adhering to the stereotype of a humorous and wise Jewish man and transcending it (Judd Hirsch originated the role in 1979, and he too fits the type. Both the role and Burstein’s performance are reminiscent of Richard Dreyfuss’s part in the 1979 film “The Goodbye Girl,” which came out the same year that “Talley’s Folly” was first produced.)
Paulson, as Sally, is magnificent. She is wounded and guarded, but she conveys so clearly her strength, charm, and intelligence.
Though the play may not fully have the chaos I long for in a drama, Matt’s arduous and seemingly impossible mission to win back the beloved Sally Talley is dramatic, engaging and as emotionally affecting as anything else currently on stage.
Presented by the Roundabout Theater Company, at the Laura Pels Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 West 46th Street, (212) 719-1300. Through May 5th. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes.
Photo Credit: Joan Marcus
Pictured (l-r) Danny Burstein, Sarah Paulson
