Hamish Linklater and Miriam Silverman play spouses forced to collaborate on a film in The Disappear (photo by Jeremy Daniel)
THE DISAPPEAR
Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre
18 Minetta Lane between Sixth Ave. and MacDougal St.
Tuesday – Sunday through February 22, $54-$130
www.audible.com
In writer-director Erica Schmidt’s wildly entertaining The Disappear, Hamish Linklater stars as an egocentric narcissistic film director who is considering deleting all the dialogue from the violent horror movie he is working on. Fortunately, Schmidt has not opted to silence Linklater’s character, who spends the first act spouting so much self-centered cringy bluster that you want him to shut up already, but after intermission you can’t wait to hear what idiotic blather he’ll spit out next.
Making its world premiere at Audible’s Minetta Lane Theatre through February 22, the play takes place in the rustic living room of a farmhouse in the Hudson Valley, where Benjamin Braxton (Linklater) lives with his understanding wife, successful novelist Mira Blair (Miriam Silverman), and their teenage daughter, climate activist Dolly (Anna Mirodin). While Mira misses the city, Ben is insistent that he needs the peace and quiet of the country to finish editing the screenplay he is preparing to shoot.
“Am I exhausting? Am I exhausting to you?” Ben asks Mira at the very beginning. We soon find out that he’s exhausting to everybody.
Much to the chagrin of his longtime friend and producer, the erudite Brit Michael Bloom (Dylan Baker), Ben has his heart set on casting ingénue Julie Wells (Madeline Brewer) as Mirabella, a name suspiciously like his wife’s. Ben is instantly smitten with Julie, declaring her his muse, and they seal the deal with a kiss. It turns out that this is not the first time Ben has fallen for his leading lady. “Oh, Ben. It isn’t happening again, is it? You haven’t . . . ,” Michael says with concern.
When Michael refuses to let Ben hire Julie, Ben decides to write a new film specifically for her, a nearly dialogue-free tale about a man having an affair who makes a joke about wishing his wife were dead, only to have her actually vanish. Ben gets handsome movie star Raf Night (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) for the male lead, which further excites Julie (and, later, Mira).
But soon they are all working together on an adaptation of Mira’s book All the Silence and All the Wonder, and hilarious mayhem ensues as a torrential storm threatens.
The Disappear is a hilarious seriocomedy about art and love (photo by Jeremy Daniel)
With its numerous Chekhovian elements, The Disappear has a timeless quality; Ben works at a small table with pencil and paper, there are no electronics in the living room, candles line the fireplace mantel, and many of Jennifer Moeller and Miriam Kelleher’s costumes are old-fashioned, highlighted by Julie’s silly bonnet-topped outfit. Only later does the contemporary world appear: a smartphone and laptop show up and Julie enters wearing a half green-screen VFX suit, while the repartee often recalls sly British drawing room comedies.
And oh, what repartee! Among Ben’s fanciful lines are “God, Mira. Was your heart consumed by your efficiency?,” “I look at you and I see my death — like: this is it?!? This is it until I die?,” and “I will not think before I speak. God. You’re so restrictive! Ughhh.” When Ben asks Mira, “Do you know how smart one has to be to play dumb really well?,” she replies, “Tell me more about that, Ben.” And when Mira says, “Aren’t you always lying — just a little bit,” Ben answers, “At least I’m honest about it.”
Ben is so obnoxious and self-obsessed that he even admits that he loves filmmaking more than he does Dolly. Despite Ben’s endless flaws, Michael sticks by him, and Mira claims she loves him. Ben says about his film, “It’s an epic story about human connection,” but he has no idea how to connect with people or the world, which is the play’s central focus. He is an inconsiderate man-child who can’t relate to Julie’s fascination with butterflies, Dolly’s desire to plant trees, or Mira’s caring nature.
Linklater (The Pain of My Belligerence, Seminar) is sensational as the boorish Ben, imbuing him with a riotous physicality as he lumbers across Brett J. Banakis’s charming set. Tony winner Silverman (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Junk) is an excellent foil as Mira, who sees through his shenanigans but remains as loyal as she can for as long as she can. (“Mira” means “look” in Spanish, perhaps referring to how she regards him.) Tony and three-time Emmy nominee Baker (La Bête, Not About Heroes) is a joy as Michael, who gets to shine in an uproarious late scene. Brewer (Cabaret, Little Shop of Horrors), best known as Janine on The Handmaid’s Tale, is sublimely seductive as the mysterious Julie, who can quote from Dido and Aeneas and King Lear while also playing coy. Harrison Jr. (Cyrano, The Lion King) is extremely funny as Raf, a self-aware, practical man who knows what he wants and goes after it. And Mirodin makes a wonderful New York stage debut as Dolly, nearly stealing the second act right out from under Linklater.
In the script, Schmidt, whose previous works include the gorgeously rendered Lucy, the beautifully frenetic Mac Beth, and the musical adaptation Cyrano, aptly describes the play as “a seriocomedy about making art while the world is falling apart,” and at one point Mira explains, “We all have to plan around disaster.”
The world may be falling apart, but seeing The Disappear would be part of any good plan around disaster.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]