Mary McCarthy (Marcia Rodd) shares her blunt opinions with Dick Cavett in HELLMAN v. McCARTHY (photo by Kim T. Sharp)

June Havoc Theatre
Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex
312 West 36th St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
Wednesday – Sunday through April 13, $25
www.abingdontheatre.org

On October 18, 1979, one of the most dramatic literary feuds of the twentieth century kicked off on The Dick Cavett Show when writer and critic Mary McCarthy called Lillian Hellman a “dishonest writer,” explaining that “I said once in some interview that every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.’” An irate Hellman sued McCarthy, Cavett, and PBS for more than two million dollars, leading to a vitriolic back-and-forth between the writer of such works as The Children’s Hour, The Little Foxes, and Watch on the Rhine and the author of such books as The Company She Keeps, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood, and The Group — the last of which was made into a film starring, among others, Cavett’s wife, Carrie Nye. Various versions of the famous story have already been told onstage, by Nora Ephron in her musical, Imaginary Friends, Ben Pleasants in Contentious Minds: The Mary McCarthy, Lillian Hellman Affair, and William Wright in The Julia Wars. Now Brian Richard Mori is taking on this battle of literary bigs with a unique twist: The character of Dick Cavett is being played by, well, Dick Cavett himself, and Cavett is by far the best thing about the Abingdon Theatre’s otherwise doleful Hellman v. McCarthy. The proverbial gloves come off as soon as McCarthy (Marcia Rodd) calls Hellman (Roberta Maxwell) a liar; as it turns out, when the recorded show aired, Hellman was watching with her nurse, Ryan Hobbs (Rowan Michael Meyer), and she did not react well to McCarthy’s statement, immediately calling her attorney.

Lillian Hellman’s (Roberta Maxwell) nurse (Rowan Michael Meyer) jumps for joy upon meeting Dick Cavett (photo by Kim T. Sharp)

Hellman’s lawyer, Lester Marshall (Peter Brouwer), and McCarthy’s, Burt Fielding (Jeff Woodman), can’t get their clients to reach an agreement as the nasty words keep flying. “I’d rather eat my own vomit,” Hellman says when told by Marshall that they can read everything they want about McCarthy as part of discovery. “I refuse to make it easy for her,” McCarthy tells Fielding upon deciding to appeal. Ultimately, Mori has the two women go face-to-face at a meeting that never actually took place, continuing the nearly constant drone of unpleasantness at an even higher pitch as these two extremely unlikable women have it out. The only respite is the occasional appearance of Cavett to fill in some of the details and share his own thoughts on the matter; he is, as ever, witty, charming, and intellectual, although he does too many Woody Allen references. Abingdon artistic director Jan Buttram cuts between two primary sets designed by Andrew Lu: on the left side of the stage is a room in Hellman’s home on Martha’s Vineyard, while to the right is a room in McCarthy’s house in Castine, Maine. Virtually all the furniture is white, with empty picture frames, as if implying that neither of the women has any friends or family. Travis McHale’s lighting design turns the back walls various pastel shades of pink, green, and other colors, offering just about the only amiable visuals aside from Cavett’s appearances. Hellman v. McCarthy sheds no new light on the feud, instead letting two nasty souls blather on in nasty ways; the production probably would have been much better if it was simply a one-man show featuring Cavett.