Great Acting Propels "A Train"; "Junk" Is A Major Misfire

Among my favorite contemporary playwrights are Stephen Adly Guirgis and Ayad Akhtar, both winners of the Pulitzer Prize for drama (for, respectively, "Between Riverside & Crazy" & "Disgraced").  Plays by each playwright are now playing in New York- a Guirgis revival off-Broadway and a new play on Broadway by Akhtar.  I liked one and was surprised by my major disappointment in the other.

First the good news.   Guirgis' prison dramedy "Jesus Hopped The A Train" is given a solid production at Signature.  Guirgis talent writing insightful and funny dialogue with a bite is on full display in "A Train."  Here the terrific actors bring his great dialogue to life aided by Mark Brokaw's strong, but unfussy, direction.  The play is more of a play of ideas, and the plot is somewhat marred by an unrealistic and unconvincing public defender character that I wish had been excised or at least minimized.  But the true drama of the play is derived from the interaction between two inmates exquisitely played by Sean Carvajal and Edi Gathegi, and one of their prison guards finely portrayed by Ricardo Chavira.  Mr. Gathegi performance is one of the finest I have seen this season and I look forward to seeing more work from this extremely talented actor in the future.   The masterful acting makes this production sing, and makes this a recommended production.

I have greatly admired the three prior Akhtar plays I saw before "Junk," so much so that I anticipated great things from this new Lincoln Center production which explores the 1980s era junk bond market.  Indeed, Akhar's analysis of negative consequences arising from stock market forces in "The Invisible Hand" was nuanced and masterful.  But unfortunately, "Junk" is a apt description of this play and this production.  The writing is just plain bad and sloppy (note to fact checker-  there was no Peninsula Hotel in LA in the 1980s as referenced in this play).  There is nothing new here, and you know where it is headed within the opening minutes.  Drained of drama, the only hope is that perhaps the characters will be well flushed out and interesting, but no such luck.  The characters are all one note ciphers.  In Akhtar's prior plays there was a noticeable empathy for his characters, even those who did bad things.  Here there is no character empathy or depth on display.

To add insult to injury, the poorly written play is further denigrated by a bad production.  The acting is poor across the board and Doug Hughes' direction is messy and unfocused.  The only good things I can say about this production are that the set design, sound and lighting are terrific.

Aktar is an excellent writer, which is what made "Junk" such a huge disappointment for me.  I am confident that he rebound from this misfire and return to the quality depth of his prior works.