'Art of Leaving' Off-Broadway review — comedy-drama explores multigenerational marriage crises
Read our review of Art of Leaving off Broadway, a new comedy about modern love written by Anne Marilyn Lucas and performed at the Pershing Square Signature Center.
Summary
- Art of Leaving is a comedy-drama about three generations facing questions about the institution of marriage
- Jordan Lodge stars as cartoonishly macho husband Aaron; he decides to divorce his wife after reading a self-help book
- Audiences delivered mixed responses to the writing and performances
- The play is recommend for those interested in director Matt Gehring's comedy work and fans of other marriage dramas like A Doll's House
A multi-page checklist of red flags would describe Jordan Lage’s emotionally abusive Aaron, whose sudden decision to leave his longtime wife sets off Anne Marilyn Lucas’s unbalanced comedy-drama Art of Leaving. If he at least isn’t a murderer, you'd expect him to be one of those husbands common in anonymous, rage-baiting Reddit rants — often penned by said husbands who don’t grasp their marital incompetence. But Lucas is focused on an insular middle-class family where it takes arguments and heart-to-hearts for that to sink in.
Matt Gehring’s direction gives us a sense that Aaron, whose desire for divorce is prompted by a self-help book on masculinity, has quashed any chance of reformation. Lage plays Aaron as a cowardly clown, cartoonish yet recognizable as human. Fifteen minutes in, I admired Lage’s commitment to a parody of bluster: his vain attempts to twist his body into an ideal shape in the mirror, his thwack of a light switch, his disrespect for any counsel. But 45 minutes in, I was exhausted by it, a machismo schtick overstaying its welcome even as the other characters — Aaron’s parents (Pamela Shaw and Alan Ceppos), son Jason (Brian Mason), and Jason’s fiancée Caitlyn (Molly Chiffer) — counterbalance his callousness. Additionally, the emphasis on one misogynistic book corrupting Aaron, while not unrealistic, keeps the play from being more than a surface-level look into whether this extremism had been seeded in him earlier.
While Aaron masquerades as the protagonist, the play is about his wife, Diana (Audrey Heffernan Meyer), a stand-in for the playwright, discovering her own independence even when her arc is initially a subplot. However, while a sturdy stage presence, Meyer is a cipher, stunned by the dissolution of her marriage yet inaccessible and opaque. We receive only a brief sketch of her interiority, eventually learning that she paints trees and curates Greek antiques. There’s a final piece of stage direction that would be cathartic if I wasn’t scratching my head at how she gets there.
The play lampoons Aaron’s gender essentialism (such as him comically caricaturizing men’s and women’s respective bedroom behaviors), while exploring — and critiquing — other perspectives and their application. For example, Diana can’t just easily detach from marriage when her daughter-in-law-to-be Caitlyn, a student of gender and sexuality studies, tries to inspire her by saying, “women can do anything.”
The supporting characters end up with more intriguing, slyly planted arcs because the answers for their relationships aren’t as simple. Even if Caitlyn functions as a mere mouthpiece for feminist platitudes, she’s more compelling in Chiffer’s blink-and-you’ll-miss movements, such as stepping over a chair to dodge Aaron, recoiling from a touch, and her shoulder accidentally hitting the door when yanked into the kitchen by her fiancé’s grandmother as if overwhelmed by their boorishness.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Shaw carves out an old-fashioned mother clinging to her belief that marriage defines a woman's worth. She sees being purposed for a husband not as meekness, but an instinctual avoidance of solitude. If she knows how to navigate her husband, that is the world that belongs to her.
Art of Leaving summary
When narcissistic, middle-aged Aaron picks up the bestselling self-help book Male Satisfaction Over 40, written by an anti-feminist guru, he makes it his gospel. Eventually, he decides to divorce his wife of many decades, Diana, to “liberate” his masculinity from her happiness.
He breaks this news to his parents, Felix and Esther; his adult son, Jason; and his son’s fiancée, Caitlyn, before telling Diana. All three generations face questions about maintaining or breaking the contract of marriage, as Aaron's bombshell also brings out his parents' secrets and Jason's doubts about Caitlyn’s desire for a non-monogamous marriage.
What to expect at Art of Leaving
At my performance, the predominantly by an older audience often erupted into nervous yet disapproving laughter at Lodge, chuckling at his comedic timing and physical mannerisms while gasping and sighing at his brazenness.
Frank Oliva's scenic design sculpts an apartment in a manner realistically fashionable for a middle-class couple like Aaron and Diana, complemented by costume designer Lara De Bruijn’s wardrobe.
What audiences are saying about Art of Leaving
As of publication, Art of Leaving has a 52% audience approval score on Show-Score, compiled from 22 mixed reviews from theatregoers.
- “'Art of Leaving' delves deeply into the complexities of marriage, making you laugh, gasp, and question everything you thought you knew about relationships. Great acting on an adequate stage.” - Show-Score Elisa 9119
- "The characters were ridiculous stereotypes and the plot would have been acceptable in the 70s, not today." - Show-Score user Cathy 6188
- "While parts are a little over the top, it's a deliberate choice on a part of the playwright, and I did find it funny and entertaining. It's thought-provoking, as I found elements of myself and people I knew in some of the characters." - Show-Score user Jennifer 2123
- "[Meh] sitcom about the perspectives of 3 generations on marriage: for the old, it's a matter of compromise; for the young, it involves experimentation and flexibility; and for the middle, it's about how marriage lends itself (or not) to individual self-realization. Actors are pros and at times evoke laughter." - Show-Score user Bruce 6
Read more audience reviews of Art of Leaving on Show-Score.
Who should see Art of Leaving
- Director Matt Gehring has staged over 100 comedy shows, so fans of his work would be curious to see how his comedic experience translates in Art of Leaving.
- Art of Leaving is fitting for students studying marriage and divorce dramas like Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
- Admirers of veteran stage and screen actors Pamela Shaw and Alan Ceppos would be glad to see their tight-knit comic rapport as an onstage couple. Ceppos is as paternally easygoing as Shaw is headstrong.
- For those interested in explorations of polygamy and open marriages, the play illustrates a complex portrait of an engaged couple disagreeing on which version of marriage is suitable for them.
Learn more about Art of Leaving off Broadway
Art of Leaving falls short of poignantly realizing the journey of a middle-aged wife leaving her cartoonishly undeserving husband.
Photo credit: Art of Leaving off Broadway. (Photos by Jeremy Daniel)
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