KOWALSKI
by Gregg Ostrin
Directed by Colin Hanlon
The Duke on 42nd Street
Official Website
Reviewed by David Spencer
Kowalski posits the particulars of the first time Marlon Brando (Brandon Flynn) met Tennessee Williams (Robin Lord Taylor) upon showing up at his Provincetown house—three days late—to audition for A Streetcar Named Desire. He arrives on the heels of tension already in the air; Williams having just informed his best friend and most loyal supporter, director Margo Jones (Alison Cimmet), that she will not be helming the play, that he’s working with Elia Kazan. And not for the first time, made his blue collar live-in boyfriend (Sebastian Treviño) feel like a hulking clod with no understanding of art, provoking him nearly to the point of violence, whereupon stalks off to a local (gay?) bar to get good and drunk.
Without spoiling details about the encounter between author and actor, it becomes very clear from Williams’ narcissistic behavior in the preamble, that when Brando arrives, his behavior will essentially follow the arc of Stanley, and Williams will become his symbolic Blanche. (Making a later entrance is Brando’s gf [Ellie Ricker], the symbolic Stella.)
The audience seems to like the play because—I assume because—it evokes the kind of gossipy-trashy fun that makes sensationalistic Hollywood biographies so compelling, even in spite of one’s standards and ability to distinguish genuine reportage from tabloid speculation; and if that strikes you as an inducement, enjoy. (Under certain circumstances, I’m not immune either. And certainly there’s a long theatrical tradition of historical confrontation speculation.)
But I found the trajectory of Kowalski—both overall and primary-beat to primary-beat—to be fairly obvious from the git. To a certain degree, this seems intentional, but I don’t think the degree of silliness is; and though most of the cast is quite good, that silliness is exacerbated by the direction of Colin Hanlon, which encourages a heightened delivery that only occasionally allowed me to settle into the reality and “forget” that I was watching actors at work evoking famous people. This is especially true of Robin Lord Taylor, whose Williams is gratingly, relentlessly loud and hyper. I don’t know if Taylor has subtlety in him, but the performance (indeed the whole experience, as Williams is the hub character) might be far more effective, even to a cynic (like me in this case), if the director had eye, ear and confidence enough to tell Taylor to stop acting, avoid “making points,” just have a conversation and trust that authenticity will do the work of contrast, and take him to whatever emotional level the moment requires.
There’s also the issue of how much this kind of dramatization cheapens the reality of its historical subjects…But that’s a topic that goes well beyond this poor, single play, and no one’s going to solve it by making Kowalski its general-purpose avatar. Just know that it, too, is baked into the cake…and decide to attend…or not…accordingly.