A light comedy that concludes with a dark message, Continuity is the latest work by Bess Wohl, author of Small Mouth Sounds.
Continuity is a more conventional play than its acclaimed predecessor, which studied a group of individuals attempting to connect during a silent meditation retreat. Continuity involves people who are making a film that unfolds amid the Arctic glaciers.
Walking into the New York City Center Stage II space, where Manhattan Theatre Club’s world premiere opened on Tuesday, viewers are confronted by designer Adam Rigg’s white and blue evocation of a wind-whipped icy ridge. There, amid a howling snowstorm, a life or death face-off erupts between a glamorous ecologist, a cowering international scientist, and a handsome eco-terrorist with a gun.
This encounter abruptly breaks off as the business of making a film takes over and the situation of the play is revealed. Maker of a few arty documentaries, Maria (Rosal Colón) is directing her first big budget Hollywood film and is beset by problems. Her script, based upon climate change, has been rewritten 17 times by others and warped into a glossy action movie.
Although the film is mostly set in the Arctic, it is actually being made in the New Mexico desert, where the actors are sweltering in their parkas.
Starring as the glam ecologist is Nicole (Megan Ketch), directly out of rehab and being a handful as she demands script and hairdo changes. Respectively playing the scientist and the terrorist are Lily (Jasmine Batchelor), right out of RADA, and Jake (Alex Hurt), right out of the nearest gym, neither of whom are so troublesome but nurse their own worries as insecure actors.
Then there is Caxton (Darren Goldstein), formerly Maria’s lover and currently a producer-writer dispatched by the studio to supervise the shoot. Not only did Caxton rewrite Maria’s script, he’s been foolishly having a fling with Nicole, who’s obviously sniffing nose candy again.
As they repeatedly reshoot the scene—with variations depending upon Nicole’s seesawing condition—Maria doggedly struggles to maintain discipline over the cast and crew. Maria also copes with Caxton, who realizes how he has mucked up this movie and is becoming unglued with regrets and other troubles.
For much of its 100-minute length, Continuity provides an amusing look at the egocentricities and expensive follies of moviemaking. The playwright has a serious issue to communicate, however, which later arrives with the character of Larry (Max Baker), a rumpled professor-type who is the film’s scientific advisor.
Mostly ignored by the others, Larry speaks to the bleak reality regarding climate change, which this film so glibly glosses over. Maria, Caxton, and the others eventually realize that the film they have been sweating about is ultimately a trivial pursuit and will even negatively influence people who will watch it.
“They unfortunately get the impression they’ve done something to help, when in fact they haven’t really done anything at all,” notes Larry, who believes that it’s probably too late already to prevent catastrophic environmental change.
Modest in scale and moderately entertaining as an easygoing showbiz comedy, Continuity manages to become thoughtful in its disconsolate conclusion.
The production has been neatly staged by Rachel Chavkin, who has done so well by larger events such as the current Hadestown and Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812. Under Chavkin’s guidance, the actors provide effective performances, especially so by Rosal Colón as the harried yet plucky director Maria and Alex Hurt, who wittily depicts the dimwit hunk Jake.
The lingering sunset that lighting designer Isabella Byrd casts over the play’s final moments is both lovely and poignant as its glow fades away and this world vanishes into darkness.
