Spoils

I came out of this play not quite sure whether what I had seen had worked or not. Certainly it went down well with the audience (which included Jonathan Ross and his family on our row) who gave the actors a standing ovation. And one actor in particular - the American film actor Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network etc) who also wrote it. Why my question? Well its a very funny play, but also has a lot of drama, so one was just left unsure about how seriously to take it all. Had one watched a sort of sitcom, or a serious play about characters and human frailties? Yes maybe both but does one detract from the other.

Now before I go any further, a night out to see this is very good entertainment whatever my conclusion. No you don't see the ending coming (although then again maybe that's in part as its not a very satisfying ending). And, like several Hollywood actors I have seen on the stage, Mr Eisenberg proves he can act. Seriously good actor in fact. he was terrific. I guess that's in part why these film actors come over here for plays like this - not the money but the status and proof that they "can cut it".

The play has lots of themes and ideas. Jesse Eisenberg's Ben is not a likeable chap. He is Jewish young man living in a flat bought for him by his father. While his contemporaries have started careers, he is a sort of film-maker, but this is more an affectation than a job. Really he smokes weed and for social contact relies on his flat mate, Kalyan, a charming Nepalese business student, who is trying to get a job on Wall Street and have a relationship with his third generation Indian girlfriend. Ben and Kalyan make an odd couple as flatmates, and Ben is openly hostile to the girlfriend. She is clearly someone who gets in the way of his friendship with Kalyan, although this is not a homosexual relationship, and he would rather she were gone. Ben struggles with women (and indeed men), but has an infatuation with childhood friend (and we are talking very young childhood - under 12) who is about to marry a character played by Alfie Allen - a somewhat gormless stockbroker.

Top squirm moment in the first half is a dinner party where Ben is stoned and desperately (and obviously) trying to impress childhood friend Sarah in front of both Kalyan's girlfriend and Sarah's fiance. Its funny and not exactly realistic, but then again I could see some of the same traits I saw in an acquaintance at University; the attention-seeking, the absurd efforts to draw conversation around to himself.

But nothing could beat the top squirm moment in the second half where he recounts to Sarah a dream he had when they were both 7. It involved nakedness and faeces.  And could have been the worst chat up tactic of all time. Ben is geeky and self-centred and vulnerable and strikes out at those who care most, like Kalyan. But Kalyan has his own weakness. He has written an economics book in Nepal of which he is inordinately proud. And his world is shattered when he finds that Ben has actually read it, but preferred to pretend he was too lazy to do so rather than actually admit he had read it at once and realised how rubbish it was. Of course, nothing hurts more than the truth. And there are some truths that one cannot bear to hear because they go to the heart of oneself. And so there are some truths you cannot tell even your best friend. Kalyan is lovely, but just a bit crap. That's not what one wants as self-image.

Ben is both endearing and frustrating, but mostly the later. He is bright and funny, but spoilt and self-centred. He needs someone to love him, but is too nasty to be loved. He has it in him to be a great friendbut, but frustratingly can't see how to do it. And I guess to some extent we have all come across people like that. Maybe it's even us.