Carey Perloff ponders the architecture of loss in “Higher.”
Artistic director of San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, Perloff (“The Colossus of Rhodes,” “Luminescence Dating”) plots a smart and sexy play about the need to memorialize the past in a culture obsessed with the now. The savvy craftsmanship befits a play about the cult of architecture, a discipline driven by the need to marry art and engineering, to reinvent buildings as functional pieces of sculpture.
The piece sings with the nobility of the trade as well as the superficiality of most of its practitioners. Perloff unveils a tightly constructed drama where all of the scenes click together with a satisfying snap. The play lacks that ineffable quality that makes the central characters deeply compelling instead of just breezy and clever. But the structure is impressive, and “Higher” is built on a firm foundation of witty one-liners that never fail to tickle the mind and the funny bone in its world premiere at the Children’s Creativity Museum Theater in San Francisco through Feb. 19.
Mark Rucker’s taut direction and graceful performances by Andrew Polk as celeb architect Michael Friedman and René Augesen as his tremulous rival and lover Elena show off the play’s good bones, although the ensemble is less successful at finding the heat and light in the romance.
And the love story at the core of the play is never visceral enough to ground the narrative. The stakes are never high enough in terms of whether Michael and Elena will stay together or which of them will win the gig of a lifetime, designing a Jewish memorial on the Sea of Galilee.
Unbeknownst to one another, they both try to land the coveted memorial. at first Michael tries to wiggle out from under the assignment, flying from Berlin to Dubai designing buildings for people with blank checks. if he no longer invests his soul into his work, he can now bang out a beautiful urban citadel without breaking a sweat.
Elena, who has never come into her own as an architect, perhaps because of paternal issues or perhaps because she’s too tentative in a trade dominated by men, takes the opposite approach. she buries herself in the site and wrestles with the project until she can’t see straight.
It’s a juicy setup that doesn’t quite pan out. Elena sparks with Jacob (Alexander Crowther), the son of one of the men killed at the site, but she doesn’t notice that he’s falling for her, which seems implausible. Michael tries to connect with his estranged son, but he can’t be bothered to visit him when he’s in the hospital.
Perhaps because both architects seem more interested in buildings than people, it’s hard to feel invested in their struggles. The most moving characters here are the supporting players: Michael’s bruised son Isaac (Ben Kahre), who has always been an afterthought to his famous father, and the hard-boiled Manhattan grand dame Valerie Rifkind (Concetta Tomei), who decrees that sushi is out, foam is in and $30 million can buy anybody.
Make no mistake, the play is pleasurably brainy. Perloff raises some fascinating questions regarding the nature of civic mourning. Are memorials to the dead folly given the ephemeral nature of all life? Is architecture a pastime for the elite that has little meaning for the people on the ground? and why do we feel the need to construct concrete metaphors for something as intangible as grief?
Eric Flatmo’s set astutely mirrors the clean lines and bold angles that are the stuff of obsession in this rarefied milieu.
But the ideas and the characters never completely intersect here.
Crowther, who was riveting in “Metamorphoses” at the Aurora Theatre Company, can’t quite make sense of Jacob, who seems more a collection of quirks than a role. Kahre imbues Isaac with such knowing vulnerability that one wishes there were more of him here. Tomei is simply delicious as the lady with deep pockets, shallow desires and a fab wardrobe (costumes by David F. Draper). Augesen does her best to fill in the gaps of her character’s epiphany, but the climactic confrontation between the architects feels contrived.
Still, the nimble-witted play has more than its share of LOL-moments and tartly observed insights into the science of love and loss. Indeed, Perloff will no doubt sharpen some of the edges as the text evolves so that “Higher” digs a little deeper into the heart.
Contact Karen D’Souza at 408-271-3772. Check out her theater coverage at mercurynews.com/karen-dsouza and follow her at Twitter.com/KarenDSouza4
Review: ‘Higher’ in San Francisco