6th Play - The Extra Man by Richard Greenberg
Laila Robins (Laura), Adam Arkin (Jess) and Boyd Gaines Keith) in the off-Broadway production in 1992. Photo credit: Swope, Martha
I saw a production of Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain at Steppenwolf in the 90’s. I was completely wowed by not only the production (rain on stage is always awesome!), but the writing was incredibly smart and the plot and structure of the play were quite clever. I have been drawn to Greenberg’s plays since. Additionally, he died recently, which made me sad. Did you know he had about 30 plays produced on Broadway and off? This guy was prolific! Poking through my play library, I found this one that I had never heard of, much less read. Honestly, it was hard to find information about the play, which was written in 1991, which is why I had to put the summary together from reviews.
Summary: “In [the] play … people do lunch, parties and sex less for fun than as a routine verification that they still exist. But what really quickens their pulse is gossip--that peculiarly recondite and virulent kind of cold war diplomacy known here as friendship. Life among these white pseudo-sophisticates in the canyons and caves of present-day New York City is as perilous and thick with intrigue as the rarefied 18th-Century world inhabited by the sexual jousters of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” And Keith, the entitled extra man … everybody’s helpful friend and a mystery figure who purports to write books and have a lover named Katherine, is at least as treacherous as “Les Liaisons’ ” aristocratic Valmont. Unlike Valmont, Keith does not seduce young virgins for the hell of it, but he does other unspeakable things. His specialty is voyeurism--the manipulation of other people’s lives for whatever gratification he vicariously derives from the resulting havoc. The world … drips with a pious hypocrisy that infects and engulfs the lives of the circle of friends we meet--Keith, his attractive young editor Laura, her husband Daniel, their friend Jess--and the ones that we only hear about, but who are surprisingly present in a snippy, cartoonish way.“ Sylvie Drake, LA Times Stage Review
Laura’s thoughts in brief: Unlike Les Liasons Dangereuses and 21st century TV shows like Arrested Development and Veep which I love, in spite of the shallow and frequently awful people they portray, I have to say that the gossip and hypocrisy in this play were just not as exciting or interesting. As mentioned in one of the reviews, none of the characters are likeable except for Laura’s husband Daniel. Also, not much seems to obviously happen in the play - there are parties and lunches where people talk and talk but don’t seem to say much. Underneath all of that, there are currents and we see Keith push Laura into an affair she doesn’t really want with Jess. Eventually, we see things fall apart for her, Jess and her husband Daniel, who doesn’t seem to fit in with these other pretentious and shallow folk. I appreciated the social commentary of the piece, but failed to find anything to care about in the play. I suspect that’s why I had trouble finding other productions of it. There are better Richard Greenberg plays out there!
READ MORE! Here’s what others had to say about productions:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-28-ca-332-story.html