The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: ATC’s I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan
By Ross
I’m actually one who did not know who David Greenspan was, or is, or will be. So, walking into the Atlantic Theater Company‘s compelling one-person show, I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan was a self-reckoning and confessional in its own right. That assumption inside the title was clearly wrong, at least for m, as it is with many of the characters that come together in a Brooklyn apartment to hear a play, written not by the playwright and narrator of this tale, but by a friend, the host, who is also a playwright, surrounded by writers, younger than I. And in that spinning formula, this asset deconstruction and debate takes a high-heeled turn around the room, as only a 27-year-old ponytailed woman (or a late-sixties Obie award-winning actor/playwright) can. And we are captivated.
“I’ve been thinking about playwrights,” says one of the many characters, all performed by that pre-named late-sixties Obie award-winning actor/playwright David Greenspan (The Patsy; Dead Mother), and, although no character in the play is the actual David Greenspan, his name starts coming up, glowingly, quite often as I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan starts gathering up its attendees for that reading. Yet, the play that is to be read is the least important thing in the room. As written most magically by Mona Pirnot (I Love You So Much I Could Die), the real unpacking gets tapped and twirled out around the debate of theatre’s relevance and importance to those that gather. Greenspan, the actor, not the symbol of the play, finds fascinating dimensions within each character he winds himself into, displaying tactics and simplistic embodiments that elevate and expand. It’s quite a turn he exhibits, as each character comes “knock, knock, knock” at the Brooklyn apartment door. The hello hug tells us all, as much as the narration given by our central heroine, Mona, who believes in theatre more than almost anyone in the room.
“Theatre is annoying,” one says of the genre. “It’s the most annoying art form there is.” And the explanation of that idiotic statement rings oddly true, while also not changing the viewpoint of almost everyone who has gathered to see David Greenspan play multiple parts in a play called I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan. It’s thoroughly invigorating, this act of actively participating in our communal suspension of disbelief, while ‘paying’ good money for it, and as directed most energetically by Ken Rus Schmoll (off-Broadway’s Four Saints in Three Acts) with a solid white cubed set & costuming by Arnulfo Maldonado (Broadway’s Buena Vista Social Club) and precise lighting by Yuki Nakase link (Two River’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey), the play feels both brave and inventive, while also feeling inviting, captivating, and completely entertaining.
In a cute nod to the play itself, we assume, which is never a good thing to do, that the narrator, as portrayed by Greenspan, is the playwright herself, Mona, who has written a play that has been crafted in a way that only one specific performer, Greenspan, who is not the playwright, nor known by the playwright in any meaningful way, can take on the job to perform all the characters that populate Mona’s astute play. Are you following me? It’s a crazy, fantastic formula, especially as unpacked here with the man himself actually playing all the parts. All while also debating the foolhardiness of being a playwright and writing specifically for the theatre. Which they admit is, in a way, depressing and utterly impossible, but impossible not to do. Why not just write for television and the financially optimistic world of writing pilots to be streamed?
Those are the questions presented in this meta-fantastic unraveling, where we watch David Greenspan, as he is famed for doing, play numerous parts, all young 20-something playwrights, including a facsimile of the playwright herself, presented on a spin of a dime, twirling and unpacking ideas around playwrighting and profitability, written by a young playwright who has placed all her hopes and dreams of the play in the hands of the actual actor, David Greenspan, to agree to do it. Without him, I don’t know where Pirnot’s new play, I’m Assuming You Know David Greenspan would find itself. Probably not like now, as presented by Atlantic Theater Company, as could only be performed by David Greenspan. For that alignment, we can’t help but feel more optimistic about theatre, and life, than before we entered into the space, turning off our phones and focusing for the entirety of this magical performance. Crazy brilliant, and brave, is all I can say.
