Theatre News and Reviews

“McReele.”

The title of Stephen Belber’s new play, at the Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre, suggests McMuffin or McChicken, something processed, something - note the spelling - not quite real.

It’s the name of a politician, and Belber’s drama is about the way public life is corrupted by candidates who are phonies, who say what they think is necessary to get elected rather than what they truly believe.

Doing a straightforward dramatization of this notion would no doubt have audiences nodding in agreement as they fell asleep.

The playwright, however, has wrapped his commonplace truth in a mystery, and that, along with a richly satisfying lead performance, proves involving, to a point. Eventually, Belber gets entangled in the tedious reality of his central idea, and the play becomes a series of speeches on civic virtue.

The setting is Delaware - a theatrical first? - where Darius McReele (Anthony Mackie), a death-row inmate, is set free after a series of articles by small-town newspaperman Rick Dayne (Michael O’Keefe) indicate another man committed the murder for which McReele was convicted.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 28th, 2005 at 1:46 pm and is filed under Theatre, Off Broadway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.