“McNeal” at Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center
Glenda Frank in New York
9 November 2024
Robert Downey Jr’s depiction of the writer in McNeal by Ayad Akhtar’s (Disgraced, Pulitzer Prize) at the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Lincoln Center, is a master class in acting technique. The drama, directed by Bartlett Sher, the artistic director of Lincoln Center, which is hosting the production, is a morality play, Akhtar’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. While the protagonist is disintegrating within, his public image remains highly appealing. It is challenging to present an internal conflict on stage without resorting to cliches. Akhtar has added the temptation of Chatbot to the mix, which is both a saving and disruptive focus.
Photo-credit: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman.
The play opens with Jacob McNeal hoping he’s won the Nobel Prize for literature this time around. He has been tinkering with AI, which has done much of the writing on his new novel. He instructed the programme to filter the works of Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Kafka among others and write in the style of Jacob McNeal. Does it bother him when he stamps his name on the product? Not enough to keep him from publishing. He has many excuses, among them the old bromide that good writers borrow, great writers steal. He has spent his life, as authors do, rechanneling plots and details, but he may have crossed the line when he purloined his dead wife’s unpublished novel. ChatGPT is a further step down the road although he refuses to sign a contract affirming that he did not consult an AI program.
McNeal gets the call from Sweden when he is visiting his doctor (Ruthie Ann Miles). He lies on the table for the examination and crosses one ankle over the other. Then crosses them again, just as I might do, but even more important, just as the character would do. McNeal is kinetic, not quite fidgety, and always thinking and feeling. He has invaded Downey, transformed the actor away from stillness. McNeal informs his timing, his gestures, his facial expressions. It’s captivating and definitive. It feels real.
McNeal decides his salvation lies in love. He tries to re-establish a bond with his son (Rafi Gavron), who rejects him. In the scene where McNeal reaches out to Francine (Melora Harden), a former lover and a respected journalist who went the distance for him, Downey begins confident and cocky – with an edge of bravura. But as Francine reminds him of how he betrayed her, he deflates, regroups, deflates more, and finally exits, defeated in his body language. His emotions are written on his face.
Confrontation is a key ingredient of McNeal’s charm. His Nobel Prize acceptance speech begins with a complaint. He had to wait 15 years for the honor. “Is he complaining about the years he didn’t win the Nobel prize?” McNeal remarks about himself. “Did he really just go there? Name a place he shouldn’t go, and he will. Which is part of why you awarded me this honour. For going there.”
He goes there in a New York Times interview. Among other challenges, McNeal asks the writer if she is only a diversity hire. After several exchanges, the writer confesses, “I definitely did not expect to come here and feel …. weirdly inspired. And McNeal, true to form, advises, “Don’t let it cloud your vision. Take me down.”
McNeal is one of the most complex protagonists I’ve seen on stage – or in film. Despite Akhtar’s smart writing and clever phrases, segments of McNeal are talky and the resolutions don’t always seem earned so creative direction and a strong support casting are critical. Sher keeps everything crisp and flowing on Michael Yeargan and Jake Barton’s open stage design. Warm, bright lighting by Donald Holder doesn’t steal McNeal’s dark turmoil. Projections by Barton. It’s always good to see Andrea Martin, playing McNeal’s agent, on stage. I would gladly revisit the production.
Downey has not been on a live stage since American Passion, a 1983 off-Broadway debacle that opened and closed on the same day. But he has been growing, trying out new hats. His Chaplin (1992) is astonishing. Then came the lure of Iron Man in several Marvel films, where he was fun to watch. In 2024 he received his first Oscar for his performance in Oppenheimer. One of the pleasures of watching The Sympathizer, a 2024 TV mini-series, is Downey playing four characters, some more convincingly than others but most of them tongue-in-cheek. The comic edge is a strong draw.
