this started off very slow (from the front mezz, it was hard to hear any of them including Lithgow) and even as it picked up steam, i found myself thinking how is this a whole play? how can this be turned into a full 2.5 hour drama?
but where I thought Act 2 could go nowhere, I thought it landed beautifully. i give alot of credit to Aya Cash, who I thought was truly remarkable---crafting the paradigm of the Exhausted Jew, who is so sick and tired of having to defend governments and overaggression and being too passive and being too wealthy and being too poor all at the same time. Her Act 1 Moment could have been shrill, but it was poignant.
Lithgow is a marvel--I thought in Act 1 he was hard to hear, so alot of his throwaway nastiness was lost on me. But once he got going, he created a monster dripping with charm, and then let the mask fall further, showing us the sort of madness of a bigot. His Dahl seems familiar to us, and its a credit to Lithgow how badly we want to forgive or dismiss his racism, until we cant. (And I thought the way we saw the reaction to his Beyond The Pale moment was very touching).
Aside from the fireworks between Cash and Lithgow, the play doesnt have much to do. I agree that Hytner did little work here- having them rotate around a table eating lunch for 2 hours. And while I enjoyed myself overall, its not hard to imagine a must tighter version that doesnt resort to Dahl's fiancee and "house jew" puttering around with little to say (I found Levey underwhelming and would have preferred a much stronger "non Zionist British" prototype).
But the play still works, and not only thanks to Lithgow. It uses Dahl to exemplify how true bigotry based on race/religion is really nothing more paranoid delusion. There are ALOT of Dahls out there these days, on the right and the left.
